David Berg
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| “ | The mate of every prophecy is its fulfillment. God's Word finds its mate in fulfilled Bible prophecy, and the ones which have already occurred and been fulfilled, foretold hundreds of years in advance, have been fulfilled. Every prophecy the Bible has uttered has been fulfilled except the ones that are yet to come, and they'll be fulfilled just as surely as the ones that have been fulfilled in the past. | „ |
| ~ David Berg |
David Brandt Berg (February 18th, 1919 – October 1st, 1994) was the founder and leader of The Children of God (1969). Children of God was intended as an alternative to mainstream Christianity which attracted drogues of hippies and unchurched youth. Berg's religious views grew more extreme over time. Eventually causing his group to gain more of a cult identity.
Berg gained notoriety when he published “Law of Love” in which the cult now sanctioned “flirty flashing” (women were instructed to be “Hookers for Christ” by luring men into the cult via unprotected sex. If they got pregnant, it was all part of god's plan and the children were called “Jesus Babies”). Berg gained even more notoriety by claiming that it was okay for anyone to have sexual relations with people outside the group, regardless of their age. This turned the cult into a hotspot for child rapists/abusers that formed the base of their membership.
Many of Berg's immediate family came out testify the abuse and molestation that Berg directed upon them. The family members included Berg's granddaughters, Merry and Joyanne Berg, and his adopted son, Ricky Rodriguez.
Berg died in Portugal and was buried in Costa de Caparica. His remains have been cremated.
Actor Joaquin Phoenix and actress Rose McGowan were just a few of the victims who actually escaped his cult in the end.
Views edit
Berg called on his followers to devote their full-time to spreading the message of Jesus' love and salvation as far and wide as possible, unfettered by convention or tradition, and to teach others to do the same.
Berg also decried the de-Christianization and decay in moral values of Western society. He viewed the trend towards a New World Order as setting the stage for the rise of the Antichrist.
Berg lived in seclusion, communicating with his followers and the public via nearly 3,000 “Mo Letters” (“Mo” from his pseudonym “Moses David”) that he wrote on a wide variety of subjects. These typically covered spiritual or practical subjects and were used as a way of disseminating and introducing policy and religious doctrine to his followers. His writings were often extreme and uncompromising in their denunciation of what he believed to be evil, such as mainstream churches, pedophilia laws, capitalism, and Jews, yet he always admonished the reader to “love the sinner, but hate the sin”. He espoused doctrines that mainstream Christians denounce as heretical. However, his followers argue that his writings are permeated with a love of God.
Berg was also an anti-semite. He believed that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ and that they were conspiring to take control of the world. He also often spoke favorably about Adolf Hitler and was a Holocaust denier.
Sexual abuse edit
David Berg has been accused of leading a cult which promoted assaults on children and sexual abuse of women and children for decades. Former members have told their stories in widely disseminated media reports, though official inquiries at the time found no evidence of child abuse. Berg was also personally accused of pedophilia. He recalled in his letters how he was taught to masturbate in church by another boy his age. When his mother caught him, he was forced to masturbate in front of his father. Oftentimes Berg would explicitly describe his sexual preferences and recalled that one thing he regretted was that he never slept with his mother.
In a child custody case in the United Kingdom, Berg's granddaughter, Merry Berg, testified that Berg sexually molested her when she was a young teenager. Another of Berg's granddaughters, Joyanne Treadwell Berg, spoke on American television about being sexually abused by David Berg. Berg's adopted son, Ricky Rodriguez, wrote an article on the website MovingOn.org in which he describes Berg's sexual activity involving a number of women and children. Davida Kelley, the daughter of Rodriguez's nanny, Sarah Kelley, accused Berg of molesting her in a June 2005 Rolling Stone article. In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that David Berg sexually abused her when she was thirteen years old.