David Berg | |
|---|---|
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| Born | David Brandt Berg (1919-02-18)February 18, 1919 Oakland, California, United States |
| Died | October 1, 1994(1994-10-01) (aged 75) Costa de Caparica, Portugal |
| Other names |
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| Occupation | Founder ofChildren of God |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Website | www |
David Brandt Berg[a] (February 18, 1919 – October 1, 1994) was an American preacher who founded and led the cult generally known as the Children of God[1] and subsequently asThe Family International. Berg's group, established in 1968 among thecounterculture youth inSouthern California, gained notoriety for incorporating sexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods. Berg and his organization were accused of a broad range ofsexual misconduct, includingchild sexual abuse.
Berg's maternal grandfather was John Lincoln Brandt (1860–1946), aDisciples of Christ minister, author, and lecturer ofMuskogee, Oklahoma.[2] Brandt had a dramatic conversion in his mid-twenties and immediately entered full-time Christian service. For years he was a Methodist circuit rider. He later became a leader of theAlexander Campbell movement of theDisciples of Christ, arestoration movement that developed into the current Protestant denominationChristian Church (Disciples of Christ).[3]
Berg was born on February 18, 1919, inOakland, California.[4] During his early years, he usually lived in or around Florida.[5]
He was the youngest of three children born to Hjalmar Emmanuel Berg and Virginia Lee Brandt, both Christianevangelists.[6] His father wasSwedish.[7]
Virginia and Hjalmar were expelled from the Disciples of Christ after publicly testifying of herdivine healing, which was contrary to church doctrine. They subsequently joined a new denomination, theChristian and Missionary Alliance, shortly before David's birth. In later years, their missionary zeal and disdain for denominational politicking often set them at variance with the conservative faction of that church's hierarchy, causing them to work largely as independent pastors and evangelists.[8]
Berg spent his early years traveling with his parents, who pursued their evangelical mission. In 1924, they settled inMiami, Florida, after Virginia successfully led a series of large revivals at the Miami Gospel Tabernacle. This became Berg's home for the next 14 years, while his mother and father were pastors at a number of Miami churches.[8] The Berg family depended entirely on the generosity of their parishioners for their support, and often had difficulty making ends meet. This instilled in Berg a lifelong habit of frugality, which he encouraged his followers to adopt.[9]
Berg graduated fromMonterey High School in 1935 and later attended Elliott School of Business Administration.[6] Like his father, Berg became a minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the late 1940s, and was placed atValley Farms, Arizona.[5] Berg was eventually expelled from the organization for differences in teachings and for allegedsexual misconduct with a church employee.[6] In Berg's writings he claimed the expulsion was due to his support for greaterracial diversity among his congregation.[6]
Fred Jordan, Berg's friend and boss, allowed Berg and his personal family to open and run a branch of his Soul Clinic in Miami, Florida, as a missionary training school. After running into trouble with local authorities over his aggressive disapproval ofevolution being taught as fact in public schools, Berg moved his family to Fred Jordan's Texas Soul Clinic, in Western Texas.[10]
Berg and his family founded the organization Teens for Christ, operating out of the Light Club coffeehouse inHuntington Beach, California, in 1968.[11] While in California, after encountering strong resistance from local churches due to his followers picketing them, he took the whole group of 40–100 people on the road. It was while they were camped in Lewis and Clark Park that a news reporter first called them "The Children of God".[12][13][14]
Around the end of 1969, about 200 members of the COG group established a 425-acre "colony" several miles from Thurber, Texas - a ghost town. This acreage was owned by the American Soul Clinic.[15]
In the mid-1970s, Berg began preparing his followers for a "revelation" he had aboutFlirty Fishing, or winning important, influential men through prostitution.[16][17][18]
By 1971, the COG claimed that it had 4,000 members, mostly consisting of teenagers and people in early 20s. In November of 1971, COG's colony was evicted after a serious disagreement with American Soul Clinic's head Fred Jordan and other associates.[15]
In 1978, in an attempt to deflect public concern over some of his more controversial policies, Berg changed the name to the "Family of Love".[19] In 1991, this was changed to "The Family", and in 2004 it was changed again to "The Family International".[20]
Berg lived in seclusion, communicating with his followers and the public via nearly 3,000 "Mo Letters"[21] ("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. Berg's letters admonished the reader to "love the sinner but hate the sin". 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.[22]
Berg, who had been in hiding since 1971, died in November 1994 in Portugal. He was buried inCosta de Caparica, and his remains were cremated.[23]
After his death in 1994, his wife led The Family, and there were 6,000 adults and 3,000 children as members of The Family worldwide, in 50 countries.[23] There were investigations of The Family for child abuse and prostitution in Argentina, France, Spain, Australia, Venezuela, and Peru.[23]
Berg has been accused of leading a group 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,[24] though official inquiries at the time found no evidence of child abuse.[25]
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.[26]
The allegations of Berg's institutionalization ofpedophilia and sexual abuse were also described inNot Without My Sister, an autobiographical recount of the sexual abuse of three sisters who eventually escaped The Family.[citation needed]
Berg's Jewish ancestry notwithstanding — in 1745, one of his mother's forebears, Jewish by birth but a Christian convert, moved to theAmerican colonies and lived as aMennonite[25]—David Berg was outspokenlyantisemitic, believing that the Jews wereresponsible for the death of Jesus, as well as allpersecution of Christians in the world. In support of his views of aninternational Jewish conspiracy, he cited the forgedProtocols of the Elders of Zion, but disclaimed the label "antisemitic."[25]
Berg predicted that the state of California would be subject to a massive earthquake in 1969.[27]
Berg married his first wife, Jane Miller (known as "Mother Eve" in the Children of God), on July 22, 1944, inGlendale, California.[4] They had four children.
Berg married his second wife, Karen Zerby, in 1970.[23] Berg informally adoptedRicky Rodriguez, Zerby's son.[28] In the 1970s and 1980s, sexually suggestive photographic depictions of Rodriguez with adult caretakers were disseminated throughout the group by Berg and Zerby in a childrearing handbook known asThe Story of Davidito.[29] In January 2005, Ricky Rodriguez murdered one of the female caretakers shown in the handbook before taking his own life several hours later.[28][30]
Media related toDavid Berg at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toDavid Berg at Wikiquote