Classification: Documented

Children of God: the rise, allegations and life after the Family

Founded in California in 1968, the movement brought Christian communes to several continents. Archives, research and firsthand accounts trace its growth, the harm suffered by some members and its later transformation.

Huntington Beach, Califórnia, Estados Unidos · See stories from this place and nearby

A mission born in the counterculture

In 1968, young people connected to the Jesus People movement gathered around preacher David Brandt Berg in Huntington Beach, California. The Children of God offered a radical break with conventional life: leave possessions and jobs, live together and spread a Christian message of love and the end times. Members handed out tracts, sang in the streets and sought converts. Berg, known as Mo or Moses David, governed largely through letters circulated among the homes, the MO Letters. Belief in Christ's imminent return gave urgency to choices that would also shape children who had not yet been born when the mission began.

The group did not remain a small California commune. By the mid-1970s it had communities in dozens of countries, including Brazil. Homes varied in size but combined housing, missionary work, child-rearing and fundraising. Members called the distribution of religious literature accompanied by donation requests litnessing. Academic research cited by the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CDAMM) records distribution and fundraising quotas in the 1970s. That less visible detail explains how a home operated from day to day, beyond the beliefs that attracted converts.

Leadership by letter and changing names

Berg's letters were more than spiritual reflections. They directed daily life, mission, biblical interpretation and relations among people who had often never met the founder. Local leaders were known as shepherds. In 1978, amid allegations of misconduct against leaders, Berg reorganized the movement, broke large colonies into smaller homes and adopted the name Family of Love. It became The Family in 1988 and The Family International in 2004. Each name marks changes in rules and membership, but none erases what happened under earlier ones.

Opposition has its own history. Concerned parents created FreeCOG in 1971 to take relatives out of the communities. According to CDAMM's research, some 'deprogramming' operations held adults against their will. Evidence of harm within the movement does not make every act committed in opposition to it legitimate. The two histories require examination on their own records.

The 'Law of Love' and a breached boundary

Berg interpreted the 'Law of Love' as permission for sexual practices rejected by other Christian churches. One was flirty fishing, which used intimacy between adults as missionary outreach. Studies say women were particularly encouraged to take part and some reported pressure even when participation was presented as voluntary. Intercourse as part of the practice officially ended in 1987 amid health concerns. The practice involving adults must be distinguished from abuse of minors: children did not participate in flirty fishing, but that does not mean they were safe in every community.

Berg's literature also encouraged sexual experimentation at an early age. CDAMM's academic account concludes that sexual relations between adults and minors did occur in some places and periods. In its own public statement, The Family International acknowledges that minors were exposed to sexually inappropriate behavior before it adopted a child protection policy in 1986. It says it prohibited all sexual contact between adults and minors that year and made it grounds for expulsion in 1989. The organization apologizes but rejects the description of institutionalized abuse. The acknowledgment and the denial are separate claims; a later policy cannot undo earlier harm.

Growing up inside the Family

For a child, missionary moves could mean crossing national borders without stable schooling. Home education varied greatly among communities. Music, languages and skills useful to evangelism received attention, while formal qualifications were not always a priority, partly because a near end to the existing world was expected. From 1989 to 1990, teenagers considered disruptive were sent to 'Victor Camps', disciplinary programs described in academic literature as intensive training camps. Their existence is documented; understanding each young person's experience requires listening to that person's account.

Michael Young told the Guardian about missionary work from childhood, first in Mexico and then in the United States. He said he was not personally sexually abused and described harm he witnessed among people close to him. The distinction matters: no single childhood stands for every member's child. In Scotland, Verity Carter and Jonathan Watt told the BBC about their upbringing in the group's communities, isolation, violence and the difficulties of rebuilding life after leaving. Their father, Alexander Watt, was convicted of sexual offences against minors connected with that setting. The conviction concerns one individual and specific acts, not a judgment against every member of the movement.

Investigations, a court and reform

Family homes faced investigations and searches in several countries in the early 1990s. Those proceedings did not produce one conclusion valid for every place and period. A 1995 British custody decision examined child education and practices in detail. The judge left the child with his mother, a member, but conditioned the outcome on changes including an end to corporal punishment and better education, and required repudiation of Berg's teachings associated with harm. Leaving custody with the mother does not clear the entire earlier history; an allegation likewise does not establish every episode it describes.

Berg died in 1994. Karen Zerby, also known as Maria Fontaine, and Steve Kelly, known as Peter Amsterdam, took leadership. The 1995 Love Charter set out rights, duties and rules for homes. San Diego State University's archive preserves the organization's publications and records, a trail for comparing what was taught at each stage with later explanations. Internal records show ideas and decisions; testimony and court proceedings help reveal how they affected actual people.

The end of mandatory communes

Between 2009 and 2010, a reform known as the Reboot dismantled much of the old structure. Communal residence ceased to be required; members could work outside and enroll children in conventional schools. The organization now presents itself as an international Christian network. For people raised to expect the world's imminent end, the change raised practical questions about education, employment, retirement and identity. Former members' accounts show that leaving a structure does not automatically end its effects on a life.

What the record can support

The founding, worldwide expansion, name changes and reforms are well documented. Academic work also records abuse of minors in certain communities and periods, the organization partly acknowledges past harm, and at least one individual criminal conviction occurred in Scotland. None of that assigns the same conduct to every home or proves each allegation against people who have not been tried. The best route is to read the preserved letters, independent research, court decisions, the Family's current position and accounts from those who lived through that childhood side by side. Perhaps the most lasting question comes from the second generation: how do you build a future when you were raised to believe it would never arrive?

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