The Children Of God Cult (The Family International): Pedophile Apocalyptic Cult History
By November 30, 2020
The Children of God, a religious cult led by the charismatic and persuasive David Berg, attracted the attention of investigators for questionable practices, panhandling, and its doomsday beliefs, but not before dragging big Hollywood names like Joaquin Phoenix and Rose McGowan into its web. It's still operating today, albeit in fewer numbers and overhauled practices ... or so they claim, at least.
David Berg And Teens For Christ
David Berg was born in California in 1919 to Virginia and Hjalmer Berg, who worked as traveling preachers until they were kicked out of the Disciples of Christ Church for taking money from people hoping to be healed by Virginia Berg's so-called divine powers. The Bergs soon shunned organized religion and its restrictive ethics and such in favor of the freelance life, spreading their own version of the gospel to whoever would pay. As the youngest of the Bergs' three children, David was born into this lifestyle of half missionary work and half fraud. He later claimed to have been both physically and sexually abused by a succession of nannies hired by his parents.
In 1935, David Berg graduated from high school and followed in his parents' footsteps to work for the Christian and Missionary Alliance at a church in Valley Farms, Arizona. He was fired from this job after reports of sexual misconduct arose and decided, like his parents before him, to go his own way, founding Teens for Christ in the late '60s. Though he was in his late forties by then, he targeted young people, many of whom were runaways or otherwise vulnerable, who were receptive to his pitch of free love, communal living, and salvation ahead of the impending apocalypse. He discouraged his followers from holding jobs, saving money, or sending their children to school, which was pointless there at the end of the world, instead instructing them to survive by panhandling and accepting donations. This happened to have the convenient side effect of keeping his followers isolated and under his thumb.
When Berg founded Teens for Christ (later known as Children of God, The Family of Love, The Family, and The Family International), he had only a small group of followers, but the group quickly grew as Berg sent his minions out into the world to preach their gospel. At its peak, it had more than 15,000 members across the globe, and the larger the group became, the more perverse control Berg held over the cult's members. He began abusing members' children and encouraging others to do so as well, arguing that free love knew no age limit. One of his own children, Ricky Rodriguez, later claimed that he had witnessed orgies, been encouraged to fondle women, and been routinely touched inappropriately since he was a small child.
The (Celebrity) Family International
Shortly after their 1969 marriage, Arlyn and John Lee Bottom were recruited into the Children of God and spent the next seven years traveling throughout South and Central America, spreading the word of David Berg. During this time, the couple had five children: River, Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer. If you don't recognize those names, just add "Phoenix" to the ends of them and enjoy your The Usual Suspects moment as you realize they're all movie stars (or were, in one tragic case).
The Phoenix family, as they christened themselves upon their return to the U.S. in 1977, left the cult after becoming disenchanted with its practices, especially Berg's new recruitment strategy that he'd dubbed "flirty fishing." He ordered the young, attractive female members of his cult to entice men into the group through sexual seduction, a practice one of his daughters denounced as "religious prostitution" but Berg once claimed brought in nearly 20,000 new members.
Meanwhile, actress Rose McGowan spent her early childhood flitting from commune to commune with her father, an artist and head of the Italian chapter of Children of God. Fortunately, just five years after her birth, her parents also left the cult in protest of its abusive sexual practices and moved to Oregon in 1978.
