David Brandt Berg (February 18, 1919 – October 1, 1994), also known as King David, Mo, Moses David, Father David, Dad, or Grandpa to followers, was the founder and leader of the
new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...
currently known as
The Family International
The Family International (TFI) is a Christian New Religious Movement founded in Huntington Beach, California, USA, in 1968 by David Berg that has been criticized as an authoritarian cult. Originally named Teens for Christ, it has gone under ...
. Berg's group, founded in 1968 among the
counterculture youth in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
, gained notoriety for incorporating sexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods. Berg and his organization have subsequently been accused of a broad range of
sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...
, including
child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...
.
Life
Family heritage
His maternal grandfather was Rev. John Lincoln Brandt (1860–1946), a
Disciples of Christ minister, author, and lecturer of
Muskogee, Oklahoma. 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 the
Alexander Campbell movement of the
Disciples of Christ, a
restoration movement
The Restoration Movement (also known as the American Restoration Movement or the Stone–Campbell Movement, and pejoratively as Campbellism) is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (17 ...
that developed into the current Protestant denomination
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...
.
Early years (1919–1969)
Berg was born on February 18, 1919, in
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
.
During his early years, he usually lived in or around Florida.
[ Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley, ''Cults and New Religions: A Brief History'', ]Wiley Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...
Brief Histories of Religion Series, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2015), 101. He was also the youngest of three children born to Hjalmer Emmanuel Berg and Rev. Virginia Lee Brandt, both parents were Christian
evangelists.
His father was
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
. His mother is the individual whom he credited for influencing him the most. Although raised in a Christian home, Virginia became an
atheist during her college years. However, shortly after the birth of her first child, she
broke her back in an accident and spent the next five years
disabled
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...
and bedridden, often hovering near death. Eventually she recovered and spent the rest of her life with her husband, Hjalmer, in active Christian service as a pastor and evangelist.
Virginia and Hjalmer were no strangers to controversy. They were expelled from the Disciples of Christ after publicly testifying of her "
divine healing," which was contrary to church doctrine. They subsequently joined a new denomination, the
Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Alliance World Fellowship is the international governing body of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (The Alliance, also C&MA and CMA). The Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within the Higher Life movement of Christianity ...
, shortly before David Berg'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.
David Berg spent his early years traveling with his parents, who pursued their evangelical mission with a passion. In 1924, they settled in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, 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.
As is the case with many pastors and their dependents, 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.
David Berg graduated from
Monterey High School in 1935 and later attended Elliott School of Business Administration.
Like his father, Berg became a minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the late 1940s, and was placed at
Valley Farms, Arizona.
Berg was eventually expelled from the organization for differences in teachings and for alleged
sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is misconduct of a sexual nature which exists on a spectrum that may include a broad range of sexual behaviors considered unwelcome. This includes conduct considered inappropriate on an individual or societal basis of morality, se ...
with a church employee.
In Berg's writings he claimed the expulsion was due to his support for greater
racial diversity
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
among his congregation.
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 of
evolution being taught as fact in public schools, Berg moved his family to Fred Jordan's Texas Soul Clinic, in Western Texas.
The Children of God/The Family (1968–1994)
David Berg, along with his wife and children, founded the organization known as the Teens for Christ, operating out of Light Club coffeehouse in
Huntington Beach, California, in 1968. While in California, after receiving 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 Louis and Clark Park that a news reporter first called them "The Children of God."
In the mid-1970s, Berg began preparing his followers for a "revelation" he had about "
Flirty Fishing
Flirty Fishing (FFing) is a form of evangelism by sexual intimacy practised from around 1974 to 1987 by the cult Children of God, currently known as Family International (TFI). Female members of Children of God, or "fisherwomen" would apply thei ...
" or winning important, influential men through prostitution.
In 1975, after letting everyone know via one of his letters that his mistress, Maria (
Karen Zerby), gave birth to a so-called "Jesus baby" (as his cult called babies born within the cult), Berg changed the name to "The Family of Love" or "The Family." Eventually in 1991, this was changed to "The Family International."
Berg lived in seclusion, communicating with his followers and the public via nearly 3,000 "Mo Letters"
[xFamily.org Publications Database](_blank)
— contains many of the "Mo Letters" written by David Berg ("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.
Death and legacy
Berg had been in hiding since 1971 and died in November 1994 in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. He was buried in
Costa de Caparica
Costa da Caparica () is a Portuguese civil parish, located in the municipality of Almada along the western coast of the district of Setúbal. The population in 2011 was 13,418,[cremated
Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning.
Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...]
.
After his death in 1994, his wife Karen Zerby (also known as Maria Berg) led The Family, and there were 6,000 adults and 3,000 children as members of The Family worldwide, in 50 countries.
There were investigations of The Family for child abuse and prostitution in Argentina, France, Spain, Australia, Venezuela, and Peru.
Controversy
David 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, though official inquiries at the time found no evidence of child abuse.
Berg was also personally accused of
pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...
. He claimed in his letters he was taught to
masturbate
Masturbation is the sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation may involve hands, fingers, everyday objects, sex toys such as vibrators, or combination ...
in church by another boy his age. He also claimed that 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 her claim of being sexually abused by David Berg. Berg's adopted son,
Ricky Rodriguez
Richard P. Rodriguez (born David Moses Zerby; January 25, 1975 – January 9, 2005) was an American member of a religious cult called The Family, formerly known as the Children of God (COG), who murdered one of his childhood sexual abusers, Ange ...
, 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
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' article. In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that David Berg sexually abused her when she was 13 years old. Despite numerous investigations and claims by purported witnesses and survivors, Berg was never charged with a crime related to child sexual abuse.
The allegations of Berg's institutionalization of
pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...
and sexual abuse were also described in ''
Not Without My Sister'', an autobiographical recount of the sexual abuse of three sisters who eventually escaped The Family. The book describes videos being taken of very young children engaging in sexually explicit activities for Berg's consumption, even as a method for his choosing of child brides. Serena Kelley claims to have been one of Berg's child brides and was purported to have been presented by her mother at age 3 to be selected.
His distant Jewish ancestry notwithstanding—in 1745, one of his mother's forebears, Jewish by birth but a Christian convert, moved to the
American colonies and lived as a
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radi ...
—David Berg was outspokenly
antisemitic, believing that the Jews were
responsible for the death of Jesus, as well as all
persecution of Christians
The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point of ...
in the world. In support of his views of an
international Jewish conspiracy
Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Al ...
, he cited the forged ''
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...
'', but disclaimed the label "antisemitic."
Berg predicted several
apocalyptic events that did not occur. His best-known prediction was that the
comet Kohoutek
Comet Kohoutek ( formally designated C/1973 E1 and formerly as 1973 XII and 1973f) is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973. Early predictions of the comet's peak brightness suggested that it had the potential to become o ...
(1974) would wreak havoc and possible destruction. This prediction was shared by others outside The Family, such as Joseph F. Goodavage in the January 1974 issue of ''SAGA'' magazine. He also predicted that the state of California would be subject to a massive
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
in 1969, the
Great Tribulation
In Christian eschatology, the Great Tribulation ( grc, θλῖψις μεγάλη, thlîpsis megálē) is a period mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse as a sign that would occur in the time of the end.
At Revelation 7:14, "the Great Tri ...
would begin in 1989, and the
Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messian ...
of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
would happen in 1993.
Personal family
Berg married his first wife, Jane Miller (known as "Mother Eve" in the Children of God), on 22 July 1944 in
Glendale, California.
They had four children together: Linda (known as "Deborah" in the Children of God); Paul, d. April 1973 (known as "Aaron" in the Children of God); Jonathan Emanuel (known as "Hosea" in the Children of God); and Faith.
Berg married his second wife Karen Zerby (and present leader of The Family).
Berg informally adopted
Ricky Rodriguez
Richard P. Rodriguez (born David Moses Zerby; January 25, 1975 – January 9, 2005) was an American member of a religious cult called The Family, formerly known as the Children of God (COG), who murdered one of his childhood sexual abusers, Ange ...
, the son of his second wife Karen Zerby.
In the 1970s and 1980s, sexually suggestive photographic depictions of Rodriguez ("Davidito") with adult caretakers were disseminated throughout the group by Berg and Zerby in a childrearing handbook known as ''The Story of Davidito''. In January 2005, Ricky Rodriguez murdered one of the female caretakers shown in the handbook before taking his own life several hours later.
Media featuring Berg
* ''Children of God'', Documentary, Directed by John Smithson, 1994.
*''Cult Killer'', documentary on Ricky Rodriguez and child abuse within The Family International.
*
A&E's ''
Cults and Extreme Belief'', episode 3 (2018) is about David Berg, the Children of God, its victims, and the survivors.
[''Cults and Extreme Belief'' S1E3, aired June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.](_blank)
/ref>
*''Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult'', an autobiography written by Faith Jones Esq. (Granddaughter of David Berg, Daughter of Jonathan "Hosea") about her experience growing up in The Family and her subsequent escape at the age of 22.
*''Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times,'' A Memoir, Flor Christine Edwards.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, David
1919 births
1994 deaths
20th-century apocalypticists
American people of Swedish descent
Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Family International
Founders of new religious movements
Members of The Family International
Cult leaders