Cults and Extreme Belief

Secret strip shows and sacred prostitution.

A&E investigates the Children of God.

When I was still in the cult I watched several documentaries

exposing some of the things.

And I was sitting in my living room,

and they were showing it to us to kind of prepare us for what

was coming out against us.

And there on the screen there's me as a child,

dancing in a semi state of undress.

And it took me a few seconds to catch my breath.

It all kind of brought me to a realization

that I had been really abused as a child.

I had no idea the sexualization of children

was so rampant within this group.

We were being groomed by a master

pedophile, David Burg.

One day Amy comes up to me and she

says, oh, see that guy there?

He molested me when I was 11 years old.

He used scripture and he used spiritual principles

to excuse his behavior.

Please come into my heart.

I believe you are the Son of God.

I believe you died for me.

Please forgive me of my sins.

There is an epidemic.

We've lost a lot of people to suicide.

The suicide rate with ex-members is so high.

How many, do you think?

I know 100.

We've gone to the FBI.

We've given them our affidavits.

And they keep telling us their hands are tied.

This organization.

Are they sorry for what they did?

Do they have any remorse?

I don't think so.

People, literally, are losing their lives,

and their hopes and dreams, and their families over this.

This was my first home, you know, once I left the cult.

It's interesting coming back here

and seeing how far I've-- we've come since I was here last.

I'm planning an event this weekend

for my friend who was in the cult.

She's not with us anymore.

You can't be close to a fire and not get burned, you know?

I think people are quick to pass judgment

on survivors and victims.

But this is a very complex and detailed story.

is a serious matter.

These are people's lives at stake.

When my dad was 14 years old, he met Berg and his family right

before they started the Children of God.

This was on Huntington Beach.

They were just starting to create a Jesus movement.

And my dad was a very talented singer.

And he fell right in line with what they

were trying to put together.

Have a good time serving the Lord.

We'll have a good time--

Which was a talented group of young people

that could inspire other young people to evangelize and rally

some hippies and people that were runaways and people

looking for a better life.

They were kind of high on Jesus.

And in the beginning, it seemed to be pretty fun.

The late 1960s was a period of cultural turmoil,

especially for American youth, and indeed, youth

throughout the Western world.

David Berg was able to use the language and the symbols

of the counterculture to present his own attitudes

about Christianity.

That movement portrayed Jesus as the ultimate revolutionary.

They used music a lot in their lifestyle

and in their evangelism.

They had several bands.

One of the more popular ones in France

was called ,, which

is also the children of God.

And they produced an album that was a top seller

at the time called The Bible.

And I say, come and follow,

come and follow me.

One and all to come and follow me.

Most of Berg's teachings

were communicated to the cult through his writings.

They were coined Mo Letters.

Berg would just go on for hours and hours

talking about orders, about policies, and interpretation

of scripture.

Because he sort of fancied himself as a pastor,

king, prophet, enforcer, all of the above.

The concept of flirty fishing started in the late 70s, where

they would use, specifically female,

but also male sex appeal to proselytize

and to get supporters from the outside world.

He taught it as, God has given you

this body and this ability to make men happy

because he wants you to use it.

He wants you to use your talents--

and your talent is sexuality--

to bring in big fish, or kings, to donate to the group.

And it worked.

Berg was constantly coming

out with new revelations.

And one of his revelations that came out

right around the time of flirty fishing

was called the law of love.

We're no longer under the laws of Moses.

We're no longer under the 10 commandments.

Just as one law of love fulfills all 10, and all the rest

put together.

Berg believed he had boiled down

the central Christian scripture to one doctrine.

That was the Law of Love.

The Law of Love was to encompass everything

else that Christianity taught.

And as long as people acted in the context of love,

he was able to justify and sanctify their behaviors,

including sexual behaviors.

Berg very cleverly manipulated those

that he drew into his inner circle

to believe that he was truly a prophet and a visionary

that was going to liberate all of us

from the shackles of society.

But, actually, we were a liberated Christian sex cult.

Make your body my temple, and I will come in.

This is the temple of God today.

What is striking to me is how open David Berg was

about his most controversial preachings,

which were basically, sex is love and should

be spread to everyone.

And there's nothing wrong with sex

as long as it's done lovingly.

If you think of our generation,

we were born into it.

Anything that you're told when you're born into something,

if that's what the culture is telling you is OK,

you pretty much accept it as, well, the adults know best.

It must be OK.

Or that's what God wants us to do.

So for the second generation, of course we had questions.

You did.

That was also--

they had safeguards in place for that as well.

What kind?

If you doubt the leader

you're going to be ostracized, you're going to be punished.

There was a lot of, I guess you'd say peer pressure

in the society, within the cult, to basically

go along and follow whatever was being told by Berk.

Both my parents were teenagers when they had me.

And I was one of the first children born into the cult.

When I was about eight years old I was living in France

and I was invited with my parents

to a recording music unit in Greece

that Berg was overseeing.

He wasn't there.

But he would oversee it.

And we were creating this show that was

broadcast in several countries.

So I went back to France with my parents after the visit.

And then we got a letter from Berg asking my parents

if they could let me go back to the music unit,

but without them.

They just wanted me.

From then on out I was called into the studio almost on

a daily basis to do recordings.

But, as soon as I got away from my parents,

this is when I started being introduced

to the sexuality aspect of the cult.

We, literally, were just surrounded

by sexuality at that point.

And children suffered the most, I think.

Because the Law of Love crossed the barrier

between adults and children.

And there were no safety nets put in place for the children.

There were a lot of inappropriate sexual advances

that we had to endure as young as eight years old.

Me, personally, and all of the young women my age that I knew,

all of them.

When I was still at this music unit,

Berg sent out a letter called Glorify God in the Dance.

And we read it.

And all the women were going to do these dances

for Berg's birthday.

And he made a very detailed explanation of what they should

do, and how it's glorifying God if you disrobe in a very,

I guess you'd say, gracious manner.

And that's how he presented it, is you're like a heavenly woman

who's dancing with veils.

So women started making videos for him at his behest.

And then someone got the bright idea that, let's

include the children.

With a video crew would set up in a setting,

and put on two or three pieces of music,

and have you start off with your veil on.

And then you slowly start playing around with your veil

as you dance nude.

And we didn't really understand the sexual aspect of it.