Members, who at their peak numbered 15,000 people worldwide, didn’t work or attend school. Children were put together and lived apart from their parents since the COG did not support the nuclear family.
The Children of God gained notoriety in the late 1970s for what one of Berg’s own daughters later referred to as “religious prostitution”. Berg is believed to have invented the term “flirty fishing,” which refers to the practice of women supposedly having intercourse with men in order to recruit them into the cult.
After addressing the issue of STDs during the late 1980s, the group formally stopped this practice. Despite Berg’s passing in 1994, the organization, now known as “The Family International,” is still quite active.
One Response
I found this article to be very well written, with fascinating revelations!
It is a little disappointing, however, that there is no mention of the Jonestown massacre. Any information about James Jones’ cult is excluded.