Children of God
Referred to by his followers as Moses David, ex-pastor David Brandt Berg created Children of God, one of the world’s most notorious cults. Also known as Family of Love, it was founded in the US in 1968, a time of sexual liberation. By the 1990s, it had almost 1000 Australian followers.
Berg saw sexual enjoyment as the major focus of his followers’ lives and claimed every sexual experience should be considered a gift from God.
At its outset, Children of God seemed a part of the hippie movement, but unknown to many, it had a dangerously sinister side. Female followers in communes were regularly forced to submit themselves to their leader and, regardless of whether they were married or not, they were expected to sleep with countless male members.
Female cult members were also expected to engage in “flirty fishing” – a form of religious prostitution used to seduce men in an attempt to win converts and favours. In the cult’s early days, children were also forced to watch adults having sex in communal bedrooms and were taught that sex between 12-yearolds was acceptable.
After thriving for years in Australia, the cult was subject to police raids in May 1992, when 56 children in Victoria and 65 in NSW were taken from cult premises over fears of sexual assault. A legal battle ensued in both states with a damages claim confidentially settled more than seven years later.