The Family International

The Family International is a Christian new religious movement founded by David Berg in 1968 as the Children of God. It is known for communal living, apocalyptic teachings, and controversial practices including sexualized proselytizing.

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David Berg: David Berg was the American preacher who founded the Children of God in 1968 and led it until his death in 1994. His teachings and authority shaped the movement from its founding through its later reorganization.
Communal living: Communal living is an arrangement in which people share housing, resources, or domestic responsibilities. Members often lived in shared households called colonies, organized around collective religious life.
Child sexual abuse: Child sexual abuse is the involvement of a child in sexual activity that the child cannot understand or consent to. Former members and investigations have reported abuse of children within Family International communities.
Jehovah's Witnesses: Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination known for door-to-door evangelism and distinctive interpretations of the Bible. Both movements conduct missionary outreach, but differ in governance, doctrine, and historical development.
Children of God: Children of God was the name used by the religious movement founded by David Berg in 1968, later renamed The Family International. This was the movement’s original identity before successive changes of name.
Apocalypticism: Apocalypticism is the belief that history will culminate in a decisive divine intervention or end-time events. Expectations of the imminent end times informed the movement’s teachings and priorities.
Cult: A cult is a group commonly understood as centered on intense devotion to a leader, ideology, or set of practices. The label has frequently been applied to the movement, though it is contested and imprecise.
Jesus People movement: The Jesus People movement was a loosely connected Christian revival among young people in the United States during the late 1960s and 1970s. The Family emerged amid the same countercultural religious ferment, while developing a more centralized communal structure.
Mo Letters: The Mo Letters are writings by David Berg that presented doctrine, directives, and personal communications to members of the Children of God. They circulated Berg’s teachings and instructions across the movement’s communities.
Flirty Fishing: Flirty Fishing was a practice promoted by David Berg in which women used sexual attraction to recruit or proselytize. The practice became one of the movement’s most controversial missionary methods.