#the family international

[tenth-sentence]

In 2005, Rodriguez made a video of himself calmly loading a gun and preparing other weapons, praising the Republicans for their lax gun laws and explaining to the camera that he was abused as a child, had contemplated suicide ever since, and that his mother must pay for the things she'd done.

"Zealot: A Book About Cults" - Jo Thornely

[balloons-in-bold]

To Bring Forth Sweetness: A Prophet Slain

Part two of three in my series on growing up in a cult.

For further context you can read my the artist statement for part one here https://www.tumblr.com/balloons-in-bold/756747631527624704/a-struggle-in-secret-the-wedding-riddle-part-one?source=share

Growing up in a cult can be really damaging. I struggled through many confusing and lonely times, but there was also a lot of good. Everything joyous and nurturing about my childhood was a result of my parent’s mindful parenting. The choices they made can be traced back to their experience in the cult, and their desire to give us better than they were given. Harsh parenting, high control structures, and the inability to rely on family during their upbringing manifested conversely in an environment for us of love and support, a healthy celebration of novel experiences and guilty pleasures, and a rock solid family unit that could weather any storm.

And storms we did weather. After leaving my birthplace of Brazil, we moved to Taiwan, a locale that felt far more like home to my parents who had spent so many years in Asia before I was born. My mom grew up in Macau and met my dad during his time in Japan. Two years after making the move to Taiwan, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake rocked the island, displacing us and tens of thousands of others from their homes. While staying in refugee camps, my parents, displaying a rugged resilience cultivated by the cult’s outsider status, immediately got to work lifting people’s spirits with songs, clown shows, and distributing balloons. 

Twisting balloons was a widely taught skill in the cult, both as a way of making money, and as a form of community outreach. Balloons, music, and selling literature were the primary modes of support for many large commune homes due to the cult’s restrictive policies heavily discouraging the working of regular “systemite” jobs. Despite Asia being home in their hearts, my parents had to move us to America, to seek medical care for various health problems they were struggling with. Ever since the early days of the cult, David Berg prophesied a coming doom and destruction for America, which he styled as the whore of Babylon from Revelations 17. He preached against the relentless wars waged in foreign nations, and against the complacency of the American Evangelical churches in ignoring Jesus’s more radical teachings of asceticism and acceptance, styling himself as an iconoclast and table flipper in the image of Jesus rebuking the Pharisee establishment. I still carry these sentiments with me today. I was fed anti-America messaging throughout publications and music which worked with the isolating, not-of-this-world lifestyle to create an identity of elite separation from the country in which we lived. This, despite the often comically rabid christian-nationalist, pro Imperialist content found in the a-Beka homeschool curriculum we used. Cognitive dissonance and lack of certainty in what I was being taught would be an ever growing thorn in my worldview throughout my time in the cult. More important than the inconveniently present patriotism, was the lack of education about evolution in our curriculum. More than any other outside teaching, evolution was maligned as the most evil and dehumanizing work of Satan that we had to be indoctrinated against. As a supplement to the homeschooling material, we were given the Kent Hovind creationist seminars, which I, an enthusiastic student of science, practically memorized by heart. Many things could have ended up catalyzing my doubts in college, but learning about evolution from an unbiased perspective had me realizing I couldn’t rely on the trust I had in the worldview that had been forced on me, and the only way forward was to reevaluate everything from the ground up. I wrote in the previous part in this series on the isolation and loneliness I experienced as a result of being homeschooled. The limited opportunities for socialization was made up for with an encouragement of extracurricular learning. Since an early age I was taught how to teach myself, utilizing the library system, internet forums, and pirated software. I became skilled in Photoshop, 3D modeling, music, and eventually balloons.

Balloon twisting was a skill taught to me at the age of 16 by my parents. Many ex-cult members have negative feelings about balloons due to its association with the cult, but I value the connection as the convenient illustration of the unique circumstances throughout my family history that led to me being the person I am today. A history tracing back to my great grandfather, David Berg, who got his start preaching to wayward hippies at Huntington Beach in the late 60s. As well intentioned as the group may have started out, the radical views on sex that “Grandpa” developed, when combined with the all encompassing authoritarian nature of the cult he created, led to some truly stomach churning abuses. I was shielded by abuse in part due to the careful parenting of my parents, and due to the doctrinal overhauls that took place in previous generations after much international backlash and public scrutiny. A story of institutionalized abuse, coverup, reform, and gaslighting that I uncovered piece by piece as I was given more freedom to read the cult’s antiquated teachings. David Berg kept his likeness hidden for much of the cult’s existence in order to evade consequences for the abuses he perpetrated and made commonplace. Only after his passing did the cult release a photo book so his many thousands of followers could finally know the leader they’d been so dedicated to. When in hiding, his appearance was substituted with a friendly and wise old anthropomorphic lion character. This is the lion I would render in balloon form, to burn the man in effigy, mixing both crucifixion and heretic-at-the-stake imagery, a fitting end to such a self-styled rebel prophet. Out of his disemboweled corpse flows honey, like honey from the lion’s carcass that Samson would construct his riddle around. The honey meets with a hexagonal honeycomb pattern composed entirely of classic balloon dogs. The iconographic symbol of balloon art, connecting my family’s past in the cult with the medium I sculpt with today. The large 6 x 7 foot painting that makes up the background is a more abstract form of the sculpture’s themes of beauty and goodness derived from chaos and despair. The various textures are created using many different techniques and acrylic mediums. Palette knives, piping bags, and custom hexagon silicone molds were used with modeling paste, acrylic gels, and crackle paste to evoke the gore and viscera of a decaying corpse alongside the life and structure of a buzzing beehive.

Working on a project over both the long and short term, with paintings that take months, and balloon sculptures that take days, puts in perspective the complexity of understanding someone’s story. To truly understand someone, you need to take in both their immediate lived and felt experiences, and the sometimes long and complicated history and context within which those events take place. Creating this balloon sculpture for display while also setting up the rest of my exhibition posed more of a challenge than if I were to have worked solely in private. But it  all came together and I’m glad so many people got a chance to see it in person. There will be one final balloon sculpture/painting part in the series but I’ll be taking my time with it and setting up an event sometime in the future for its exhibition. Maybe as part of a group show; we’ll see. 

[areyouafraid]

i've read into this cult for years and it's truly one of the worst, most terrifying organizations i've ever read about. i would recommend checking out xfamily as well

[ex-cogtfi]

This deeply disturbing children’s publication was created by COG-TFI and was required reading for children across COG-TFI. It taught children that illnesses and accidents are punishments from God for disobedience or spiritual failings and compared these events to being spanked. It explicitly promoted the idea that children are to blame for the illnesses and accidents that befall them.

Thus, when injured or sick, children in the cult were typically ordered to “pray about it”, ask God how they had transgressed against the cult’s teachings, and repent in order to be healed. This emotional abuse inflicted anxiety and false guilt upon children in COG-TFI, as they were blamed while suffering from untreated sickness or injury. The publication also depicts a child forcibly disrobed and in a humiliating position while being spanked, a form of abuse that was universal to children in the cult, and this image added to the shame that innocent children suffered while being sick or injured and being denied medical care.

[rock-me-amadeus-epic-remix]

Graphic design etc etc

[lindsaynichols]

World, please read this #igotout post. THIS is what a warrior looks like. #Cults debase you. Most of us couldn’t fathom, let alone endure, the mental gymnastics required to leave. Overcoming every evil a #cult has told/done to you is nothing short of heroic. I hope Verity Carter knows how strong, beautiful, smart, AMAZING she is. I stand w/ all @ex-cogtfi Children of God/the Family International survivors.

[randomwikiarticles]

The Family International (TFI) is an American new religious movement founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg.[1] The group has gone under a number of different names since its inception, including Teens for Christ, The Children of God (COG), The Family of Love, or simply The Family.

A British court case found and formermembers claimed they were an authoritarian cult which engaged in the systematic physical and sexual abuse of children,[2] resulting in lasting trauma among survivors.[3] The group has also been accused of targeting vulnerable people.[4]

[p1nkshield]

Prompt idea: Danny has been attending Wayne family dinners for weeks now and he truly doesn’t know how he got this far

Danny has been without a home or a means to get food for a while because of either identity reveal gone bad or Dan timeline shenanigans. Either way he needs to eat. As a last ditch attempt Danny tries to attend/infiltrate a Wayne family dinner. He’s seen the Wayne kids around Gotham and he’s sure that he could look and act the part enough to get in the door and out with some bread rolls at least.

Was it his best idea? No.

But he sure as sugar ain’t firing on all cylinders rn.

And Bruce already has a gaggle of blue eyed, black haired children.

What’s one more?

Batfam of course notices immediately when a whole new kid shows up, grabs some miscellaneous pieces of food and then prattles off some excuse about “not being that hungry.” (Clearly a bald faced lie) And that they were “Going to the library to study for finals, bye Dad!”

1. No one skips out on family dinners. Even Jason was here.

2. Alfred sets the table for everyone ahead of time and the kid had no place to sit.

3. Nobody in this house studies anything beyond case files.

4. Nobody in this house calls Bruce Dad.

Danny thinks he is suffering from success. No matter where he is in Gotham someone picks him up and insists he’ll be late for family dinner which is unacceptable.

Alfred just wants to feed the boy.

The batkids are amused by his efforts to look as though he’s been here all along.

Bruce is drafting adoption papers as we speak.

[isawthismeme]

[ddddd-pixels]

For International Asexuality Day, I'm hitting you all with the Ace Beam. ☺️

(This took a lot more effort than I thought it would, lol...)

Edit: 800 notes?! In less than five hours?! Thank you all so much!!

Edit 2: 2000... The most I got on any post before was just over a hundred, lol. You are all so nice!

[balloons-in-bold]

A Struggle In Secret: The Wedding Riddle

Part one of three in my series on growing up in a cult.

My upbringing in The Family International, formerly known as The Children of God, was a mixed bag. I had such a loving and supporting family, and many incredible experiences traveling and performing. Most of the latent effects of the isolation of homeschooling and living in a country with an especially difficult language barrier surfaced during my later integration into "normal" American life.

David Berg, my great-grandfather and the founder of The Children of God, died several years before I was born. Nonetheless, he remained an all important religious figure in our lives, behind only Jesus himself. My education and spiritual development was buttressed by decades of propaganda material, yet my cult experience wasn't as intense as previous generations. My parents did the best they could to shield us kids from the abuses they went through. The 2000’s marked the waning years of a cult that once boasted ten thousand members. The bustling commune homes that dotted the globe became fewer and less populated. Because of the cult’s lessened omnipresence, I wasn’t provided sufficient opportunities to develop my social and romantic skills properly, which, compounded with introverted tendencies, left me with few substantial relationships, a problem that persisted long after we had left the cult.

It took several years to stop blaming myself for my stunted development, and even longer to move forward on a path of self improvement. I had crippling social anxiety that I still feel clinging to me occasionally. Pulling up to a party or other social function, I’d feel jolts of electricity shoot through my body, and the adrenaline would drain my brain of coherent thoughts, leaving only an urgent sense of dread. My journey of self discovery and search for community and connection was made so much more difficult by the lack of shared experiences I had with those around me. Every time I mentioned my past, and how, no I can’t relate to your funny high school anecdote, I mostly got blank stares and a rush to change the topic. A surface level explanation didn’t come close to adequately bridging the gaps separating myself from those around me.

2022 Was when I determined that, in order to properly move forward, I needed to confront the remnants of isolation and alienation in as direct a way as possible. As an artist, that meant telling my story through symbolic imagery. Like a divine revelation, the story of Samson fighting the lion (Judges 14:5) entered my mind. A struggle in secret that no one at his wedding had knowledge of, and when presented with the riddle, had no chance of coming up with an answer (Judges 14:12-14).

The painting was at first only meant to be a quick solution as background imagery but grew into so much more. I layered to the collage portions of the canvas to tell the journey that stretched back thousands of years, starting with papyrus fragments, followed by King James bible pages, old MO letters, Life With Grandpa pages, and topped off with the A-beka christian fundamentalist homeschooling material. Expanding outwards and constricting inwards, leaving me trapped and isolated. The border has its cracks, fracturing under the cumulative dissonance of the inevitable internal struggle. The painted portion leads towards the center, down into a pit so deep, climbing out feels almost impossible.

I wanted to push the physicality of the balloon sculpture in a way I’d never done before. I drew inspiration from ukiyo-e images of samurai clashing with tigers, intertwining the two subjects in violence, hands grasping and claws slashing so deep that the two become one. I portrayed in Samson’s face, the rage and frustration I felt pent up over so many years, being released with the urgency and determination of a warrior assured that the fight is already his.

This first part in the series was finished and photographed a while ago in private, now being used as marketing material to promote my upcoming exhibition where I’ll be displaying the second painting and sculpture in the series. The next part, “Out Of The Strong, Something Sweet”, is an attempt to harmonize the darkest parts of my family legacy with the wonder and excitement, the joy and support I experienced throughout my upbringing in The Family International.

Please join me at The Jung Center of Houston, Texas for the exhibition, funded in part by Houston Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs through Houston Arts Alliance, for the opening reception August 19th, 3pm to 6pm; and don’t miss my talk on the closing day, August 24th at 2pm to hear more about my art and journey.

[giantkillerjack]

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

[plain-text version of this post can be found under the cut]

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

Plain-text version:

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

P.S. Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

[whatisonthemoon]

The Tragic History of Cults

▲ Pictured: Ricky Rodriguez, victim of sexual abuse and adopted son of David Berg, founder of the Children of God or the Family International (not to be confused with the DC-based The Fellowship or The Family)

Originally submitted to WIOTM on January 6, 2017 by “Frank Frivilous”

Watching the Children of God video last night I realized that the young boy whom the Messiah figure, David Berg selected to be his successor was obviously suffering from trauma. Judging from the other accounts, it may be safe to suggest that it included sexual abuse. The young man was extremely resentful and violent and eventually murdered his nanny and took his own life. The behavior he exhibited on the video was hauntingly familiar and could be attributed to a number of other apocalyptic cults. None of them seemed to have ended well. The Waco, Texas incident with the Branch Davidians comes to mind. Similar themes there including the wholesale loss of innocent lives. It’s interesting to note that the popular media is loath to remind the public about these events and in fact, misrepresented themselves when they reported the worst massacre in American history happened at a gay club in Orlando Florida. That dubious distinction actually belongs to the congregation of Jim Jones in Guyana. Whether you believe it was a mass suicide or not doesn’t alter the outcome. The leader compelled his followers to give up their lives for him. Not surprising when you delve into the essential teaching of these people. Obedience. Self sacrifice for the leader. Glorification of the leader. Never, ever, ever question the authority of the leader. Calculated veiled threats of violence toward anyone who questions the leaders authority. Have we seen this behavior exhibited by Hyung Jin Moon lately? He is claiming an inheritance from his father that may not even be represented in his fathers own teachings. Now he is even promoting his own son as a likely successor to his own outrageous claims. Where does it end? Is he also exhorting his followers to stock pile weapons? Is it a good idea to encourage him in these endeavors? I can’t help feeling that the followers have a moral responsibility to reject this nonsense before it goes too far. I think it’s time to sound the alarm and shine a spot light into the dark recesses of ALL the Moon family cults.

Frank F

Related links and notes 

We should have seen Tetsuya’s violent act coming

Note from this old WIOTM post: “David Berg, founder of the incestuous hippie Christian cult, a self-proclaimed prophet, regretted not having sex with own mother.”

From X-Family.org: 

At least seven women, including both his daughters, his daughter-in-law and two of his granddaughters, have publicly alleged that Berg sexually abused them when they were children.

In 1974, Berg's daughter-in-law Sarah Berg (who married Berg's son Paul when she was 15) alleged, in testimony to the New York Attorney General's Charity Frauds Bureau, statements on national television and in a deposition taken by New York attorney Aaron F. Klein, that Berg made sexual advances towards her, exposed himself to her and attempted to have intercourse with her "three or four years before my teens."

Berg's eldest daughter Deborah Davis has written a book in which she accuses her father of sexually molesting both her and her sister when they were children, and attempting to have sex with her as an adult.

Her sister Faith Berg corroborated these claims, but described them in a positive way. Sarah Berg also partially corroborated these claims, noting that: "David, at times, would try to get away with things with his own daughters and he tried it with me when I was a little girl, but I was too young to really know what was going on."

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 being sexually abused by her grandfather.

Davida Kelley, the daughter of Sara Kelley (nanny for Berg's informally adopted son Ricky Rodriguez), accused Berg of molesting her in a June 2005 Rolling Stone article.

In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that Berg sexually abused her when she was 13 years old.

Ricky Rodriguez wrote an article on the website MovingOn.org in which he describes Berg's deviant sexual activity involving a number of women and children.

Ricky Rodriguez page on X-Family.org

[ex-cogtfi]

TW: child sexual abuse and other child abuse

The Family International cult (previously known as the Children of God) has attempted to whitewash their image as a happy Christian fellowship spreading God's love across the globe. Nothing could be further from the truth, as this brave survivor’s story demonstrates.

Music With Meaning (MWM) was a radio and television show created by the cult in the 1980’s. It generated significant revenue for the cult with its cheerful Christian children singing songs about faith and love. However, away from the public eye, MWM was rife with sexual and other abuse against minors, all in the name of the cult’s twisted interpretation of love (for more details see Music With Meaning - XFamily - Children of God).

This brave survivor shares her story of contracting a herpes infection in her eye whilst living in the MWM compound at only four years old. As a result of the abuse and medical neglect this survivor experienced, she has been left with lifelong vision loss.

Please share this story and help us hold the abusive leaders who are still operating and profiting from the cult accountable: bit.ly/3rt5Bms

[demigods-posts]

headcanon that when estelle is old enough. percy and annabeth take her trick or treating. and estelle dresses up in the loudest colors she can find. and claims she an international super spy. and percy and annabeth accompany her while wearing tuxedos. claiming that their her bodyguards.