#thefamilyinternational

[ex-cogtfi]

TW child abuse, religious abuse

February 18th. On THE DATE that the cult of COG-TFI is still celebrating as the "birthday" of the cult and its late pedophiliac founder David Berg, COG-TFI survivors are speaking out in The Sunday Mail and on Episode 2 of the explosive documentary series Prayed Upon by the Courier Mail.

We are incredibly proud of these brave survivors for speaking out, as it is an emotionally intense, vulnerable, and demanding experience to go public with such personal and painful stories. Please support COG-TFI survivors and help us raise awareness by sharing this post and signing our petition to bring COG-TFI cofounder and current leader Karen Zerby to justice (link in bio).

[cultvault]

Coming Friday - a conversation with Whisper and Jemima about their Butterflies and Bravery Podcast. We discuss their experiences growing up in the Children of God/The Family International, what it took to escape and how they’ve each rebuilt their lives. Check out this special video message from Whisper 👇 THIS WEEK - Ep. 239 The Children of God with Jemima & Whisper from Butterflies and Bravery Podcast https://youtu.be/4TiP8V5Vecc #cult #cults #childrenofgod #thefamilyinternational #cogtfi #cog #cultleader #spiritualabuse #childabuse #podcasthost #podcasthosts #truecrimepodcast #truecrimecommunity #cultpodcast https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTvMG3orIL/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ex-cogtfi]

To close 2023, we're sharing this heartfelt poem by COG-TFI survivor E.S. @poetry_catharsis that traces the impact of psychological and emotional abuse inflicted upon children, the devastating repercussions, and the reclaiming and unlearning we choose as survivors. The choices we make each day to choose self love and freedom, to rewrite the messages ingrained in us. To take back what was stolen from us before we were born.

May 2024 be a year of continued healing and awareness, as we support survivors in telling their stories and healing, and shine a light on cults and cultic abuse.

[ex-cogtfi]

This is part two of a look at the context of the word “security” in the cult.

The Family International (formerly the Children of God and the Family of Love) have spent over 50 years avoiding prosecution for their crimes, conning donors, and developing and honing strategies to handle legal attacks and combat public criticism.

They’ve worked to create a carefully curated image of a wholesome missionary group, misunderstood by the public and maligned by detractors. Through setting up charitable fronts, befriending people with influence, and coaching members to practice the doctrine of “deceivers yet true”, TFI have attempted to publicly distance themselves from policies that resulted in the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of children. TFI has been so successful in their rebranding campaigns and coverups that they were invited to perform at the White House during the administrations of two United States presidents.

Meanwhile, TFIs internal publications show that the cult’s leadership have no remorse for the harms they have and continue to cause. Internal documents by the current leader and co-founder Karen Zerby explicitly state that the cult still believes there is nothing inherently wrong with adult-child sex and adult-child sexual interactions.

(The content of these posts has been adapted and excerpted from articles on exfamily.org, especially “The Family - Official Policy on Lying & Deception”. Underlining is consistent with the original cult publications.)

[ex-cogtfi]

This post outlines COG-TFI’s long, consistent, and ongoing history of denying sexual abuse, including a public denial of child sexual abuse in 1988 that they were forced to walk back in 1994 when compelled by a UK court to acknowledge that because of cult teachings and writings, more children in the cult than outside it had become victims of child sexual abuse.

The cult’s campaign of denial and coverup included brainwashing and training children to deny the abuse perpetrated against them. With cult literature and comics that children were forced to read from a young age, children were taught to be watchful of their words around non-members to avoid disclosing abuse. Internally, COG-TFI continued to defend its sexual practices and sexualization of minors, even as it declared to the world that it had completely renounced such doctrines and strived to falsely portray such abuse as a thing of the past.

Moreover, little known to the public is the 2004 publication “Renewal: Amnesty” by current COG-TFI leaders Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly that proves ongoing sexual abuse in the cult and leadership’s awareness of it. In an effort to motivate members to confess to offenses including sexual abuse against minors, Zerby and Kelly enacted a period of “amnnesty” for excommunicable offenses including what in many jurisdictions is statutory rape, and the sexual molestation of minors. This "amnesty" also allowed excommunicated sexual offenders back into the cult. The cult’s awareness of the criminality of these offenses is seen in its statement in the aforementioned 2004 publication that this amnesty “does not absolve anyone from legal ramifications of breaking laws of the country in which they live”.

(The content of these posts has been adapted and excerpted from an article on exfamily.org: “The Family - Official Policy on Lying & Deception” and references the 2004 COG-TFI publication “Renewal: Amnesty” found at pubs.xfamily.org)

[ex-cogtfi]

TW: sensitive content

In this direct quote from a 2007 publication, Steven Kelly, the cult’s current co-leader, defends Flirty Fishing (FFing, aka religious prostitution). FFing was widely practiced in the cult from 1974 until 1987, when it was officially discontinued, due in part to the AIDS epidemic.

Under FFing, female cult members were pressured to be “God’s whores” and “hookers for Jesus”. Sex was given to strangers, purportedly as a means to show God’s love, in return for a donation or Escort Servicing fee. FFing was financially lucrative for the cult and increased cult membership due to the many children born from the practice (as the cult banned contraception), who were known as “Jesus babies”.

In 1995, Lord Justice Ward, who presided over a prominent court case involving the cult, condemned FFing: “[Berg] and his organization … were procuring women to become common prostitutes. They were knowingly living in part on the earnings of prostitution. That was criminal activity. Their attempts to deny this must be dismissed as cant and hypocrisy.”

Yet Steven Kelly persists in defending FFing and upholding cult teachings on the practice.

[ex-cogtfi]

*** Trigger warning - this post contains references to sexual abuse ***

"Flirty Fishing" was a cult recruitment method started by cult founder David Berg in the 1970s to lure men into COG-TFI by prostituting female cult members. Cult members were indoctrinated into thinking they were making a spiritually significant contribution and receiving God's blessing by gaining converts with sexual services. The practice caused immeasurable pain and trauma to the women and their loved ones. While the practice was discontinued officially in the 1980s, COG-TFI leaders have never condemned the principles behind the practice.

Note: attached text was previously a caption for a post by @igotout_org for a focus of the month in October 2022.

[ex-cogtfi]

Children born into 'The Family International' (formerly known as The Children of God) were taught they were worthless and insignificant. We were taught to aspire to be like dust or a toilet as our only possible value was to be a mindless vessel for the cult.

This inspiring poem 'Dusting' by S.Angela has taken one of the publications created by the cult and turned it around into something of beauty. As survivors, instead of being the 'dust' we were raised to be we have shaken off the dust to discover we were diamonds all along.

[ex-cogtfi]

This heartbreaking and beautifully written piece is written by Joe Dageforde @theserenadeco , a brave survivor who escaped the 'Children of God' cult (currently still active under the name 'The Family International').

Please read and share and comment to show appreciation of this heartfelt poem.

[ex-cogtfi]

This moving piece of art and caption has been submitted to us by DJ Morrow. Please read and share so that others can appreciate this beautiful piece.

See more of DJ Morrow's work at balloonsinbold.com and @balloonsinbold

[ex-cogtfi]

Have you ever felt like you had a chance to be reborn, to see the world with fresh eyes? Verity Teri Carter, a second-generation survivor of the COG-TFI cult, describes the intense emotional rollercoaster she experienced after escaping the cult.

Although she had to contend with many struggles after starting her life over, the challenges did not diminish the sheer joy of having the freedom to make her own choices and forge her own way, in contrast with the coercive control of the cult infrastructure. Finding freedom is not without its cost, but it is worth it!

Please read, share, and take a moment to sign the petition (in bio) to bring current leader of 'The Family International' (formerly known as 'The Children of God') to justice.

[ex-cogtfi]

Mary Mahoney, a first-generation survivor of the COG-TFI cult, describes the emotional devastation of coming to terms with spending much of her adult life in a cult. Coupled with guilt and regret for the decades devoted to an exploitative organization was the struggle of unlearning years of propaganda and manipulation. Over time, Mary has found healing and is grateful for each day now spent in freedom.

Read more of Mary’s writings on Medium https://mary-mahoney.medium.com/

and on her blog, where she shares her journey: https://comingtogripswith.blogspot.com/. Read about her experiences in COG-TFI in her memoir, Abnormal Normal: My Life in the Children of God.

[ex-cogtfi]

February 18th, the birthday of COG-TFI’s late founder David Berg that doubles as the cult's self-appointed "birthday", has been a day of cultic rituals and forced declarations of devotion, but in 2002 it became a very different anniversary for second-generation COG-TFI survivor Whisper James ( Whisper Wind ). Instead of a day devoted to a cult that oppressed and abused the most vulnerable, it became the day that Whisper James found her freedom. In this post, she describes the many obstacles, psychological and physical, that she bravely overcame to gain freedom for herself and for her children. Despite the cult’s mechanism of forcing cult women into coerced reproduction and childrearing to keep them enslaved to the cult and its ideology, Whisper found the strength to become a Cycle-Breaker, taking herself and her children away from the cult’s clutches forever.

[ex-cogtfi]

February 18th is a loaded day for many COG-TFI survivors in terms of memories, associations, triggers, and even flashbacks. This post explains why.

[ex-cogtfi]

This piece reflects on the unequal power dynamic and oppression many second-generation cult survivors experienced being raised in the cult of COG-TFI. Children raised in the cult were of value only in their potential to serve the cult’s interests, not for their inherent worth as human beings. As many cult members watched large numbers of second-generation adults choosing to leave the cult, some cult parents became fixated on guilting and trapping their children into staying in the cult. This piece uses the relationship between a tyrannical empress and a slave girl to portray the dictatorial control children and youth in the cult went through. After a long struggle, freedom is sweet, as it would have been to a slave girl bidding farewell to the empress who enslaved her.

Credit: image by pngtree

[ex-cogtfi]

Have you ever been shunned by the people you loved the most because of your personal decision? This account by a second-generation survivor of the COG-TFI cult describes the immense determination and strength it takes for those born and raised in a cult to leave, as it often means the loss of family, friends, and any support system they may have known. Children in COG-TFI were raised to be God's Endtime soldiers and taught that furthering the cult's mission was their life's sole purpose. Thus, leaving was seen as the ultimate betrayal, and shunning by family members was institutionalized through explicit edicts from COG-TFI leaders Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly. With little education and no financial provisions or connections, the outside world was frightening and the transition often deeply difficult and painful. Still, this survivor bravely chose to break free.