33: "Cults & Extreme Belief - Children of God"

Shear Crime Podcast

This week, Ame and Kenzie bring you another episode from the A&E series Cults and Extreme Belief: Children of God. Founder David Berg set out in the late 60's with the vision of preaching an apocalyptic creed through the use of musically talented evangelists in an effort to build a Christian commune. Before long, his teachings were found worldwide, and reached the ears of young and old alike. But things started to get weird when David, who referred to himself as Father or Moses, began encouraging things like "flirty fishing" - a type of prostitution in order to raise funds for the organization. Not satisfied with the exploitation of the adults he led, he soon focused on the children and made things like videotaped stripteases, naked communion, and sex with minors a normality. In this episode we hear from Amy Bril, one of the first children born into the cult, and what she endured as well as witnessed during her time inside. Her story, along with a few others, helps to shed light on one of the biggest issues plaguing survivors of the Children of God: their massive suicide rate.