David Berg

Berg often said that his rich heritage played a key role in shaping his character and religious convictions. Many of his forefathers, as well as both of his parents, were deeply committed Christians. Some of them were members of the Dunkards, a conservative offshoot of the Church of the Brethren. State persecution of the sect drove the Brandt family from Germany to America, where they settled in Pennsylvania and Ohio around 1750.

His maternal grandfather was Rev. John Lincoln Brandt (1860–1946), a Disciples of Christ minister, author, and lecturer of Muskogee, Oklahoma. John Lincoln Brandt, Berg's grandfather, had a dramatic conversion in his mid-twenties and immediately entered full-time Christian service. For years he was a Methodist circuit rider. He later became a leader of the Alexander Campbell movement of the Disciples of Christ, a restoration movement that developed into the current Protestant denomination Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Berg was born on February 18, 1919 in Oakland, California.[1] He was the youngest of three children of Hjalmer Emmanuel Berg and Rev. Virginia Lee Brandt, both parents were Christian evangelists.[2] His father was Swedish.[3] David Berg's mother Virginia Brandt Berg, is the individual whom he credited for influencing him the most. Although raised in a Christian home, Virginia became an atheist and wild society girl during her college years. However, shortly after the birth of her first child, she broke her back in an accident and spent the next five years as a bedridden invalid, often hovering near death. Eventually she recovered and spent the rest of her life with her husband, Hjalmer, in active Christian service as a pastor and evangelist. Virginia and Hjalmer were no strangers to controversy. They were expelled from the Disciples of Christ after publicly testifying of her "divine healing", which was contrary to church doctrine. They subsequently joined a new denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, shortly before David Berg's birth. In later years, their missionary zeal and disdain for denominational politicking often set them at variance with the conservative faction of that church's hierarchy, causing them to work largely as independent pastors and evangelists.

David wrote that he was physically abused by a German nurse and sexually abused by a Mexican babysitter when he was age three.[4]

David Berg spent his early years traveling with his parents, who pursued their evangelical mission with a passion. In 1924, they settled in Miami, Florida, after Virginia successfully led a series of large revivals at the Miami Gospel Tabernacle. This became Berg's home for the next 14 years, while his mother and father were pastors at a number of Miami churches. As is the case with many pastors and their dependents, the Berg family depended entirely on the generosity of their parishioners for their support, and often had difficulty making ends meet. This instilled in Berg a lifelong habit of frugality, which he encouraged his followers to adopt.

In the late 1930s, Virginia Berg returned to her favorite ministry, that of a traveling evangelist. David Berg accompanied her, and for most of the next 10 years acted as her chauffeur, song leader, and general assistant.

David Berg graduated from Monterey High School in 1935 and later attended Elliott School of Business Administration.[2]

Like his father, Berg became a minister in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and was placed at Valley Farms, Arizona. Berg was eventually expelled from the organization for differences in teachings and for alleged sexual misconduct with a church employee.[2] In Berg's writings he claimed the expulsion was due to his support for greater racial diversity among his congregation.[2]

Fred Jordan, Berg's friend and boss, allowed Berg and his personal family to open and run a branch of his Soul Clinic in Miami, Florida as a missionary training school. After running into trouble with local authorities for his aggressive disapproval with evolution being taught as fact in public schools, Berg moved his family to Fred Jordan's Texas Soul Clinic, in Western Texas.

David Berg founded the organization known as the Teens for Christ in Huntington Beach, California in 1968. It was later known as "The Children of God," "The Family of Love" or "The Family," and is currently "The Family International".

Berg called on his followers to devote their full-time to spreading the message of Jesus' love and salvation as far and wide as possible, unfettered by convention or tradition, and to teach others to do the same.

Berg also decried the de-Christianization and decay of moral values in Western society. He viewed the trend towards a New World Order as setting the stage for the rise of the Antichrist.

Berg lived in seclusion, communicating with his followers and the public via nearly 3,000 "Mo Letters"[5] ("Mo" from his pseudonym "Moses David") that he wrote on a wide variety of subjects. These typically covered spiritual or practical subjects and were used as a way of disseminating and introducing policy and religious doctrine to his followers. His writings were often extreme and uncompromising in their denunciation of what he believed to be evil, such as mainstream churches, pedophilia laws, capitalism, and Jews,[6] yet he always admonished the reader to "love the sinner but hate the sin". He espoused doctrines that mainstream Christians denounce as heretical. However, his followers argue that his writings are permeated with a love of God.

Berg had been in hiding since 1971 and died in November 1994 in Portugal.[7] He was buried in Costa de Caparica and his remains have since been cremated.

After his death in 1994, his wife Karen Zerby (aka Maria Berg) led The Family, and there were 6,000 adults and 3,000 children as members of The Family worldwide, in 50 countries.[7] There were investigations of The Family for child abuse, and prostitution in Argentina, France, Spain, Australia, Venezuela, and Peru.[7]