The Family International was founded by David Brandt Berg and originally named The Children of God. Berg was a Christian missionary in 1944 and in the 1960s he began to try to appeal to the “lost and confused youth of America.” The new religions appearing at this time period were “a fusion of an evangelical Christian awakening and the youth counterculture of the 1960s.” David Berg focused his preaching on rejecting the old and accepting the new.
David Berg was deemed a prophet and eventually the king on earth for God. He was seen as a father figure for members and a central part of the group. It was David Berg that introduced radical beliefs into the Family. The church in the 1970s faced two revelations that make dramatic changes to the group. Firstly Berg isolating himself from his own community and began writing letters, because he believed that God wanted him to distance himself. The letters became known as MO letters. MO stood for Moses. This name was a part of the religious symbolism for the Family. The other revelation was …show more content…
It was believed that men (because women were the ones encouraged to flirty fish) would be inspired by the love of the woman and be inspired to learn about the love of God. The flirty fisher was doing this to express the love of God, which was how it was justified in the Family. David Berg stated that God wanted people to enjoy sex and that sex, unlike in other Christian groups, was not restricted to just inside of marriage. “Acceptance was by no means universal.” Membership was difficult to keep up despite the many births (no birth control allowed). Flirty fishing did not stay limited to ministering to outsiders; in some cases it descended into having sex for money so as to support the
David Berg was deemed a prophet and eventually the king on earth for God. He was seen as a father figure for members and a central part of the group. It was David Berg that introduced radical beliefs into the Family. The church in the 1970s faced two revelations that make dramatic changes to the group. Firstly Berg isolating himself from his own community and began writing letters, because he believed that God wanted him to distance himself. The letters became known as MO letters. MO stood for Moses. This name was a part of the religious symbolism for the Family. The other revelation was …show more content…
It was believed that men (because women were the ones encouraged to flirty fish) would be inspired by the love of the woman and be inspired to learn about the love of God. The flirty fisher was doing this to express the love of God, which was how it was justified in the Family. David Berg stated that God wanted people to enjoy sex and that sex, unlike in other Christian groups, was not restricted to just inside of marriage. “Acceptance was by no means universal.” Membership was difficult to keep up despite the many births (no birth control allowed). Flirty fishing did not stay limited to ministering to outsiders; in some cases it descended into having sex for money so as to support the