In his conclusion to “The Lustful Prophet,” Dr. Stephen Kent noted that while some aspects of Freudian psychology explain Berg, others do not. Most critically:

To Freudian psychohistorians, Berg is the ‘primal father’ (‘Dad’ to group members) who hoards the women of his ‘clan,’ often stealing them from his ‘sons.’ Unexpectedly, however, none of the younger "sons" kill him--a reality at odds with the classic primordial myth in which they commit patricide…. Here we see the first of several differences from Freudian themes that suggest the limited utility of classic psychoanalytic interpretations to this religious figure and his work. Berg survived, and seemingly thrived, in the open atmosphere of sexual noninhibition and antinomianism because of a practice that Freud had not considered possible: the primordial father gave his male underlings relatively equal access to a pool of women similar to his own. Under his edicts, these men acquired many more sexual opportunities with women than they ever could have had in regular society, since COG women were pressured against refusing the sexual advances of sexually desirous males.

Here we can see Berg wielding sex as a weapon not only against females, but against the males in his flock. By heightening their identities as a function of their sexual attractiveness and availability, Berg reduced women to the status of almost physical organisms meant only to do domestic chores, have sex and bear children. Their acceptance of this policy meant that they had no choice in the selection of sex partners. Any man could have any woman he wanted--provided leadership approved, and usually they did. Consequently, the men in the CoG at this time had little inclination towards jealousy, and less desire to leave the group, or challenge Berg’s authority within it.

Berg took great care to control the cult’s future by manipulating the children born in it, and (like River Phoenix) very young children whose parents had joined. The first step that made this possible consisted of splitting families apart, so that many children grew up virtually parentless, reared and cared for by a series of nannies who rotated from one colony to another at the discretion of leadership.

The next step involved schooling that served very little purpose in terms of education. In fact, the cult really didn’t want the next generation to have much more than an elementary school education--enough so that they could be useful to the cult, but not enough to make an appreciable living in the outside world. What formal schooling they actually got heavily leaned toward indoctrination to obey authority no matter what.

Figure 1. Child discipline tape



The above clip comes from an actual child discipline tape produced by the cult for instructional purposes. The theme of complete and unquestioned obedience is front and center, with the threat of punishment first and foremost. In one example, we see a teacher taking away privileges for a minor infraction, with the threat of more serious punishment if the individualistic behavior continued.

While the children later on refer to spankings, it’s unclear as to the harshness of this form of corporal punishment. After all, there’s some difference between a single half-hearted swat and a score of home-run swings. Berg freely discussed corporal punishment in the context of his own upbringing. The type of punishment Berg recalled receiving from his father seem excessively brutal--perhaps even sadistic. But unlike his mother’s punishments, which tended to the psychological and verbal, Berg had high praise for his father’s harshness, saying that it was really good for him.

Consequently, Berg expected his followers to exact corporal punishment. He also expected the children receiving to express their gratitude and joy at receiving it. Towards the end of the child discipline tape, we hear an interviewer ask some of the kids for their opinion on spankings. Knowing they were on videotape, what else could they do but declare it the best thing since unsliced bread. One exchange I found particularly chilling:

[Interviewer]: Do you think you get too much discipline here, sometimes?

[Seven-year old girl]: No, we just get as much as we need.

[Interviewer]: So you get enough, then?

[Girl]: Yes.

[Interviewer]: Do you like getting discipline?

[Girl]: (pauses) Well, sometimes it’s hard to understand, but then I think about it, and…I sorta… I like discipline, a little.

To any kid in the CoG, this message would be fairly clear: “You will do as we say, and like it. Otherwise, we will punish you. And you will like that.” Later in the interview:

[Interviewer]: If we do naughty things, and we get disciplined, then why do you think we still do naughty things, even if we know we‘re gonna get disciplined for it?

[Girl]: (immediately) ‘Cause we don’t have a fear of the Lord.

Given the degree to which David Berg and his agents conflated their own orders and authority with that of God and Christ, we can easily see that these children were to fear and obey the dictates of the leadership. Also, the quickness of this child’s reply gives me cause to believe that it was a programmed response, which she internalized well. Had she not, they wouldn’t have used her for the clip.

Berg took an active role in determining the cult’s policy on children. After all, one of the perks of promoting free sex and flirting fishing is that these activities produced children. The more children, the more the organization could expand and maintain viability in the future. In a number of family publications, Berg used his own household as a blueprint for how a family should run. His biological children long since grown up, his new family consisted of himself, his girlfriend/common-law wife Karen Zerby, Zerby’s daughter Christina Zerby (called ‘Techi’ by the cult), her son Ricky Rodriguez (called “Davidito”), and Davida Kelley, daughter of Berg lieutenants Alfred and Sara Kelley. Later, Merry Berg (called Mene) lived with them for a four-year stretch. Merry was Berg’s biological granddaughter, the offspring of his late son Paul and his ’betrothed’ Judy Helmstedler.* Christina’s father was Michael Sweeny (called Timothy Concerned), at the time Berg’s second-in-command. Ricky was produced as a result of flirty fishing, and from birth Berg groomed him to be his heir-apparent.

Berg started the Life with Grandpa comic book series, in which he explained to children various aspects of cult life. Each issue focused on either Davida, Davidito, Techi or Merry. Whereas these often stressed the themes of discipline and obedience present in other cult material meant for kids, they also introduced to them the cult’s sexual mores. In explaining flirty fishing and resultant families to the young, Berg wrote in one titled “Real Fathers” (GP, date unknown):

See, God just used Timothy and Carlos [Ricky’s father] only to fuck Mama [Zerby] so that I could have you both. They were both just an instrument or tool that Jesus used to help create you wonderful children for His Kingdom! Praise the Lord!

You read that right. The above was intended for children.

Christina and Ricky also played center stage in childrearing books for adults.** In these, the sexualization of both children is candidly on display. In one titled Techi’s Life Story, Christine, as a toddler, appears nude several times. Berg called further attention to her various states of undress writing a caption reading “A drape to cover her pubic area would have been better.” Later, she would videotape one of the cult’s notorious kiddie stripteases.  The Story of Davidito featured a number of photos ranging from suggestive to, well, softcore, where Rodriguez posed with a number of nannies, often in some stage of undress, or sharing some intimate moment with him.

Figure 2.  Rodriguez with nanny Angela Smith (née Susan Kauten) in The Story of Davidito

Heavily implied here was that the nanny or mother should include sexual play in the care giving of little boys--much as Maria the maid did to him, at that age. As for little girls, we can see them as sexualized very early as well. The difference here was that little boys were reared to expect sexual pleasure. The little girls were reared to give it.

Moreover, if mothers followed the "suggestions" put forth in The Story of Davidito, that would require having sex with their sons. Berg did not consider incest a taboo, as we can see from his relationship to his cousin, and his amorous feelings towards his mother. While Christina Zerby and Berg’s daughter Faith, both still attached to the cult, swore that their father never molested them, Merry, Ricky and Davida, and his daughter Linda Berg Davis--all of who left the cult--unequivocally stated that, like charity, sex in the Berg house began at home.

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*At the time of betrothal, Paul was still married to his first wife, Sarah. He died in France after falling off a cliff in 1973. Police ruled his death a suicide.

**These books were much like comic books, except that they mostly used photographs instead of drawings. In many of these photos, however, the cult superimposed drawings over the faces of the women engaged in sexual conduct with these children.  One could speculate that they deliberately did this to hide their identities from law enforcement, should this DO material reach outsiders.