I had planned to write a series on what conspiracy researcher Robert Sterling derisively calls “The Pediocracy” for quite some time, but delayed it for several years.  Frankly, I didn’t relish the thought of doing it. I don’t like the subject matter (as do most of you).  I don’t like researching it. And I certainly don’t like thinking about it (again, that would apply to most of you).

At the same time, I realized that I would have to post about the topic someday. I also felt that the best way to broach the subject would be to give twin examples of the issue from conflicting points of view. For that, the McMartin Preschool Trials in Los Angeles and the international investigations into the Children of God/Family of Love proved the most readily accessible foils. In many respects, the cases are quite similar. Yet, they demonstrate a huge disparity in terms of public reaction to the subject of pedophilia. On one extreme, you will find some who feel that charges of child sexual abuse reflect a lynch-mob mentality, a conservative Christian paranoia about shifts in personal power and autonomy which frets over any indication of egalitarianism. On the other extreme, you’ll find those who will tell you, “Believe the children,” as if everything said by them--no matter the conditions that prompted them to say it--has to be true, or that devil-worshipper's indeed lurk everywhere.

McMartin and CoG represent these extremes. Each featured a charge of systematic abuse and ties to power.  Authorities investigated and subsequently adjudicated both. Each narrative focused on a quasi-demonic figure who allegedly used gestures of goodwill and respected vocations (schoolteacher, minister) to exact sexual and/or physical violence upon the most vulnerable population within our society.  And in both instances, prosecutors failed to win convictions.

Most important, the dominant depiction of them in mainstream media is, for the most part, well-founded. Prosecutorial misconduct, as well as overzealousness on the part of investigators and experts with personal, financial and promotional axes to grind, probably led to a near miscarriage of justice in the McMartin case, and to probable injustices in similar proceedings that led to convictions. So one can understand the mainstream characterization of McMartin as a witch hunt. On the other hand, the Children of Love all but admitted (in Steven Kelley’s apology to Lord Justice Alan Ward) that abuse did take place. Couple that with David Berg’s teachings on sexuality, incest and pedophilia, and you can see that authorities had good reason to investigate them and file charges.  Moreover, one can understand why people remain suspicious about the FoL to the present day, despite the fact that their members have never been convicted of a serious crime.

The differences between these mainstream depictions (and subsequent public perceptions) partly lay in the nature and reliability of evidence in both cases. The McMartin evidence consisted of witness interviews (of previous students), an archeologist’s declaration of tunnels beneath the school, and a few personal items of the main defendant, Ray Buckey. Defense attorneys challenged the validity of all of this evidence, and with good reason. The witness interviews gave every indication of coercion by (arguably) well-meaning professionals of children who, after badgering by authoritative figures, kowtowed to the opinion of the adults around them. The claimed existence of tunnels was soundly disproved by a reputable archeology firm which conducted a more thorough, more methodologically scientific, and unbiased dig than the lone-archeologist-for-hire. The items taken from Buckey’s place--a graduation gown (supposedly for black ceremonies), a few pin-up photos (supposedly illustrating an unusual sex drive--for a twenty-five year-old male, no less) and a rubber duck (supposedly--well, I’ll leave that to your imagination)--were all taken contrary to context, and interwoven into a story of perversion that assumed a priori the guilt of the defendant.

The evidence against the CoG consisted of eyewitness testimony, the cult’s own print and electronic media, and the observations of various social services agencies doing routine (and later extraordinary) investigations. Whereas the McMartin pupils gave coerced testimony as children malleable to adult influences, the FoL kids voluntarily told their stories, for the most part as adults. Their accounts show a remarkable consistency with no good evidence of collusion. Local, state, and national authorities noted the conditions in which the children lived (e.g., overcrowding and inadequate education), and documented these in situ. Most important, the cult’s own literature demonstrated its approval of (1) prostitution; (2) the indoctrination of minors into prostitution (e.g., “The Little Flirty Fish”); (3) its expectation of sexual capitulation, especially from females, and regardless of circumstance;* (4) the hypersexualization of children (e.g., The Story of Davidito);** and (5) incest (e.g., “Sex with Grandma”). From the filmed exploits of flirty fish, to the nude dancing, masturbation and sex-confessional videos that members sent Berg for his enjoyment, we can see that the cult had a profound belief in combining sexuality with religious practice. That children took part in making said videos demonstrated (a) concrete evidence of sexual activity among pre-teens, and (b) that the cult’s sexual mores extended to their children--at least during a limited period of time, if we believe the FoL’s current vehement protestations.

While logic formed some basis for public acceptance of mainstream accounts, other, more visceral aspects supported them. Because of widespread reliance on day care, parents could very well have felt neglectful for leaving their children with someone who isn’t part of their family, especially if that places them at risk for sexual abuse. The blanket depiction of organized sexual abuse charges as hysteria could go a long way in allaying anxiety over day care, especially when accompanied by statistical evidence that sexual abuse is less likely to happen there than in the homes of friends and family. Moreover (let’s face it), some of the people who served as the face of the anti-satanic group weren’t the most popular, or mediagenic folks around (e.g. Kee MacFarlane, Judy Johnson).  Many people found them easy to demonize, spoof, or otherwise dislike.

By the same token, the CoG story affirms long-standing prejudices against New Religious Movements (NRMs), simply for being different, or for not believing what the mainstream does.*** The public thus saw David Berg and the Children of God in the same context as Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Marshall Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate, or other coercive cults that either killed or seriously harmed its members.  By implication, this tarnishes the reputations of newer sects that don't use coercive mind-control methods. 

Of course, there’s a validity to linking the CoG to all of those nefarious groups. The similarities are obvious. And Family’s actions speak for themselves. The point here is that part of our understanding of these cults, even when accurate, comes from emotive reasoning, over-reliance upon which usually leads us astray.

Which leads us back to McMartin. Its most profound legacy consists of a thorough and passionate “debunking” of what Dr. Lawrence Pazder called ‘Satanic Ritual Abuse’ (SRA). True, the evidence of McMartin points away from any systematic, religious-based child abuse at the school, and more towards the uncoordinated, non-conspiratorial and sporadic abuse of far fewer children in other settings.  That’s just one case, however. It would constitute a tremendous fallacy to assume that because SRA didn’t happen at McMartin--or even at the other schools where authorities engaged in similar investigations and prosecutions--that it didn’t happen elsewhere.

And the Children of God gives us ample evidence that something very close to SRA actually occurred. In short, the CoG manifest, in real life, almost everything that Ray Buckey and his associates were accused of at McMartin. 

Adults within the CoG sexually abused children. Moreover, this abuse was widespread and persistent. The indoctrination of children into sexual activity (through various Mo Letters, and the realization of their instruction by colony leaders, parents and guardians), was documented by eyewitness accounts and the cult’s own literature (which they then tried to get rid of during the so-called ‘Pub Purges’).

Whereas the kids at McMartin sang a song titled “Naked Movie Star,” some of the CoG kids, including Berg’s granddaughter, Merry, actually played the game--and we have the videotaped evidence (featured in Noah Thompson’s HBO documentary) to prove it.

McMartin accusers alleged a cover-up because of the perpetrator's supposed connection to very powerful people. The CoG, on the other hand, documented its own attempts to connect with power through Flirty Fishing.  They met with some stipulated successes, (e.g., Duke Victor Emanuele Canevaro, President Bush, Sr.), alleged successes (e.g., Augosto Pinochet), and some successes we can only guess at.

While the McMartin accusers alleged that the kids were constantly flown back and forth to meet with the demands of supposed organizers, Community Services Victoria and other social service agencies initially suspected wrongdoing because the CoG kids really were transient, constantly flown from one country to another, without the supervision of one or perhaps both parents.

And while the McMartin accusers averred that the kids were either tortured or threatened with torture should they “spill the beans,” the CoG made videotapes boasting of their use of “punishment.”  Said videos also showed how “grateful” the kids were to receive it. Lord Justice Ward found that this “discipline” went much farther than the normal spanking, and bordering on physical abuse. And as Natalie Raynes stated in her Cosmo article, the punishments at the ‘Victor Camps’ was far more intense--mind you she was sent there because she had misgivings about submitting to adult groping.

Because the CoG/FoL's child abuse resulted in large part from Berg’s doctrine, it had a ritualistic component to it. I think one can fairly classify these actions as ritualized abuse.

Of course, with their self-righteous-holier-than-thou-wearing-their-piety-on-their-sleeve-like-a-pharasee-fundamentalist form of Christianity, one can hardly see the CoG as practicing Satanic Ritual Abuse.****

Perhaps the term ‘Christian Ritual Abuse’ would be more in order?

Then again, would there be much difference between CRA, and SRA? If so, which would be worse?

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*Berg’s dictates regarding the sexual submission of women are not only evident in eyewitness testimony given by former members, but also in such Mo Letters as the previously cited “IRFERS Beware,” where he chastised a female member for not submitting to a brutal rape, and in “The Girl Who Wouldn’t!” (DO, dated 17 June 1978), where he berated a heterosexual female member for not submitting completely to the woman whom leadership assigned her to please.

**The Story of Davidito, as described by Lord Justice Ward, was nearly 800 pages, many of which he found to be quasi-pornographic. Those posted here, and on the site XFamily.org are but a small sample.

***In this series and in previous ones, I have used the term ‘cult’ to describe a coercive organization, based around religion or ideology, and totally reliant upon heavy indoctrination of new members. I use the term “NRM’s” to distinguish between cults and new sects that do not resort to violence, threats, blackmail, or brainwashing to keep their flocks in line, and are otherwise legitimate.

****The Argentinian and Australian investigations turned up rumors that Berg and others within the CoG were, at least at one time, practicing a form of occultism that bordered on satanic. I didn’t mention the rumors earlier, because I don’t think they are true, and they’re somewhat distracting. But if the rumors were true, then you’d have an actual case of SRA.

To read this series from the beginning, click here and scroll down.