In her answer designed to clarify the issues in this case, the defendant pleaded that The Family had never encouraged sexual activity between adults and children; that the sentiments expressed in "My Little Fish", though unacceptable, were written by Sara before the establishment of The Family and that it did not represent Family policy, which is to excommunicate any member guilty of sexual abuse of a child. On attempt being made further to clarify this, the following admissions were formally made at a hearing for directions:-
"For the purposes of the Wardship proceedings regarding S, the senior leadership of The Family acknowledges and admits that:-
a) Father David taught, and it was and is generally accepted in The Family, that sex and sexual activity as God prescribed is a natural God-given aspect of creation and human make-up.
b) Notwithstanding the existence of a large number of Family members who would never have tolerated any inappropriate sexual contact between adults and minors, prior to 1986 - there was within The Family an over-simplistic and naive attitude concerning the sexuality of developmentally and emotionally immature children
c)that there were some instances of children having sexually inappropriate contact with adults and being exposed to inappropriate adult sexuality."
2. The Family denies that:
a) Such behaviour was ever institutionalised or
b) Was Family policy or
c) Was representative of the norm within The Family homes
3. It is denied that such inappropriate conduct was either widespread, encouraged or endemic.
4. In or about 1986 evidence came to the attention of the senior leadership that there had been instances of inappropriate sexual conduct between adults and teenagers, and the leadership took immediate action to prevent any further abuse by clearly stating that The Family did not agree with such behaviour and that it was not permitted."
This had the early assertion that, "All things are lawful unto us" and the message was that any act done in love was lawful as far as God was concerned. Berg asked whether masturbation was not one of the prohibited sexual offences and referred to his mother slapping their poor little Mexican maid out of the house when Berg was only 3 years old when his mother caught the maid putting him to sleep "in this pleasant fashion" (by oral masturbation) "a common practice among many other more primitive cultures." He recounted his earlier attempts at sexual intercourse at the age of 7 as I have already set out. He then learnt that the Bible apparently had absolutely nothing to say about masturbation and evidently nothing against it except the unusual admonition "to be temperate in all things." He went on to state that children should be taught that their body was a beautiful creation of God and that sex was not sinful. The revolutionary message of the letter was "go ahead and masturbate and/or fuck with all your might and thank God for it." It was a letter clearly designed to break down acknowledged taboos. It was the beginning of the process of sexualizing children.
This showed a drawing of Berg in a bed in church, Maria on one side and a little girl on the other, her hand on his penis. In the text of the letter he wrote:-
"This beautiful dark haired little girl of about 10 or 11 came and crawled in bed with me! She lay half on top of me although on her back and she laid her hand behind right down on top of my genitals and across my right leg.... I thought to myself, "Well, how tempting can you get!" She looked like she really wanted me to make love to her but I certainly didn't want to do it in front of all these people especially since she was so young.....I was very concerned about what they would think. It was bad enough for her to be in bed with me all naked, all of us naked under the cover without actually going at it!....Here's this young girl who wants my love, but I was afraid to give it to her because of what people, systemite church people obviously, might say. That is, of course, our greatest risk here, incurring the wrath of the church and the system in loving this new little church that is springing up with such fervour and zeal and witnessing ardour, that is so very much on fire for the Lord through our FF witnessing here (Tenerife). How are we winning this new little church? We are winning it with our love both spiritually and sexually so that is very significant...It was almost like she was deliberately trying to get me to make love to her so that she could bear fruit, which certainly this young church is doing here right now."
Even if this is an allegory for his new church, the illustration is horridly explicit. The message could, therefore, just as easily be understood to be that just as it was permissible for the young church of the Children of God to defy the conventions of the established churches, so that it was permissible for a young child to have some sexual contact in bed with an old man.
He reminded his readers about his Mexican baby sitter when he was 3 and he said:-
"I think I was in love with that little Mexican girl, she was wonderful, she really made me happy! She used to suck me to sleep for my nap every afternoon. I loved it! But my mother began to get curious....I wasn't any little angel, I was just waiting to get sucked! I had orgasms and really enjoyed it. I always got nice and relaxed and went to sleep right after. So I got started liking sex at an early age. But my mother was not very progressive....I don't know what was naughty about it. I enjoyed it! It worked! Look at me, I don't think it did me any harm! Of course if you'd ask any of my enemies, they'd say, "Ah Ha, see! that's what made him such a sex maniac!"...It just stands to reason that if it feels good at that age, then the Lord intended for kids to get used to feeling good with sex. If they can even have an orgasm at that age, he intended for them to be able to have an orgasm and enjoy it! Why not? What's evil about an orgasm?"
This revolutionary policy statement must have caused some stir when it was published and re-published 14 months later in August 1978. Berg's daughter, Faithy, wrote her reaction to it in these terms:-
"Childhood Sex: I like it! It reminded me of how you used to put me to sleep when I was a little girl, 3 or 4. Wow! Daddy did it best! Back rubbin' that is, and front rubbin' too!...Daddy just made me feel good all over and I didn't know why, but it would really put me to sleep with a sigh! Praise the Lord! I don't think it perverted me, none at all, but it sure converted me to his call! So I believe our parents should try it and help our kids to get the natural habit! We pray it'll work, then junior won't be a sexual jerk! It worked for me as you can see, I just do what comes naturally! Oh I could write a book, but this is just a look into my childhood sex!"
(My emphasis yet again to point out (1) that Family literature for which the leadership is entirely responsible here exhorts The Family to try "front rubbin', which can only mean masturbation, and (2) that the example they are urged to follow is that of their beloved leader touching his 3 or 4 year old daughter in a way ordinary good parents know they find utterly repellent. What should it tell them about David Berg? What responsibility does this now cast on Maria and Peter Amsterdam to "pow-wow" these questions?
At the same date as Childhood Sex, The Family published "Uncircumcision". In what might have been a helpful discussion on the subject of whether or not to circumcise boys, Berg could resist adding sexual comment such as his advice to the men to wash their penis "if you want the girls to play with it, especially if you want them to suck it!"
He gave this advice for dealing with young children:
"Try putting a little baby oil or vaseline on it to lubricate it real good before pulling the foreskin down. The mucus of your mouth is a good lubricant too! And he'll love it!....It's so much better to gradually stretch it by slowly working it down by hand in love and patience - and lots of fun...knowing my mother's attitude towards sex, I don't presume that appealed to her much, but I began to enjoy the treatment as it loosened up! Hallelujah!"
This was first printed in a series of letters from about 1975 to 1981 and then reprinted in 1982. In the letter "The Advantages of Having Children" May 1978, Berg explained how when Maria became pregnant, they discovered there was no childcare ministry and so they obtained whatever literature they needed and decided they did not like it "because it was not the way we believed in rearing kids!" It seems that Davidito had started the childcare revolution. Berg wrote:-
"You can throw a lot of that old stuff out! We're writing a whole new childcare series called The Davidito Series. Maria was wondering why she had to get pregnant and have a baby. She couldn't see any good reason for it at all, but look what happened! God knew why! Amen? PLT! Davidito was to become an example to the world and inspire" lots of childcare material! Thank God!"
Berg was, in my judgment, quite clear giving his approval to whatever was being written and he was assuming responsibility for it. It is naive of The Family to seek to distance the leadership from this book and cast the sole blame upon Sara. In their original answer filed in this case, that is exactly what they sought to do.
The book contained these passages:-
a) Learning fun at 20 months, October '76.
"Sex! he gets quite excited when I wash his bottom and his penie gets real big and hard. I kiss it all over till he gets so excited he bursts into laughter and spreads his legs open for more. I wonder what it's going to be like when he begins to talk and asks me for more? When playing on the floor he's often times spread his legs open for me to kiss his penis (what we call his penie). He got to where he liked it so much he'd pull people by the hand down onto the floor and would spread his legs apart for "the treatment" so we had to explain to him that there are a lot more important things in life than just sex, and for a time and place for everything!" (I note that this chapter appeared at the same time as "Little Girl Dream.")
b) At the age of 2 years and 3 months Davidito is taken to a brothel and in the early hours one of the girls "gave a special little show for Davidito with her gyrations and heavy breathing, running her hands over her body, really turning everybody on".
c) In Bed Bugs, May 1977 with Davidito 2 years 4 months. Sara wrote:-
"Sex! Now if I share with you some of Davidito's sexy experiences, will you try prayerfully and cautiously to benefit from the lessons learned and follow the Lord's leadings in possibly sharing the same kind of gentle love and fun, without stumbling our little sheep? Sex is a beautiful God-given wonderful part of life we enjoy together and we would love to share it with you as long as you don't use it as "an occasion to the flesh" and in some way that could actually harm or confuse the children. It is often times the little ones who suffer through our big people mistakes." (In other words, provided you do it in love, the child will not suffer harm or confusion - a thesis that Dr. Heller, NT's own expert, roundly deprecates.) "So we'll attempt to share a few of our experiences with you, not so that you will try to do exactly what we do," ( then why on earth tell them this sordid little encounter? ) "but because it's part of little David's life story, praise the Lord. On 28th April after nap time Alfred, Davidito and I were all three loving up, when Dito looked at me with those big dreamy canary black eyes and said, "Sarah I yub you". He pulled me down to kiss him, then pushed my head down to kiss some more! It all developed so gently and lovingly that he was really affectionate, eyes closed, so guess what happened? For a bouncing climax (ha), he spoke out in excited foreign tongues! He sounded so very happy....afterwards he lay still in my arms to rest....now often when we lay on the bed together....he'll put his arm around me and say, "Sarah, love me up big".
That letter cannot be interpreted otherwise than Sara kissing the boys penis and the boy later simulating sexual intercourse with her as is shown in one of the pictures. To that Berg added this comment, again an indication of his participation in the writing of this book and his approval of it:
"God made children able to enjoy sex so he must have expected them to. I did! All my life! Thank God! I love it! And it didn't hurt me any! Nearly all kids to anyhow despite prohibitions! And the only reason the system frowns on it is that the churches have taught sex as evil! Which is contrary to the Bible! How could God have created sexual enjoyment to be a sin? The system is really screwed up! God help us! They're the ones not normal! But let not your good be evil spoken of! So take it easy!"
(d) At 2 yrs 7 months Sara wrote:-
"Dito and I loved up together after our bath! Ha! What a revolutionary life we do lead!".
The photograph below that passage showed the two of them naked on the bed with Sara fondling the boys penis.
(e) There were some words of caution. In December 1977:-
"And please remember dear Family, that we do not share Davidito's own experiences or lessons with you expecting you to always do the very same thing with your own children. Dad and Maria are hoping to prepare themselves for a very special God appointed mission in life. He is a royal prince...he has matured and grown very fast, much like Dad himself, always ahead of us, who his followers learn from as an example. Of course all our Family children are very special and we have an extremely important mission to fulfil in these latter days we do hope you can apply what lessons you may have learnt from this story in their disciple training. What a wonderful opportunity and blessing that we can all take part in helping to teach God's little children who are so chosen in new fresh vessels the way the truth and the life of Jesus Christ and our shepherd and king David."
As I read that it is more encouraging than discouraging.
(f) In August 1979 the now notorious "My Little Fish" chapter was published. There were citations from Revolutionary Sex and accompanying photographs. They showed, for example, Davidito kissing Sara's breasts and squeezing her nipples, they showed them together naked in bed hugging each other under the caption "Enjoy yourself in what God has given you to enjoy" and in another photograph under a caption "When two shall lie together they shall have heat." The original also had the photograph of Sara sucking the boy's penis above a caption "It's a wonderful relaxation, a satisfaction created by the Lord". At the time it was published, My Childhood Sex, itself published four months earlier, might have been fresh in everyone's mind. That it was outrageously inappropriate seems to be conceded silently by that omission of that photograph when the book was published in 1982.
(g) In March 1978 at aged 3 years 2 months Davidito wandered around watching the copulating couples at the "come-union":
"So next he wanted his turn and as soon as I got into bed he jumped on me and said "Sarah love me". He specifically asked for several swigs of wine, got happy real quick so we really had a good time! Alf, Tim and Mommy were outside the door listening to him. "Sara now kiss it!" and then he began to laugh and laugh. "Oh it flopped in your nose!"...he kept asking for more and more love....We were all really surprised that he took everything so well, since he didn't have a playmate too and is usually very jealous about "sharing" but he waited his turn and was a real good boy."
(h) In April 1978 at 3 years 3 months Sara wrote:
"Sex - (do you find yourself looking for this part to read first? Ha!) Several times while I was gone to Egypt, David mentioned he'd wished I'd hurry home to bed. The day upon my return we had a nice picnic lunch with Alf right by the riverside near our house. David wanted to bring a blanket and a scented candle so that we could make love, but there were too many people around so we didn't quite get to the climax, Ha. But it was a real cute idea. He's so precious! One night when Alf and the cook were kissing and cuddling in the living room on the living room couch, David came into the bedroom and offered me a glass of wine then suggested that we go together into the living room to be with Alf. We sat down and he said, "Have some apply juice," because he's only a little boy and once served then we began to love up too. We got undressed and he got real affectionate, trying to do just what Alf did."
What can this be other than that this 3 year old boy was participating in sexual shenanigans with his nanny?
The book ended with a cartoon of Berg holding Davidito and saying, "Davidito do you know what you're doing? You're teaching the whole world how to take care of babies!"
The leadership must have known and intended that this book be acted upon by The Family. In July 1978 they published in Family News a letter from one of the members who wrote with reference to her new child that she wondered now how these letters were going to become a reality in his life. Had she not been perverted by them?
This letter was not produced by he Family despite it being called for. Dr Melton had to make it available. It contained these passages:-
(a) "Of course the worst of all sexual sins is with children. "How could you besmirch and defile and violate your own child? An under-aged minor!". I don't know what the hell age has got to do with it when God made'm able to enjoy it practically from time they are born! But though God didn't want them as under-age to have sexual feelings and sexual responses and sexual nerves and sexual organs from the time they are born, the system prohibits them from having them until they are 18-21 years of age....I mean to teach sexual freedom and sexual liberty as downright dangerous! Look at how the newspapers of Britain have reacted to some of our simple little instructions about how to get the foreskin of your little boy down so that you can wash him! They call that child sex...and I'll tell you it's dangerous because the system sure hates it, and the system's laws and everything are geared against sexual activity of all kinds and types, particularly having anything to do with children! Who don't even have to be a child, just a minor...there's nothing in the world at all wrong with sex as long as its practised in love, whatever it is, or whoever its with, no matter who, or at what age or what relative or in what manner," (I have added the emphasis)" and you don't hardly dare even say these words in private. If the law ever got a hold of this, they'd try to string me up! They'd probably lynch me before I got to the jail."
It is impossible to read that without being certain that Berg had well in mind that his advocating sex with someone at no matter what age, was to advocate sex with children and he rightly appreciated the condemnation that would be heaped upon him when his views became known outside The Family.
He went on :-
"I'm talking about natural normal Godly love as manifested in sex, as far as I am concerned for whomever! There are no relationship restrictions or age limitations in his law of love. But the system and laws make it all against the law...The system really stinks. It is.... fiendish propaganda against the laws of God and the love of God and the sex of God." (Again my emphasis)
It must have been known to the leadership how the Law of Love was being applied within The Family for he wrote:-
"We are free in our hearts now, we are free in privacy, and that's about all and we mightn't be free if they discovered what we do in private."
Other pieces of evidence of the leadership's knowledge emerge from some of the papers before me.
a) Some time in about 1980 Shuly wrote to World Services. In the letter "Growing Up in the Lord" she referred to her fears of growing up. She wrote:
"I had seen quite a few examples of 'lust', not 'love' like in your letters, so that just about rooted my fear. For 5 long years I had the trial that I'd have to start "sharing" as soon as I was old enough and the devil painted me pictures of horrible hairy guys making a line at the door."
She asked:
"Do you think other teenage girls are going through the trials I was about sharing? It would be interesting to know".
She was just 16.
In another letter, "Sex should be fun", she wrote about being
"sad and upset when I read what another teenage girl said about "going thru it" in the area of sexual sharing. It really struck me, because more kids in the family are becoming teenagers and it would be a shame if they had to "go thru it" too. Here's part of a letter I received from a 13 year old girl, a friend of mine, in The Family:
"Well I went thru it at first because it was kind of hard relating to older brothers at about 30 years old when I had just turned 13. And when I started maturing and started to look beautiful the guys they would go around pinching and slapping my butt, squeezing my tits etc., and for me this was a real turn off. It's sort of different when you "share" with someone your own age, you're just having fun and it's easier to relate to each other and open up but with someone twice your age you feel funny with them and you take it more seriously. And sometimes when my parents shared or fell in love with someone, I felt like I was deserted and left along with the kids and this really turned me off sharing and sex. So they thought I wasn't quite as "free" as they were, so they decided to break my hang ups".
Shuly then described her affair with Berg's grandson when she was 13. She wrote:-
"Although I am 16 I still don't feel mature enough to have anything to do with a grown man. Maybe it's hard for you to understand but sometimes a grown man can overpower a young girl and dominate her. Having a relationship with Junior cured me of the loathing of sex and a terror of older men due to the effect of an unwise older brother in our home....I think Child Brides is a wonderful letter because some (not all) teenagers really need to have fun with someone their own age group first....Many guys think that just because a young girl had an "experience" that she is "available". If a girl goes thru' it as far as sex it's probably because she's being pressured into it, not wanting to appear to be A Girl Who Wouldn't but she just isn't ready for any experience with older brethren or the particular ones in question. Although I've had an experience I would go through trials if I was pressured into sharing with an older guy...I think it's a shame to have to go through trials when sex should be something beautiful. I write because a sad experience could put some people off the wonderful love shared in the family. May God bless and keep you Dad. Your daughter in Jesus. Shuly."
To that Berg replied:
"Praise the Lord! God bless you! Amen! We heartily agree! And real love lasts!"
That was an opportunity for Berg to appreciate that young teenagers, as young as 13, were being forced to have sexual relations with older men. It was the opportunity for him to stamp out that practice had he deprecated it. He did not take that opportunity. By his silence he condoned it. His sanctimonious agreement was a reassertion of the principal that if it was done in love it was permissible. He totally failed to take on board that this young girl was pointing out the imbalance of power and the pressure older men by virtue of age alone exerted upon children. He was prescient enough to have recognised in the Law of Love that the freedom was capable of being abused. Here was the evidence that it was being abused. He did nothing to control it. This was a lamentable failure to stamp out the wrong doing which he had instigated. His failure to act was indefensible.
(b) On the same page as that letter was another dealing with the sexual activity of Reuben aged 6 and another child Jonas both having their little lovers among other little sisters who sometimes visited them. It referred to 3 year old Emanual who "loves Mommy up", an activity described as "so sweet".
(c) In the "Blessings of Older Children", a couple wrote that their 9 year old son "was so in love with one sister and really went through trials when he knew a particular older brother was sleeping with her."
(d) In about 1981 a video was made for Berg and it showed a man Appeles and his wife Sally and his young son J1. Sally referred to sharing with J1 and H1, Berg's grandson. Both boys were aged about 10.
e) In April 1983 a television programme "TV Eye" was broadcast and Dennis Tuohy extracted allegations of a 3 year old girl having oral sex with her step father and a man having sexual relations with his 9 year old daughter. A Mr Geoff Whitcher, then a member of The Family, took part in that programme. I find it incredible to believe it was not reported back to World Service. Although this aspect was not investigated, there must be every likelihood that the matter of child sex was already a matter of public concern. The Family could not have been unaware of it. Whether they were or not, there is abundant evidence from The Family's own records to satisfy me that the leadership were aware of the problem well before the disclosure was made to the Teen Training Camp in Mexico in 1986. To assert that that was the first knowledge that came to the attention of the senior leadership and that the senior leadership "took immediate action to prevent any further abuse" is disingenuous.
f. In 1985 Berg was still fuelling these flames. In a chapter of "Heaven's Children", Grandpa went down to Earth. The story involved Berg making love to teenaged Techi. The drawing shows him in bed with Maria on one side and Techi on the other. There can be no artistic, literary or theological justification for such dangerously irresponsible material which could only tend to inflame and could never defuse improper passions. He returned to that refrain later in Heaven's Girl published in April 1987 and possibly published in chapter form earlier than that. This allegorical tale concerned Marie, pictorially a mixture of Techi and MB and among her many exploits, one is a fairly crude and explicit multiple rape of the girl by brutal soldiers. Another is a description of Marie "beginning to undulate and pulsate in beautiful sexual rhythm as she loves and makes love to her loving prophet, Dad". This book is standard reading for the children in the family but one has to doubt whether the English Literature class could ever have learnt anything - except perhaps to hone their skills in literary criticism - from passages on Marie's "explosive and ecstatic moment of a powerful orgasm, her cries of ecstasy and moans of pleasure" or her "heavily panting gorgeous young body settling down in sheer ecstasy and utmost satisfaction having thoroughly enjoyed her thrilling love-making encounter with her beloved David" . By any standards it is nauseating material to place before young children.