The Judgment of Lord Justice Ward INCEST

INCEST

The Literature

In "The Devil Hates Sex" May 1980 Maria asks, "Well, what about incest? That's a big big question in The Family right now." Little evidence has been disclosed to me of The Family's concerns about incest and I do not know why it had become such a big question. There was a letter from Seek and Secundus published in Family News in about 1981 where they asked how much flesh brothers and sisters can share when they are older. That could only be an example, one presumably of many, of the questions then being raised with W. S. by the ordinary members. I can also only assume that if there was a debate, it was a debate which had a foundation of fact to justify the differences of practice under discussion.

Berg's response was that the subject of incest was so dangerous that he hardly even dared talk about it in the privacy of their bedroom because "the system practically goes berserk when you talk about incest". Maria replied:

"We'll just have to tell the kids that it's not prohibited by God but you'd better watch out because its dangerous".

In Berg's view:-

"There is nothing in the world at all wrong with sex as long as it's practised in love, whatever it is, or whoever it's with, no matter who or what age or what relative" "or what manner and you don't even dare say these words in private. If the law ever got a hold of this, they would try to string me up, they'd probably lynch me before I got to jail...There are NO RELATIONSHIP RESTRICTIONS or age limitations in his law of love. But system law has made it all against the law, and if I'd tell you what I think I'd probably break the law publishing it." (My emphasis.)

As I read those passages there is nothing which makes incest inconsistent with the Law of Love. Maria irresponsibly proffered the advice:-

"At least not let'em find out if you do it".

In November 1982 Berg wrote "Sex with Grandma". He described how at the age of 19 or 20 he had perforce to share a bed with his middle-aged mother. It was cold and in the middle of the night she snuggled up to him "real right". He wrote:-

"And perhaps if I had not been so conservative and extremely narrow -minded in my theology and religion at that time and so absolutely frightened by my mother's seeming abandon at the moment, I might have reacted a little more responsively and perhaps have satisfied both of us and our mutual tremendous sexual needs, and it could have developed into a beautiful sexual relationship".

He then recounted a dream he had of falling into the garden of love and there making love to his mother. He described waking up and making love to Maria who became his mother at the moment of orgasm. It was an extraordinary document to publish and it was mischievous to do so.

In "Heaven's Children" there was another extraordinary passage of Techi, Maria's daughter, dreaming of "her Grandpa lover". He wrote:-

"Of course as there are no longer any such things as man's legalistic laws against incest in this loving kingdom of God, everyone loves everyone and is completely free in his/her encompassing love. So I make wonderful sweet precious love to my now beautiful teenage Techi...afterwards they (Techi and Maria) both awake excitedly...to discover that both of them...dreamt they had made love with me right here in the bed together."

This passage is one which is used as an example of attacking The Family and in the document "Contending for the Faith" The Family's response is given to it. I regret that once again I see no justification for the publication of this story and again I am driven to conclude that it was irresponsible to permit it to appear at all and reprehensible to include it in material which it was known would be placed before children.

The oral evidence

MB gave evidence of her relationship with her grandfather. Her evidence is plainly of importance. She is a disaffected former member. Her aunt Deborah (Berg's daughter), has led a campaign whose object is that The Family be destroyed. MB has been subjected to the influence of Deborah. She is in close contact with all those intent on The Family's downfall. Her evidence, more than anyone's, had to be subjected to the most careful scrutiny. She is moreover a young woman with an uncertain psychiatric history. I shall set out in detail how her health broke when she was in The Family, when, beyond question, she suffered psychotic episodes. She had treatment in the United States after her repatriation there. I have no medical reports giving me any accurate picture of her mental condition. I had no help in judging whether or not her undoubted breakdown had impaired her ability to remember the events taking place before and even during these psychotic episodes. I asked Dr Cameron for his opinion. He told me that in the light of MB's pre-morbid personality which all described as conscientious, dutiful and good, she can be relied on to give an accurate account of what had happened. I shall treat that opinion cautiously. It does not justify my immediate acceptance of what she said but there is no evidence that her illness makes her unreliable. It remains for me to judge whether he hostility undermines her credibility. I became more and more convinced by her evidence the longer she gave it. She did not seem to me to paint the picture blacker than it was. She said at one point that she only wished to say what was necessary and there were several instances where it would have been perfectly possible for her to gild the lily had that been her purpose. By way of one example, she spoke of her time in the Philippines and of Simon Peter's involvement with the young. She said that she and her friend A1 had been taking a nap and when she awoke, A1 told her that Simon Peter had had sex with her. She said she did not see it and when offered the opportunity to say that he had misconducted himself with her, she unhesitatingly said that he had not. I had to consider the extent to which she was prone to exaggeration. I had listened aghast to her account of her exorcism and I began to think it could not possibly all be true. Much later in the case I read The Family's own account, which appeared to be a transcript of a tape recording of the events as they happened and that showed that MB had been moderate in her complaint of the indignities heaped upon her. It was suggested to her that because she had been billed for stardom within The Family as the leader's granddaughter and had so enjoyed the spotlight of adulation during her time with Music with Meaning, she now could not survive without being the centre of attention and so in order to appear on television "Chat Shows", she needed to say more and more outrageous and untrue things. I totally reject that criticism of her. That is not at all how she struck me. Because I believe her, I find that Berg and Maria came down to her bedroom and whilst Maria and Sarah were talking, Berg got into her bed in their presence and fondled her. This happened on a number of occasions. She was called to his quarters. He was invariably impotent and they did not have sexual intercourse though he once tried to penetrate her, so there is no evidence of incest strictly defined. He did rupture her hymen with his finger. They had oral sex. That was oral sex by him on her, not so far as she could recollect by her on him. At one point they went through a mock celebration of marriage. Maria was fully aware of what was happening.

There is some very slight corroboration for what she says. In the letter "The Last State" Berg berated her in these terms:-

"What have you against me? What have I ever done to you but shower attention on you, even favour you, even tried to be good to you, help you, let you live in our home for 3 years, support you, lavish every kind of good and love on you that we possibly could, invited you into our own quarters right here to live right next door to us and to sleep with my children and into our own bedroom and into our own bed."

There were other strange pieces of evidence, though I do not need them to complete the jigsaw. In "The Dangers of Demonism" the complaint is that MB:

"considered herself to actually be Heaven's Girl, thinking herself to be so perfect, wonderful and spiritual, and would go out and criticise Dad and Mama thinking she, MB, would be the new teen Maria."

It was also written:

"She began to believe that Grandpa loved her more than anyone else, even more than Mama. She confessed to thinking she should take Mama's place because she considered herself to be Heaven's Girl."

Although it is far fetched, I bear in mind the curious tale of the Heaven's Girl's sexual encounter with Grandpa.

One of the matters about which The Family are particularly sensitive, so sensitive in fact that in the document "Contending for the Faith" they school the members in how to deal with this matter, is the question of Berg's sexual relationship with his own daughter. It seems to me that Berg stands condemned of this by Faithy's published reaction to "Childhood Sex" and her reference to "front rubbin" which made her feel good all over and which she did not think perverted her at all. It is a clear admission of masturbation by father on daughter.

I am not alone in concluding that sexual abuse took place in David Berg's household. The Family's own expert Dr Millikan is of the same opinion.

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