I am mightily relieved to have been spared the reams of paper and days of evidence that it seemed at one time might be inflicted upon me to resolve questions of brainwashing and mind control. These terms seemed more likely to carry emotive weight than scientific backing. The anti-cult movement may believe it. I am most unlikely to have been helped by it at all. The fact is that most of those within The Family remain there because of their faith in what it offers. For most it is blind faith. Some remain within The Family because, having almost become institutionalised, they cannot find either the strength and courage or the will to break away. For the young there are, as I have already found, pressures brought to bear upon them through the traumatic testimonies and more subtly, to fear the unknown and to prefer the devil they know. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that NT - or CT for that matter - were put under any improper pressure to join the family. Far from it. They went into it voluntarily and happily. The letters written by NT are eloquent of that new found happiness through "finding" Jesus. She had undergone a remarkable change but it is no more than one would expect from the cataclysmic religious conversion which she and many others have experienced. Being "reborn" is a phenomenon which happens to some members of established churches. It does not only affect those at the loony extremes of Christianity.
He is a Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies at the University of Nevada. He seems to have become interested in the Children of God in the mid 1970's. He worked with Rex Davis, the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, who had himself become interested in this group through their affiliation with the World Council of Churches. They wrote a paper together in 1976. They predicted that the Children of God would change just as all social movement groups changed and for broadly two reasons. Firstly a negative reaction to a new religious group was predictable leading the group to adopt a defensive attitude to the perceived attacks from the state, traditional religions and especially the anti-cult movement. Secondly internally, as the group developed and children were born into it, the group necessarily became more "domesticated". This led to the group being "deformed" from what they had set out to be and do. No longer could they expect all members to spend their time and energy evangelising in far-away lands. Some members had to take care of their families and ways to support this diverse membership had to be found. These authors did not, however, predict that the major change would be the development of the Flirty Fishing Ministry! Prof. Richardson finds this group interesting because of the blending of their acceptance of fundamentalist religious beliefs with "a strong experiential orientation" manifested by their "openness towards sexuality". He is of the opinion that The Family has evolved into a relatively stable pattern of managing sexuality in a manner much more in keeping with the values of ordinary society. He does not flinch from expressing the opinion that children were exposed to sexual experiences to a greater extent within The Family than outside it. He does not shrink from asserting his opinion that some child sexual abuse occurred within Berg's own household. He has spoken to Peter Amsterdam who accepted that open sexual activity in the presence of the children and adult teenage sex did take place and was "a mistake". He recognised that necessarily there is some "submerging of personality" in groups which are communal or collective simply because they do not foster the individualistic and competitive lifestyle to which society is accustomed. Nevertheless he believed that most of the participants were in their movements simply because they wanted to be there and further that they would leave when the experience was no longer rewarding for them. He struck me as a reputable scholar who had, not surprisingly, a scholar's enthusiasm for his subject and for his views, but not to the extent that he had lost his objectivity.
She is a part-time lecturer in the Department of Religion, Concordia University, Montreal. There were times during her evidence when she was less than impressive almost as if she had fallen into the very trap she had acknowledged to exist, namely the danger posed for the academic that they might become irritated by the "wilful inaccuracies" of the anti-cult movement and so succumb to "the temptation to compensate by writing an overly positive report on The Family". Subject to that caveat, I found her evidence interesting and helpful. For example:-
"While the terms "system" and "systemites" suggest what the anti-cult movement call an "us - and - them mentality," I have observed Family members use them in a self-consciously satirical fashion, as a quaint relic from their past. While recent literature still conveys gothic portraits of "system" life as a warning to youth in The Family, one must remember that much of it is written by Mama Maria and her team, who have lived in hiding since the mid 70's, and are presumably out of touch with mainstream culture."
She formed her views from her spending a week in the San Diego School in September 1993, spending a week in the English homes in Newcastle, London and the Ward's home and a week with her own children in the Washington Y.A. home. She has visited other homes for a day. She has interviewed 45 members and three ex-members and her informants include Peter Amsterdam and Davidito. She has submitted various questionnaires.
The returns from 52 people in the United Kingdom on the reasons for their having become Turf Supporters showed that the causes for leaving The Family included a feeling that the leaders were applying too much pressure on them or the children. There seemed to her to be a discernible rise in the number of defections in the past few years. Nevertheless many seem to miss the practical assistance, the emotional support and the religious intensity of the commune. She quoted, by way of almost typical example, one 30 year old lady with children who expressed among the advantages of living outside a D.O. home, the ability to live according to her own faith but with the freedom to make more of her own decisions. Her complaint was that even leisure times had to be scheduled, organised and co-ordinated in a way which in essence amounted to an unacceptable invasion of her freedom and her privacy. Despite that there was a perceived disadvantage for her children (who seem to be young teenagers) for there was less going on about them, less fun and excitement and so more boredom. These observations confirm views I have formed as I have listened to the evidence that there is both good and bad in The Family way of life.
She concluded from four case histories she took that:
"It does not seem very difficult for youth to leave The Family if they are so inclined. ...Defectors are neither shunned, threatened with Hell-fire nor debarred from returning".
I do not entirely agree with that observation. It was certainly true in the case of SC and SD but it was hardly true of the defectors called by the Plaintiff. Perhaps that is no surprise. One of the rare moments of passion in the case as I have already set out was the distress evinced by AB caused by the loss of contact to her mother and similar distress was evident from MS and others. The fact that some may come and go without fear or favour does suggest, and so I find, that it is not all as black as the Plaintiff's witnesses have painted.
I felt Dr. Palmer's evidence was weak when she came to deal with the Victor programme. She acknowledged that Tony - Zack Attack was made to conform by means of subjecting him to public humiliation. She compared the Victor programme with other groups and described it as an example of "mortification mechanism". Nevertheless, she became impatient when cross-examined about the excesses of the Victor programmes run in this country which she sought to shrug off as not being of any great interest to her. That may in part be due to her opinion that some individuals always suffer in a charismatic communal movement. She found it to be a "striking characteristic of The Family" that they were willing to experiment, admit they were wrong and try again. There would always be casualties in such a process of experimentation. I did not find this very reassuring for the children who are to be the subjects and perhaps victims of the next experiment!
When she came to discuss the group's sexual mores, she observed that:
"These early "sexual experiments" - luridly and outrageously preserved in pubs currently accessible only to anti-cultists and the Courts - are mere historical curiosities which have been whole heartedly expunged from contemporary homes and will never be reinstated."
She argued:
"That The Family has evolved far beyond David Berg's sexual fantasies and questionable pre-occupations and have successfully established a healthy society with a highly elaborated code of ethics which, if properly understood, would not stretch the tolerance of the public."
I venture to think that the public might reasonably expect to be furnished with a frank acknowledgement of the past deviant practices before being invited to show tolerance towards current behaviour patterns and beliefs.
She said that of the young adults she interviewed:
"They appear to regard their parents' time of sexual excess with a kind of amused indulgence. The second generation appear far more cautious in embarking on a sexual relationship."
She concluded her written report as follows:-
"In my view The Family provides a healthy, safe, fun and exiting environment in which to bring up children. I am convinced that there is far less child abuse (if any at all) occurring in the D.O. homes than in the suburbs of our large city. Although it is true that Family JETTS and teens are directed into a vocational training programme that will render them better prepared to become leaders in the End Time than to sit for Harvard or Oxford entrance examinations, it appears unfair to expect a communal, millenarian society struggling to instil spiritual ideals in its youth, to also train its children to excel in a pluralistic competitive society. There is a trend among the YA's and teens in California - apparently at the bidding of TSer parents - to undertake exams and receive their High School Certificate. I found The Family's second generation to be socially adept and emotionally open and they manifested highly successful efforts to cultivate old-fashioned Christian virtues like kindness, thrift, cleanliness, diligence and humility."
In her visits to The Family homes she sensed the air of excitement, satisfaction and fun as the children fulfilled their role of conducting their missionary work, as they perceived it to be, by going out onto the streets singing and dancing etc. Although, therefore, their educational system was narrow they were active and creative in song and dance which was their own tradition rooted in the conviction that the world was about to end.
It is difficult for me to ignore the observations she has made of the homes which she has visited though she readily acknowledged that she entered into her research "tending to find new religious movements delightful and amusing. They knew I would not be hostile or critical. As a Sociologist, I am value free." I am less than fully convinced of her objectivity and her ability to see the whole picture. I was not impressed with her response when cross-examined about the inappropriate use of corporal punishment and the other excesses of the Victor programmes, that, "This is all very dreary, there are more important things of interest about The Family." There may be well be interesting things about The Family's way of life but their methods of disciplining the youth cannot be shrugged off as something very dreary.
He is the Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion which has a specialty in the study of new religious movements. He has written extensively on the subject and his expertise is unquestioned. He first became aware of the Children of God some time around 1970 and had his first direct contact with them in 1971. He monitored them through the 1970's until they closed their colonies and their headquarters and the majority of members left the country. After some years of being out of touch he was unexpectedly approached in the Autumn of 1992. He was provided with copies of the literature as he requested. He visited homes of The Family in 1993. One was in rural England which I assumed to be the Ward's present home. He also stayed at homes in Eastern Europe and Paris as well as in California. Frankly professing no special training in psychology or child care, Dr Melton nonetheless reported that he consistently found happy children who were comfortable in the presence of a stranger and who were openly affectionate with the grown-ups in their midst, especially their own parents. He observed nothing to indicate that any child abuse was occurring in any of the homes which he visited. He found the youth quite knowledgeable of the world around them and remarkably free of criminal and drug related behaviour. Many were bilingual and multi-lingual and all were comfortable speaking to strangers and speaking before an audience. Many had developed specialised skills with modern technological equipment (especially the computer) and had an excellent musical background. Females lacked any marked interest in fashion and most males had little interest in professional sport though some followed soccer.
His report dealt at length with the sexual freedoms granted by and practised in accordance with the Law of Love. When cross-examined he felt able to go further than he had in his written report and his evidence was clear and unequivocal namely that he was in no doubt at all that oral or manual masturbation and full sexual intercourse had occurred between child and adult within The Family and that the incidence of this having occurred was higher in The Family than outside it. He said that Peter Amsterdam had in a roundabout way acknowledged that fact. He described Amsterdam as an astute politician and apologist and a staunch defender of the family. He revealed that there had been much conversation among the leadership about the extent to which Berg himself had participated in child sexual abuse and there was some disquiet as to how he could hold himself out to be the Prophet when he was morally flawed.
Dr Melton stated that he had a reputation for being a defender of small religious groups and a defender of the freedom of religion. Nevertheless he was not afraid to voice his criticisms of The Family and he did not shrink from expressing his horror at the excessive punishments meted out to the children. He assisted the Official Solicitor by providing literature from his archives which had not been forthcoming from The Family. I found him to be independent and objective and his views on the future of this group, to which I will turn in due time, command respect.
He is a Minister of the Uniting Church in Australia who for 20 years has been involved in working with new religious movements and monitoring their activities and evolution in Australia. When the "raids" took place in Australia and children were removed into care, he felt that the authorities had overreacted and, without any sympathy for The Family apart from that, and possibly even a degree of antipathy felt towards them, he became involved and began his investigations. He began his report in this way:-
"It is a complex undertaking to understanding a group such as the Children of God - Family of Love - The Family. There are a large number of sources one must contact before judgments can be made. There is the testimony of past members, the research of others, the literature and other materials produced by the group, and contact with the group itself and the experience of people within it."
At this stage of a judgment, which is already too long, I could say, "You're telling me!"
He had approached his task seeking openness with The Family. He made considerable progress but was denied direct access to Berg or Maria. He knew of the "Deceivers yet True" philosophy and he guarded against being deceived. The use of Victor camps had made him wary but he felt satisfied by their explanations until the events in this country gradually emerged. He was not told the full facts. That caused him concern but not enough completely to modify his views about The Family. He felt manipulated by them and angry. He told me, "I am still making my judgments about this group".
He has endeavoured to speak to a broad range of Family members from those newly-joined to many long-term members including several who were present at the beginning of the movement in the late 60's. He has many hours of recorded conversation and hand-written notes. He has been able to talk with several who are known as the key thinkers of the movement. He has visited homes in Australia, Japan, Thailand, India, Russia and the United Kingdom. He has had extensive conversation with people who are ex-members of the family some of whom look back on their time in The Family with generally happy memories but others of whom are hostile.
I formed the view that he was by no means an apologist for them - on the contrary he struck me - if he will forgive me for describing him and if the World Services will understand my so describing him! - as a typical hard-headed Aussie who would have been treated as one of the lads on the hill at Sydney cricket ground. In other words, he was an impressive witness!
His conversation with Family members convinced him:
"That they believe they have freedom to make their own assessments of David Berg's writing. But they also live with the belief that gives them no expectation that David Berg could ever lead them astray."
He also expressed the opinion:-
"That there are some groups whose life is so aberrant and destructive that they move beyond the realms of what is acceptable in human society. Such a group I would call a cult. I do not believe The Family fits this description."
Because the group so strongly believe that they will witness the great events which will see the end of the world, their educational efforts are directed to equipping the children with the skills of management and decision making which will be appropriate to the task of ruling the world with Christ in the millennium. Dr Millikan expressed this opinion about their education:-
"I am not without some reservations concerning the education of the children above the primary school level. Up to that point what I have seen of the education of the children around the world is excellent. They are taught in a loving and open atmosphere and they appear to enjoy the experience. ...For the teens, the educational materials available are limited to a narrow band of publications emerging from the fundamentalist creationist frameworks, although it must be said that there is a concerted attempt within The Family to address this situation. ....What is primary in my mind is the emotional and spiritual health of the children. That I believe is not at risk."
He expressed this strong opinion:-
"I believe we must retain within society the right of groups such as this, when driven by powerful religious or philosophical beliefs to put themselves at a distance from the dominant values of our culture. The rights of children in this situation are complex and under certain conditions should be allowed to compromise the right of a group to stand against our culture. But it is not a sufficient argument to say that a group is aberrant and dangerous to its children when the only reasons advanced are that the group is isolated, or holds eccentric beliefs, or restricts access to the state educational system for its children, or advocates an openness in sexual expression. ...There were certain forms of behaviour prior to 1986 in relation to child sexuality which I believe are alarming...I am of the opinion that all sexual encounters between adults and children have ceased. The present literature is unequivocal in its rejection of this behaviour and the people within the group are clear about their own changes and that earlier lit. has been removed or destroyed. ...The Family as they present themselves now have a right to be respected within the diversity which makes up the contemporary pluralist nature of our society."
