International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 3 2022 12
TO DO WITH IT” (Berg, 1980, p. 7697).22
1
Some publications on sex—for example, the comic
series, “Life With Grandpa,” were written specifically
for children. This series relates how “Grandpa Berg”
(note the familial term) taught children about sex
(Williams Boeri, 2005, p. 171). Both “The Little Girl
Dream” (Berg, 1976) and Heaven’s Girl (Berg 1987)
include images of Berg with children. In the former
publication, he described being in bed with a “dark
haired little girl of about 10 or 11” (Berg, 1976, p. 391)
who he claims seduced him (Berg, 1976). He alludes
also to the grooming of young girls to become Flirty
Fishers23 (Berg, 1976, p. 396). Heaven’s Girl tells the
story of a young girl who fights the end-time armies
of the antichrist and in the process allows them to
rape her so that she might share God’s love with them.
Following her gang-rape, instead of killing her, the
soldiers keep her because as one of them states, “SHE
WAS FANTASTIC!—Why not keep her in one of the
empty cages for our own use!” (Berg, 1987, pp. 70-71).
Former COG members identify that this story paved
the way (i.e. was a grooming tool) for the role of teenage
girls as Flirty Fishers (CounterCOG, 1999, p. 9).
Berg (1982a) published The Story of Davidito, a
collection of letters about Maria’s son. The publication
depicts Davidito in mock sexual encounters with other
children, and several of the images show him in bed
with an adult woman. A British court found that The
Story of Davidito contains countless, often explicit,
examples of Berg’s promotion of adult-child and child-
child sex, and that the movement’s leadership knew
that this book was a guidebook for members (Lord
Justice Ward, 1995). Then, in the mid-1980s, the group
made videos of women and children dancing nude in
a sexually suggestive manner. The British court agreed
with a child psychiatrist that the numerous erotic
videos were “part of the process of grooming children
for sexual exploitation by adults. The effect of the open
acceptance of this kind of video was gradually to erode
the sense of taboo about the sexuality of children ...”
(Lord Justice Ward, 1995, p. 60).
22 All capitalizations, underlining, and other emphases are in the
original Berg publications.
23 Flirty Fishing was a recruitment practice whereby many women
of the group were expected (and in many cases, required) to engage in,
various levels of intimacy and sexual contact with men as a means of
converting them to the movement and/or acquiring resources from them
(see Raine, 2007 Williams, 1998 and Williams Boeri, 2005).
Evidentially, using written and video materials,
Berg institutionalized the grooming process for
dissemination to his followers.24
1
Berg used his theology
to frame sex with children as a divine right bestowed
upon him by God. He groomed the community not
only to legitimate his own sexual abuse of children, but
also to re-socialize (groom) adult members so that they
would engage in it themselves with their own and other
children. James Chancellor notes that, “sexual activity
between adults and children was an accepted practice in
a number of [COG] communities” (Chancellor, 2000,
p. 223). Not all members, however, became abusers:
some reported not witnessing abuses in their locations,
whilst others left because of it (Williams Boeri, 2005).
Often, religions offer legitimations for practices that
may either justify or challenge the normative social
order. As the leader of a religious sub-culture, Berg
challenged normative sexual and familial practices,
grooming his followers with religious rhetoric and
justifications. The effective grooming of the community
resulted in adult-child sex losing its taboo status.
Moreover, a common motif of millenarian movements
such as COG (and the Branch Davidians) “is the
frequent abolition of conventional morality.... Believers
set themselves above and outside of society’s laws ....
When the normal constraints that some millenarian
groups ignore include sexual taboos and laws, then
children and teens often become predatory targets”
(Kent, 2012, p. 57). Clearly, however, the grooming
of the COG communities around the globe was not
entirely effective, since not all members subscribed to
Berg’s theology.
24 This institutional level of legitimation exists also in the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) where
(in very insular, isolated communities) young girls are taught from an
early age that the world outside of their communities is evil. Consequently,
when underage daughters are married off to (often much) older men in
polygamous marriages, they have no choice in the matter and few options
for recourse (Guiora, 2010 Kent, 2006 &2011). Moreover, even when
such crimes become known, there is usually “difficulty to convince child
brides” to “testify against their parents and community” (Guiora, 2010 p.
406). Following the raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas, officials found that the
young boys there “were at risk of being groomed to be future sexual abuse
perpetrators” (Lukefahr et al., 2011, p. 575).
In southern India, the Devadasi (servants of god) are young, pre-
pubescent girls whose parents sell them to be temple prostitutes for wealthy
upper-caste men. The girls are forbidden to marry and their virginities
are auctioned off. The Goddess Yellemma is used as a justification for the
practice—the girls are doing ‘service’ for her. The girls have no say in the
matter, and, once their roles as Devadasis are over, they usually end up
becoming street prostitutes (Barry, 1995 Shingal, 2015).

ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54208/0003 13
5. Conclusion
As this article demonstrates, the grooming of children
for sexual abuse occurs in a variety of religious settings
and the offenders may comprise a diverse array of
individuals, including “religious and spiritual leaders,
volunteers, camp counselors in religious-based camps,
staff in religious schools, and others associated with
religious communities” (Tishelman &Fontes, 2017,
p. 122). Moreover, because of religion’s institutional
standing, religious grooming frequently takes place in
a context of “unquestioned faith placed in sex offenders
by children, parents and staff” (McAlinden, 2006).
Our work here exemplifies the many types of grooming
that the existing literature details, combined with the
specific features that characterize religious settings.
Therefore, desensitization practices such as touching,
exposure to illicit material and substances, and
establishment of friendships with families all are part
of the process. At other times also, perpetrators may
use “inducements and emotional manipulation to
coerce a child into sexual abuse” (Salter, 2013, p. 128).
Our examples illustrate that offenders direct grooming
at themselves, at family environments, and towards the
children. The cluster of unique religious attributes that
we discuss—including obedience, patriarchy, claims
of divine justification, appeals to God and salvational
outcomes, the use of familial language, and closed
communities (plus many other religious features)—
have played significant roles in the grooming processes.
Furthermore, because of the inherent nature of trust
within many religious organizations and communities,
parents and other adults often have been “enthusiastic
supporters” (van Dam, 2001, p. 38) of the offending
individuals. And, of course, when children perceive
this level of support for their abusers, it makes it much
harder for them to divulge what has happened to them.
This situation is compounded because many religious
leaders experience “the walk-on-water-syndrome”
(Bratcher, 1984, cited in Shupe, 2007, p. 61 [emphasis
in original]), such that ministers, pastors and other
clergy appear to transcend laity in all matters.
In some cases—for example, Ireland—an entire society
may be groomed. So revered was the Catholic Church
in that country, that the whole nation exhibited
a “culture of disbelief” (O’Malley, 2009, cited in
McAlinden, 2012) towards abuse claims. In Ireland and
elsewhere, Catholic priests and other offenders in that
faith appear to have explicitly exploited the church’s
standing and silence during the grooming process.
In Protestant denominations, a range of grooming
contexts and tactics likely exist, but, as discussed, little
research exists on sexual abuse in this diverse branch
of Christianity, making analyses of grooming difficult.
More generally, when grooming and abuse occurs in
mainstream religious settings, then secrecy may ensue
so that the institution’s reputation (as well as the status
of individual clergy) is put before the needs of the
children and the requirements of the legal system.
Sectarian groups like the Seventh-day Adventists, but
also movements including the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Jewish Hassidism, and Fundamentalist Mormonism
are categorized by high levels of insularity in many
respects. These and other conditions result in a
distrust of societal authorities and an unwillingness
to seek secular help for abuses. Sectarian movements
are more likely, therefore, to deal with abuses
internally—meaning that they may not be dealt with
at all. Moreover, as is the case with the Seventh-day
Adventists, institutional protection of clergy emerged
as the children were encouraged to forgive their abusers
and move on. Like mainstream religions, secrecy often
shields the communities from criminal prosecution.
Cultic movements including the Branch Davidians
and the Children of God establish religious communes
where the boundaries between religious group and
the family are blurred. By establishing strong affective
relationships, clear rules of behavior, and identifiable
roles for members that are similar to family dynamics,
these types of religious movements function as proxy
families (Robbins, 1988, p. 46). The two entities—
family and religion—enmesh such that the religious
community entirely is subject to the grooming process
as a part of the religion’s theology. When many sectarian
and cultic movements remain on the periphery of
societal norms, the tendency may be towards insularity
and non-reporting to authorities. When the community
is groomed successfully, observers of the abuse may not
even perceive any wrongdoing.
Finally, outside of the religious institution, offenders
may draw on religious rhetoric well- known to the
child as part of the grooming process. As such,
family members, neighbors, or other members of the