International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 3, 2012 55
considered incestuous, much less
illegal, and were not forbidden for the
2600 years from the creation of Adam
until the Law of Moses! There are so
many examples of same from the mating
of Adam’s sons with his daughters to the
marriage of many kings and pharaohs
with theirs, including the classic
example of Lot and his two daughters
who mothered and fathered the two
whole nations of Moab and Ammon…..
And yet in our modern Western
society even the marriage of near
cousins is criminal under some
government, while even the Mosaic Law
did not prohibit the same! So again we
find the laws of man in conflict with the
laws of God! (Berg, 1973, p. 1338
[original emphasis and capitalization])
Not surprisingly, one of Berg’s daughters—
Deborah—accused her father of trying to molest
her (Davis with Davis, 1984, pp. 9–10, 14, 58),
and finally revealed that he had, in fact,
succeeded (Shukan Bunshun, 1992, pp. 3–6).
Another daughter—Faithy—who remained a
loyal follower of her father until after his death,
implied in a Children of God publication
(subtitled “Faithy’s Reaction to Childhood Sex”)
that he succeeded in touching her sexually when
she was a child:
I like it! It reminded me of how you
[her father] used to put me to sleep
when I was a little girl, 3 or 4. Daddy
did it best! Back rubbin’, that is, &
front rubbin’ too! The others, our
various babysitters, just rubbed your
back raw &it didn’t even feel good, so I
would pretend to fall asleep as fast as
possible so they’d stop. It felt so good
when they stopped! Ha! BUT DADDY
JUST MADE ME FEEL GOOD ALL
OVER &I didn’t know why, but it
would really put me to sleep with a sigh!
PTL [Praise the Lord]! I don’t think it
perverted me none [sic] at all, but it sure
converted me to His Call! So I believe
our parents should try it, &help our kids
get the natural habit! WE PRAY IT’LL
WORK, then Junior [who was a
nephew] won’t be a sex jerk! Oh! I
could write a book, but this is just a look
into my childhood sex! (Family of Love,
1988, p. 15)
Note that Faithy seems to have been instructing
parents to masturbate their children—an activity
that contributed to the eroticized environment in
which the children in her organization lived
throughout the 1980s.
Patriarchalism and Polygamous Child
Brides
Separate from the rare practice of incest among
classic figures presented in the Hebrew
Bible/Old Testament was the more common
practice of polygamy among important biblical
males. Abram’s wife Sarai provided her maid,
Hagar, to her husband after she (Sarai) failed to
conceive (Gen 16:3) and later Abram took yet
another wife in addition to his concubines (Gen.
25:1–6). Isaac’s disfavoured son, Esau, had
several wives (Gen. 28:9), while his favoured
son, Jacob, had two wives (Gen. 29:21–30, 30:
3–13 see 1 Chr. 7:14). The famous figure King
David had several wives (1 Sam. 25:40–44), but
when he was old he slept with “a young maiden”
(1 Kg. 1:2) for warmth (with the text specifically
stating that “the king knew her not” sexually
[1Kg. 1:4]).
In a Western context, the best-known
polygamous practitioners remain fundamentalist
polygamous Mormons, comprising perhaps
50,000 practitioners concentrated in and around
Utah (especially Arizona, Texas, Idaho, and
Montana) and in British Columbia, Canada.
Leaders of these deviant Mormon groups believe
their practice of polygamy is in line with
(reputed) revelations received by Mormonism’s
founder, Joseph Smith, on July 12, 1843. “The
revelation pointed out polygynous practices of
Old Testament patriarchs and made clear the
distinction between marriages for time [i.e., for
this life only] and marriages for eternity [i.e.,
that continue forever into the supposedly
heavenly realm]” (Altman &Ginat, 1996, p. 27
see Doctrine and Covenants 132, pp. 15–16, 18–
20). Specifically in the Mormon collection of
reputed revelations to Smith, Doctrine and
Covenants, God supposedly said to Smith the
following:
considered incestuous, much less
illegal, and were not forbidden for the
2600 years from the creation of Adam
until the Law of Moses! There are so
many examples of same from the mating
of Adam’s sons with his daughters to the
marriage of many kings and pharaohs
with theirs, including the classic
example of Lot and his two daughters
who mothered and fathered the two
whole nations of Moab and Ammon…..
And yet in our modern Western
society even the marriage of near
cousins is criminal under some
government, while even the Mosaic Law
did not prohibit the same! So again we
find the laws of man in conflict with the
laws of God! (Berg, 1973, p. 1338
[original emphasis and capitalization])
Not surprisingly, one of Berg’s daughters—
Deborah—accused her father of trying to molest
her (Davis with Davis, 1984, pp. 9–10, 14, 58),
and finally revealed that he had, in fact,
succeeded (Shukan Bunshun, 1992, pp. 3–6).
Another daughter—Faithy—who remained a
loyal follower of her father until after his death,
implied in a Children of God publication
(subtitled “Faithy’s Reaction to Childhood Sex”)
that he succeeded in touching her sexually when
she was a child:
I like it! It reminded me of how you
[her father] used to put me to sleep
when I was a little girl, 3 or 4. Daddy
did it best! Back rubbin’, that is, &
front rubbin’ too! The others, our
various babysitters, just rubbed your
back raw &it didn’t even feel good, so I
would pretend to fall asleep as fast as
possible so they’d stop. It felt so good
when they stopped! Ha! BUT DADDY
JUST MADE ME FEEL GOOD ALL
OVER &I didn’t know why, but it
would really put me to sleep with a sigh!
PTL [Praise the Lord]! I don’t think it
perverted me none [sic] at all, but it sure
converted me to His Call! So I believe
our parents should try it, &help our kids
get the natural habit! WE PRAY IT’LL
WORK, then Junior [who was a
nephew] won’t be a sex jerk! Oh! I
could write a book, but this is just a look
into my childhood sex! (Family of Love,
1988, p. 15)
Note that Faithy seems to have been instructing
parents to masturbate their children—an activity
that contributed to the eroticized environment in
which the children in her organization lived
throughout the 1980s.
Patriarchalism and Polygamous Child
Brides
Separate from the rare practice of incest among
classic figures presented in the Hebrew
Bible/Old Testament was the more common
practice of polygamy among important biblical
males. Abram’s wife Sarai provided her maid,
Hagar, to her husband after she (Sarai) failed to
conceive (Gen 16:3) and later Abram took yet
another wife in addition to his concubines (Gen.
25:1–6). Isaac’s disfavoured son, Esau, had
several wives (Gen. 28:9), while his favoured
son, Jacob, had two wives (Gen. 29:21–30, 30:
3–13 see 1 Chr. 7:14). The famous figure King
David had several wives (1 Sam. 25:40–44), but
when he was old he slept with “a young maiden”
(1 Kg. 1:2) for warmth (with the text specifically
stating that “the king knew her not” sexually
[1Kg. 1:4]).
In a Western context, the best-known
polygamous practitioners remain fundamentalist
polygamous Mormons, comprising perhaps
50,000 practitioners concentrated in and around
Utah (especially Arizona, Texas, Idaho, and
Montana) and in British Columbia, Canada.
Leaders of these deviant Mormon groups believe
their practice of polygamy is in line with
(reputed) revelations received by Mormonism’s
founder, Joseph Smith, on July 12, 1843. “The
revelation pointed out polygynous practices of
Old Testament patriarchs and made clear the
distinction between marriages for time [i.e., for
this life only] and marriages for eternity [i.e.,
that continue forever into the supposedly
heavenly realm]” (Altman &Ginat, 1996, p. 27
see Doctrine and Covenants 132, pp. 15–16, 18–
20). Specifically in the Mormon collection of
reputed revelations to Smith, Doctrine and
Covenants, God supposedly said to Smith the
following:
