Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2006, Page 25
Camps (set up to keep rebellious teens in the group), where some adolescents experienced
―silence restriction,‖ hard physical labour, humiliation, paddling, the discontinuation of their
educations, and verbal abuse (pp. 236–240). Chancellor comments on the group‘s past:
―Family youth have certainly been consistently subjected to intense indoctrination into the
ideology and norms of the group‖ (p. 240). The interviews, along with his discussion,
expose the harsh realities that sometimes were a part of life for many children born into the
group.
In summary, Chancellor‘s many years of research have produced a comprehensive and
valuable account of COG/The Family, one that allows the reader to integrate previous
scholarship in such a way as to create a more holistic portrait of Berg, of his disciples, and
of the group as a whole. His publication stands as the most balanced and accessible of
academic books on this ever-evolving NRM.
Heaven’s Harlots: My Fifteen Years in a Sex Cult (1998) by Miriam Williams
Some academics may have a problem with Miriam Williams‘ status as an ex-member and
therefore classify her as a ―career apostate‖7, but I found her account a useful
complementary read to Chancellor‘s book for two main reasons. First, Williams provides an
oral history that is personal, and thus reads like an expanded version of one of Chancellor‘s
interviews. Her account, of course, is a subjective one, but for the most part her narrative is
particularly nuanced, despite her prior involvement with, and subsequent detachment from,
the movement. Moreover, in her self-reflection, Williams displays vulnerability that lends
legitimacy to her analysis. She fully acknowledges her own role and makes clear that she
was a part of the decision-making process when she chose to participate in various disciple
activities. She demonstrates an ability to recognise to what extent she felt pressured to
conform, and to what extent she believed the path she took was the right one for her at the
time. With the hindsight of maturity, she notes also that her youthful idealism contributed
to some of those decisions.
Second, Williams recounts both her positive and negative experiences, and so examines
both the advantages and drawbacks of belonging to COG/The Family. One gets the sense
that she still advocates the benefits one can gain from communal living. She states quite
frequently that one main appeal of the group was its communal approach to life others
were the opportunity it gave disciples to talk about Jesus and God to Systemites and the
promise of being able to help people in tangible, meaningful ways. Throughout her account,
Williams portrays both the joyful and the heart-rending times during which she tried to
realise these goals, and she expresses her own inner conflicts and mixed feelings about her
journey. COG/The Family was an enormous part of her life for 15 years, and she does not
reject the group out of hand nor does she portray the group as having realised fully the
utopian ideals that she hoped it would.
The majority of the book focuses on FFing, although she does also provide some valuable
insights into other aspects of the group, including her role as a childcare worker and the
strain of frequent moves. She reveals her own initial nonchalant response to sexual sharing
and FFing, stating that the Biblical and spiritual dimensions of these practices made them
seem (for her, at least) like an acceptable dimension of life in the movement (p. 77).
Williams comments on her sexual relations with the men she FFed:
Whether I was rationalizing or not, I finally concluded that I was helping the
men I loved through a sexual channel. I personally believed in Jesus‘
salvation message, and even if these men had not asked Jesus into their
heart, at least they had heard the message. (p. 112)
Only later, when the full ramifications of such a lifestyle began to take its toll on her, did
she gain insights into how these ideals played out like a social experiment gone awry: ―...I
Camps (set up to keep rebellious teens in the group), where some adolescents experienced
―silence restriction,‖ hard physical labour, humiliation, paddling, the discontinuation of their
educations, and verbal abuse (pp. 236–240). Chancellor comments on the group‘s past:
―Family youth have certainly been consistently subjected to intense indoctrination into the
ideology and norms of the group‖ (p. 240). The interviews, along with his discussion,
expose the harsh realities that sometimes were a part of life for many children born into the
group.
In summary, Chancellor‘s many years of research have produced a comprehensive and
valuable account of COG/The Family, one that allows the reader to integrate previous
scholarship in such a way as to create a more holistic portrait of Berg, of his disciples, and
of the group as a whole. His publication stands as the most balanced and accessible of
academic books on this ever-evolving NRM.
Heaven’s Harlots: My Fifteen Years in a Sex Cult (1998) by Miriam Williams
Some academics may have a problem with Miriam Williams‘ status as an ex-member and
therefore classify her as a ―career apostate‖7, but I found her account a useful
complementary read to Chancellor‘s book for two main reasons. First, Williams provides an
oral history that is personal, and thus reads like an expanded version of one of Chancellor‘s
interviews. Her account, of course, is a subjective one, but for the most part her narrative is
particularly nuanced, despite her prior involvement with, and subsequent detachment from,
the movement. Moreover, in her self-reflection, Williams displays vulnerability that lends
legitimacy to her analysis. She fully acknowledges her own role and makes clear that she
was a part of the decision-making process when she chose to participate in various disciple
activities. She demonstrates an ability to recognise to what extent she felt pressured to
conform, and to what extent she believed the path she took was the right one for her at the
time. With the hindsight of maturity, she notes also that her youthful idealism contributed
to some of those decisions.
Second, Williams recounts both her positive and negative experiences, and so examines
both the advantages and drawbacks of belonging to COG/The Family. One gets the sense
that she still advocates the benefits one can gain from communal living. She states quite
frequently that one main appeal of the group was its communal approach to life others
were the opportunity it gave disciples to talk about Jesus and God to Systemites and the
promise of being able to help people in tangible, meaningful ways. Throughout her account,
Williams portrays both the joyful and the heart-rending times during which she tried to
realise these goals, and she expresses her own inner conflicts and mixed feelings about her
journey. COG/The Family was an enormous part of her life for 15 years, and she does not
reject the group out of hand nor does she portray the group as having realised fully the
utopian ideals that she hoped it would.
The majority of the book focuses on FFing, although she does also provide some valuable
insights into other aspects of the group, including her role as a childcare worker and the
strain of frequent moves. She reveals her own initial nonchalant response to sexual sharing
and FFing, stating that the Biblical and spiritual dimensions of these practices made them
seem (for her, at least) like an acceptable dimension of life in the movement (p. 77).
Williams comments on her sexual relations with the men she FFed:
Whether I was rationalizing or not, I finally concluded that I was helping the
men I loved through a sexual channel. I personally believed in Jesus‘
salvation message, and even if these men had not asked Jesus into their
heart, at least they had heard the message. (p. 112)
Only later, when the full ramifications of such a lifestyle began to take its toll on her, did
she gain insights into how these ideals played out like a social experiment gone awry: ―...I
