Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 47
The Detention Teen Program in Macao
Disregarding the factual basis for Merry‘s doubts, Berg and his inner cadre subjected her to
severe physical maltreatment – Lord Justice Ward called her ordeal ―a form of torture‖
(Ward, 1995: 152, see 126-133) – that ultimately failed to ―adjust‖ her thinking about her
grandfather. In frustration and anger, they finally sent her to COG property in Macao
during April 1987, which her uncle, Hosea (David Berg‘s son) ran (Kent Interview with Merry
Berg, 1992a: 78 cf. Ward, 1995: 125, who gives her departure to Macao as August 1987).
Within weeks of her arrival, Family leaders sent Hosea instructions that would become
central restrictions against supposedly rebellious teens. Merry recalled these instructions:
―‗Merry needs to be on silence restriction.... [W]henever she walks from place to place, she
needs to have an adult with her‘‖ because (as she remembered her uncle telling her) ―‗you
are untrustworthy right now‘‖ (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992a: 78). In the Victor
programs that soon developed, silence restriction (which prohibited a person from
conversing with others) and close adult monitoring became standard practices.
For the next three-and-a-half years, Merry remained at this facility, which became know as
a Detention Teen Camp by the beginning of 1988 (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992a:
83) but which The Family also called ―a camp for Determined Teens‖ (Ward, 1995: 152).
Soon other teens began arriving, most of whose parents were members of The Family‘s elite
World Service (Ed Priebe, 1993: 23 Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 18 see Kent
Interview with Frost, 1995: 12). (At some point Hosea transferred out of his oversight
position of the Detention Teen program and led a Victor program on the same Macao
property.) Merry estimated that about fifteen teens spent time in the detention camp during
her stay there, with their periods of servitude varying from ―a couple of months‖ to ―two
years‖ (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992b: 5).
Merry endured many ordeals in the camp, which were the likely causes of her mental
breakdown (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992a: 84 1992b: 17-19 see Ward, 1995:
115, 130-133). These ordeals must have been what David Millikan had in mind when he
acknowledged that the ―regime of discipline‖ that she underwent ―went beyond the bounds
of what could be regarded as acceptable‖ (Millikan, 1994: 229). Merry stated that she was
locked in a room for six months, and during some of that time had to relieve herself in a
bucket filled with disinfectant (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992a: 80). Somewhat
later, she and other teens were placed on hard labor (beginning at 5:00 or 6:00 in the
morning), seven days a week, while they were on silence restriction (Kent Interview with
Merry Berg, 1992a: 81 Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 19). She recalled one lunch break
by which time she and the others already had worked nine hours (Kent Interview with Berg,
1992a: 82). Chores included ―busting up cement and old sidewalks,‖ ―laying [sic: pouring]
cement cutting grass (mainly with sickles) or gathering it up...with a grass cutter for the
horses doing the farm chores ‖ manual labor on construction projects transporting scrap
metal, bricks and dirt building septic tanks and ―a lot of painting‖ (Kent Interview with
Merry Berg, 1992b: 8 see Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 11, 34-36 Kent Interview with
Lorna, 1996: 19 Kent Interview with Stephanie, 1997: 7 [for similar work regimes in
Brazil] Kent Interview with Betty, 1996: 46 [for digging up rocks in Mexico]). Adults
constantly watched them ―every second‖ (Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 18 Kent
Interview with Merry Berg, 1992b: 11).
Punishments were harsh, and they certainly meet the social scientific definition of ―physical
maltreatment‖ that some say must exist in a brainwashing setting. Adult-inflicted physical
maltreatment included beatings with a wooden paddle ―quite, quite hard‖ (Kent Interview
with Merry Berg, 1992b: 6). Indeed, beatings with paddles or boards are ubiquitous in the
accounts from the two Macao programs, the Philippines (Kent Interview with Donovan,
1995: 13-15 ),and Japan (Kent Interview with Stephanie, 1997: 2). Immediately prior to
her breakdown, Merry ―started trying to be honest‖ by telling her adult female leader about

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 48
her doubts and negative thoughts, and the adult ―decided [that] she‘d slap me every time I
confessed a critical thought, and I agreed with her because I wanted to get rid of them‖
(Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992b: 17 see 3). Moreover, after a new set of leaders
replaced her uncle in the teen detention program, Merry again claimed that she suffered
repeated sexual assaults by an adult (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992b: 83). Her
accounts of sexual assault resemble others that allegedly occurred in another physically
abusive teen detention program, called the Rotten Apple Camp, which operated in
Matsumoto, Japan (Auty, 1999).
Interspersed with the heavy workload and physical maltreatment were classes and
instructions in David Berg‘s writings. Called ―Word classes‖ and ―devotions,‖ they involved
reading or listening to Bible verses or excerpts from his publications, which leaders often
then applied to the teens (Kent Interview with Merry Berg, 1992b: 3 see Kent Interview
with Lorna, 1996: 18 Kent Interview with Marleana, 1995: 11 [for Japan]). Leaders were
able to apply verses and writings to teens partly because teens had to compose daily ―Open
Heart Reports,‖ in which they expressed their ―confessions of doubts and criticisms.‖ These
reports included the teens‘ ―thoughts of disloyalty or ...criticism of leadership—especially
any kind of leaders ...who were in charge of us or especially Mo or Maria‖ (Kent Interview
with Merry Berg, 1992b: 4 see Kent Interview with Betty, 1996: 65 [for their use in
Mexico]). Indeed, high-ranking staff in the Filipino Jumbo realized that these Open Heart
Reports were ―‗a very good way for the leadership to stay intimately involved with the
different situations and personnel in the camp‘‖ (quoted in Ward, 1995: 154).
In summary, Merry Berg‘s account of Macao‘s Detention Teen program, which receives
corroboration from another former member, far exceeds the most restrictive social scientific
requirements of a brainwashing program. Incarceration and physical maltreatment
occurred in the context of social isolation, demanding physical labor, ideological training,
and forced confessions. While the Rotten Apples teen program in Japan may have rivaled
the Macao program for the brutality and sexual assaults that the teens appear to have
experienced (see Kent Interview with Ester, 1998: 16-30), all of the Victor programs about
which we have information resembled the Detention Teen program to lesser degrees.
The Victor Program in Macao
Operating on a different part of the Macao property was a Victor program for teens whom
leadership considered to be less troubled or troubling. Most often the two programs worked
separately, but occasionally inmates had contact (even at occasional dances). Often inmates
could see people working in the other program (Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 9-11).
Allegedly these teens in the Victor program also suffered (what one former inmate called)
―pants down spanking[s]‖ in front of everyone (Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 42 see
Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 24). Leaders used a paddle that one witness described as
―a big, thick, piece of wood‖ (Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 24) and another described
as ―a big, thick wood pole‖ that was ―about four feet long‖ (Kent Interview with Frost, 1995:
44 see Kent Interview with Stephanie, 1997: 4 for a description of the paddle in Japan]).
One young man who had received many of these beatings claimed that leaders videotaped
some of the public beatings (Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 43). As in the Detention Teen
program, the inmates had classes on Bible scripture and Berg‘s writings (see Kent Interview
with Frost, 1995: 29), and leaders punished some teens by putting them on silence
restriction (Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 40 see Kent Interview with Marleana, 1995:
15 [for Japan] Ward, 1995: 154-155).
The sexual ethic among teen inmates in Macao differed from that in other programs. When
Danny Frost [a pseudonym] arrived at the Macao Victor program in the spring of 1988,
Family leadership apparently was establishing the sexual policies for the young inmates (cf.
Lorna, 1996: 12 for an earlier date). The policies that they developed apparently included