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

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 49
adult leaders ―encouraging all the teens to have as many dates as they could with other
teens....‖ These dates involved ―any two people who wanted to [could] get together and
have sex in a room,‖ which adults made available for this purpose (Kent Interview with
Frost, 1995: 4 see Kent Interview with Donovan, 1995: 28 Kent Interview with Lorna,
1996: 13-14). Within five months, however, the policy apparently changed to prohibiting
teens from having sex until the males were sixteen and the females were fifteen years and
three months old (so that they would be sixteen if sex were to have led to pregnancy and
birth [Kent Interview with Frost, 1995: 58 Kent Interview with Lorna, 1996: 15 Ward,
1995: 74).
The Victor Program at the “Jumbo” in the Philippines and Elsewhere
The Family‘s largest teen Victor program seems to have been in a Filipino complex called
―the Jumbo‖ (so named because of its size). Surrounded by walls at least ten to fifteen feet
high, the Jumbo had between two hundred and three hundred and fifty people living there
from early 1988 to early 1989 (Kent Interview with Donovan, 1995: 1-2 see Kent Interview
with Hendricks, 1995: 18). At night armed guards patrolled the wall (Kent Interview with
Cheryl, 1996: 59 see Kent Interview with Hendricks, 1995: 19, 30), ostensibly to keep out
burglars, but their presence also ensured that no one tried to escape. All aspects of the
teens‘ lives were controlled, with leaders requiring (according to one source) that they
record the nature of their bowel movements (―hard, runny, or soft‖ [Kent Interview with
Cheryl, 1996: 64]) and restrict themselves to using only three sheets of toilet paper (Kent
Interview with Cheryl, 1996: 66).
As at other facilities, the Jumbo‘s inmates operated under a strict demerit system (Ward,
1995: 153). Early in the program, teen inmates who received three demerits in a day had to
do the diaper wash-up in the nursery, which consisted of cleaning ―nine garbage cans full of
dirty diapers‖ (Kent Interview with Donovan, 1995: 7, 10). Eventually the adult leader in
charge of discipline changed the punishment to a calisthenics program, involving ―the usual
sit-ups, jumping jacks..., vigorous running, running up and down stairs, push-ups, and star
jumps‖ (Kent Interview with Cheryl, 1996: 100-103 Kent Interview with Donovan, 1995:
10, 12). Most difficult of the calisthenics seems to have been the ―duck walk,‖ or ―squat
walk,‖ where the teens ―had to squat and walk around the compound‖ (Kent Interview with
Donovan, 1995: 11 Kent Interview with Cheryl, 1996: 101 Ward, 1995: 185 [for its
imposition on teens in the Victor program in Wantage, England in 1989]). Former member
Ernest Donovan [a pseudonym] remembers ―at least one time one of the boys becoming
extremely pale, and passing out while doing calisthenics‖ because ―when you were tired you
couldn‘t stop–you were forced to keep going‖ (Kent Interview with Donovan, 1995: 10).
The demerit system often led to teens being placed on silence restriction or being ―paddled.‖
(One informant, for example, stated that a leader paddled her after she wrote a note
indicating that she wanted to leave the Jumbo and go live with her grandparents who were
not Family members [Kent Interview with Cheryl, 1996: 92]). Some of the punishments
that adult leaders inflicted on the young people in their care were both unique and
especially harsh (or as Lord Justice Ward concluded, were ―excessively and at times brutally
applied‖ [Ward, 1995: 192]).
―Paddling,‖ or beating disobedient teens with boards, was one of the common features of
these programs around the world, but one particularly severe and degrading beating
incident in the Jumbo is especially well documented. The senior author spoke with: the teen
(now young adult) who received the beating an unfortunate young man who was sitting too
close in the front row and who got hit accidentally by the paddle as the leader swung it a
teenaged girl (now young woman) who was in the audience and a staff worker who
happened to pass in the hallway as the beating was taking place.