International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 8 2025 116
entirely on scriptures, especially the Song of Solomon.”28
1 “Revolutionary Love-Making” is a transcript of a lecture
for newlyweds that Berg gave during a mass wedding of
his followers in Texas.29 In both letters, Berg praised the
virtues of marriage.
In a 1972 letter addressed to outsiders, especially the
relatives of members, Berg promoted conventional
marriage and denied the accusation that members’
children were taken from their parents. He stated,
“The marriage relationship is considered valid and
sacrosanct and solemnized with the Holy vows of
Biblical betrothal!...[C]hildren are in the same house
with their own parents most of the day… [W]e have
much more family life, love and fellowship, than the
average worldly home of today.”30
However, that letter was a public relations ploy in
response to negative media reports about Berg and the
Children of God. To portray himself and the group in
the best possible light, he left out crucial, controversial
details about his life and beliefs and outright lied about
some things. By then, Berg’s views on conventional
marriage had already radically changed, and just
three months later, in October 1972, he published the
letter “One Wife,” which redefined Christian marriage
and families as secondary to the mystical marriage of
Christians and Christ:
We are not forsaking the marital unit.—We
are adopting a greater and more important and
far larger concept of marriage: The totality of
the Bride and her marriage to the Bridegroom is
The Family! We are adopting the larger
Family as The Family unit: The Family of
God and His Bride and Children!
[Personal private marriage] can only be
tolerated provided it does not interfere with
your marriage to God and your relationship
with the rest of God’s Wife—the Body, His
total Bride! They say that the Bible doesn’t teach
plural marriage, but one of the greatest
examples of all is the marriage of God
28 David Berg, “Scriptural, Revolutionary Love-Making,” ExFamily.
org, accessed January 14, 2025. http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/
ml0000N.shtml
29 David Berg, “Revolutionary Love-Making,” ExFamily.org, accessed
January 14, 2025, http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0259.shtml
30 David Berg, “Survival,” ExFamily.org, accessed January 14, 2025.
http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0172.shtml
Himself to His plural Bride composed of many
members, all of whom are nevertheless One
Bride! 31
These passages laid the basis for Berg’s removal of
monogamy and the creation of new norms that allowed
open sexuality among heterosexual members.
Using the excuse that he was creating the collective
Bride of Christ by destroying monogamy, Berg claimed
that in doing so, he was following God’s will:
God’s in the business of breaking up little
selfish private worldly families to make of their
yielded broken pieces a larger unit—one family!
He’s in the business of destroying the
relationships of many wives in order to make
them One Wife--God’s Wife--The Bride of
Christ…God breaks up marriages in order
that he might join each of the parties together
to himself. He rips off wives, husbands or
children to make up His Bride if the
rest of their family refuses to follow! He is
the worst “ripper-offer” of all! God is the
greatest Destroyer of home and family of
anybody! God does more to break up marriages
than anybody! 32
Resistance, therefore, to these new norms meant that
one was resisting the will of God.
These new norms had dire consequences for parent/
child relationships:
Don’t forget this means your children, also!
Special favouritism and partiality--that is selfish
private property interest…Partiality toward
your own wife or husband or children
strikes at the very foundation of communal
living--against the unity and supremacy
of God’s Family and its oneness and wholeness!33
By prohibiting parents from forming special emotional
and nurturing relationships with their children, Berg
created a cultic environment where adults could invest
their emotions and efforts exclusively in the group he
31 David Berg, “One Wife,” ExFamily.org, accessed January 14, 2025.
http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0249.shtml
32 “One Wife.”
33 “One Wife.”
entirely on scriptures, especially the Song of Solomon.”28
1 “Revolutionary Love-Making” is a transcript of a lecture
for newlyweds that Berg gave during a mass wedding of
his followers in Texas.29 In both letters, Berg praised the
virtues of marriage.
In a 1972 letter addressed to outsiders, especially the
relatives of members, Berg promoted conventional
marriage and denied the accusation that members’
children were taken from their parents. He stated,
“The marriage relationship is considered valid and
sacrosanct and solemnized with the Holy vows of
Biblical betrothal!...[C]hildren are in the same house
with their own parents most of the day… [W]e have
much more family life, love and fellowship, than the
average worldly home of today.”30
However, that letter was a public relations ploy in
response to negative media reports about Berg and the
Children of God. To portray himself and the group in
the best possible light, he left out crucial, controversial
details about his life and beliefs and outright lied about
some things. By then, Berg’s views on conventional
marriage had already radically changed, and just
three months later, in October 1972, he published the
letter “One Wife,” which redefined Christian marriage
and families as secondary to the mystical marriage of
Christians and Christ:
We are not forsaking the marital unit.—We
are adopting a greater and more important and
far larger concept of marriage: The totality of
the Bride and her marriage to the Bridegroom is
The Family! We are adopting the larger
Family as The Family unit: The Family of
God and His Bride and Children!
[Personal private marriage] can only be
tolerated provided it does not interfere with
your marriage to God and your relationship
with the rest of God’s Wife—the Body, His
total Bride! They say that the Bible doesn’t teach
plural marriage, but one of the greatest
examples of all is the marriage of God
28 David Berg, “Scriptural, Revolutionary Love-Making,” ExFamily.
org, accessed January 14, 2025. http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/
ml0000N.shtml
29 David Berg, “Revolutionary Love-Making,” ExFamily.org, accessed
January 14, 2025, http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0259.shtml
30 David Berg, “Survival,” ExFamily.org, accessed January 14, 2025.
http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0172.shtml
Himself to His plural Bride composed of many
members, all of whom are nevertheless One
Bride! 31
These passages laid the basis for Berg’s removal of
monogamy and the creation of new norms that allowed
open sexuality among heterosexual members.
Using the excuse that he was creating the collective
Bride of Christ by destroying monogamy, Berg claimed
that in doing so, he was following God’s will:
God’s in the business of breaking up little
selfish private worldly families to make of their
yielded broken pieces a larger unit—one family!
He’s in the business of destroying the
relationships of many wives in order to make
them One Wife--God’s Wife--The Bride of
Christ…God breaks up marriages in order
that he might join each of the parties together
to himself. He rips off wives, husbands or
children to make up His Bride if the
rest of their family refuses to follow! He is
the worst “ripper-offer” of all! God is the
greatest Destroyer of home and family of
anybody! God does more to break up marriages
than anybody! 32
Resistance, therefore, to these new norms meant that
one was resisting the will of God.
These new norms had dire consequences for parent/
child relationships:
Don’t forget this means your children, also!
Special favouritism and partiality--that is selfish
private property interest…Partiality toward
your own wife or husband or children
strikes at the very foundation of communal
living--against the unity and supremacy
of God’s Family and its oneness and wholeness!33
By prohibiting parents from forming special emotional
and nurturing relationships with their children, Berg
created a cultic environment where adults could invest
their emotions and efforts exclusively in the group he
31 David Berg, “One Wife,” ExFamily.org, accessed January 14, 2025.
http://www.exfamily.org/pubs/ml/b4/ml0249.shtml
32 “One Wife.”
33 “One Wife.”
