ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54208/0008 117
was moulding.
That letter warned members to obey God’s will, as Berg
defined it, or risk losing any relationships with spouses
or children. Members were now required to put “God’s
family” first and to separate from their spouses and
children if ordered to by leadership. Although that letter
did not explicitly permit promiscuity among members,
sexual permissiveness soon followed.
Revolutionary Sex
In 1973, Berg began to groom his followers to accept sexual
doctrines that radically departed from conventional
Christian dogma by writing a series of letters explaining
his boundary-breaking beliefs on sexuality.34
1
The
first one, “Revolutionary Sex,” emphasized the godly
naturalness of nudity, masturbation, and sexuality in
general and criticized religious dogma that saw sex as
shameful.35 Some passages foreshadow later letters that
opened the door to almost every kind of heterosexual
(and, in some contexts, lesbian) sexual activity. For
example, he declared that the Bible only prohibits four
forms of sexual activity—fornication, adultery, incest
and sodomy—but claimed that God made “many
exceptions, allowances and tolerations” for all of them
except for male homosexuality.36
The Flirty Little Fishy
The next pivotal letters that unleashed the Children of
God from traditional Christian sexual morality came
out in early 1974. First, Berg revealed an unorthodox
proselytizing method in the letter, “The Flirty Little
Fishy,” which introduced the practice of religious
prostitution to gain converts and supporters. The letter
is mostly a prophecy based on the metaphor in Jesus’s
call to his first disciples to “follow me and I will make
you fishers of men.”37 Berg expanded that metaphor,
describing Zerby as bait used to sexually lure and hook
men for Jesus.
The first paragraph explained that Berg and Zerby
34 Susan Raine and Stephen A. Kent, “The Grooming of Children for
Sexual Abuse in Religious Settings: Unique Characteristics and Select Case
Studies,” Aggression and Violent Behavior 48 (September–October 2019):
186-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.017.
35 “Revolutionary Sex.”
36 “Revolutionary Sex.”
37 Mt. 4:19 (KJV).
spent a night out socializing with friends. By this
time, they were living in England, isolated from their
followers, so those friends either were not Children
of God members or were unaware that Berg was
the group’s leader. Afterwards, at home, Berg gave a
prophecy about their interactions. In this letter, Zerby
asked whether the people they met that night were
spiritually receptive. The setting of that social event
was left to the reader’s imagination (obviously, it was
sexual), and the message was clear: Flirty Fishing,
or FFing for short, was a new proselytizing method
meant for members to practice.38
1
As in other Mo Letters, Berg cloaked his new, sexually
deviant edicts to his followers in biblical images:
Help her to catch men, be bold, unashamed
and brazen to use anything she has, O God, to
catch men for Thee!—Even if it be through the
flesh, the attractive lure, delicious flesh…
[T]he bait, impaled on Thy hook, torn by Thy
Spirit, O Lord, crucified on Thy cross, Jesus…
Are you even willing to be bait on God’s hook
or in His trap? Would you do anything for Jesus
to help your Fisherman catch men, even to suffer
the crucifixion of the hook or the danger
of the trap? Are you willing to risk being
eaten alive that “from henceforth ye shall
catch men”? Think it over: How far would you
go to catch men? All the way? May God help us
all to be Flirty Little Fishies for Jesus to save lost
souls…Amen?39
Regardless of the personal dangers involved in women
putting themselves in sexual situations with men
(including strangers), the potential benefits of gaining
converts outweighed the very real possibility of being
harmed. Berg represented the potential benefits as
salvific for the men, but these sexual contacts quickly
became fundraising—and resource-acquisition—
opportunities for the group.
The fledgling FFing ministry began flourishing a
few months later when Berg and Zerby moved to the
tourist hot spot, Tenerife (the largest of Spain’s Canary
Islands), in March 1974. Three months after “The Flirty
38 XFamily, “Flirty Fishing,” accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.
xfamily.org/index.php/Flirty_Fishing
39 David Berg, “The Little Flirty Fishy,” XFamily.org. https://pubs.
xfamily.org/text.php?t=293
was moulding.
That letter warned members to obey God’s will, as Berg
defined it, or risk losing any relationships with spouses
or children. Members were now required to put “God’s
family” first and to separate from their spouses and
children if ordered to by leadership. Although that letter
did not explicitly permit promiscuity among members,
sexual permissiveness soon followed.
Revolutionary Sex
In 1973, Berg began to groom his followers to accept sexual
doctrines that radically departed from conventional
Christian dogma by writing a series of letters explaining
his boundary-breaking beliefs on sexuality.34
1
The
first one, “Revolutionary Sex,” emphasized the godly
naturalness of nudity, masturbation, and sexuality in
general and criticized religious dogma that saw sex as
shameful.35 Some passages foreshadow later letters that
opened the door to almost every kind of heterosexual
(and, in some contexts, lesbian) sexual activity. For
example, he declared that the Bible only prohibits four
forms of sexual activity—fornication, adultery, incest
and sodomy—but claimed that God made “many
exceptions, allowances and tolerations” for all of them
except for male homosexuality.36
The Flirty Little Fishy
The next pivotal letters that unleashed the Children of
God from traditional Christian sexual morality came
out in early 1974. First, Berg revealed an unorthodox
proselytizing method in the letter, “The Flirty Little
Fishy,” which introduced the practice of religious
prostitution to gain converts and supporters. The letter
is mostly a prophecy based on the metaphor in Jesus’s
call to his first disciples to “follow me and I will make
you fishers of men.”37 Berg expanded that metaphor,
describing Zerby as bait used to sexually lure and hook
men for Jesus.
The first paragraph explained that Berg and Zerby
34 Susan Raine and Stephen A. Kent, “The Grooming of Children for
Sexual Abuse in Religious Settings: Unique Characteristics and Select Case
Studies,” Aggression and Violent Behavior 48 (September–October 2019):
186-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.017.
35 “Revolutionary Sex.”
36 “Revolutionary Sex.”
37 Mt. 4:19 (KJV).
spent a night out socializing with friends. By this
time, they were living in England, isolated from their
followers, so those friends either were not Children
of God members or were unaware that Berg was
the group’s leader. Afterwards, at home, Berg gave a
prophecy about their interactions. In this letter, Zerby
asked whether the people they met that night were
spiritually receptive. The setting of that social event
was left to the reader’s imagination (obviously, it was
sexual), and the message was clear: Flirty Fishing,
or FFing for short, was a new proselytizing method
meant for members to practice.38
1
As in other Mo Letters, Berg cloaked his new, sexually
deviant edicts to his followers in biblical images:
Help her to catch men, be bold, unashamed
and brazen to use anything she has, O God, to
catch men for Thee!—Even if it be through the
flesh, the attractive lure, delicious flesh…
[T]he bait, impaled on Thy hook, torn by Thy
Spirit, O Lord, crucified on Thy cross, Jesus…
Are you even willing to be bait on God’s hook
or in His trap? Would you do anything for Jesus
to help your Fisherman catch men, even to suffer
the crucifixion of the hook or the danger
of the trap? Are you willing to risk being
eaten alive that “from henceforth ye shall
catch men”? Think it over: How far would you
go to catch men? All the way? May God help us
all to be Flirty Little Fishies for Jesus to save lost
souls…Amen?39
Regardless of the personal dangers involved in women
putting themselves in sexual situations with men
(including strangers), the potential benefits of gaining
converts outweighed the very real possibility of being
harmed. Berg represented the potential benefits as
salvific for the men, but these sexual contacts quickly
became fundraising—and resource-acquisition—
opportunities for the group.
The fledgling FFing ministry began flourishing a
few months later when Berg and Zerby moved to the
tourist hot spot, Tenerife (the largest of Spain’s Canary
Islands), in March 1974. Three months after “The Flirty
38 XFamily, “Flirty Fishing,” accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.
xfamily.org/index.php/Flirty_Fishing
39 David Berg, “The Little Flirty Fishy,” XFamily.org. https://pubs.
xfamily.org/text.php?t=293
