From the Children of God to Decades of Scholarly and Legal Scrutiny

The Family International, known earlier as the Children of God and then as The Family, is a new religious movement that arose around 1968 out of the evangelical "Jesus movement" among American youth, founded by David Berg (known to members as "Moses David" or "Mo"). It grew into an international, communal, missionary movement organized around Berg's prolific written teachings ("Mo Letters"). The group became, over the following decades, one of the most extensively studied and litigated new religious movements, above all because of its teachings and practices concerning sexuality.

In the 1970s and 1980s Berg promoted a controversial evangelism-through-sex practice known as "Flirty Fishing," and the group's permissive internal sexual culture during that period drew intense criticism and, most seriously, allegations of the sexual abuse of children raised by former members, including some who had grown up in the movement. These allegations prompted investigations and custody and civil proceedings in several countries; the group has stated that it later prohibited such conduct and reformed its practices, while the harms described by former "second-generation" members remain a significant part of the record. The movement restructured substantially in the 2000s into a more decentralized form. It is a central case in the academic study of new religious movements, of the "anti-cult" controversies, and of the long-term experience of children raised within high-commitment groups.