religion, videos

Repost: The Children of God cult…

Here’s another repost from the original blog. I wrote this in January 2019, just before the old blog went “poof”. I am reposting it as/is here, since I recently reviewed Not Without My Sister, a book about sisters who were raised in the Children of God cult. This was the first post I wrote about this cult; I first heard about it on the A&E series mentioned below.

Having now exhausted Leah Remini’s Scientology episodes, at least for now, I moved on to another A&E series hosted by Elizabeth Vargas, called Cults and Extreme Belief.  Since yesterday afternoon, I’ve seen three episodes.  The first two, about NXIVM and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, were disturbing enough.  But the third one, about the Children of God (now known as The Family International), made me stop and blog.

Before I watched the show, I had heard a little bit about this religious cult, founded in California in the 1960s by a charismatic preacher named David Berg.  Originally called “Teens for Christ”, this group mostly consisted of runaways and hippies, and preached to each other about salvation, happiness, and a coming apocalypse.  Creepy founder, David Berg, was frequently known by the alias Moses David, and gave himself the titles of “King”, “The Last Endtime Prophet”, “Moses”, and “David”.  His first wife, Jane Miller, married him in 1944 and divorced him in 1970, two years after he started his cult.  Berg married his second wife, Karen Zerby, in 1970.  She is currently leading The Family International, since Berg died in October 1994.

One thing that struck me about this cult is that it was full of musically talented people, children in particular.  One of the children involved was Berg’s granddaughter, Merry, who was also known as Mene.  Merry, who died in her sleep in December 2017, was fifteen days older than I am.  She was musically talented and very ethereal looking, with beautiful blonde hair.  Merry was featured on musical recordings done by Children of God, as well as videos. 

Merry Berg…

Other talented children were also used to make songs about love and sex, and some were also forced to do strip teases.  Aside from that, there was rampant sexual abuse.  Merry was one of the most victimized of the bunch, having endured multiple forced exorcisms as well as extreme abuse on all levels.  She was forced to live in different places, locked in a closet for six months, whipped, tied up, and screamed at by her grandfather, who claimed she was possessed by the devil.

The whole story was very disturbing to me, but I think what really captured my attention was the way these kids looked.  Here they were, maybe ten or eleven years old on these videos from the 70s… a lot of them are probably my contemporaries.  Most of them were attractive and musically gifted, singing so beautifully songs about love.  But the love they sang about was inappropriate and forbidden because it involved sex.  Indeed, these children were commanded to go “flirty fishing” to entice new people to join the cult.  The flirty fishing was more than just flirtation; in fact, it included sex.  David Berg preached sex.

Creepy!

As I watched the above video, I was eerily reminded of the beauty pageants that used to be so popular in the 1980s.  The lyrics sound so wholesome, yet all of the singers look like they’re in a trance.  These teens in the video were likely born into the cult and knew nothing else.  It’s all about worshiping their sick leader, who was supposedly an alcoholic and may have also suffered from mental illnesses.

This clip is from 20/20… a young girl is very upset and repeatedly insists that there’s nothing wrong with sex.

As a child of the 70s and 80s myself, I am also aware of the late actor, River Phoenix, who was extremely famous and much beloved by people of my generation.  Phoenix died in 1993, having overdosed on drugs at The Viper Room in Los Angeles.  He and his similarly talented siblings were raised in this cult when they were very young.  Phoenix once claimed that he lost his virginity at age four, but later said he was kidding.

And A Current Affair also covered this group, explaining “flirty fishing” more.  Imagine the kind of people who were enticed into this group by watching young girls behave sexually.  It sounds like a nightmare.
A 20/20 episode about Children of God.  Not the same one I watched this morning, but also worth viewing.

David Berg unofficially adopted Ricky Rodriguez, nicknaming him Davidito.  He was born in the Canary Islands, the son of Berg’s second wife, Karen Zerby, and a man she “flirty fished”.  In 2005, when Rodriguez was 29 years old, he murdered a woman who had been his nanny and sexually abused him.  Then he killed himself.  Rodriguez was forced into inappropriate sexual relationships when he was a child and developed deep seated resentment toward Berg and Zerby because of the abuse he suffered.

Megyn Kelly speaks to Children of God cult survivor, Christina Babin, who speaks about how difficult it was to be in the cult and how most of the children never got more than a sixth grade education.

I know I heard of this cult before I watched Elizabeth Vargas discuss it this morning.  I remember hearing about River Phoenix and his siblings being in a religious cult when they were young.  It’s tragic how many youngsters were affected by this cult, which was considered a “religion” and granted special privileges.  Many who were raised in The Children of God later committed suicide because they had no foundation from which to launch their lives beyond the cult.

It’s amazing how many cults there are out there and how people get caught up in them.  It’s tragic that children grow up in these organizations and are left with nothing when they come of age.  I may have to find something a little lighter to watch later.

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book reviews

A review of Tony Danza’s I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High

Having had it on my Kindle app for ages, I finally finished reading Tony Danza’s 2012 book, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High. Now that I’ve finally read this book that’s been sitting on my Kindle since January 2014, I’m left with a couple of thoughts. First, I’m really glad I finally read the book. Second, Tony Danza would have been a fine teacher. The kids who had him at Northeast High were very lucky to have him, if even half of what he’s written in this book is true.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I remember Mr. Danza on Taxi, but I especially remember him as single dad, Tony Micelli, on Who’s the Boss. I don’t remember him being a particularly gifted actor, but I do think he’s entertaining. In the 80s, he was also really cute. I was so jealous of Alyssa Milano, who played his daughter. I was jealous of her for many reasons, though, not just because she got to be Tony Danza’s sitcom offspring. Danza explains in his book that his character on Who’s the Boss, Tony Micelli, eventually goes back to college to become a teacher. As it turns out, Danza had always wanted to be a teacher, but got sucked into the wonderful world of show business instead.

Back in September 2009, Danza jumped at the chance when he got the opportunity to make a reality show called Teach: Tony Danza for A&E. Although the production of Teach ended prematurely due to “lack of drama” and Danza’s refusal to allow producers to manufacture it, Danza decided to stick it out at the high school for the whole year. He taught 10th grade high school English at Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The series premiered on A&E in October 2010, and according to Danza, aired at a time when it was guaranteed not to succeed. Filming was mostly done during the fall semester of the 2009-10 school year, with a few unaired episodes filmed during the spring semester.

This book is about the whole year Danza spent teaching. Although I’m not surprised that Danza has the ability to write, I was surprised by how personal and poignant this book is. Yes, he’s an actor, but as I mentioned earlier in this post, I’ve never thought of him as an Oscar contender. Consequently, his voice rings true as he writes about how challenging his year was and how much he came to care deeply about his students and the teachers he met. I’m sure it helps that he’s also a millionaire and only taught one class, but… in all honesty, his writing came across as sincere to me. I’m sure that if any of Danza’s teachers are still alive, they were touched by his title. I believe he really means it.

I can see by the reviews left on Amazon, many of which were written by veteran teachers with decades in the field, I’m not the only one who believes Mr. Danza’s passion for teaching young people. He struggles with the decision to stop teaching. At one point, he candidly explains to one of his students who is tempted to quit trying that he and his second wife of decades, Tracy Robinson, are having marital difficulties. I see by Wikipedia that Danza did divorce his wife, but at the time he was teaching the class, he was struggling with the decision to split from her.

I noticed at least one instance in which Danza exercises some bad judgment, of which he bravely admits. He had taken his students on a field trip that involved an overnight and decided to have a drink in the hotel bar. Another teacher gave him a stern talking to about that, reminding him that they could all lose their jobs by drinking while supervising the kids. Danza also improperly uses the word “jettison”, which appears to be a common error among those who are vocabulary challenged. Danza used the word to mean “rocketed” or “propelled”. “She jettisoned herself to the front of the classroom.” However, the word jettison is defined as casting something off or discarding something, particularly on a sailing vessel or an aircraft. I’m a little surprised an editor didn’t catch and correct that error.

I was glad that Danza didn’t spend the whole book writing about the reality show. Instead, his focus was almost entirely on the students he taught and the other teachers and administrators at the school. He really comes across as a caring and nurturing teacher, which every child– particularly every teenager– needs. Most of all, he drives home the fact that teaching isn’t an easy job, nor does it pay a lot, but the personal rewards can be tremendous for those who can do the job and love it. Danza obviously loved it for the time he did it, although not enough to quit show biz and permanently jump into the education trenches.

I appreciate that Tony Danza took the time and opportunity to get in on this project. Was his year really like an actual teacher’s year? I’m not sure it was. For the first half of the year, there were cameras in the room. But he did stick around for the second half of the year and, though he doesn’t have to get by on a teacher’s salary, nor did he teach as many classes as “real” teachers teach, he did get a taste of what the job is like. I give him kudos for trying it, especially since he says that was his original career goal before he became a television star. It seems crazy that he “missed the boat” on teaching and became a celebrity instead… it’s probably usually the other way around, particularly for teachers in the performing arts.

Anyway, if you want the link to purchase this book… here it is.

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