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Psychological
Manipulation and Society: cults, cult groups, new religious movements
Cultic
Studies Journal
Psychological Manipulation and Society
Vol. 11, No. 2, 1994
Lustful
Prophet: A Psychosexual Historical Study of the Children of God's Leader, David Berg
- Stephen
A. Kent, Ph.D.
University of Alberta
Alberta, Canada
Abstract
Religious figures have played a minor role in the psychohistorical tradition,
despite Erik Erikson's studies of Luther and Gandhi and frequent psychological insights
that are woven into religious biographies. This study, however, focuses specifically on a
recently deceased religious leader, David Berg, who founded a worldwide religious
organization in the late 1960s known as the Children
of God (COG). Using both autobiographical material from Berg's letters to
followers and interviews with former members who knew him personally, this essay argues
that the group's controversial sexual practices are a direct reflection of early sexual
trauma that Berg experienced within his sexually repressive and punitive family
environment. After years of Berg's relative failure as a Christian minister, the death of
his overbearing mother during the period in which he was successfully proselytizing
California hippies allowed his repressed sexuality to appear in the form of innovative
social mores for his group. In Berg's case, formerly repressed, then unbridled sexuality
served as the basis for the group's ideology and deviant social behavior.
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CSJ