True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

The Children of God: David Berg

David Brandt Berg (February 18,1919 – October 1, 1994), also known as King David, Mo, Moses David,Father David, Dad, or Grandpa to followers, was the founder andleader of the new religious movement currently known as The FamilyInternational. Berg's group, founded in 1968 among the countercultureyouth in Southern California, gained notoriety for incorporatingsexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods. Bergand his organization have subsequently been accused of a broad rangeof sexual misconduct, including child sexual abuse.

Life

Family heritage

His maternal grandfather was Rev. JohnLincoln Brandt (1860–1946), a Disciples of Christ minister, author,and lecturer of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Brandt had a dramatic conversionin his mid-twenties and immediately entered full-time Christianservice. For years he was a Methodist circuit rider. He later becamea leader of the Alexander Campbell movement of the Disciples ofChrist, a restoration movement that developed into the currentProtestant denomination Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Early years (1919–1969)

Berg was born on February 18, 1919, inOakland, California. During his early years, he usually lived in oraround Florida. He was also the youngest of three children born toHjalmer Emmanuel Berg and Rev. Virginia Lee Brandt, both parents wereChristian evangelists. His father was Swedish. His mother is theindividual whom he credited for influencing him the most. Althoughraised in a Christian home, Virginia became an atheist during hercollege years. However, shortly after the birth of her first child,she broke her back in an accident and spent the next five yearsdisabled and bedridden, often hovering near death. Eventually sherecovered and spent the rest of her life with her husband, Hjalmer,in active Christian service as a pastor and evangelist.

Virginia and Hjalmer were no strangersto controversy. They were expelled from the Disciples of Christ afterpublicly testifying of her "divine healing," whichwas contrary to church doctrine. They subsequently joined a newdenomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, shortly beforeDavid Berg's birth. In later years, their missionary zeal and disdainfor denominational politicking often set them at variance with theconservative faction of that church's hierarchy, causing them to worklargely as independent pastors and evangelists.

David Berg spent his early yearstraveling with his parents, who pursued their evangelical missionwith a passion. In 1924, they settled in Miami, Florida, afterVirginia successfully led a series of large revivals at the MiamiGospel Tabernacle. This became Berg's home for the next 14 years,while his mother and father were pastors at a number of Miamichurches. As is the case with many pastors and their dependents, theBerg family depended entirely on the generosity of their parishionersfor their support, and often had difficulty making ends meet. Thisinstilled in Berg a lifelong habit of frugality, which he encouragedhis followers to adopt.

David Berg graduated from Monterey HighSchool in 1935 and later attended Elliott School of BusinessAdministration. Like his father, Berg became a minister in theChristian and Missionary Alliance in the late 1940s, and was placedat Valley Farms, Arizona. Berg was eventually expelled from theorganization for differences in teachings and for alleged sexualmisconduct with a church employee. In Berg's writings he claimed theexpulsion was due to his support for greater racial diversity amonghis congregation.