One of the Most Twisted Cults in Modern History Is Still Active Today

This is easily one of the most disturbing cults out there — and somehow, a lot of people still have no idea it even exists. The Children of God cult. And I need to warn you right now: the crimes connected to this group, especially the abuse involving children, babies, and infants, are deeply disturbing.

What makes this case even crazier is that the cult is still active today.

The Children of God was founded by a man named David Berg, who was born in 1919 to extremely religious parents.

According to Berg’s own writings and accounts from former members, his childhood was deeply unhealthy and abusive. Former followers later pointed out that many of the same behaviors and patterns he experienced growing up were the same ones he would later force onto other people inside his cult.

David Berg’s mother was a self-proclaimed prophet and divine healer. She was actually the first woman in America to become an evangelist preacher. She even had her own radio show where people would pay real money to call in, and then she would heal them over the radio waves. Of course, she was later outed as a fraud and a scammer.

David Berg’s mother believed that one of the worst sins was to touch and pleasure yourself. When she caught her five-year-old son David doing this, she threatened to cut off his penis. But when she caught him doing it again as a teenager, she forced him to finish in front of her and his father. David also claimed that as a child he had a babysitter who would sexually assault him to put him to sleep at nap time. He would later do the same thing to the children in his cult, including his own daughter.

David claimed that his mother would often be nude while cuddling him as a child, and he later said that one of his biggest regrets was not sleeping with his own mother. He went on to sexually assault his own family members and forced his cult followers to sleep with their own family members and children.

For most of his early life, David Berg was pretty unsuccessful. He got married, had children, worked briefly as a minister, and then in the late 1960s moved to California during the height of the hippie movement.

That’s where everything changed.

Berg started targeting vulnerable young people — mostly hippies, runaways, and teenagers who were far away from their families and struggling financially. He offered them free food, coffee, shelter, and a sense of belonging. Once he gained their trust, he slowly pulled them into his cult .

He told his cult followers that he was a prophet of God and received messages straight from Him, so whatever he said was God’s word. At first, his preaching focused on morality and purity. But as the years went on, it turned into David claiming that God told him to sleep with every woman, teenager, and child. He was a pedophile who even forced members of his own family to sleep with him.

He forced his sons’ wives to sleep with him. He also made the rest of his family have sex with each other. On top of that, he forced his cult followers to do the same with their own family members and children.

David Berg’s cult, the Children of God, spread worldwide. They had thousands of members living in hundreds of communities across dozens of countries. David knew he wasn’t the most charming or attractive guy, so he started sending out the most attractive women in the cult to “go fishing” for wealthy men.

These women would flirt with and sleep with them to recruit new members. David called this practice “Flirty Fishing.” One of these flirty fishers was a woman named Karen Zerby, who would later become very important in the story.

Karen was brought into the cult by David’s wife. David liked her so much that he married her instead and sent his original wife away.

The Children of God was a doomsday cult. After all, is it even a cult if the leader isn’t telling everyone that the world is about to end and that the only way to be saved is by following him completely? It was through this constant fear that David got away with all the evil things he did to his followers and their children.

The Children of God cult had quite a few famous members. In 1971, musician Jeremy Spencer left Fleetwood Mac to join the cult, which eventually opened up a spot for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join the band in 1974. It’s pretty crazy to think we might not have songs like “Silver Springs” and “Dreams” if the Children of God had never existed.

There were also quite a few families that joined the cult with young children, or these children were born into the cult that later grew up to be celebrities, like Rose McGowan and River Phoenix.

David’s wife, Karen Zerby, was out Flirty Fishing one day and slept with 80 men at the same hotel. She got pregnant from it, and they had a son they named Rickie. David became convinced that Rickie was the next prophet sent from God — basically the Messiah. The abuse this young boy endured was absolutely horrific, and much of it was openly documented in a book the cult later published as a recommended guide for raising children “God’s way.”

Rickie was sexually assaulted by cult members starting when he was just 17 months old. When he was still a toddler, a female member handed over her seven-year-old daughter to him so he could sexually assault her whenever he wanted. Of course, Rickie was only a child himself — he didn’t understand what he was doing and was being pressured and forced to victimize other kids.

His own mother, Karen Zerby, also forced him to sleep with her. When David arranged a wife for Rickie — his own granddaughter, a young girl named Mary — Karen became insanely jealous. In retaliation, she sent the girl to one of their communes in the Philippines and ordered the members there to abuse, torture, and sexually assault her. Mary was often handcuffed to a bed for months at a time.

By the 1980s, the cult had grown to over 8,000 members in more than 80 countries. Then in 1994, David Berg died of natural causes at the age of 74. His wife, Karen Zerby, took over as the new leader of the Children of God. By then, Rickie was already an adult who had escaped the cult, but he was still suffering badly from all the abuse he had endured since infancy.

Unfortunately, many members who left the Children of God cult — especially those who were born or raised in it — struggled badly in adulthood. A lot of ex-members suffered from substance abuse, severe depression, and many ultimately took their own lives. One of David Berg’s own sons even committed suicide by jumping off a mountain.

Ricky eventually came to believe that the only way to end the cult’s terror was to kill its leader — his own mother, Karen Zerby. Since he didn’t know where she was hiding, he lured a high-ranking female member named Angela Smith to meet him by pretending he wanted to rejoin the cult. Angela had been one of the women who sexually assaulted him since he was an infant.

While holding her hostage, Ricky tried to force her to reveal his mother’s location, but she wouldn’t talk. He also tried explaining how horrific the cult was and all the awful things they had done to him. In the end, he got so overwhelmed with rage that he stabbed Angela to death. Afterward, Ricky took his own life, ending his tragic story.

Ricky actually recorded an hour-plus-long video where he detailed all the abuse in the cult, the horrific things they did to children, and how these people deserved justice. He wanted revenge. The video is available online — I suggest you listen to it if you’re interested, but it’s incredibly heartbreaking.

Ricky’s mother, Karen Zerby, never faced any legal consequences. She continued leading the cult until she retired in 2025. The group still exists today with over 10,000 members in 80 countries. They no longer call themselves the Children of God — they now go by The Family International and claim to be a reformed Christian church that no longer abuses children.