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Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years As a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult
A disturbing account of one woman's experience in a bizarre cult describes her struggle to start anew after years of having sex with strangers in an effort to save their souls
297 pages, Hardcover
First published May 4, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
October 13, 2009
Frustrated. That's what comes to my mind when I think of this book and this woman. Frustrated. I honestly don't think we come from the same planet, this woman and I. We can't.
I think I can get past her seeing demons and "casting them away" by telling them they "are not inside" of her and that they "can't hurt her". Okay. I don't believe children should be subjected to mothers who see demons but hey. What do I know right?
(I'm not going in order here and this may read strange but I'm going by pages I checked- sorry.)
But, and here we get to the real good stuff, we have a man, who was in this cult for years and who recently got out, claiming that Ms. Williams, the leaders and the followers are all crazy and all perverts. Well, yes, they are. But weren't they when YOU were in the cult? Or did that just happen AFTER you left?
Here we have a woman that claims that she would do ANYTHING for her children. No. I would do anything for my children. Ms. Williams, you on the other hand, would not. She claims to have "gotten out" because of her love for her children. I ask this then- where was that supposed love when these kids were hungry because you were giving all your money to you oh so heavenly leaders? Where was your love for them when they were forced to stand on buses and in restaurants begging for money for the leaders? Where was it then? Where was it when they were looking at pamphlets with sexual drawings on them? Where was the love (for them) while you were having threesomes?
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I believe with all my heart that these children should have been taken away from her. I despise, DESPISE, women who claim to love their children and then put them in harms way. That's NOT A MOTHER. Giving birth DOES NOT make you a mother. It doesn't any more than giving sperm makes you a father. How dare she spout about her love for them after years and years and years of making sure they had an abnormal childhood? And for what? To find her heavenly purpose. How about making sure you're kids grow up to be useful human beings that aren't messed up because of their fucking parents? How about making THAT your purpose?
Miriam Williams, and anyone else like her, disgusts me with every ounce of disgust I can dredge up. I hope those children make it in their lives and I also hope she thinks about what she's done every night of the rest of her life.
I think I can get past her seeing demons and "casting them away" by telling them they "are not inside" of her and that they "can't hurt her". Okay. I don't believe children should be subjected to mothers who see demons but hey. What do I know right?
(I'm not going in order here and this may read strange but I'm going by pages I checked- sorry.)
But, and here we get to the real good stuff, we have a man, who was in this cult for years and who recently got out, claiming that Ms. Williams, the leaders and the followers are all crazy and all perverts. Well, yes, they are. But weren't they when YOU were in the cult? Or did that just happen AFTER you left?
Here we have a woman that claims that she would do ANYTHING for her children. No. I would do anything for my children. Ms. Williams, you on the other hand, would not. She claims to have "gotten out" because of her love for her children. I ask this then- where was that supposed love when these kids were hungry because you were giving all your money to you oh so heavenly leaders? Where was your love for them when they were forced to stand on buses and in restaurants begging for money for the leaders? Where was it then? Where was it when they were looking at pamphlets with sexual drawings on them? Where was the love (for them) while you were having threesomes?
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I believe with all my heart that these children should have been taken away from her. I despise, DESPISE, women who claim to love their children and then put them in harms way. That's NOT A MOTHER. Giving birth DOES NOT make you a mother. It doesn't any more than giving sperm makes you a father. How dare she spout about her love for them after years and years and years of making sure they had an abnormal childhood? And for what? To find her heavenly purpose. How about making sure you're kids grow up to be useful human beings that aren't messed up because of their fucking parents? How about making THAT your purpose?
Miriam Williams, and anyone else like her, disgusts me with every ounce of disgust I can dredge up. I hope those children make it in their lives and I also hope she thinks about what she's done every night of the rest of her life.
July 27, 2014
I've read several books about cults. This one is about one of the more interesting cults from the past half century though one that we really get few details about. It's changed several times and claims to be..new and different" now.
back a few years ago this cult ("The Children of God) did get noticed for their esoteric teachings about sex. There was a well known documentary, lots of news coverage, even an episode of Law and Order based on the event that brought the cult into it's momentary fame.
The young adult son of the founder who was sort of assumed to be the "prince in waiting" had fled the cult. Later he killed his nanny and then himself leaving a note that the nanny among other adult women had sexually abused him since he was a baby.
This did of course get the media's notice. Sex, violence, evil religion what more could you want. It came out that one of the main...proselytizing methods used by this cult was to send the (young) women of the church "flirty fishing". In other words promising and giving sex to prospective new church members. The "girls" met men in bars or elsewhere and..."showed them god's love".
Miriam Williams was one of those young women and here she tells her story. It's fairly enlightening but there's little here that's not elsewhere. The book is readable though not all that well done. The story of her life is sad but she does come out the other end. I wish her the best.
The book is worth reading though not the best of it's type.
back a few years ago this cult ("The Children of God) did get noticed for their esoteric teachings about sex. There was a well known documentary, lots of news coverage, even an episode of Law and Order based on the event that brought the cult into it's momentary fame.
The young adult son of the founder who was sort of assumed to be the "prince in waiting" had fled the cult. Later he killed his nanny and then himself leaving a note that the nanny among other adult women had sexually abused him since he was a baby.
This did of course get the media's notice. Sex, violence, evil religion what more could you want. It came out that one of the main...proselytizing methods used by this cult was to send the (young) women of the church "flirty fishing". In other words promising and giving sex to prospective new church members. The "girls" met men in bars or elsewhere and..."showed them god's love".
Miriam Williams was one of those young women and here she tells her story. It's fairly enlightening but there's little here that's not elsewhere. The book is readable though not all that well done. The story of her life is sad but she does come out the other end. I wish her the best.
The book is worth reading though not the best of it's type.
September 7, 2011
ummm. . this book went like this. . . I joined this cult, this is what happened when i was in the cult, this is what I did in the cult, this is what is wrong with this cult, my dad molested me when i was a kid.
The end.
Wtf?
Actually Miriam does give a good account as what it was like to be a member and of her experiences during her time with the COG. She also goes into her re-awakening as a woman and taking back her power and control.
However her revelation about being molested as a child, though probably the root of her intimacy issues, was sloppily laid out towards the end of the book, that for me, it was like coming from left field.
That's just me. Good read.
The end.
Wtf?
Actually Miriam does give a good account as what it was like to be a member and of her experiences during her time with the COG. She also goes into her re-awakening as a woman and taking back her power and control.
However her revelation about being molested as a child, though probably the root of her intimacy issues, was sloppily laid out towards the end of the book, that for me, it was like coming from left field.
That's just me. Good read.
April 18, 2016
This book tells the story of how Miriam Williams joined and escaped the Children of God. After reading this and similar books, I've come to the conclusion that the 1960s was a prime time for cults to develop simply because there were so many young, naive people on the quest for "truth" (the popularity of certain substances might have also contributed to this). There are several reviews on this site expressing their frustration and disdain for Miriam because she stayed so long in the cult. While I can understand the frustration, I will say that it is my belief that cults target emotionally damaged people like Miriam. I won't try to justify everything she did, but I will say that she came from an abusive home and was extremely vulnerable to the manipulations of a cult.
Miriam's story was interesting, but I will say that her writing is not the greatest. That kind of made the story itself drag and I had to reread certain sections in order to understand her. Still the book does give a pretty good look at how cults trap people and sometimes entire families.
Miriam's story was interesting, but I will say that her writing is not the greatest. That kind of made the story itself drag and I had to reread certain sections in order to understand her. Still the book does give a pretty good look at how cults trap people and sometimes entire families.
December 30, 2018
4 Stars = Outstanding. It definitely held my interest.
October 3, 2009
This book was a bit startling to me. I originally gotten the book because I wanted to learn more about the cults of the world and see what was out there. The Children of God cult, which the author was part of is the setting for the tale.
Ms. Williams writes frankly and openly about her experience, feelings (or lack there of), thoughts, and what was going through her mind at key times in her life while she was part of this cult.
Ms. Williams does a wonderful job illuminating the human mind, especially hers, to what would drive a person to tolerate abuse for long periods of time. She also gives hope to those that have found themselves trying to escape the same situation.
Ms. Williams writes frankly and openly about her experience, feelings (or lack there of), thoughts, and what was going through her mind at key times in her life while she was part of this cult.
Ms. Williams does a wonderful job illuminating the human mind, especially hers, to what would drive a person to tolerate abuse for long periods of time. She also gives hope to those that have found themselves trying to escape the same situation.
July 12, 2007
Heaven's Harlots is a book about a former prostitute who used to be in the cult of the Children of God. Being a fan of true crimes, I found the subject matter very interesting. However, because this book is an autobiography more or less, you feel as though the author is leaving out certain details to protect herself and others. Lots of self justification and philosophizing in the book without the gruesome details one would expect of the genre. Also not very well written.
April 17, 2011
It's not well written and it's filled with too much unnecessary detail, but Heaven's Harlots is fascinating because of the insane life led by its author. Lucid, firsthand accounts of life in a cult are rare. The insights were worth the verbiage.
January 13, 2010
Interesting concept; could have been written much better.
July 13, 2011
Miriam Williams, Heaven's Harlots: My Fifteen Years As A Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult (Eagle Brook, 1998)
I started thinking about memoirs using the term “AFM” a few years ago, when it became obvious that the memoir fad was not going to die down any time soon. Every once in a while, one sneaks its way onto my reading list, I've no idea how, and I end up reading a memoir. Now, understand: I loathe memoirs. I especially loathe memoirs by people who aren't actually famous enough, or who have done anything important enough, to have occasioned the actual writing of a memoir, were it a century previous. (Of course, back then, one wouldn't actually become famous without doing something important enough to etc., unless one were a Royal, but that is another rant entirely.) They are, in general, overblown, overboring, self-serving, and just this side of unreadable. And so I've drawn a line in the sand. There's one more memoir that's snuck its way onto my reading list already, and I think it snuck there back in 2008 (my reading lists tend to span a large number of years). I'll read that one, because it's grandfathered in, but after that? No more memoirs. None. Why? Because so many of them are like this.
I try to pull something positive out of every book I read, and in this case, I ended up meditating on the murky difference between autobiography and memoir, something a lot of people, including bookstore owners, have long since given up trying. After thinking about it in terms of this book, with the other memoirs I've read as much in my mind as possible (I've blocked most of them, with very good reason), I came up with an hypothesis: the autobiography is supposed to be more fact-based, straight nonfiction, and because of this the show-don't-tell rule is not supposed to apply. The memoir, on the other hand, is that odd beast we're now calling “creative nonfiction”, as paradoxically absurd a term as that is, and it's supposed to be less straight nonfiction than docudrama. One would then think that show-don't-tell, even in the circle who believe that nonsense I wrote about the first half of this equation, would apply. Logical, right? Well, Heaven's Harlots, which got me thinking about this because it's such an incompetent mashup of the two, was not written by someone who took that idea to heart, or was written by someone who was trying for autobiography and failed miserably. (Here's a rule of thumb: if it contains dialogue from the seventies that doesn't come from, say, court transcripts or the Nixon tapes, unless the author has an eidetic memory, it's a memoir.) If you inferred from that that I'm not going to say anything else about this book that's even remotely positive, you're right on the money.
There's an amusing comment to an existing Amazon review (the only critical review of the book on the site as I write this) that complains that the reviewer seemed to be reviewing Miriam Williams' life, not her book. I have no idea what the commenter was trying to say, given that when you're reviewing a memoir, in essence, you are reviewing the author's life, at least the author's life as the author has chosen to present it to the reader. Forgive me for getting meta on you, but let's face it: the people who write memoirs are not expecting you to pick up their books because they made all the right choices. And so maybe it's kind of fitting that Williams, whose catalog of choices in this book is a paradox in itself (it often seems like she's making the right choices, but for the most deeply, deeply wrong of reasons in each case), presents her life to us in such a muddleheaded way. I've already mentioned that Williams takes a tell-don't-show approach here, which is especially confusing given that she seems to want to aim for the dramatic effect a number of times. The language she chooses to use in most of these scenes undercuts her every time. It does feel appropriate, if still boring, towards the end of the book, when she's making an attempt, however surface it may be, to understand the psyche of the average Children of God cult member (in order to understand herself, not said but strongly implied), but when she's talking about being separated from her child? If you want to form an emotional connection with the reader, there's really no valid choice there but packing in as much emotionally-laden description as possible. A dry recitation of facts is not going to get the job done. Unfortunately, that's much of what we get here, and it helps even less that many of the more outrageous claims against the Children of God cult are addressed here by hearsay at best. Not the best approach when that's what you're using to sell the book. You're going to come away with a lot of disappointed readers. I'm not one of them in this regard; I knew nothing at all about the cult when I originally added this book to my reading list way back when. But then, the book's so ineffectively-written that there wasn't much disappointment to be had about anything else.
I'm not entirely sure why I plugged on with it, to tell you the truth. This would have been a prime candidate for abandoning to the dustbunnies after page fifty, but I ended up reading the whole thing. It doesn't get any better. Possibly worth reading if you're interested in the Children of God and there's no other source material out there about them (I haven't checked), but otherwise forget it.
Oh, and the term AFM? It stands, of course, for “another f***ing memoir”, said with a tone of aggravation that varies depending on how bad the book is. This one was pretty high on the scale. *
I started thinking about memoirs using the term “AFM” a few years ago, when it became obvious that the memoir fad was not going to die down any time soon. Every once in a while, one sneaks its way onto my reading list, I've no idea how, and I end up reading a memoir. Now, understand: I loathe memoirs. I especially loathe memoirs by people who aren't actually famous enough, or who have done anything important enough, to have occasioned the actual writing of a memoir, were it a century previous. (Of course, back then, one wouldn't actually become famous without doing something important enough to etc., unless one were a Royal, but that is another rant entirely.) They are, in general, overblown, overboring, self-serving, and just this side of unreadable. And so I've drawn a line in the sand. There's one more memoir that's snuck its way onto my reading list already, and I think it snuck there back in 2008 (my reading lists tend to span a large number of years). I'll read that one, because it's grandfathered in, but after that? No more memoirs. None. Why? Because so many of them are like this.
I try to pull something positive out of every book I read, and in this case, I ended up meditating on the murky difference between autobiography and memoir, something a lot of people, including bookstore owners, have long since given up trying. After thinking about it in terms of this book, with the other memoirs I've read as much in my mind as possible (I've blocked most of them, with very good reason), I came up with an hypothesis: the autobiography is supposed to be more fact-based, straight nonfiction, and because of this the show-don't-tell rule is not supposed to apply. The memoir, on the other hand, is that odd beast we're now calling “creative nonfiction”, as paradoxically absurd a term as that is, and it's supposed to be less straight nonfiction than docudrama. One would then think that show-don't-tell, even in the circle who believe that nonsense I wrote about the first half of this equation, would apply. Logical, right? Well, Heaven's Harlots, which got me thinking about this because it's such an incompetent mashup of the two, was not written by someone who took that idea to heart, or was written by someone who was trying for autobiography and failed miserably. (Here's a rule of thumb: if it contains dialogue from the seventies that doesn't come from, say, court transcripts or the Nixon tapes, unless the author has an eidetic memory, it's a memoir.) If you inferred from that that I'm not going to say anything else about this book that's even remotely positive, you're right on the money.
There's an amusing comment to an existing Amazon review (the only critical review of the book on the site as I write this) that complains that the reviewer seemed to be reviewing Miriam Williams' life, not her book. I have no idea what the commenter was trying to say, given that when you're reviewing a memoir, in essence, you are reviewing the author's life, at least the author's life as the author has chosen to present it to the reader. Forgive me for getting meta on you, but let's face it: the people who write memoirs are not expecting you to pick up their books because they made all the right choices. And so maybe it's kind of fitting that Williams, whose catalog of choices in this book is a paradox in itself (it often seems like she's making the right choices, but for the most deeply, deeply wrong of reasons in each case), presents her life to us in such a muddleheaded way. I've already mentioned that Williams takes a tell-don't-show approach here, which is especially confusing given that she seems to want to aim for the dramatic effect a number of times. The language she chooses to use in most of these scenes undercuts her every time. It does feel appropriate, if still boring, towards the end of the book, when she's making an attempt, however surface it may be, to understand the psyche of the average Children of God cult member (in order to understand herself, not said but strongly implied), but when she's talking about being separated from her child? If you want to form an emotional connection with the reader, there's really no valid choice there but packing in as much emotionally-laden description as possible. A dry recitation of facts is not going to get the job done. Unfortunately, that's much of what we get here, and it helps even less that many of the more outrageous claims against the Children of God cult are addressed here by hearsay at best. Not the best approach when that's what you're using to sell the book. You're going to come away with a lot of disappointed readers. I'm not one of them in this regard; I knew nothing at all about the cult when I originally added this book to my reading list way back when. But then, the book's so ineffectively-written that there wasn't much disappointment to be had about anything else.
I'm not entirely sure why I plugged on with it, to tell you the truth. This would have been a prime candidate for abandoning to the dustbunnies after page fifty, but I ended up reading the whole thing. It doesn't get any better. Possibly worth reading if you're interested in the Children of God and there's no other source material out there about them (I haven't checked), but otherwise forget it.
Oh, and the term AFM? It stands, of course, for “another f***ing memoir”, said with a tone of aggravation that varies depending on how bad the book is. This one was pretty high on the scale. *
August 14, 2014
I've always been fascinated by cults, so I always enjoy reading about cult experiences. Ms. William's book lacked something that other cult books have, she was just a regular member. She wasn't in a leadership position, nor did she ever meet any of the big leaders of the cult, which is strange since most cult books come from ex-members who were a bit higher up than she was.
I didn't know much about Children of God before reading this. I'd heard some things here and there, but never really gone into it, since COG never did anything really stupid or dangerous, unlike other cults in the late 20th century.
I enjoyed the fact that Ms. William's studies her possible psychological reasons for joining the cult in the last chapter. She makes a very good argument about why people join cults. Most assume that people who join cults are lacking in intelligence, but I don't think that's true at all. It was very interesting to study her reasons and why she things COG did so well in the 70s.
I didn't know much about Children of God before reading this. I'd heard some things here and there, but never really gone into it, since COG never did anything really stupid or dangerous, unlike other cults in the late 20th century.
I enjoyed the fact that Ms. William's studies her possible psychological reasons for joining the cult in the last chapter. She makes a very good argument about why people join cults. Most assume that people who join cults are lacking in intelligence, but I don't think that's true at all. It was very interesting to study her reasons and why she things COG did so well in the 70s.
September 14, 2008
This contained fragments of an interesting book, but desperately needed a better editor and far! fewer! exclamation points! Williams' experiences would work better as anecdotes in a large-scale look at the very interesting Children of God cult. I was also a bit put out at her big revelation at the end of the book.....she has one dream about her father exposing herself to her, and that means it actually happened, and that experience largely explains her personality and her acceptance of the COG life for fifteen years? Not sure I'm buying that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2012
Really well written account about a woman's experience in the Children of God cult. It's so sad that so many people don't seem to realize that organized religion is a means of a small group of men/women to control the masses, usually to their detriment as individuals. The story breaks down a bit near the end of the book, but most of it is very interesting.
May 8, 2014
I liked it but it did get a bit long and boring in some parts. I did though find her life in the Children of God Fascinating and why a person and what kind of person would let this sort of brainwashing happen to them especially when it seemed she had a pretty independent mind to begin with. Very interesting read and a good read.
July 5, 2016
It was not the most eloquent book I've ever read, but the spirituality Williams discovers by the end of her journey struck a chord in my soul. Truth is truth. And it cannot be completely know by one man or woman who teaches it to others. It is discovered in the heart and study of each individual. It is not restricted to one organization or one religion. There is truth in all things.
September 11, 2022
This was my first time reading a COG memoir from a first-gen perspective. I feel incredibly sympathetic towards Miriam and I’m so glad she has left the group. I was so glad to see that she left when sexual encounters with children were allowed/encouraged, as from other COG memoirs I’ve read, many adults either looked the other way or actively participates. It makes me respect her much more (I was very worried she was going to stay during that and was afraid to read of it).
Miriam is not stupid. It makes me so sad to see people read these books and talk about how the author is an idiot. Miriam acknowledges that she joined the group of her own choice and that she knew what she was doing, which is good. However, when you’ve been living in a community like COG for so long, those beliefs are simply a part of you, and Miriam was in this group for 15 years, including during her young adult life, which is a time where you really start forming your opinions and views on life.
Overall, I think the book was well-written enough (towards the end, readers are kind of tossed into her talking about her father all of a sudden, which caught me offguard and I kind of ended up skimming that if I’m honest) and I would recommend it to anyone interested. The timeline was easy for me to follow and nothing seemed confusing for me. Miriam even includes a glossary of COG-related words if you get confused on the lingo, which I think will help many readers.
Miriam is not stupid. It makes me so sad to see people read these books and talk about how the author is an idiot. Miriam acknowledges that she joined the group of her own choice and that she knew what she was doing, which is good. However, when you’ve been living in a community like COG for so long, those beliefs are simply a part of you, and Miriam was in this group for 15 years, including during her young adult life, which is a time where you really start forming your opinions and views on life.
Overall, I think the book was well-written enough (towards the end, readers are kind of tossed into her talking about her father all of a sudden, which caught me offguard and I kind of ended up skimming that if I’m honest) and I would recommend it to anyone interested. The timeline was easy for me to follow and nothing seemed confusing for me. Miriam even includes a glossary of COG-related words if you get confused on the lingo, which I think will help many readers.
June 20, 2020
Not a great literary achievement but since I don’t remember ever having heard about the COG or read any of the other memoirs, I found the story fascinating. The author was brutally honest and I believe she nailed everything as she pondered her reasons for joining the cult, remaining as long as she did, and determining what kept her there. I’ve never been involved with a cult but I was part of Christian fundamentalism for half of my life and identified with much of what she said about the draw and the manipulation and guilt etc. In the end her values and intellect and love for her children saved her. Good book and great story.
January 27, 2015
I definitely have a thing for reading memoirs and books about cults - I'm a bit obsessed, truth be told. I was born in 76, and had really only heard of this cult before, but other than the name and that it was a cult, knew nothing at all about it. I prefer autobiographies to memoirs but actually read more memoirs than autobiographies, and this book was the first book I found through interlibrary loan when the time came to read about this cult.
Williams is clearly not an accomplished writer; her book reads very flat. That being said, her life is fascinating. You can clearly tell she's censoring herself a lot, and I do get that, but on the other hand, she was the one who chose to write this book, you can't now only share half your story, and you definitely get the impression that that is what she is doing here.
Her constant, reoccuring theme throughout the book is how she would do absolutely anything to protect her children and claims she finally leaves the cult because of her children, when that's clearly not true. I also really hated the fact that she constantly talks about how much she loves her children (plural) and constantly tries to tell us what she did that made her such a good mother, when in fact she mainly obsesses over her oldest child, and mainly puts him (and her other children) in harm's way, rationalizing that she's in fact exposing them to emotional and psychological abuse. Williams seems more interested in telling us what a good mother she is, then in actually sharing her experiences in a cult.
I also was surprised, when she finally got to how she left the cult, by how she actually left. Without spoiling the book for you, she constantly tells us how she left the cult because she wanted to save her children, when it seems more like she just got left behind. The whole thing reads as a story, and I wonder where the truth actually lies.
Williams is clearly not an accomplished writer; her book reads very flat. That being said, her life is fascinating. You can clearly tell she's censoring herself a lot, and I do get that, but on the other hand, she was the one who chose to write this book, you can't now only share half your story, and you definitely get the impression that that is what she is doing here.
Her constant, reoccuring theme throughout the book is how she would do absolutely anything to protect her children and claims she finally leaves the cult because of her children, when that's clearly not true. I also really hated the fact that she constantly talks about how much she loves her children (plural) and constantly tries to tell us what she did that made her such a good mother, when in fact she mainly obsesses over her oldest child, and mainly puts him (and her other children) in harm's way, rationalizing that she's in fact exposing them to emotional and psychological abuse. Williams seems more interested in telling us what a good mother she is, then in actually sharing her experiences in a cult.
I also was surprised, when she finally got to how she left the cult, by how she actually left. Without spoiling the book for you, she constantly tells us how she left the cult because she wanted to save her children, when it seems more like she just got left behind. The whole thing reads as a story, and I wonder where the truth actually lies.
March 31, 2015
I could not put it down! I am always interested in Christian and other religious counter cultures. I have degrees in psychology and sociology, and have taught post-secondary college courses. I found this book very well executed. I was able to take all of my own objective criticism and shelve it while reading this book. I slid my feet back into my 17 year old size 7 shoes and walked her walk so to speak. I believe whole heartedly that one especially so young can make huge life decisions that seem unimaginable to others whom took life slower. I can understand once brainwashed, stripped of your biological family support, money, clothes, and independence you will literally do anything to survive and stay in good favor. Cults understand the human condition and exploit it. This happens again and again. I have witnessed close family members be enamored with religious teaching, and cults it can happen to almost anyone. Great book, great understanding of how COG has been able to exist for so long. It is sad that The author was subjected to such perversions; although, it shows the lines you draw with age, and motherhood. I believe as she does that her wake up call came in the nick of time before her own daughters would have been subjected to the same treatment. I love that she was able to overcome her affiliation with the group, keep her family relationships in tact, and further her education to empower others. Good work! Good read!
December 19, 2012
This book would have really benefited from a better editor or a co-author. There seemed to me to be a lot of gaps and sudden surprise information dropped on the reader. (My sister had died in a car accident years ago.) The author also had an annoying habit of overusing exclamation points in order to make her point. (I drew the line at child sex!) She also related a few too many occasions where she cried her eyes out. Perhaps it is unfair or un-feminist of me, but I came away from this book thinking, "you are an idiot." The author failed to give me a whole lot of perspective about the cult or create much tension.
August 5, 2008
This book is a real eye opener for those that are unfamiliar with religious cults, it explains many different reasons as to why one would join one and why they would stay. This books gives a personal account for how and why one can be easily persuaded to join a cult, it also gives great inspiration for those that are trying to re-connect with society after being a part of a communal cult for many years. I really enjoyed this book and admire the author for telling her story! This book is a great journey into one's self discovery and triumph!
May 18, 2017
Very well written. It's incredibly interested to hear from someone who was a young adult when she joined and was involved with Flirty Fishing. Despite disagreeing with most of Miriam's decisions, she clearly believed wholeheartedly, in the beginning, that this was her path and she was doing this for Jesus, she loved her children, and she only wanted what was best for her family. She's genuine and honest when it must have been terrifying to come out with her story. It's heartbreaking what she and her family went through, and thankfully she escaped.
May 9, 2016
I had heard very little about the Children of God Cult although I had heard of the Flirty Fishing they were encouraged to do, but I can't remember where I heard about it. Communal living is covered as is being part of a cult and what is expected from the members. I do believe what held Ms Williams in the cult and stopped her from leaving long before she did was the sense of security and perhaps institutionalisation she found by being part of a unit.
She really starts to examine herself and her life after leaving the cult but I did find this book a little cluttered and over long.
She really starts to examine herself and her life after leaving the cult but I did find this book a little cluttered and over long.
April 25, 2023
Disturbing book about one woman's willing participation in prostitution as part of the Children of God cult. It covers some similar territory as the much better book Sex Cult Nun, but there are some new aspects of the cult revealed here because Williams would play hooker to some of the world's richest men and had much more freedom than others in the cult.
She lies, she cheats, she steals, she sleeps with other married men in the organization, she sleeps with hundreds of outsiders to try to convert them, she abandons her son and obeys everything her husband or leaders tell her no matter how crazy. All knowingly and willingly (except for when her husband tricks her into going away so he can leave with another woman and steal the boy from her). Yet she and the Children of God claim to be almost-perfect Christians and Bible followers, only with pure intent trying to follow God's will. Right. Never are the leaders questioned when they interpret the Bible to say that all these immoral things can be done while claiming to be righteous.
Most disturbing is her saying, "I hope that this story of one cult will not instill in the reader the simplistic idea that all new religious movements should be stopped. Consider the fact that Christianity started as a cult." HUH? No, it didn't. She obviously doesn't understand what a "cult" is. It's not just a group that preaches something different from tradition but it requires forced adherence to rules, refusal to have contact with outsiders and not allowing followers to leave. Children of God, based on this book, merely tried to pressure (or in her word "manipulate) to do what leaders wanted but she was always free to go.
Throughout the book it's clear that Williams could see outsiders all the time, including her parents, and she chose to do all the things she did--she was never forced or abused but instead acknowledges that she made a lot of bad decisions and could have left at any time. If anything this book makes Children of God not look like a cult because it never forces anyone to stay (Sex Cult Nun shows a very different side though).
Much of the book is interesting but she goes on and on with the same repetitive stories about them begging for money, moving around, having sex freely among members, using sex to "bring people to Jesus," reading stupid letters from their leader, etc. The book is overly long because she fails to consolidate all of these repeat details.
Instead she could have used the space to better explain all that was wrong with what was going on in her life or share stories of some of the others in the group that truly were harmed. She obviously has a mental illness and refuses to claim it, defending herself as being intelligent when just about everything she does for decades is dumb.
The saddest part of the book is actually how she abuses her children by remaining in the group and accepting its abuse while claiming all the time she is fighting for them. If she really cared about her kids she wouldn't have made them grow up in such horrible conditions and nonsense theology.
At the end of the book she rejects Children of God due to the leader's allowing sex with children, she comes to America and finally gets an education. She rejects standard Christianity as well, starts calling God a "Mother," gets into some weird psychic dream stuff, and at no point seems to truly look back on her time in the group with a fully objective view.
The Children of God were not Bible-believing evangelicals, they were distorting virtually every verse in scripture, claiming to live like people during the Acts of the Apostles but instead were simply Hippies that wanted to be socialists. If anything, this book proves that socialism doesn't work and only benefits leaders, that there's no one who claims to be Christian that has any sense of what the Bible actually teaches, and that the need to surround yourself with a "community" can be very harmful.
Williams admits it throughout the book that socialism was the ideal and the group members didn't work jobs, instead would go out begging for money and everyday needs or perform to raise dollars. Instead of giving to others this group only received (except for their bodies, which they used to have sex claiming they were sharing God's love). There is nothing in the New Testament that says followers should be swapping spouses, having sexual hookups with random strangers, or going out mooching off nonbelievers instead of working. And one of the most overlooked scriptures is, "If anyone does not provide for his own, especially those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim. 5:8) Even if you want to pretend like Acts teaches socialism (it doesn't, the early Christians weren't setting up a political society), it makes clear that "if anyone does not work, they should not eat." And I don't think the apostles were talking about prostitution when commanding followers to work.
Therefore Williams and the thousands that used sex to raise communal funds for their socialistic society were worse than unbelievers, failing to truly provide for their own families in a healthy way. They should all be ashamed of distorting the Word of God but instead all we get is an ending where her liberal feminist agenda rejects the objective truths in real Christianity and settles for her once again pushing the idea that liberal socialism is everything. What does it profit any of them to live in community if they lose their souls?
She lies, she cheats, she steals, she sleeps with other married men in the organization, she sleeps with hundreds of outsiders to try to convert them, she abandons her son and obeys everything her husband or leaders tell her no matter how crazy. All knowingly and willingly (except for when her husband tricks her into going away so he can leave with another woman and steal the boy from her). Yet she and the Children of God claim to be almost-perfect Christians and Bible followers, only with pure intent trying to follow God's will. Right. Never are the leaders questioned when they interpret the Bible to say that all these immoral things can be done while claiming to be righteous.
Most disturbing is her saying, "I hope that this story of one cult will not instill in the reader the simplistic idea that all new religious movements should be stopped. Consider the fact that Christianity started as a cult." HUH? No, it didn't. She obviously doesn't understand what a "cult" is. It's not just a group that preaches something different from tradition but it requires forced adherence to rules, refusal to have contact with outsiders and not allowing followers to leave. Children of God, based on this book, merely tried to pressure (or in her word "manipulate) to do what leaders wanted but she was always free to go.
Throughout the book it's clear that Williams could see outsiders all the time, including her parents, and she chose to do all the things she did--she was never forced or abused but instead acknowledges that she made a lot of bad decisions and could have left at any time. If anything this book makes Children of God not look like a cult because it never forces anyone to stay (Sex Cult Nun shows a very different side though).
Much of the book is interesting but she goes on and on with the same repetitive stories about them begging for money, moving around, having sex freely among members, using sex to "bring people to Jesus," reading stupid letters from their leader, etc. The book is overly long because she fails to consolidate all of these repeat details.
Instead she could have used the space to better explain all that was wrong with what was going on in her life or share stories of some of the others in the group that truly were harmed. She obviously has a mental illness and refuses to claim it, defending herself as being intelligent when just about everything she does for decades is dumb.
The saddest part of the book is actually how she abuses her children by remaining in the group and accepting its abuse while claiming all the time she is fighting for them. If she really cared about her kids she wouldn't have made them grow up in such horrible conditions and nonsense theology.
At the end of the book she rejects Children of God due to the leader's allowing sex with children, she comes to America and finally gets an education. She rejects standard Christianity as well, starts calling God a "Mother," gets into some weird psychic dream stuff, and at no point seems to truly look back on her time in the group with a fully objective view.
The Children of God were not Bible-believing evangelicals, they were distorting virtually every verse in scripture, claiming to live like people during the Acts of the Apostles but instead were simply Hippies that wanted to be socialists. If anything, this book proves that socialism doesn't work and only benefits leaders, that there's no one who claims to be Christian that has any sense of what the Bible actually teaches, and that the need to surround yourself with a "community" can be very harmful.
Williams admits it throughout the book that socialism was the ideal and the group members didn't work jobs, instead would go out begging for money and everyday needs or perform to raise dollars. Instead of giving to others this group only received (except for their bodies, which they used to have sex claiming they were sharing God's love). There is nothing in the New Testament that says followers should be swapping spouses, having sexual hookups with random strangers, or going out mooching off nonbelievers instead of working. And one of the most overlooked scriptures is, "If anyone does not provide for his own, especially those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim. 5:8) Even if you want to pretend like Acts teaches socialism (it doesn't, the early Christians weren't setting up a political society), it makes clear that "if anyone does not work, they should not eat." And I don't think the apostles were talking about prostitution when commanding followers to work.
Therefore Williams and the thousands that used sex to raise communal funds for their socialistic society were worse than unbelievers, failing to truly provide for their own families in a healthy way. They should all be ashamed of distorting the Word of God but instead all we get is an ending where her liberal feminist agenda rejects the objective truths in real Christianity and settles for her once again pushing the idea that liberal socialism is everything. What does it profit any of them to live in community if they lose their souls?
December 29, 2008
I wanted to read this both for my interest in cults, and because I know Thor, the author's oldest child who she talks about in the book. He is sweet and brilliant man. Hearing about his insane childhood makes him seem all the more amazing. It's astounding that Miriam, his mother, stayed in the cult for so long after repeated abuse, but I guess when you join at 17, it's all you know.
April 2, 2013
Pretty good first hand account of the Children of God cult. I did not know how much they covered globally and I did not know much about the volunteer work. I've mostly read/heard previously about the horrors of this cult but not the day-to-day activities and sincerity of the beliefs that many members had. Neat account, glad to have read it.
October 8, 2007
I may have dry heaved a few dozen times while reading this, but I couldn't stop. If anything were a train wreck of human capability the Children of God was it. No wonder River Phoenix OD'd and his brother feels spiders crawling on his head. Scary thing is they still exist in an altered form.
July 19, 2008
both stars are thanks to the title.
(but don't take this book out with you in the evening when you want to sit on the stoop and read if you happen to have chatty neighbors. because, awkward. trust me.)
(but don't take this book out with you in the evening when you want to sit on the stoop and read if you happen to have chatty neighbors. because, awkward. trust me.)
August 29, 2008
SCARY! Thank (insert chosen diety/word connoting higher power) this woman survived this awful cult experience and lived to write about it. If you're interested in sociological/psychological impacts of cults you shouldn't miss this.
April 13, 2012
I love books about cults. I've read a few books about this cult. This was a different perspective. Interesting to read about, but probably not as enjoyable to everyone else. I love that this one focuses on sacred prostitution.
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