Life in The Family: An Oral History of the Children of God

by James D. Chancellor

From a unique insider's perspective—including interviews with more than seven-hundred family members—James Chancellor charts The Family's course since its emergence as the most controversial group to grow out of the Jesus People Movement in the 1960s. Chancellor, who had extraordinary access to rare Family records, includes the experiences of members who have remained loyal to the community and to the founding vision of their prophet, David Brandt Berg. In the first book of its kind—comprising often painful personal histories and firsthand accounts—Chancellor focuses on the motivation and process of becoming a Child of God, the core beliefs of the community, the mission of the disciples, their shifting sexual mores, and the cost of membership in terms of internal discipline and external persecution. Intense confrontation with the legal, religious, political, and educational establishment marked the movement's activities from the beginning. The young disciples heeded the call of their prophet to flee a soon-to-be-destroyed North America. Dispersed throughout Europe, Latin America, Africa, and East Asia, they virtually disappeared from the American landscape. In the late 1980s, The Family had gone through extreme theological and lifestyle changes, including a radical reordering of their sexual ethos. The Children of God started to come home. Now a worldwide counterculture of some twelve thousand members, the movement's colorful history reveals a profoundly religious group that has tested the limits of human experience.

Genres: Cults

291 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jerrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how much space Chancellor devoted to these stories, interesting to hear from the members themselves, considering how much negative press they get. I came away feeling more informed but with mixed feelings about the Family. They don't vaccinate, they discourage birth control use, and seem to also encourage pretty strict gender norms. On the other hand, it seems like their openness about sex is to the benefit of their members, especially after they came down on child molestation and I think at this point have a lower rate of it than even the general population. I don't think the Family should be as targeted as it has been, and the "deprogrammers" that abuse them and take away their children seem like scam artists more than anything, taking tens of thousands of dollars from scared parents and spending it on five-star hotels and first class flights, throwing Family members in jail and THEN finding something to actually charge them with.

This book was also published in 2000 so perhaps the Family has gotten more centered, as most cults do over time. I would be interested to see any sort of follow-up to this book and some of the people it interviewed, especially since the main leadership is still alive almost 20 years later.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

many times in the late 60's i was importuned by these folks, and appalled by how they were turning counterculture cred to the workings of twisted "christian" propaganda. little did i know how twisted. "oral" history indeed...