A cult headquartered in the USA has been exposed by a woman, who was able to escape the cult as a teenager, and she revealed some secrets of the sect in a bid to get others to come forward.
Dawn as a child joined the sect, The Children of God. During her time, she was taught how to have sex at a young age, and made to perform sex acts on ‘uncles’ and shown images of naked women nailed to crucifixes.
Horrified by what was happening at the place since renamed Family International, Dawn at the age of 13 resolved to escape.
Now 29, Dawn is still scarred by her traumatic experience.
Dawn recalls that “as others learned to brush their teeth as children, they learned to have sex. We learned that God is love and the way to express God’s love is through sexuality. I never knew anything different from that.
I think that no one will truly understand unless you have lived it, what abuse is. And abuse I say in all forms. Abused sexually, abused emotionally and abused spiritually.
“My alone time was something I cherished a lot. I think that was my escape.”
The Children of God was founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg in Huntington, California. The sect quickly expanded into 130 communities in different countries By 1972.
Berg promoted himself as a man of God who starting up a global community of similarly minded individuals.
Hollywood actors Rose McGowan and Joaquin Phoenix have both shared details of their own early childhood experiences in the sect.