The Family International
Christian new religious movement founded by David Berg in 1968 in the United States
The Family International (TFI) is an American new religious movement founded in 1968 by David Brandt Berg. The group has gone under a number of different names since its inception, including Teens for Christ, The Children of God (COG), The Family of Love, or simply The Family.
A British court case found the group to be an authoritarian cult that engaged in the systematic physical and sexual abuse of children, resulting in lasting trauma among survivors. The group has also been accused of targeting vulnerable people. As of the 2020s, the group was still active and involved in missionary work internationally.
Overview
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, "at its height" the Family movement had "tens of thousands of members, including River and Joaquin Phoenix, Rose McGowan, and Jeremy Spencer".
TFI initially spread a message of salvation, apocalypticism, spiritual "revolution and happiness", and distrust of the outside world, which the members called The System. Like some other evangelical Christian groups, it "foretold the coming of a dictator called the anti-Christ, the rise of a brutal One World Government, and its eventual overthrow by Jesus Christ, in the Second Coming".
In 1976, TFI began a method of evangelism called Flirty Fishing that used sex to "show God's love and mercy" and win converts, resulting in controversy. TFI's founder and prophetic leader, David Berg—who adopted the name "Moses David" while in the Laurentides in Canada, and was also referred to "Father David" by members—gave himself the titles of "King", "The Last Endtime Prophet", "Moses", and "David".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Family International” as christian new religious movement founded by David Berg in 1968 in the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as christian new religious movement founded by David Berg in 1968 in the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q536890. VIAF identifies the subject as 143326162. The Library of Congress control number is nb2007026829. 4 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 6 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Family International” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.