Founded as the Children of God by David Berg in 1968, the group has operated under several names and faced decades of lawsuits and former-member allegations of institutionalized child sexual abuse.
David Berg founded the Children of God in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968 as an offshoot of the Jesus movement. The group grew internationally through the 1970s–80s, during which former members and investigative journalists documented systemic child sexual abuse, justified internally through Berg’s writings, along with a controversial recruitment practice known as “flirty fishing.”
The organization has renamed itself multiple times — including The Family and, since 2004, The Family International — and has faced numerous lawsuits and law-enforcement investigations across several countries tied to abuse committed within the group. It continues to operate today as a smaller, decentralized religious network.