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Every few years, you hear another tale of a spiritual leader who ushers his followers straight to hell: Jim Jones shepherds the disciples of his People’s Temple to Guyana, where 900 of them are killed/forced to commit suicide; David Koresh and his flock of Branch Davidians outside of Waco are held under siege by the FBI, leading to a bungled assault that incinerates 76 people in a conflagration televised worldwide; Marshall Applewhite, co-leader of the cult Heaven’s Gate, tells his black-clad lambs that rapture can be found on a spaceship riding the jet trails of Hale-Bopp and, as a result, 40 people take their lives.
Being such gruesome granddaddies of charisma and woe, these are the men we all know. But there are others, to be sure. Add to this fold David Berg.
The son of a preacher man and woman, Berg, after missing the mark numerous times, spun together a congregation of young adherents by jumping right into the Summer of Love. Maybe all that Free Love must have rubbed off on him, because soon enough, he was preaching polygamy and polyamory for his eventual 8,000 members. He even developed something called “flirty fishing,” where he got his female flock to seduce men, all in the name of fornicating for the Lord.
Too bad Jesus didn’t pass out contraceptives, because some of the women bore fruit and Berg thought it a fine idea for the kids and the adults to get it on. The kids were left scarred, many of the parents remained complicit, and Berg, known as the Endtime Prophet, wound up impotent. Stirring in their midst was a young child of God, called the Prophet Prince, who led them not, as Berg hoped before his passing, to the Promised Land, but instead onto the front pages with a vicious murder and suicide.
It’s a sad tale Don Lattin recounts in Jesus Freaks. His investigations into the sexual abuse of these children are hard to read. And, as terrible as it to admit, they’re also the book’s most engaging pages. By the time the Prophet takes up a knife, and the story heads to what should be a gripping conclusion, it’s pure anti-climax.
Stories such as this one cement the notion that messianic leaders can often leave a brutal wake in their path. Unfortunately, all this book leaves you with is a heavy heart for the people who suffered and disappointment that the story’s endtime lacked the fire and brimstone of its genesis. |
