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“Children of God” is the self-designated name for a youth religion that grew out of the California Jesus People movement under the leadership of David Berg (1911–94, also known as Moses, Mo, Moses David, and Father David). Inspired by the visions of his mother, Virginia Brandt-Berg, a prophetess in the Pentecostal sect Church of the Open Door, radio evangelist Berg founded the Children of God in 1968 along with Revolutionaries for Christ and Teens for Christ. 1. Development and Teaching As a morally strict, eschatological group of penitents, the Children of God at first found a welcome among established churches. Berg’s own daughter Faith began a mission to Germany with a Jesus Festival at Herne in 1971. Later, however, other churches withdrew their approval because of the Children of God’s autonomous organization, its harsh dealings with new converts (including deprogramming, rebaptism, and a “forsake-all” policy), and its increasing substitution of new revelations of the Spirit for the Bi…

Widespread in the United States and the German-speaking world (where, since 1985, it has been known as the Forum or Center Leadership Program), EST, or Erhard Seminars Training, was founded in 1971 by Werner Hans Erhard (Jack Rosenberg). The program and its offshoots involve intensive courses partly based on Erhard’s experiences in…