Posted by Jacinth Song on December 23, 2002 at 10:57:52
In Reply to: POLL: What are people doing now? posted by David D on December 18, 2002 at 16:37:52:
I was in the COG from 1973-1975. I met my ex-husband in the COG. Although we left long before the Internet came into being, I have followed COG Family developments via the web since 1993.
During the 1990s I earned an MSW and PhD in clinical social work. I have a clinical specialization in the treatment of childhood abuse and did my dissertation on how sexual abuse within is defined within cultural contexts. Before doing my PhDI was very active in the Catholic Church during the 1980s. I left the RC Church in 1990 due to priest perpetration on adolescent boys in my parish, where I was a youth minister.
I've tended to think my interest in sexual abuse as a dissertation topic was due to the Catholic experience, which took up a greater portion of my life than the COG. But when I read the Moving On website and stories of the adult child survivors, I realize child abuse has been a constant theme in my life.
I would hypothesize, for example, that Zerby experienced sexual abuse as a child. It would certainly explain her subsequent history with Berg and current pre-occupation with child & adolescent sexual development.
I've looked at a number of the published academic studies on COG over the past few years, e.g., "Lustful Prophet." At one point in graduate school I did a case study on the dynamics of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church from a family systems perspective. This is different theory base than the psychoanalytic autopsy approach used in "Lustful Prophet." I mention family systems theory, because there are a number of family scenarios described in the work of Dr. David Finkelhor (a leading American social science researcher on child sexual abuse) that could be used to analyze the interpersonal and organizational dynamics of the COG leadership.
I've been wondering what happened to Berg's other daugher--Faith? Last I heard, she had a serious substance abuse problem. This is classic sequelae to childhood sexual abuse, and Deborah claims Faith was victimized. Also, what happened to the other son--Hosea? Finally, didn't Zerby & Berg have a child? If so, where is s/he now?