1st draft - reflections after watching Ricky's video

“We’ll just take it as it goes”

These were the words of his adored boss that so impressed Ricky Rodriguez. Such a simple statement meant so much to this troubled young man. Something that would roll off the tongue of the average person in our society as a matter of course was a monumental revelation to someone who had been raised knowing nothing but what the adults surrounding him would allow into his bubble of a world. Ricky’s world left nothing to chance. The smallest of decisions must be met with prayer, prophesying to a Jesus that was called their “husband,” checking and rechecking with bible verses that must conform to the teachings of a rambling self-declared prophet, which in turn must be confirmed before the nearest elder, or leader, or shepherd, or whoever was the latest to be deemed spiritual enough to tell you what God wanted you to do with your life. Such was the everyday life of the ramshackle world Ricky knew for the majority of his young life.

And so went Ricky Rodriguez into the night. The apparent “heir” prophesied by his adopted father, David Brandt Berg, A.KA., Moses David, as one of the last day prophets to lead his people in the last days of the world. The prophecy failed, but only in the way that Berg interpreted it. What Berg didn’t realize in this vision he had was that his adopted son would be the instrumental leader who would be the catalyst into the investigations of just what went so wrong in this grand attempt and experiment in creating an idyllic utopia that would be free of all constraints and the evil trappings of what he called the “system” of things. And yes, Ricky fulfilled the prophecy because he had to. He had heard it all his life and yet instinctively, he knew it wasn’t right. He knew he must do something for the sake of all those who had suffered and were in pain, but could not find the redress or justice they deserved. He felt he was giving his life for that cause and thusly, and sadly, finally fulfilled the prophecy he had been saddled with.

Ricky had been abused all his life and did not know it. The highly charged sexual environment he was raised in was touted to him as God’s law of love, Berg’s egocentric revelation of how God’s unselfish, sacrificial love included the act of sex and which was not something to be ashamed of as the church Christians that he detested so much were. Letter after letter from Berg touted this ideology with a Bible verse or Bible story to confirm his Law of Love doctrine.

So convinced was he of his prophet status and law of love revelation that he even had tracts printed up for his disciples to pass out to the public. One tract called “Is Love against the Law” dated 1978, shows naked women offering themselves to lonely men as God’s love. The caption reads: “Sometimes we use sex as a tool or proof that we love them, but it’s not the main kind of love we’re trying to give them.”

Ricky was to be the Prince of Princes and was afforded all the trappings of this new revelation to the nth degree. From birth he was given a nanny who was instructed to ensure this prince received this grand revelation in all its purity. Then it was documented in a book for all members to read. Once the prince grew into childhood a series of books were ordered to be drawn in comic book form entitled “The Life of Grandpa” chronicling the life of “Davidito” (Ricky) covering every detail of his life. The members were to read these to their children as an example to follow. Members thought of Berg’s household as the holy, idolized privileged few whom God had entrusted with so much.

If ever anyone wanted to draw up a recipe of disaster for a young child’s life, they could very well use this as a blueprint.

Ricky spoke of the teen training camps as the beginning of the end, the day the clouds opened and he saw just how ugly and evil people could be. And the worst people of all were his parents, right there in his own household with Berg’s granddaughter, Mene. Members were later treated to a text description of the events of this tragedy. All teenagers 12 and older (Berg claimed 12 year old children were adults in God’s eyes) were to read this letter and then it was to be burned. But Ricky saw the whole ordeal and as a youth it troubled him deeply.

From the David Berg letter – The Last State? #2306 3/87

Berg talking to his granddaughter, Mene:

“Do you want to be delivered into the hands of the death angel, the Accuser of the Saints, to get your death here and now so that God can save your soul? (Mene: No, Sir.) Well, that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t straighten out and straighten up and get rid of those demons! Now you do it, dear, do it, or you’re going to be in worse trouble and suffer more than being tied in bed! You may have to get whipped in bed, caned in bed!”

This was a session that went on for days that seemed to not end. And what was this young girl’s crime? She criticized her grandfather for being a drunk.

Ricky saw the bruises on Mene and he saw the cold-heartedness of his very own mother, the very woman leading the abuses that had hurt so many of his peers. He could not live with the evil his mother, Karen Zerby, A.K.A., Katherine Smith, was promoting and the tormented life he saw his sister, Techi, living. His nanny’s very own daughter, Davida, whom he cared dearly for and counted as a sister, was living a life of pain outside of the group.

Ironically, Berg repeatedly claimed that the children growing up in this group would be the purest of all because they would be free of the trappings of the system, the evils of the world, yet his very own household crumbles into pieces much as his own children from his first marriage, with his daughter, Faithy, a confessed alcoholic, a son, Aaron, who committed suicide (or fell off a mountain, whichever version you chose to believe), a daughter, Deborah, who denounced him in a book, and another son, Hosea, in hiding.

Before his death in 1993, Berg stated in one of his missives:

“Well, I have said that the final acid test of our whole system & Family is if we can keep our teenagers, because that’s where nearly all others have failed. And if we don’t, if it doesn’t work, about all I can say is at least we did well getting this far!”

One would think that the leaders of The Family International would start to wonder if maybe their grand experiment had failed, if they would look at all the teen suicides within their camp as well as the ones who have left, unable to adjust to such a strange “system” of things from their own very abnormal lifestyle and often with no parents or support structure to help them along, and take stock. Do they even wonder why a whole generation has risen up against them, against these abuses?

If this group cannot take stock of its own injustices and child abuses, then we must, or they will face only more of the same. This problem of theirs is not going to go away with more shuffling of doctrines, or hiding of abuses or abusers.

I am saddened for Ricky and for Angela, it ends like a Greek tragedy. Rest in peace, Ricky, and rest assured that your last wishes are being heard.

I write this as a former member who participated in these doctrines way too long. My soul is shocked that I could have been involved in something that was and is so wrong. I offer no explanations, only a testament to the truths in Ricky’s video. I can verify that all these things are true. I also want the madness to stop so that no more young people or future generations are hurt anymore than they already have been.