Inside the Children of God sex cult in which actress and #MeToo campaigner Rose McGowan was raised and how her first love was stabbed to death in unsolved murder
HOLLYWOOD actress Rose McGowan has told how she escaped a notorious sex cult she was born into.
The lead campaigner of the movie industry's #MeToo movement's parents were once entrenched with the twisted religious sect in Italy.
McGowan's parents escaped to the US when the sect began openly advocating sexual relationships between adults and children.
But by then the cult - and its enigmatic leader David Berg - had devastated hundreds of lives.
The Children of God cult was born out of the Teens for Christ movement which existed on the fringe of America's hippy community.
They were considered as "harmless" Jesus People and generally preached simple living and good deeds.
Their 'be nice to each other ' mantra fitted in nicely with those of the flower power generation of the late 1960s.
But founder Berg would eventually twist the group into a religious cult which catered for his sexual desires.
Horrific reports of sexual violence, incest, and brainwashing still haunt the religious organisation.
At the beginning, Berg was a travelling preacher on a mission to spread the word of God.
But he soon found himself skint and frustrated his message just wasn't getting through to America's youth.
He then claims in 1967 he had a "lightbulb" moment which would take the Teens for Christ movement down a dark road.
Berg later revealed: "“I saw something was really happening and was really going to explode!
"I just knew it! I saw the Lord was really doing something!
"That’s when I began to come down and teach in my dark glasses, beret, baggy pants, old torn jacket and tennis shoes…”
He promptly changed the name of his religion to Children of God - hoping to appeal to the disaffected youth.
By early 1969, COG counted 50 converts, and eventually Berg hit the road with his new-found followers.
Within a year the group had recruited more than 200 new members.
They returned to southern California in early 1970 - and that’s when things started to go wrong.
Twisted Berg started communicating to his converts through his weird writings and cartoons.
In a February 1971 essay he talked of his "little lambs" who “laugh and sing and dance and play and f***!”
Berg preached “sexual sharing” and "free expression" to all of his followers - including the children.
“God created boys and girls able to have children by about 12 years of age,” the deviant once wrote.
When interviewed in the 1980s he described those sickening words as "educational.”
He once ordered female cult members to seduce and bed strangers - in a bid to attract more recruits
His followers - including those that are married - were often called upon to sacrifice their bodies in the name of God.
Berg is even reported to have expressed regret at never being able to sleep with his mother
Before his death in 1994, Berg's granddaughter Merry claimed he'd molested her when she was a teen.
By 1977, the cult had established more than 130 communities around the world.
In 1983, the group reported more than 10,000 full-time members living in more than 1,600 communities.
The Children of God was then officially renamed “The Family.”
After Berg's death the group desperately tried to distance itself from the former leader and his bizarre teachings.
It wanted to be seen as a genuine religious sect - offering freedom of movement.
But it was rocked by more scandals in the 1990s and 2000s with former members alleging acts of "sexual criminality."
Then one former high-profile member Ricky Rodriguez - considered Berg's adopted son - committed murder-suicide in 2005.
He blew his brains out after stabbing to death a female cult member he claimed was involved in childhood molestation.
What we know so far
- Actress Rose McGowan claimed she was "raped" by Harvey Weinstein in her tell-all book, Brave
- Referring to Hollywood complicity, the Charmed star, 44, told Good Morning America that "everybody knew"
- She says he assaulted her in a hotel room with a Jacuzzi after they met at a restaurant during the 1997 Sundance Film Festival
- Weinstein took of his clothes and performed a sex act on her while touching himself, McGowan claims
- McGowan says she told Phantoms co-star Ben Affleck the next day and that he replied: "I told him to stop doing that"
- In Brave, the actress also opens up about being born into the Children of God cult
- She remembers being beaten when she refused to "accept God into her heart"
- The sect was founded by accused paedophile and anti-Semite David Berg
- McGowan says her parents escaped when the cult started condoning sexual relations between adults and children
- The moved to the US where she soon found herself in a relationship with a man 20 years her senior named William
- She fled after stealing his car and began dating club owner Brett Cantor who was stabbed to death in an unsolved incident
Rodriguez had earlier filmed a video, explaining exactly what he planned to do.
In the video he said he saw himself as a vigilante, avenging children who had been subject to rapes and beatings.
"There's this need that I have", he said.
"It's not a want. It's a need for revenge...it's a need for justice."
McGowan has now opened about a life of abuse long before her alleged sexual assault at the hands of "predator" movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
In her new memoir, the 44-year-old tells of being raised in the cult by "cruel" parents who forced her into a relationship with an abusive older man.
Some of her earliest memories include her father taking a second wife and being savagely beaten for "refusing to take God into her heart", she writes.
Shortly after escaping her relationship with the older man called William, McGowan says she started dating a club owner named Brett Cantor.
Things seemed to be looking up for her, relationship-wise. Then, out of nowhere, he was stabbed to death.
The murder is still unsolved, “but I have been trying for years to remedy that,” McGowan writes.
She also speaks of the the 1997 Sundance Film Festival incident between her and Weinstein, who she brands a "monster", for the very first time.
McGowan says that she had an appointment with Weinstein, who has denied ever sexually assaulting McGowan, but arrived to learn her breakfast meeting had been moved to his hotel suite.
She claims Weinstein tore off her clothing and made her sit on the edge of the Jacuzzi while he performed a sex act on her while touching himself.
"I freeze, like a statue," McGowan, who reached a £70,000 settlement with Weinstein, writes in the book seen by the .
Then, in a story McGowan had previously hinted at on Twitter, she was taken to a photo-call for her film Phantoms which was playing at the festival in Utah.
When her co-star Ben Affleck learned about what happened, he allegedly said: "Goddamn it. I told him to stop doing that." Affleck has previously denied this allegation.
After the alleged assault, McGowan said her lawyer told her that no one would believe her in court and others “counselled me to see it as something that would help my career in the long run”.
Weinstein's rep said in a statement: "Mr Weinstein denies Ms McGowan’s allegations of non-consensual sexual contact.
"Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances."
McGowan is one of up to 100 women to accuse Weinstein, 65, of sex abuse. including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, Brit model Cara Delevingne and actress Asia Argento.
Weinstein was forced out of his own company in the wake of the scandal and is currently at a sex rehab clinic in Arizona.
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