Editing The Family International (section)

== Overview ==
According to the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]], "at its height" the Family movement had "tens of thousands of members, including [[River Phoenix|River]] and [[Joaquin Phoenix]], [[Rose McGowan]], and [[Jeremy Spencer]]".<ref name="Gardner-cbc-2016"/>
TFI initially spread a message of [[salvation]], [[apocalypticism]], spiritual "revolution and happiness", and distrust of the outside world, which the members called ''The System''. Like some other fundamentalist groups, it "foretold the coming of a dictator called the anti-Christ, the rise of a brutal One World Government, and its eventual overthrow by Jesus Christ, in the Second Coming".<ref name="Niebuhr-1993"/>

In 1976,<ref name="davidberg.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.davidberg.org/mission/flirty-fishing |title=Flirty-fishing |website=DavidBerg.org |access-date=2014-03-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809234611/http://www.davidberg.org/mission/flirty-fishing |archive-date=2014-08-09 }}</ref> it began a method of [[evangelism]] called [[Flirty Fishing]] that used sex to "show God's love and mercy" and win converts, resulting in controversy.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Gustav |last=Niebuhr |title='The Family' and Final Harvest |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/children_of_god/child1.htm |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=2 June 1993 |page=A01 |access-date=2008-04-27 |archive-date=March 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325012912/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/children_of_god/child1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> TFI's founder and prophetic leader, [[David Berg]]—who adopted the name "Moses David" while in Laurentide, Canada,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borowik |first=Claire |year=2023 |title=From Radical Jesus People to Virtual Religion: The Family International |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781009037990 |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781009037990}}</ref> and was also referred to "Father David" by members<ref name="Niebuhr-1993"/>—gave himself the titles of "King", "The Last Endtime Prophet", "Moses", and "David".

Berg communicated with his followers via "Mo Letters"—letters of instruction and counsel on myriad spiritual and practical subjects—until his death in late 1994.<ref name=moletters>{{cite web |title=Index |url=http://pubs.xfamily.org/ |website=The xFamily.org Publications Database |date=2012-02-20 |access-date=2016-07-24 |archive-date=January 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126224420/https://pubs.xfamily.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After his death, his widow [[Karen Zerby]] became the leader of TFI, taking the titles of "Queen" and "Prophetess". Zerby married Steve Kelly (also known as Peter Amsterdam), an assistant of Berg's whom Berg had handpicked as her "consort". Kelly took the title of "King Peter" and became the face of TFI, speaking in public more often than either Berg or Zerby. There have been multiple allegations of child sexual abuse made by past members.<ref name="suicide">{{cite news |title=Young man's suicide blamed on mother's cult |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/kaye.murdersuicide/ |publisher=CNN |date=5 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601095200/http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/04/kaye.murdersuicide/ |url-status=live |archive-date=June 1, 2010 |access-date=September 3, 2009}}</ref><ref name="brazilian">{{cite news |title=Sexo, mentiras e videotape |url=https://www.uol/noticias/especiais/comunidade-meninos-de-deus-.htm#tematico-1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203224517/https://www.uol/noticias/especiais/comunidade-meninos-de-deus-.htm#tematico-1 |url-status=live |archive-date=December 3, 2017 |journal=UOL notícias |language=pt-BR |access-date=2 December 2017}}</ref>

Berg preached a combination of traditional Christian evangelism, with elements popular with the [[counterculture of the 1960s]]. There was much "end-of-the-world imagery" found in the [[Book of Revelation]] of the [[New Testament]], preaching of impending doom for America and the ineffectiveness of established churches. Berg "urged a return to the early Christian community described in the Bible's [[Book of Acts]], in which believers lived together and shared all,"<ref name="Niebuhr-1993"/> resembling the communal living of late 1960s [[hippies]].