Editing The Family International (section)

== Criticism ==
The Family has been found liable in a British court, and also criticized by the press and the [[anti-cult movement]]. Ex-members have accused the Family's leadership of following "a policy of lying to outsiders", being "steeped in a history of sexual deviance" and even meddling "in Third World politics". The Family replies that it is a victim of "persecution".<ref name="Niebuhr-1993"/>

Allegations of abuse and mistreatment have been publicly expressed by some of those who have left the group; examples include sisters Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones, and Juliana Buhring and Daniella Mestyanek Young, who both wrote books<ref name="nwms">{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=K. |last2=Jones |first2=C. |last3=Buhring |first3=J. |year=2007 |title=Not Without My Sister |url=https://archive.org/details/notwithoutmysist00jone_0 |url-access=registration |publisher=Harper Collins Publishing |location=London |isbn=9780007248070 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> on their lives in TFI.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.notwithoutmysister.com/bios.php |title=Bios |website=notwithoutmysister.com |access-date=2009-03-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528120850/http://www.notwithoutmysister.com/bios.php |archive-date=2010-05-28 }}</ref>

In 1971, an organization called [[FREECOG]] was founded by concerned parents and others, including [[deprogramming|deprogrammer]] [[Ted Patrick]] to free members of the COG from their involvement in the group.

At least one individual growing up in the family (Verity Carter) during the Children of God era described being sexually abused "from the age of four by members of the... cult, including her own father". She blames the philosophy of David Berg, who told members that "God was love and love was sex", so that sex should not be limited by age or relationship. Carter also complains of being "repeatedly beaten and whipped for the smallest of transgressions", being denied "music or television or culture", or other "contact with the outside world", so that she had "no idea how the world worked" other than how to manipulate the "systemites" (outsiders), like social workers.<ref name="Brocklehurst-Hell-2018">{{cite news |last1=Brocklehurst |first1=Steven |title=Children of God cult was 'hell on earth' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44613932 |access-date=25 September 2021 |agency=BBC Scotland News |date=27 June 2018 |archive-date=August 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826121314/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44613932 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Author Don Lattin interviewed numerous members of the Family for his book ''Jesus Freaks''. In a review of his book, Paul Burgarino describes Berg as "drawing from the remnants of hippie life—people with nothing to lose, nowhere to go, and no Christian background" to alert them to deviations in Berg's preaching.<ref name=BURGARINO/> One ex–Children of God member, Jerry Golland, describes himself at the time of joining the group as penniless and so depressed that the Children of God scraped him "off the street".<ref name="Gardner-cbc-2016"/> Members would "learn to spot, you know...  a vulnerable person. We called them sheep", Golland told the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]].<ref name="Gardner-cbc-2016"/>

Pressure to raise money could also be intense. Ex-member Golland says that members who were good at raising money and distributing the pamphlets were called "Shiners". Those with poor sales were called "Shamers". "If you missed your quota you could not come home for dinner", he said.<ref name="Gardner-cbc-2016"/>