Jesus Freaks by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

Millikan’s and Shepherd and Lilliston’s assessments of Ricky and other children raised in The Family comprise three of thirteen chapters in the Sex, Slander and Salvation collection. According to the co-editor of the anthology, J. Gordon Melton, the book was largely the work of academic experts hired by Family lawyers in the British custody case heard by Lord Justice Ward. Melton said the co-editor of the collection, James R. Lewis, received Family funds to publish the book.

Ricky’s teenage interviews and psychological assessments by sympathetic scholars were conducted over three very important years in the history of The Family—the period between the 1992 filing of the British custody case and Ward’s voluminous ruling in November of 1995. These were the years when the outside world first heard Merry Berg’s hellish testimony about what happened to her inside the walls of Berg and Zerby’s compound in the Philippines. High-level defectors leaked damning documents and videotapes of erotic performances by young girls for the pleasure of David Berg. News outlets around the world were sent some of the steamiest pages from The Story of Davidito. How could the leadership of The Family explain all this away? There was only one way. Ricky himself would have to testify for the defense. Ricky had not been living up to his early billing as the mighty prophet for the coming apocalypse. At least he could be paraded before a few accommodating academics to show the world that it really wasn’t so bad to be a child in The Family.

Millikan, Melton, and Lilliston were among the experts presented by The Family’s lawyers during more than two months of hearings in England. Millikan and Melton shared a room in London during the court proceedings. “Family lawyers were supposed to pay us to testify in court,” Melton said. “We never got paid for our time—or at least I never got paid back for my time. They barely covered my expenses.”7

Another expert called to The Family’s defense was Susan Palmer, who teaches a course on new religious movements at Dawson College in Montreal. Like Shepherd, Palmer had been invited to spend a week at a newly established Family colony in San Diego. It was a large, ranch-style home, shaped like an “L” with a swimming pool in the backyard. Family insiders would call the place a “show home,” a special colony established for inspection by religious scholars and the news media.

Palmer happened to be staying at the San Diego home the night of September 8, 1993—the same evening that the NBC television show Now, hosted by Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, broadcast a special report on The Family. Recent raids on Family homes in Argentina and allegations of child abuse there had put The Family back in the news. The piece by NBC correspondent Fred Francis included an interview with Merry Berg and a scene where twenty-year-old Merry was first re-united with Shula, her long-lost mother. There was also recent footage shot at the San Diego show house that hosted Palmer that very night.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.