cover image Living in the Children of God

Living in the Children of God

David E. Van Zandt. Princeton University Press, $34.75 (232pp) ISBN 978-0-691-09463-2

The Children of God, also known as the Family of Love, was founded by David Berg (aka Moses David) in 1969. Van Zandt, now a law professor at Northwestern University, spent two periods in 1976, totaling less than three months, with COG groups in Britain and the Netherlands, first pretending to be a convert and then having revealed his sociological interest. The COG is quickly shown to be a strongly anti-U.S., marginally Christian fundamentalist cult that promotes an us-against-them worldview, proselytizes frantically and encourages extensive sexual activity among members, including children. Van Zandt's prose combines the religious jargon employed by COG adherents with an overreliance on sociological terminology, for example, the commitment to common ideology fosters ``a type of institutional gesellschaften relation'' among members. The book may interest sociologists of religion, but is not likely to appeal to anyone else. Photos. (Nov.)