Karin Elva Zerby (born July 31, 1946) - head of the new religious movement " Family International ", in the past "Children of God". She is also known by the names of Mama Maria, [1] Maria David [1] and Queen Maria. [2]
| Karen zerby | |
|---|---|
| Karen zerby | |
| Birth name | Karen Elva Zerby |
| Date of Birth | July 31, 1946 (73 years) |
| Place of Birth | Camden (NJ) , USA |
| A country | |
| Occupation | Leader of the religious group " Children of God / International Family " |
| Spouse |
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| Children | Ricky Rodriguez |
Biography
As a child, Zerby was raised in the spirit of evangelical Pentecostalism , her father served as a priest in the “ Church of the Nazarene, ” and later became famous for promoting the “fundamental Pentecostal principle of“ divisibility of the spirit ”in the church, which she herself later headed. [3] In 1969, under the name of Maria, she joined a group called “Teens for Jesus” at the time. After she became secretary to the group’s founder, David Berg , between them there is a relationship of a sexual nature. Subsequently, Berg threw his former wife and took Zerby as his wife. [2] Shortly thereafter, Berg told his group a prophecy called “The Old Church and the New Church,” which was widely regarded as his justification for his divorce from his first wife. [four]
In 1975, while living on the island of Tenerife (Spain), Zerby gave birth to a son, Rika Rodriguez . [5] Rodriguez’s childhood years (Berg was his stepfather) are described in detail in a book titled "Davidito Story", which was to become a model for the rest of the group on how to raise children, and in which photographs of sexual harassment to Rodriguez were published. The appeals in this book for sexual activity against children make its value highly questionable. The leadership of the religious movement during this period of time was highly classified, lived far away from the main group, and few knew them by sight. Zerbi was generally known only from illustrations of MO Letters composed by Berg, as well as from various photographs of nude Zerby attached by Berg to his publications. [3] In January 2005, Rodriguez killed Angela Smith (who was also a cult in the past and had sex with Rodriguez), who was the babysitter of little Ricky, and a few hours later committed suicide. On the videotape he made on the night before the murder, "he said that he considered himself avenger for all children like him and for his sisters who had been sexually abused and beaten." Obviously, he was looking for his mother and his half-sister: "He wanted to ensure that his mother was punished for the abuse of children, and Techi would be released from the group." [five]
In the mid-1980s, Zerby began to issue edicts on her own. During this period of time, she implanted and changed the disciplinary rules of the group, for example, by putting an end to the parenting program that was then practiced, which she considered too cruel. [2] By the end of the 1980s, David Berg’s health began to deteriorate, and Zerby, who was trained in his place, practically replaced him in a leadership position in 1988, and in 1994, after Berg died, she married Steve Kelly, another head of the cult, and fully assumed the spiritual leadership of the cult. [2]
Literature
- 2 1 2 Leonard, Bill J. Children of God // Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States . - ABC-CLIO , 2012. - P. 202–203. - ISBN 9781598848687 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Chancellor, James. A Family for the Twenty-First Century // Controversial New Religions . - Oxford University Press , 2014. - P. 13-38. - ISBN 9780199315314 .
- ↑ 1 2 Shepherd, Gordon. Talking with the Children of the Gods: Prophecy and Transformation of the Radical Religious Group / Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd. - University of Illinois Press , 2010. - P. 7–. - ISBN 9780252077210 .
- ↑ House, H. Wayne. Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements. - Zondervan , 2000. - ISBN 0-310-38551-2 .
- ↑ 1 2 Goodstein, Laurie . The New York Times (15 January 2005) Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims The appeal date is July 27, 2014.
Links
- Karen zerby
- xFamily.org Publications Database - contains almost all the material published by Karen Zerby, her partner Stephen Kelly, as well as all the "Letters of Mo" by David Berg