5 of the craziest cults of all time
The Children of God
Founded in 1968 by Christian minister David Berg, the Children of God were a religious
group which blended free love attitudes with preparing for the second coming of Jesus.
Berg, was also reffered to as Moses David and king David by his followers and he proclaimed
to be the last and most anointed prophet of the end times. In 1974, the cult had over
4000 members in 70 counties. The group was most known for its Law of Love, which contained
controversial attitudes towards sex and sexuality, including those that encouraged promiscuity,
incest, and even the sexual abuse of children. Berg's own stepson was sexually abused by
adult women as a toddler, and the psychological damage led him to murder his former nanny
and commit suicide when he grew older.
Members of the Children of God were encouraged to have sex with non-members to recruit them.
This activity was known as 'flirty fishing' and was eventually halted due to an increasing
number of sexually transmitted diseases within the group. Members were encouraged to take
part in 'loving Jesus' by imagining themselves joined by Jesus while they masturbated or
took part in sexual intercourse. To avoid male homosexuality, the one practice the group
forbade, male members were told to imagine themselves as women during these activities.
As time passed, the Children of God went through a few name changes. It is now known as The
Family International. Although Berg passed away decades ago, the group, now run by Bergs
widow Karen Zerby, is still extremely active and has its own website, social media pages,
and an estimated 3000 members around the world.
The Order of the Solar Temple
Formed in 1984 by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret, this secret society saw itself to
be based on the same foundations and ideals of the Knights Templar. Jouret claimed to
be both a reincarnation of one of the members of the original order and of Christ himself.
The Order was a doomsday cult that believed the end of the world was to arrive in the
mid-1990s. It believed that upon their earthly de aths, members of the order were to be taken
to a planet that orbited around the star Sirius. The cult had lodges in several countries where
freemason rituals took place, and had a sizable following. However, the group lost many of
their followers after one member exposed the leaders and explained how he was hired to
fit electrical devices inside the inner sanctuaries, that Jouret used to project images, which
tricked members into thinking he could conjur up spirits. Shortly after this reveal, Di
Mambro ordered the mans three-month-old baby to be killed due to his resemblance to the
antichrist. He was stabbed multiple times with a wooden stake. Both parents were also murdered.
In 1994, in preparation for what Di Mambro and Jouret believed was to be the end of days,
53 members of the Order were either killed or committed suicide, including both of the
groups founders. In Switzerland, many of the victims were discovered dressed in ceremonial
robes and had plastic bags over their heads. A large number died from a gunshot to the
head or asphixiation, and some had been drugged. Following these incidents, in 1995, sixteen
more members of the cult were also murdered or committed suicide, and their bodies were
found in a star formation in the Vercors mountains of France. Finally, a year and a half later,
5 more members died in a house fire in Quebec.
Heavens Gate
Heavens Gate was a religious doomsday cult
based in San Diago, founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in the 1970's. The pair
firmly belived they were the 2 witnesses described in the Book of Revelation, and had been given
higher-level minds than other people. Applewhite also believed that he was a decendant of Jesus
Christ, and believed in Extra terrestrials and UFO's. It is also said that he had a history
of checking himself into mental institutions. Nettles died in 1985 due to cancer, but Applewhite
continued to recruit members and ran the orginization himself. The Heaves gate lived communally
in a large, rented San Diego home which they called their monastery. They funded their
lifestyles by doing web design and owned a company called higher source.
The groups main belief was that earth was about to be recycled or 'wiped clean', and that
the only way they could survive was to leave. In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult
were found dead in their San Diago mansion, after the group followed through with their
mass suicide plan. Marshall Applewhite, convinced 38 of his followers to take their own lives,
in the belief that they would board a space craft following the Hale-Bopp comet. The group
ingested an overdose of Phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce and vodka. many of the dead
were discovered lying neatly in their own bunk beds, with a square piece of purple cloth
covering their faces and torsos'. Every member of the group wore matching black shirts and
sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike shoes, and wore wristbands with the words
'heavens gate away team' written on them. shortly prior to the mass suicide, The Heavens
gate created a video and recorded their final interviews.. bizarelly, they all appear happy
and exited with what they are about to do.
'' And the ones we have worked so hard to represent,
Are older members, Ti and Do, who are from the next level..
And you can be sure the next level, is watching, because by your belief,
you allow them a chance, to save the part of you, that may become a child in our fathers house too..
at a later time, if that is where you want to be.
Nobody is forcing me to do this, it's something that I know deep inside is right for me..
and I feel like that's important, the next level gives everybody, their rights..
and they give them the freedom to do whatever they want..
I'm very happy to be here..
Do you have any thoughts about what's next for us?
The only thoughts that I have is the perpetration I have made, to separate from the vehicle..
Leave it all behind, there is nothing here for me..
but it's that's simple, you know, we're all looking forward to it.. if you could just see it that way..
and see how simple this is to us, because we don't identify as these bodies, we know they're not us..
I don't know if that helps any body, but if you could just get in our head space a little bit
and just see how happy we are, and how strong willed we are about doing this and commited to this..
I'm nothing without my older members TI and Do, and I just can't wait to get up there with them.
I don't have much more else to say. Thank you very much..
The Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an extremist hate group that consists of around 40 members
who are mostly extended family of its former leader. The Church was formed in 1955 as a
branch of the East Side Baptist Church and was headed by Fred Phelps, who severed his
relationship with the original Church, after his Church was properly founded. Phelps was
known for using fear and abuse to enforce his power, and his children and grandchildren
were raised to believe the churchs teachings.
Westboro is best known for its anti-LGBT and homophobic beliefs and have compared members
of the gay community to Nazis. The Churchs website is titled 'God hates fags', and
this phrase is thought to be its tagline. The Church caught the attention of the public
when it began its picketing ministry, which consisted of members of the Church holding
controversial protests while holding up signs such as 'God hates Jews' and 'Thank
God for Aids'. These protests have been held for seemingly random reasons, from picketing
celebrities concerts, to attacking industries known for hiring LGBT staff, to even holding
a protest at the funeral of an LGBT youth. The Church has also picketed the funeral of
a Marine who was killed in action while serving in Iraq, holding up signs that read 'Thank
God for dead soldiers' and 'You're going to Hell.' The Church believes that the widely
negative response to its anti-semantic and homophobic activities are proof of their righteousness.
They claim to have held over 57,000 pickets to date. Due to their extremist activities,
members of the Church have been banned from Canada and the UK.
Despite all the negative publicity and the de ath of former leader Fred Phelps, the Church
is still going strong today, where they still protest and make accusations, including one
that US President Barack Obama is the Antichrist. They continue to carry out hateful activities
against other religions, some branches of Christianity, Jews, soldiers, the media, and
numerous countries through their website.
The Peoples Temple
The Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ was founded by Jim Jones in 1955. It was a
new religious movement of Christianity which also worked in elements of socialist politics
and liberation theology. Jones also emphasized racial equality, which earned him a sizeable
African American following. At its best, the Peoples Temple had a massive 20,000 members.
The group thrived in San Francisco for years, with churches and buildings to its name, before
a media expose threatened to be released concerning the Temples inner workings.
This included claims that the group used fear and self-imposed humiliation in its community
and accusations of sexual abuse and kidnapping. In order to escape, Jones moved his congregation
to a commune known as Jonestown in Guyana, which he had been building for a few years
and which he reffered to as paradise.
In 1978, a congressman investigating the abuse claims regarding the Temple decided to take
a plane to Jonestown along with former Temple members, several journalists, and other crew.
However, they were killed by Temple security guards before they could leave.
That same dat, Jim Jones ordered the majority of his congregation to drink a grape flavored drink laced with
cyanide. Members of the group that refused to drink were injected with the poison or
forced to drink at gunpoint or even shot. This resulted in the de aths of 918 people,
including 276 children.
Jim Jones didn't drink the poision himself, but instead died from
an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Today, this event is best known as the Jonestown Massacre.