Family of Love

The Family of Love, now known as the Family International, is a nontrinitarian restorationist sex cult which at one point reached over 10K members, before it made headlines as it's teachings on free love lead to sexual coercion, mass prostitution and child abuse, causing it's membership to quickly diminish into obscurity.

Started in the late 60s by the false prophet David Berg, followers were ordered to live communally and sever ties with mainstream society. A particularly infamous evangelistic method, known as "Flirty Fishing", involved female members engaging in sexual relationships to recruit new followers, a practice that drew legal and moral condemnation internationally.

Berg's successor was intended to be his step-son, Richard Rodriguez, who left the group in his adulthood due to the trauma he received from his childhood sexual abuse. This meant upon Berg's death, his wife Karen Zerby took leadership of the group just as the group's membership began to collapse. The modern Family International has condemned paedophilia and pornography, both to escape legal challenges and for doctrinal softening.

The group taught that sexual knowledge was the true message of Jesus and that since God is love and according to them, love is sex, men were free to use women and girls as they chose. To refuse sexual congress within the group would result in shunning and shaming.

The groups teachings are similar to those of the Carpocratian Gnostics, who believed in free love and communalism.