Free Jesus Freaks by Don Lattin Page B

to park, vacant and lots of room. I think Mother began to suspect something was going on for sure. I hadn’t quite sold her yet on the doctrine of polygamy. I was even having a hard time selling [Karen] on the doctrine of polygamy. I don’t think I got her sold on that until we got to Texas. But she was at least enjoying participating [having sex with Berg] even if she didn’t understand the doctrine.”
    Berg had been caught, but he was unrepentant. No one, especially his aging wife, could question the Endtime Prophet. His time had come. Young people were finally following him.
    Berg saw something in Karen Zerby. She certainly wasn’t one of the prettiest females in the flock. She was skinny, bucktoothed, and extraordinarily plain. She was the same generation as Berg’s own children, but more of a blank slate. She hadn’t seen the shadow side of the Endtime Prophet during all those tough years on the road—his alcoholism, his tirades, his infidelity to his wife, his incestuous impulses. Karen was searching for the truth, and Berg convinced her that he had the truth and could pass it onto her
    In recalling her childhood, Zerby said, “Obeying my parents was obeying the Lord.” Karen’s sister thinks she transferred that loyalty from her preacher father to the Endtime Prophet. “He could definitely mold her,” Rosemary said. “If she had faith in him she would give himeverything. I heard that later a lot of it was guilt. She felt guilty for things she had done with him and he used that against her.”
    Tucson was just a stop along the way. Berg put out the word for his flock to meet up with him in Canada. What would later be seen as the founding convention of The Family was held in the summer of 1969 at a campground in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec. David Berg was the new Moses, and the hippies were his Chosen People. God’s prophecy was pouring through him, and his people were finally listening.
    I saw unto thee this night, my children of the hippie army, bow low before Me, for I will give unto thee that which I have long desired to bestow upon My Children. I have said that in the Last Days, I would pour out My Spirit, yet the world has seen but a little sprinkling of the mighty showers. During this year to come right before you I shall pour out My Spirit in mighty waves upon you as you witness to the lost children whom the churches have created by their own whoredom.
    Thou shalt see it flow as rivers in the streets, parks and highways. Lo, servants, My hippie children…I have seen thy tears in the night hours during all thy childhood. I have seen the burdens of thy heart. I have seen thee in all thy struggles against the Evil One, and in thy heartaches, and when the Evil One hath sought to take thy life, and did seek to destroy many of thee through drugs. I waited for the congregations of the churches to minister unto thee. But they hardened their hearts and forsook thee! 17
    Berg then called the leaders of the fledgling movement to a meeting in Vienna, Virginia, where his prophecies included a spiritual justification for his sexual affair with Zerby, whom the Endtime Prophet christened “Maria.” That prophecy, later published as “Old Love, New Love,” declared Jane Berg, his wife of more than twenty years, to be the “Old Church.” Zerby was the “New Church.”
    At that moment, the course of The Family was set. Berg was the Endtime Prophet and Karen Zerby was his queen. They would leadthe hippie army through the Great Tribulation and into the new millennium. There was no time to waste. The end of the old order was near. Jesus was coming again. It was time to spread the news.
    â€œBe prepared! Join us now! Tomorrow may be too late!” one early tract screamed. “Come see us TODAY or write NOW for the location of our nearest colony and more information on how to survive in the days ahead!” 18
    Nothing