If news of the 30th anniversary of Jonestown on TV wasn't enough to get me down, the same night I saw a show on Family International, which used to be the Children of God. I almost missed hearing the words Children of God--I was studying and only had one ear on the TV. But then I heard the words Children of God and became riveted to the set.
What caught my attention was the description of the cult's recruiting tactic that they called Flirty Fishing. They would have attractive young people go out and basically lure others to the cult. Usually they were women, but sometimes they were men.
I couldn't believe it. I had been flirty fished in college. Not just once but multiple times.
My freshmen year, these people would be scattered around. They seemed to be everywhere that I was. I would pass them, take the literature they handed me, and dump it in the first trashcan I came to.
One time however, a particularly attractive young man called out to me on the sidewalk. He was cute. And boy did he flirt. Like the others that had previously approached me, he was trying to tantalize me by inviting me to a party that night. This particular time is lodged in my mind, because the guy was definitely my type. Except that my type is not a member of a cult. He was cute and I made goo-goo eyes back at him. He kept telling me about the party. I kept wanting to ask him why I would go to a party where I didn't know anyone, when I had plenty of fun hanging out with the people I did know? But I didn't ask. This time I took the literature and didn't throw it away. When I got back to my dorm room, my roommate was sleeping, so I quietly laid down on my bed and beginning reading the pamphlet, only to discover it was some kind of very soft porn. Very interesting, I thought. It didn't scare me. I just thought it was wierd. Of course there were a lot of wierd religious groups floating around at that time, and I just thought this was one more.
I would continue running into them from time to time after that. The strange thing is, I have never heard anyone else at school the same I was talk about having had encounters with them. But I am sure I couldn't have been the only one. But it has never come up in any conversation with anyone.
My next big encounter with the Children of God came during my Christmas vacation that year. I had come home for break and one night was out Christmas shopping at a big mall. This young man about my age hanging out in the parking lot zoomed right over to me. I wasn't scared like I might be if someone did that to me today. He didn't look scary--he just looked like a normal college kid.
Turns out he was from the Children of God, and you guessed right--he invited me to a party that night! How about that! I wasn't surprised a bit--I was so used to their spiel. The evil in me couldn't help say to him, well maybe I can come. But I have to shop first. The poor guy followed me all around the mall while I picked out a few things. I made him think he might have a live one--devious me. I paid for my items and looked at him and said bye bye. And walked to my car. And that was that.
I basically forgot about the Children of God until I saw a news report some years ago, and then this show on msnbc the other night. Wow--what a nightmare. They call themselves Christians, but they were basically a sex cult. I guess that is why they had these attractive people out to lure others into the group. The group would basically turn women they fished into escorts or prostitutes. All in the name of religion. How wierd is that? There were orgies, but none of the people interviewed acted like it was anything fun, like people might make it out to be. And once you were in, I think you were sunk. Then those people would have children, who would grow up very screwed up. The TV show said the leader David Berg encouraged not only incest but pedophilia. I think they somewhat cleaned up their act after a while, but jeez.
I just thought they were some harmless nuts. I guess I was lucky in that I didn't get reeled in.
No comments:
Post a Comment