Finally

As the years passed living on our own, the cult publications began to lose some of their appeal. With the death of Berg, his mistress, Karen Zerby, took over the leadership of TFI, and the pubs became even stranger - if that could be possible.

Now we were encouraged to "make love to Jesus," pray to an ever-increasing number of "spirit helpers" and "spirit guides" (one for every flavor of prayer), and not least of all, pray using the power of the "keys of the Kingdom." This idea came from the verse, Matthew 16:19, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And of course, who else for this promised super-power to be given to than to us, the chosen followers of "God's Endtime Prophet," now, "Prophetess."

Gradually, as Internet access became more widespread, Zerby's days of being able to live in complete secrecy were coming to an end. After photos of her came out on the web, coincidentally, "the Lord told her that it was his time for her" to appear in person on videos addressing her "children in the Lord."

As this was a big event in TFI, and the showings were only held in certain places, my husband and I drove several hours for the privilege of viewing these unprecedented videos at another cult home. To say these were disillusioning would be putting it mildly. The woman even looked crazy. Reality strongly clashed with my narrative of what I thought she was like.

Not long after this, my eldest son left the group and began living on his own, working in the capital city. He urged me to leave the cult, assuring me that we were indeed following a crazy woman. He sent me some links, one of which was particularly helpful, "The Judgement of Lord Justice Ward," which was the lengthy conclusion of a very thorough investigation of The Family International done as part of the trial of a child custody case in England.

Reading the results of that investigation was very eye-opening for me, validating the various doubts and misgivings I'd had over the years. I made the decision to leave immediately.