“JESUS FREAKS is a page-turner and a heart-stopper, a descent into an inner circle of hell in the guise of hippie heaven. It is also an intimate tale of a family scandal compounded of sexual exploitation and betrayal, psychological terror, and cold-blooded murder. Above all, Lattin’s gripping and masterful book is an eye-opening account of how religious true belief can go terribly and tragically wrong.”

— Jonathan Kirsch, author of A History of the End of the World

A CHILLING YOU-ARE-THERE ACCOUNT

OF MURDER AND SEXUAL ABUSE IN

A RELIGIOUS CULT GONE MAD

JESUS FREAKS

THE TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND MADNESS ON THE EVANGELICAL EDGE

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, JESUS FREAKS (HarperOne, Hardcover, $24.95; October 2007) is the story of a January 2005 brutal crime that sheds new light on the Children of God, aka The Family International, one of the most controversial religious movements to emerge from the spiritual turmoil of the 1960’s and the 1970’s.

After twenty-five years of reporting on religion in America, journalist Don Lattin thought he’d seen it all. Yet, Lattin was stunned by what he found inside one of the most fanatic sects to date: the Children of God, aka The Family International.

The Family was founded in the late 1960’s by David Brandt Berg, a sexual predator and self-proclaimed “Endtime Prophet” who embraced a bizarre brew of Christian witness, radical politics, apocalyptic doom, and free love. He built The Family to implement his twisted theological ideas, which included giving birth to “Jesus babies” to embody and spread the word. In the process, Berg challenged every sexual taboo imaginable, including incest, and took thousands of hippies, leftists and “Jesus freaks” along on the long, strange trip inside his messianic fantasy.

In 1975, Ricky “Davidito” Rodriguez was born into Berg’s inner sanctum through something called “flirty fishing,” quite possibly the most unusual evangelical tool in modern Christian history. Flirty fishing was a common cult practice that sent female followers out into the world as “sacred prostitutes” to bring more men into the fold. Not only was Ricky the first child born into the cult in this way, he was also raised as Berg’s “son” – targeted to sacrifice himself in the apocalyptic battles foretold in the Book of Revelation. Ricky was expected to save the world and die doing it.

One of some 13,000 children raised in The Family, Ricky became the central character in Berg’s fantasy and was expected to follow The Family plan. Instead, he left the fold, denounced his estranged mother and spiritual father, and made his own date with destiny.

With its chilling details of The Family’s deviant world, JESUS FREAKS traces Ricky’s story from the weird parade of people that warped his young life to the final pilgrimage of revenge that made headline news. Exposing a religious cult gone mad, Don Lattin delivers a riveting look at the generation still struggling with that legacy and spotlights the young man who would emerge as a reluctant martyr for this abused army of troubled souls.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

“Fringe religion can be a harbinger of spiritual trends. ‘Cults’ show us how ‘religions’ are born. At first glance, the bizarre prophecies and sexual promiscuity among David Berg and his followers seem little more than sensational sideshows. But the sexual abuse of children by religious leaders is hardly unique to this strange Christian sect. Over the last ten years, the American Catholic Church has been shaken by the scandal of priestly pedophilia and paid out well over a billion dollars to adult victims of child sexual abuse. And in the aftermath of September 11, who can argue against the need to better understand psychologically unbalanced zealots who twist scripture, exploit social unrest, and inspire an army of fanatical followers.” –Don Lattin

About the author:

Don Lattin is one of the nation’s leading journalists covering alternative and mainstream religious movements and figures in America. Lattin’s award-winning work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazines and newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered the religion beat for nearly two decades. He has also worked as a consultant and commentator for “Dateline NBC;” “Prime Time Live” and “Good Morning America” on ABC Television; “American Morning” on CNN; and “Religion and Ethics News Weekly” on PBS.

He teaches religion writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, where he holds a degree in sociology. He is the author of Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today and co-author of Shopping for Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium. He lives in Alameda, California.

JESUS FREAKS

The True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge

By Don Lattin

Published by HarperOne

Date of Publication: October 9, 2007

Hardcover, $24.95

ISBN 13: 9780061118043