Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Jesus Freaks

Author: Don Lattin

Publisher: HarperOne

ISBN: 978-0-06-111804-3

Award-winning journalist and one of the nation’s leading reporters, Don Lattin has written about the rise of the Christian right in the United States and the emergence of radical Islamists around the world.

This book is a delve into the sick cult that surrounded the Children of God/The Family International back in the 1970s where many children were forced to perform sex acts between other children and also with their parents. One sordid account is of Ricky Rodriguez, who later hatched a plot to kill his own mother, whose own childhood is a shocking tale of sexual abuse. He was touched up by his nannies at only a few months old - this later resulted in Ricky doing the same thing to other children and engaging in sexual relations with a child of five months. Even more shocking, the Christian hippish adults could see nothing wrong with this as it was part of the culture they believed in. There are many more tales of this sick religious cult to be found throughout...if you can stomach it!

All of this bizarre and twisted culture came from a God-inspired, perverted drunk named David Moses Berg whose ideas were personal insights to be followed through by whoever was stupid enough to believe them. However David’s ideas ultimately became lies that saw young girls drawn into this spiritual madness.

If only people didn’t believe in this sect…

Unfortunately a lot of people did and a lot of children suffered hours of unnecessary abuse as a result.

As for Ricky, he was either going to have to later except he was a part of this

sick world or get out fast - he later did, unable to bear the craze for a moment longer that had taken away his innocence as a young child. This led him on to murder and madness on the Evangelical Edge and ultimately his own death.

I didn’t quite understand why the book cover mentioned murder at all. We don’t read much about any murder/s but more the accounts of the religious cult back in the 70s during the age of rebellion.

After reading this novel, I am not surprised Ricky murdered who he did and was later driven to suicide.  If I was to have been put through that awful sexual abuse as a child I think I would have wanted to kill too. Was Ricky really that bad for doing what he did? Compared to what these so-called adults did to him and others when he was still a young boy, I don’t think he actually did all that wrong. You have to ask yourself: well wouldn’t you?

What compels any man to write a book like this?

A tragic, compelling and chilling tale that is packed full of intimate accounts of this cult and the man responsible for it, David Berg. This is a book that opens your eyes to what really went on with the Children of God (now called The Family) and their belief in David Berg and his insights. Unsettling but definitely worth a read.

The above review was conributed by:  Jessica Roberts:  Jessica is a book reviewer for a local newspaper and has reviewed for a national women's magazine too. She has had various articles published in magazines and has now completed her novel. Jessica currently lives in West Yorkshire and enjoys walking in the dales and woodlands as part of her hobby as well as, of course, reviewing books. To read more of Jessica's reviews  CLICK HERE 

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Jesus Freaks

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