I watched the 1994 British-made Children of God documentary (it's on Freevee, formerly IMDb TV). 

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: verslibre wrote: I watched the 1994 British-made Children of God documentary (it's on Freevee, formerly IMDb TV).  Children of God (TV Movie 1994) - IMDb The tagline is "a family describes their time within a religious cult, one that perpetuated pedophilia, sexual abuse, and prostitution." That couldn't be more on the money. CoG was founded in the late 1960s by a former missionary, David Brandt Berg, and while that reclusive, deranged f*ckwit expired many years ago (presumably around the time the documentary was released), the cult still exists under the name Family International. (They claim to have done away with or toned down their founder's tenets significantly.) Even with an invisible leader — Berg's whereabouts were closely guarded, and he was living outside North America when he died — who "communicated" only via obscene comic book-style tracts (which he authored under his pseudonym "Moses David") with liberal depictions of sexual relations between his followers and himself, each other, and even God (depicted as a lion) — the cult's integrity was fairly astonishing. Berg's utility of Christian doctrine was anything but. Rather, it was a perverse platform to freely implement a no-boundary approach to sex within the cult (dubbed "sharing"), a mindset that, to the horror of any outsider (and many within) did not exclude minors. Now, I thought the weirdo who founded Buddhafield (see: Holy Hell) was something else, but I reckon this Berg freak soundly one-ups him. Berg was a manipulator. He used his force to impose upon the 60's and 70s youth. The fact that people were taking drugs made his mission easier.

It's difficult to draw solid conclusions from cult documentaries..particularly when they sometimes all differ from each other regarding theories about a specific cult's history. Very cool..all I have are doubts..but isn't that what all the news reporters want?

In the summer of 1971 ex members of the Church Of Satan were interrogated for the Black Magic sacrifice of a young man living in Vineland. This was not a secret to my friends and I because we witnessed adults gathered around an altar and not teenagers. A few teenagers belonged to the cult ..however they were scholars and acted mature for their age. Not run of the mill teenagers and they didnt possess typical characteristics of other teenagers in school. ..they were actually eerie and sadistic. They didn't flaunt evil as kids often did during the Satanic Panic of the 80s. They were mysterious and secretive about it all. The only problem is their secret was exposed to us when they made all that noise at Menantico. Screaming and pounding on oil barrels.

My friend Sharon used to tell me that they looked through you not unlike a catatonic stare..and they seemed to display multiple personalities..just as a few friends of mine in a younger age group acted after they joined. The ceremonies consisted of a lot of dancing and chanting along with deep tone pounding drums insistently which carried a sound across Menantico ponds and forest.

Several times people were chased by cult members because they took a wrong turn. Different people I knew at the time were scared and developed paranoia from that experience. A few were actually parents of young children who entered Menantico to take their family camping. The city officials did not take their reports seriously.

Certain individuals who revolted against Anton LeVay were interrogated. This did get printed and then seemed to vanish in thin air. The police claimed that they formed a cult on their own. The investigation included several detectives who ..for one reason or another...traveled to North Jersey to spy and question individuals.

While this plan was put in motion ..a few other investigators were interrogating members of the Chestnut Assembly Of God Church. Police suspected they were also members of the cult at Menantico. The newspapers made it seem as if this young man came up with the ritual all on his own and that he wanted to die. Because he had his 2 friends on a life insurance policy and that he had unsuccessfully attempted suicide before..it really made it seem like that to the average person.

The victim's friend stated the following: "He belonged to a Satan worshippers sect and said he had to die violently so he could be put in charge of 40 leagues of demons. According to what I've researched ...a sect is a smaller group of people and that's certainly not what people witnessed at Menantico. The cult of Menantico was sited and claimed to be between 40 and 50 people. This is more accurate ..more honest..because you could hear it and if you hid and watched it appeared to be a large group of people dancing and chanting.

I believe it was a cult that practiced Judeo-Christian concepts. It was more about your spirit. It involved demonology. It had nothing to do with the Church Of Satan..so evidently they did rebell against the Church Of Satan because supposedly their interests were forbidden by the Church Of Satan.

I recall in the late 80s when I visited the mayor and he told me that it was a wealthy organization. He claimed that people who were prominent in the community were behind it.

In 1971..the person in question was Lilith Sinclair. In 1972 she helped form the Temple Of Set on the East coast. That's one year after the murder at Menantico. Apparently the police had information that members of her group were in New Jersey in 1970.

This was probably thrown out of court or completely dismissed before ever entering a court of law . Even though a full scale investigation with many officers and detectives did occur it was based on circumstantial evidence and not physical evidence..so the newspapers decided to play the story up as three boys as fringe members of their age group, strange and way out, and needed psychiatric treatment.

The ritual appeared tragic and stupid in the newspaper. Some people in Vineland thought it was just teenagers on drugs. And when we were at Menantico watching adults worship the devil ..what were they doing? Sitting at home watching TV? How would they know the real deal? They were far worse than the city officials.



Edited by Jacob Schoolcraft - February 08 2023 at 21:49

Jazz/fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, in a more recent interview, referred to the group of spiritualist leader Sri Chinmoy as "a cult". He had previously been a fervent follower of Chinmoy and his writings.