A new revelatory memoir of life inside David Berg's web, written from the perspective of 3 2nd generation sisters; Kristina, Celeste and Juliana.

[www.amazon.co.uk]


Not Without My Sister review by D Brannick

"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches on the streets of life for men to see by"
-- Felix Adler

Not Without My Sister

What a brilliant title and what a brilliant book. A modern day masterpiece that Harper Collins is backing this summer to be a best seller..you'll see it in the shops, in the airport book stores, people reading it on the bus, plane and every form of locomotive known to wo/mankind.

Hero's are born out of adversity, born out of hope and born out of love, ordinary people you'd see doing their shopping on a saturday morning and never know the degree of hardship they faced and overcame. This book is written by three such heros. It is the story of three sisters and details their successful struggle to escape and overcome an insane and abusive religous cult they were born into called The Family...a cult that tried to break and destroy the will of a generation of children. It didn't break these three sisters....the result of their heroic struggle packs the pages of a book that will turn your world on its head, draw tears from your eyes and inspire you towards the courage that shines from the hearts of Kristina, Celeste and Juliana.

A captivating insite into the the repulsive world of child abuse, mind control, international cults, religous lunacy and the indomitable spirit and courage of ordianary people in extraordinary circumstances.

If you buy one book this year, make it this book.
Go here and buy it now:

[www.amazon.co.uk]

There is a four page colour article on the Children of God and this book in the Australian edition of Madison magazine. July 2007 edition.

Not without my sisters is No 1 in Australia.


Top 10 non-fiction books
NOT WITHOUT MY SISTER

1. Not Without My Sister - Juliana Buhring and Celeste Jones
2. He'll Be OK - Celia Lashlie
3. Sophie's Journey - Sally Collings
4. The Simpsons Handbook - Matt Groening
5. 18 Hours - Sandra Lee
6. Simple Essentials: Chocolate - Donna Hay
7. A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah
8. Iceman - Philip Carlo
9. Instant Entertaining - Donna Hay
10. Simpsons Comics Royale - Matt Groening

Week ending Saturday, 7 July 2007 | return to top

Extract from today's Daily Mail

[www.dailymail.co.uk]


Enslaved by the cult of sex...for 25 years
By CELESTE JONES - More by this author » Last updated at 10:51am on 13th July 2007

Born into an evil cult, called the Children of God, sisters Celeste, Kristina and Juliana Jones were abused from the age of three. Torn from their parents, their childhood was dominated by the warped cult leader David Berg.

The cult - first exposed by the Daily Mail in 1994 - still exists. While their father, the son of a British Army officer, is still in the cult, the three sisters have escaped its clutches. Here the eldest, CELESTE JONES, 32, a clinical psychologist, who lives in Somerset with her eight-year-old daughter, gives a chilling account of life in the grip of a sinister madness.


There is an old, grainy home video from my childhood which I sometimes sit down to watch and which never fails to make me shudder. It starts innocently enough - I am six years old, a small, slim, dark-haired child dancing to pipe music for the camera. But this is no ordinary family movie.

As the camera focuses, you can see that I am naked, dancing behind a white veil.

I remember filming the video as if it was yesterday - and how the man "directing" it asked me to rub my bottom and to wriggle for the camera-The tragedy is that already at that age I had been forced to become sexualised. Quite simply, sexual grooming was an everyday part of my life.

I was born to ordinary, middle-class English parents, and by rights I should have enjoyed a perfectly normal childhood. But my parents - a former public schoolboy and rather naive young teenage girl - were members of the sinister Children of God cult, in which adult orgies and sex between adults and children were considered the highest expression of love.

Sickeningly, the cult leader David Berg, or 'Mo' as he called himself, claimed that God intended everyone to become part of a sexual experience. The result was a childhood of abuse and pain.

It should have been so different. My father, Christopher Jones, was born in December 1951, the son of a British Army officer. Educated at public school in Cheltenham, he studied drama at Rose Bruford College and joined the Children of God in 1973.

My mother Rebecca was born in 1957 and had a secure upbringing in the south of England. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a devoted housewife. Rebecca was recruited during a visit to her school by the Children of God when she was just 16, and married our father a year later in 1974.

I was born on January 29, 1975, and we were sent to join a commune in Bombay which was part of the cult, and where my sister Kristina was born 18 months later.

Months later, Berg decreed that sex was the highest expression of love, and giving it was called "sharing".

RISE International works to raise awareness amongst the public, government and charity organizations over the dangers and difficulties children face growing up in cults.


[www.riseinternationalcic.org]

[www.notwithoutmysister.co.uk]

For the last three weeks, Not Without My Sister has been no. 7, 6, and 5. in the UK charts and no. 1 in Australia.

Some amazon reviews-

This book does an excellent job of capturing, in a matter-of-fact narrative delivered in unembellished prose, a picture of what it was like to have been born circa the 70's to parents who joined the "Children of God" cult (which now goes by "The Family International"), and to have been raised there.

Although I grew up in "Family" cult communes in another continent half a world away, not knowing the authors (except for seeing videos and pictures of Celeste Jones at Music With Meaning, which the cult published and circulated), as I read "Not Without my Sister" I recognized the various directives from the cult leaders' "letters" that the authors mentioned - and the unfortunately mirrored consequences when the adults around us implemented those directives on me and the other children around me.

So many of the incidents that the 3 authors recount and the trademark environments, atmosphere and modus operandi during the various phases of the cult's history, echo uncannily with what I experienced and saw when I was confined in that insular world. Like the authors as children, it was the only world I had ever known; escape from servitude and a better future seemed impossible dreams. I think the authors handled particularly effectively the challenge of communicating, in a direct and almost conversational manner notably devoid of melodramatics, a child's inner experience of confusion and entrapment in the face of cult-approved and sponsored molestation and exploitation delivered by the perpetrators in tones of religious devotion and of being all "sweetness and light". Disabling distress is felt when one has no other frame of reference to confirm the unruly feelings that all was not well, feelings that went against something we were raised to think was "of God" while surrounded only by grown-ups who embraced that ethos (or were not sufficiently concerned about us children to confront it).

I should note for others raised in that cult that the reading brought back so much of what I experienced and saw that at times the painful memories were too much to continue and I had to put the book down for a time. If, on the other hand, you are unfamiliar with the cult, you may wonder why I would continue reading when that was the case. This brings me to one reason why it is so important that a book has finally been written about childhoods in a cult that has sunk enormous efforts and resources into rewriting its history (aided by certain "academic" types and others that have come within its sphere of influence) in its pursuit of recognition, acceptance and the resulting financial success it craves, all while being unwilling to make reparations to the children who were abused by it. There is a source of pain far greater than bad memories, which can be lethal to sanity and hope: being told that what you remember did not happen, that you are crazy and/or lying. It is maddening enough when it is various perpetrators; it is absolutely devastating when it is, say, a parent.

As part of the first wave of children born into captivity in the "Family", I ran away one pre-dawn into the unknown, a minor in a 3rd world country at a time when those born in the cult did not leave it (unless, say, you became a runaway, perhaps never heard from again). I had never met or spoken with any relatives outside the cult to whom I could turn.

For what seemed like forever, I felt so alone without anybody else who could bear witness to what happened. I had no examples to show that there could be a future after that childhood, that one could get an education and carve out a fate other than the self-destruction the cult predicted for its "backslidden" children. If I were to dare that today, I would have this book, and my suffering would be immeasurably lessened.

In fact, back then, Kristina Jones' was one of the first voices I heard that bore witness. It seems that her sisters Celeste and Juliana take after that same courage.

This book is a blow against child abuse in all its guises, because the perpetrators' wager is that even if you live, you will not tell. However, this book also renders a very specific public service because, while The Family International may not be original among child abusers in the crimes it committed against children, it definitely pushed the envelope in its sustained operation - under the guise of a "Christian" movement - of an international clandestine conspiracy that carried out, covered for and profited from such exploits as child abuse, rape, incest, kidnapping, false imprisonment, torture, child slave labor and trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and medical neglect of minors (like me - I suffered severe and irreversible consequences affecting basic physical functions) and of vulnerable adults, which neglect sometimes resulted in negligent homicide, as my case almost did.

The Family International is now intent on strengthening its foothold in respectable circles that do not know its past, often putting forward as Project Managers of its charities (projects which more often than not focus on vulnerable youth) cult members who severely abused children. The constituencies that it is targeting have a right to know who they embrace or champion.

Perhaps progress will bring the day when institutions such as the USA's Internal Revenue Service will be informed enough so as to stop granting to the Family Care Foundation and other alter egos of such enterprises as The Family International the aegis under which to make millions through tax exemptions. By Lucy



-------------------

After reading this book I realise just how lucky I have been and how happy my own childhood was. I have no connection to this cult and simply came across this book on a recommended reading section of a friend's website. It is a fantastic insight into a world find hard to believe exists in this days and age. I was astounded by some of this books content. The courage the three authors have shown in exposing what they had to endure as children has to be acknowledged and I admire all three for this.

This book is well written and makes for a very emotional read. I'm only a few years older then the three sisters who wrote this book and have two young children of my own. As a parent I found it very hard to understand the virtual abandonment of children that happened a lot in this cult along with the level of abuse these young children had to endure.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys well written true life story's but be prepared for a highly emotional read. By John Malloy


----------------

If you only read one book about The Family/Children of God cult, make it this one. A number of books about this new religious movement have been published but until now there has never been one that told the story of the children raised in it from their own perspective. Over the years, I've read just about everything that has ever been published about this organization, which I also was raised in, and I can honestly say that this is the best book ever written on the subject. It is very well-written and, despite the challenges undoubtedly created by having three co-authors, the narrative flow is cohesive. Because the co-authors left the organization at different points in its history, their story provides great insight into the experiences of children born and raised in The Family over time. Together, their stories provide first-hand accounts of what it was like to grow up in this organization from the 1970s all the way up to 2005. This is a difficult book to read. It contains accounts of horrific acts of child abuse done in the name of God and love. There were parts that made me cry. But I'm glad they had the courage to write this book and tell the truth about what happened to them. By Peter

Thu, 09/08/07
Castleconnell area was base for child sex cult, claims victim

by Mary Earls

THE shocking story of a religious cult which, it is claimed, set up base in the Castleconnell area in the 1990s,

is detailed in a new book published by Harper Collins.



Limerick Post reporter Mary Earls interviews Julianna Buhring.

THE Children of God Cult, in which orgies and sex between adults and children was considered the highest expression of love, had one of its communes in county Limerick in the late 1990’s, it has been claimed in a new book.

And Julianna Buhring, who lived in one of the religious cult’s rented homes somewhere near Castleconnell for over a year, said she is "positive” the organisation is still active in this region.

"The people who rented the house to the cult would not have known what was going on,” she insisted. She also emphasised that local people would have had no reason to be suspicious of anything as cult members were hidden away from public view.

"Not Without My Sister” is a newly released book, penned by Julianna and her sisters Celeste and Kristina, about their struggle to escape the perverse community that robbed them of their childhood and saw them live in dozens of countries world-wide to maintain secrecy. The Children of God cult, which was founded by warped leader David Berg, is now known as ‘The Family’. And today the three sisters work for a new organisation called RISE International set up to protect children from abuse in cults.

Speaking to the Limerick Post, 26-year-old Julianna alleged that "from as early as three years old, we were treated by our ‘guardians’ as sexual beings”.

"Sexual activity was actively encouraged. We received love letters and sexual advances from men old enough to be our grandfathers, and were forced into openly abusive relationships. We were also denied access to formal schooling, forced to beg on the streets for money, and were mercilessly beaten for ‘crimes’ such as reading an encyclopedia.

"The children of God, now known as The Family International, started off as a Christian fundamentalist group. But then it diverted into paedophelia, incest and being brainwashed - all led by our leader David Berg, who twisted Bible excerpts, saying that everything done in love is good and sex was the highest expression of love.

"He believed in the sexualisation of children and there was widespread sexual abuse. We were constantly being groomed as sexual beings and shown how to have sex in demonstrations and made to watch massive orgies.

"As girl’s got older - eight and nine, they started "sharing God’s love” or having sex. We were also put on a "Sharing” roster where we would have to "share” with others or "date naps” were arranged. You would also be encouraged to ‘Love Jesus’ - where you would basically be having sex with Jesus - through another partner. There were massive world-wide raids in the 1990’s and I believe the sexual abuse has largely stopped because of public scrutiny. But how does this rectify the crimes that were committed against us and so many other innocent children? These communes are breeding grounds for sexual abuse and there are still no firm child protection policies in place to this day,” she said.

Born into the cult in Greece, Julianna has a German passport even though she has never lived there and speaks with an American accent.

Her parents were both British hippies who joined the cult in the early 1970’s. And her father, Christopher Jones, who has 15 children by eight women, is currently living in the cult’s commune in Uganda, Africa, where Julianna finally broke free, along with her mother.

"I lived in dozens of countries when I was younger, mostly in Asia and Africa. I went to Limerick in late 1998 and 1999 because my dad sent me away as he had visa problems in Japan because members of the commune had been living there illegally. The cult was based in house in the countryside around Castleconnell in Co Limerick. The cult always rented houses because they wanted to be able to leave straight away if people started asking questions. I’m not sure if they are still based there, but I know that there is still a base in county Limerick,” said Julianna, who has now set up a new life for herself in Bristol, England.

During her time in Limerick, Julianna battled anorexia and extreme depression as the cult forced her to travel around the country seeking out recruits.

"We used to dress up as clowns in Limerick and make a living doing face paintings and going to shopping malls etc. And we raked in loads of money but this all went to the family leadership. I always dreamed about breaking free, but the group constantly instilled fear into us from a young age as regards the outside world. When I finally left at aged 23, I had no money and no idea of how to function in the outside world. People wondered where the hell I’d come from, because I’d no bank account etc. And after I left, I was shunned by family and friends It takes a lot to get out of the clutches of the cult because you were born into this and don’t know anything else,” she said.

Being forced to dress up as a gypsy and crawl into a makeshift tent for some "gypsy loving,” is one particularly vivid childhood memory for Julianna. Recalling memories as a five-year-old child, she claimed that another young boy "often tried to jump on me for sex during nap times.

"I did not like him, and usually pushed him away. One day, however, we were paired up together and I did not have a choice. I turned my head and saw mum and my teacher peeking through the sheets, giggling at our antics,” she recalls.

Children in the camp were also forced to "dance naked and wiggle for the camera” while photos were taken. "Cuddle Time” was a euphemism for group sex and kids were encouraged to fill out an "Open Heart Report” every day detailing all their thoughts and actions.

Julianna now works full time with RISE International, www.riseinternationalcic.org, along with her two sisters, who were only reunited over the past number of years. She is currently working on a second book and also studying for a BA in Philosophy with Psychological studies.

Cult founder and leader, David Berg or "Moses” as he called himself, died in 1994, but his organisation is currently led by his widow, Karen Zerby.

According to Julianna, Berg preached the cult’s beliefs "which changed all the time,” and he constantly told his "flock” that Jesus was coming back and they had to pray to save as many souls as possible.

"We were not allowed to be kids and were trained in military style camps with marching, serious disciplining and indoctrination. He also promised us that the world was going to end in 1993”.

Julianna was never raised by her parents as she was constantly forced to travel around the world, being raised by members of the cult.

"I couldn’t respect my father for leaving me there, knowing what went on. Although my father never abused my sisters or I, he did lay in bed with young girls, and my sister found him in bed with her young friend once. He didn’t see it as abuse - he saw it as love - so it was all just doublespeak’.

She said that she has tried to keep in contact with her father for the sake of her five step brothers and sisters, who are half Japanese and are currently living with her father in Uganda.

Since the publication of the book however, her father has cut off all contact with his daughter.

The Family International has its own website, www.thefamily.org, describing itself as "an international Christian fellowship dedicated to sharing God’s Word and love with others”.

The website states that Ireland is one of 100 countries where they have "homes” stating that when possible "our members are joined in their ministries by their children”.

Not Without My Sister, released through Harper Collins, is currently on sale.

Feature Article


Friday August 17 2007

'We went to The Square in Tallaght yesterday and I realised I'd been there before. I was on the very same spot where I stood 10 years ago with the other kids, getting money by ballooning -- twisting balloons into shapes, animals, cartoon characters and selling them. I saw lots of Ireland like that. It was strange to be there again."

Juliana Buhring is sitting with two of her sisters in a Dublin hotel, as they revisit their often cruel, lonely and highly controlled lives in The Family, the cult also known as the Children of God -- though there is little that is Godlike in its many activities.

Juliana (26), her sisters Celeste (32) and Kristina Jones (31) were born into the cult. While Juliana has a different mother, all are daughters of British-born Christopher Jones, who at age 56 has already fathered 15 children by seven women, his youngest still a toddler.

Each sister has now left the cult. Juliana was the last to go, in 2004.

They have written Not Without My Sister, a harrowing story of betrayal and abandonment by their parents and the many other adults in their lives. The book is dedicated to their sister Davida, who committed suicide in 2005, aged 23.

The organisation was founded in southern California by David Berg in 1968. In its heyday 5,000 children were born into the cult, including actor River Phoenix, who died of a drug-related seizure in 1993, aged 23.

In the initial years after its founding, communities of the cult were opened across the US. In 1972, the cult left America to evade negative publicity and began to to recruit in other countries, starting in Europe and eventually spreading to the Far East.

The Family is most infamous for sex acts between adults and children, revealed in chilling detail by the sisters, who were sexualised from the age of three. 'Sex dates' with men of their grandparents' age were an early fact of life, initially being kissed and touched inappropriately.

Before age 10, many children had to provide oral sex or masturbate the adult, leading all too soon to coerced underage intercourse.

If they resisted, they were accused of being selfish, evil or ungrateful. "David Berg said that children liked sex, so no matter how we felt, they chose to believe we liked it," said Juliana.

The book admirably succeeds in its role to lift the lid on the dark world of The Family, characterised by beatings, manipulation and exploitation. David Berg predicted the world would end in 1993, with Family members destined to become God's Endtime Soldiers, free from the shackles of the System, as life outside was called.

Disparate groups lived in overcrowded conditions in large houses, moving round the world, obeying no laws but the rules of David Berg, which dominated every moment of their lives, and allowed no space for thought, reflection or peace. "The whole atmosphere kept you 'up'," says Juliana, hunching her shoulders, "you were constantly in a state of fight or flight."

In approaching the project, each sister wrote her own story, then came together for an intense time of editing and discussion. Through access to cult documentation, personal details seared into memory and discussions with other former members, they have created a chronicle of the bewildering, oppressive maelstrom that was their lives.

Celeste and Juliana were separated from their mothers by age six. Kristina was taken from her father at age three, but the remaining parent, often physically or emotionally absent, fell far short of providing the loving security that children need. Their positive survival seems a tribute to their own strength of characters.

Sitting together in Dublin, they present an affectionate, easy threesome. "We didn't know about each other, really. Dad liked to keep his families separate. But when we finally met as adults we got on famously. We had a shared background with the same reference points. Meeting people from other cults, they all say exactly the same things about abuse and control," said Celeste.

Juliana lived in Ireland for a year, abandoned by parents, based in a large house behind high walls in Castleconnell, Co Limerick, under the domination of an angry and violent house leader.

Aged 16, she had been raped the previous year by a cult member, and was deeply depressed and anorexic.

One day she ran away, and remembers walking along bog-lined roads while the house was ransacked to find her. Today, healthy and well, Juliana remains in contact with her father as she feels a responsibility towards her five siblings still living with him.

She is also the one who challenges him most. "There was no honesty from dad; he never had pride in me. I never felt love coming from him, probably my love for him died the soonest. I won't play the little scenes with him. I call his bluff and he hates that."

When her father heard about the book, he flew into a rage, and sent her a long text describing his daughters as 'enemies' who are 'slandering and betraying' The Family.

Kristina says because the break was so early, she remained attached to an idealised father. "Then when I left the cult at 12 and began to see it objectively, I had sympathy for him and for many years did not lose hope of him and in him. Later I became very angry towards him but I've learnt to work through that, and more recently I am at peace with it all."

Celeste's feelings are different again. "When I was small, he was a good father, and when I left The Family, I had sadness and pain and worry. But he has never acknowledged that what happened to us was ever wrong. I have now no need to talk to him, and there has been no contact for two years. I'm sad at that."

Equally, there is no close relationship with their mothers; more a feeling of some compassion for the lives they endured. Their take on forgiveness for all they themselves have suffered is equally mature. "You can't forgive unless your abuser wants to be forgiven. You need an admission from them that what they have done is wrong," said Juliana.

"Forgiveness has been a long road for me. Today I don't hold grudges. I've let a lot go for my own peace of mind so that I'm not still caught up in the past," said Kristina.

Today, David Berg is dead, Family membership is greatly diminished and the organisation is globally discredited. Thousands have left over the years, but many children born into the cult do badly in the outside world, turning to alcohol, drugs and self-harm, often leading to an early death.

The sisters, in contrast, are strong, caring and making new lives for themselves. Kristina works voluntarily with the Safe Passage Foundation, which helps ex-cult members, and lives in Nottingham with her 15-year-old son, Jordan, and partner Carl. They plan to marry next year.

Juliana and Celeste live in Bristol -- Juliana paying her way through university studying for a BA in philosophy and psychology. Celeste lives with her nine-year-old daughter Cherie, has a degree in Psychology and Education and recently landed a job as a project worker with a national children's agency.

They have all helped set up RISE International, (Resources, Information, Socialisation, Education), which works to protect children from abuse in cults.

Not surprisingly, their attitude to religion is negative. "I see religion as a method of control and abuse. It'd be difficult to see it as a source of happiness," says Kristina. "My philosophy would be humanist; to be good and kind," says Celeste.

When asked about their greatest regret, they agree it is that they did not feel able to leave the cult sooner and were unable to protect their sister Davida from the despair and abandonment that ended in suicide. Their greatest hope is that their younger siblings will leave the cult soon and begin a life of freedom in the outside world, and that the current leadership of The Family will pay with imprisonment for the abuse they have presided over.

Their good-bye was warm and sincere. As I walked away, I looked back and saw the three young women sitting together, each looking forward to carving out a new life.

[www.independent.ie]

Castleconnell connection to Family international

[www.xfamily.org]

Allegations that local businessman encouraged young womans involvement

[www.limericktoday.com]

limerick forum
[www.limerickblogger.org]