Edwards, Flor
WORK TITLE: Apocalypse Child
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://floredwards.com/about/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
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| 100 | 1_ |a Edwards, Flor |
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| 370 | __ |e Los Angeles (Calif.) |2 naf |
| 373 | __ |a Family International (Organization) |2 naf |
| 374 | __ |a Authors |a Ex-cultists |2 lcsh |
| 375 | __ |a Females |2 lcdgt |
| 377 | __ |a eng |
| 670 | __ |a Apocalypse child, 2018: |b E-CIP t.p. (Flor Edwards) |
| 670 | __ |a Edwards, Flor. Apocalypse child, 2018: |b title page (Flor Edwards) page 15 (born December 13, 1981, Malmö, Sweden) back cover (Flor Edwards; grew up as a member of The Children of God, a controversial religious movement that many describe as an apocalyptic cult; author; lives in Los Angeles, Calif.) |
PERSONAL
Born December 13, 1981, in Malmö, Sweden.
EDUCATION:California State University, Fullerton, B.A., 2011; University of California, Riverside, M.F.A., 2014.
ADDRESS
- Home - Los Angeles, CA.
CAREER
Writer and educator. Teaches at a community college.
WRITINGS
- Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times: A Memoir, Turner (Nashville, TN), 2018
SIDELIGHTS
Flor Edwards is a writer and educator based in Los Angeles, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fullerton and a master’s degree from the University of California, Riverside. Edwards teaches at a community college.
In 2018, Edwards released Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times: A Memoir. In this volume, she recalls growing up in a religious cult called the Children of God. The cult was led by David Berg, whom followers called Father David. Berg started the Children of God in the late-1960s. Original members of the group were hippies who wanted to live communally. However, as Berg became more paranoid, the group’s activities became more sinister. The beliefs of the Children of God borrowed aspects from Christianity, including the idea that the apocalypse would occur, and the Antichrist would bring terror to the world. Berg believed he knew the year during which the apocalypse would occur and instructed all of his followers to prepare for it to happen in 1993. Edwards’s parents joined the cult before she was born in 1981, so Edwards never knew what a normal childhood was like. Her mother was not allowed to take birth control and was encouraged to have as many children as she could. She had twelve, including Edwards and her twin sister, Tamar. Father David would force his followers to move often and chose leaders who would enforce his strict rules. Finally, after Father David’s apocalypse predictions were proven false, Edwards and her family left the cult. Edwards describes the difficult transition from cult life to living in the real world.
In an interview with Jane Ridley, contributor to the News website, Edwards discussed her impressions of Father David. She stated: “He was this obscure image that we had in our minds. I never saw him, my parents never met him. … He was very much like a monarch. I remember being scared that if I said anything against him it would be blasphemous.” Regarding how the cult survived through the generosity of others, Edwards told Ridley: “I was never hungry but the food we ate was quite bland, as everything we got was for free and we didn’t have money for sugar or oil. … I always felt embarrassed for having to ask for things for free. There’s something inherently humiliating about needing something from another human being, especially when it was not your choice to be in that position.” Edwards also explained to Ridley that she and the rest of the children in the cult were not familiar with basic inventions. She recalls the first time she saw a water fountain, stating: “My brother was there, touching the button, and the water was coming out in an arch. … All of us crowded around it because we had seen nothing like it before … the fact that this clean water was coming out of this spout was amazing.” Regarding her desire to learn and analyze, Edwards told Ridley: “Because the world was always a mystery to me, I want to understand it.”
Critics offered favorable assessments of Apocalypse Child. “Edwards grippingly chronicles her bizarre childhood,” asserted a Publishers Weekly writer. The same writer concluded: “This is a wrenching testimony about a complicated childhood reclaimed.” Meg Nola, reviewer in ForeWord, described the book as “engrossing” and remarked: “With expressive yet measured candor, Edwards conveys her sense of identity confusion and outrage during a time of readjustment, as well as her eventual journey to greater self-acceptance.” A contributor to the online version of Kirkus Reviews commented: “The narrative is vivid. … The moving story carries a muted, often dark sense of humor, with a wry sense of timing.” The same contributor called the book “an impressive religious memoir—candid and inspiring without being sensationalistic or self-pitying.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
ForeWord, December 27, 2017, Meg Nola, review of Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times: A Memoir.
Publishers Weekly, January 8, 2018, review of Apocalypse Child, p. 57.
ONLINE
Daily Caller, http://dailycaller.com/ (March 12, 2018), Gabrielle Okun, review of Apocalypse Child.
Flor Edwards website, http://floredwards.com/ (June 11, 2018).
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (February 20, 2018), review of Apocalypse Child.
London Daily Mail Online, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ (May 31, 2015), Sophie Jane Evans, author interview.
News, https://www.news.com.au/ (March 11, 2018), Jane Ridley, author interview and review of Apocalypse Child.
- Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times: A Memoir Turner (Nashville, TN), 2018
- Flor Edwards - http://floredwards.com/about/
Flor Edwards is an author and lives in Los Angeles, California. By age twelve, Flor had lived in 24 different locations across three continents. Always on the move to escape the Antichrist and in preparation for the Apocalypse in 1993, her nomadic childhood prompted her to pen her memoir Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times. In her debut memoir, Flor movingly describes her early life growing up with her family and 11 siblings as a member of The Children of God, a controversial religious movement that many describe as an apocalyptic cult.
Growing up, Flor was not allowed to read, write, or have a traditional education. Unable to communicate with anyone outside the group, she spent most of her days in compounds in Southeast Asia caring for younger children in the group, tending to chores, and memorizing scripture. After Father David, the cult’s leader, died in 1994, many of his 12,000 followers were abandoned in a world for which they were unprepared and struggled to adjust to life outside the group. Following Father David’s instructions to move back to the west right before his death, Flor and her family moved to California after a long, cold winter in Chicago where they had spent two years. The cult slowly disbanded. With no money, job, or education, Flor and her family started over in her father’s hometown of California.
Flor attended high school and it was in an English class in college at the age of 17 when she discovered she had a voice and decided to pursue a career as a writer, in part, so she could share her remarkable story with others. After over a decade of catching up on the traditional training she lacked, Flor completed Apocalypse Child and landed an agent in July 2014 who found her a publisher in January 2017. In her debut memoir, Flor attempts to capture her unique life experience and present it to the reader as best as she can in a clear, nonjudgmental way.
In 2011, Flor graduated from California State University-Fullerton with a BA in Print Journalism. Then she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside in 2014. Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times is set for release by Turner Publishing Company in March 2018. Head over to her Book page to find out more details about the book and its release.
See what reviewers are saying here.
- Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3104015/Physically-abused-told-die-12-banned-school-Real-life-Kimmy-Schmidt-twins-reveal-life-like-inside-controversial-Children-God-sect.html
Physically abused, told they would die at 12 and banned from school: 'Real-life Kimmy Schmidt' twins reveal what life was like inside controversial Children of God sect
Twins Flor and Tamar Edwards, both 34, grew up in Children of God sect
They escaped with parents at 13 after founder, David Berg, passed away
They have opened up to ABC's Nightline about their lives with the group
Claim they were physically abused as children and banned from school
They were also 'told they would die as martyrs at 12 due to apocalypse'
Tamar was so terrified and sad she was driven to attempt suicide aged 7
Children of God disbanded in 1994; now called The Family InternationalBy Sophie Jane Evans For Dailymail.com
Published: 18:31 EDT, 30 May 2015 | Updated: 11:27 EDT, 31 May 2015
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As children growing up in a controversial religious sect, they spent every day 'paralyzed by fear'.
They were physically abused, banned from school and told they would die as martyrs aged 12.
But now, twin sisters Flor and Tamar Edwards, 34, have escaped from The Children of God cult and are both living and working in California - one as a freelance writer, the other as a yoga teacher.
They have opened up to ABC's Nightline about their lives inside the sect - which blended free love attitudes with preparing for the second coming of Jesus - and their transition to the outside world.
'I didn’t know what a movie theater was,' said Flor, who along with her sister has compared their situation to that of the lead female character in the Netflix show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Scroll down for video
Finally free: Twins Flor (left) and Tamar Edwards (right), 34, escaped from The Children of God sect at the age of 13. They are now living and working in California - one as a freelance writer, the other as a yoga teacher
+15Finally free: Twins Flor (left) and Tamar Edwards (right), 34, escaped from The Children of God sect at the age of 13. They are now living and working in California - one as a freelance writer, the other as a yoga teacher
Fearful: As children growing up in a controversial religious sect, the sisters (pictured during this time) spent every day 'paralyzed by fear'. They were abused, banned from school and warned they would die aged 12
+15Fearful: As children growing up in a controversial religious sect, the sisters (pictured during this time) spent every day 'paralyzed by fear'. They were abused, banned from school and warned they would die aged 12
Comparison: 'I didn’t know what a movie theater was,' said Flor, who along with her sister has compared their situation to that of the lead female character (pictured) in the Netflix show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
+15Comparison: 'I didn’t know what a movie theater was,' said Flor, who along with her sister has compared their situation to that of the lead female character (pictured) in the Netflix show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Video playing bottom right...In the program, Kimmy Schmidt, 29, struggles to adjust to life in New York City after being rescued from an Indiana cult - and is even shocked when water sprinkles out of a sensor-activated tap.
Flor, who feels she can relate to that particular scene, continued: 'We saw a drinking fountain for the first time, and we all just kind of like saw it, and we, like, huddled around it like it was some ...'
'... novelty,' Tamar ended.
The Children of God cult was founded by former pastor, David Brandt Berg, in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968, and has frequently been at the center of physical and sexual abuse claims.
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Speaking to Nightline, the twins, who joined the group aged just five with their family while they were living in Los Angeles, said they and their 12 siblings were physically abused as youngsters.
'[Children] would be getting spanked really young. My little sister was like six months old which, you know, you don’t get spanked at that age,' said Flor, adding that she was never sexually abused.
They also said they were told they were 'going to be God's Martyrs' aged 12 because members apparently believed the apocalypse would occur in 1992 - something that left them 'terrified'.
Interview: Flor (left) and Tamar have opened up to Nightline about their lives inside the sect - which blended free love attitudes with preparing for the second coming of Jesus - and their transition to the outside world
+15Interview: Flor (left) and Tamar have opened up to Nightline about their lives inside the sect - which blended free love attitudes with preparing for the second coming of Jesus - and their transition to the outside world
Physically abuse: The twins (pictured as young girls), who joined the cult with their family aged just five while they were living in Los Angeles, said they and their 12 siblings were physically abused as youngsters
+15Physically abuse: The twins (pictured as young girls), who joined the cult with their family aged just five while they were living in Los Angeles, said they and their 12 siblings were physically abused as youngsters
Crowded: During their childhood, Flor and Tamar were reportedly shut away from mainstream society and kept in tiny living quarters (above). The twins and their family were stuck in a house with dozens of other families
+15Crowded: During their childhood, Flor and Tamar were reportedly shut away from mainstream society and kept in tiny living quarters (above). The twins and their family were stuck in a house with dozens of other families
During their childhood, Flor and Tamar were reportedly shut away from mainstream society, banned from going to school (meaning they could not read until aged nine) and kept in tiny living quarters.
They said they were taught 'everything was evil', including education, politics, money and music. Indeed, the sisters only heard chart-topping songs for the first time after escaping from the cult.
'If I watched all the movies from the '80s and got a whole collection of music from the '80s, I just -- there's no context there,' said Flor, who is among thousands of children born into the sect.
After joining the group in Los Angeles, the Edwards family moved to Thailand on Berg's orders, before returning to Chicago in 1994 when the leader deemed it safe for his followers to come back.
Upon their return, Flor, Tamar and their family were stuck in a house with dozens of other families.
The twins confirmed widespread claims that the sect - now known as The Family International - was sex-driven at the time, with many adults having sexual relations in front of children in the property.
Real world: The sisters said they were taught 'everything was evil', including education, politics, money and music. Indeed, the sisters only heard chart-topping songs for the first time after escaping from the cult
+15Real world: The sisters said they were taught 'everything was evil', including education, politics, money and music. Indeed, the sisters only heard chart-topping songs for the first time after escaping from the cult
The Children of God cult was founded by former pastor, David Brandt Berg (pictured), in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968
+15
The twins at a younger age
+15Sect: The Children of God cult was founded by former pastor, David Brandt Berg (left), in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968, and has frequently been at the center of abuse claims. Right, the twins at a younger age
Followers were taught that love for God was expressed through sex, but 'within that there was abuse that happened', said Tamar. This alleged abuse led to some former members committing suicide.
Tamar herself was also driven to attempt to kill herself at the tender age of seven due to her lack of fun in the shared home - and her pure terror at the thought of going through the apocalypse.
'The apocalypse seemed really scary,' she said. 'The whole Earth burning in the lake of fire, they had a whole agenda of what was going to happen like a lot of religions do, so it was terrifying.'
In 1994, Berg's death led to the sect breaking up. Flor and Tamar said they found their new life in the outside world difficult to adapt to - and still struggle to go out drinking or meet someone new.
They were helped in their efforts by Thai pastor, Reverend Pongsak Limthongviratn.
And despite the horrors of their childhood, the twins, who regularly post photos of each other on Facebook, said they are not angry at their parents, who 'went through everything' with them.
A sex-driven group: The twins confirmed widespread claims that the sect - now known as The Family International - was sex-driven at the time, with many adults having sexual relations in front of children
+15A sex-driven group: The twins confirmed widespread claims that the sect - now known as The Family International - was sex-driven at the time, with many adults having sexual relations in front of children
Pastor: They were helped to adapt to the outside world by Thai pastor, Rev. Pongsak Limthongviratn (above)
+15Pastor: They were helped to adapt to the outside world by Thai pastor, Rev. Pongsak Limthongviratn (above)
Experiences: The sisterre seen on Nightline eating pizza - something they were banned from doing in the sect
+15Experiences: The sisterre seen on Nightline eating pizza - something they were banned from doing in the sect
During his time as the leader of the Children of God, Berg was known to his followers as Moses David, Mo, King David, Dad, and Grandpa. He instructed new converts to memorize lengthy Bible verses and undertake Bible classes. They were also expected to live the lives of early Christians.
In 1978, the sect was reorganized by Berg amid abuse claims. The founder dismissed more than 300 of the movement's leaders and formally banned sexual contact between adults and minors.
The new movement was named The Family Of Love. But during the 1990s, more allegations of child sexual abuse were brought against TFOL, which had acquired the nicknamed The Family.
In 1994, Berg died and many families left the group. Karen Zerby (known as Mama Maria, Queen Maria, Maria David, or Maria Fontaine) took over leadership, allowing members greater freedom.
Ten years later, the movement's name was changed to The Family International.
Despite the horrors of their childhood, the twins, who regularly post photos of each other online (left, Tamar, right, Flor), said they are not angry at their parents, who 'went through everything' with them
+15
Despite the horrors of their childhood, the twins, who regularly post photos of each other online (left, Tamar, right, Flor), said they are not angry at their parents, who 'went through everything' with them
+15New life: Despite the horrors of their childhood, the twins, who regularly post photos of each other online (left, Tamar, right, Flor), said they are not angry at their parents, who 'went through everything' with them
Founding: Berg founded the sect in Huntington Beach (file picture), before founded communes in other areas
+15Founding: Berg founded the sect in Huntington Beach (file picture), before founded communes in other areas
ABC News Videos | ABC Entertainment News
Read more:
Page 3: The Real Life 'Kimmy Schmidt': Twin Sisters, Former Children of God Members, Describe Life Inside Controversial Religious Sect - ABC News
Twin Sisters, Ex-Children of God Members, Describe Video - ABC NewsShare or comment on this article:
QUOTED: "Edwards grippingly chronicles her bizarre childhood."
"This is a wrenching testimony about a complicated childhood reclaimed."
Apocalypse Child
Publishers Weekly.
265.2 (Jan. 8, 2018): p57. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Apocalypse Child
Flor Edwards. Turner, $15.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-68336-768-0
Edwards grippingly chronicles her bizarre childhood within a California cult in her smart debut. Children of God was a movement founded in Huntington Beach in 1968 that claimed the Great Apocalypse was coming in 1993, the year Edwards would turn 12. Constantly on the move-in part because her family thought it was their mission to warn the world, in part because they were running from the law for various reasons--Edwards's parents were reassigned to a new location in Asia every few months, where they isolated Edwards and her siblings behind the high walls of compounds. Although her memoir mostly focuses on her life in the cult---its senseless rules (only three squares of toilet paper allowed) and abusive methods like "flirty-fishing" (collecting a donation in exchange for sexual favors)--the most memorable section comes when Edwards leaves the cult at age 12 after wearing down her parents and tries to forge a new life as a teenager in America. Torn between love for and fury toward her parents, she eventually discovers writing, an outlet that helps her sort through her confusion about her identity outside of the cult: "For the first time, I was getting to know myself." This is a wrenching testimony about a complicated childhood reclaimed. (Mar.)
1 of 4 6/3/18, 9:06 PM
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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Apocalypse Child." Publishers Weekly, 8 Jan. 2018, p. 57. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A524503023/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=9e9b9378. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A524503023
QUOTED: "engrossing."
"With expressive yet measured candor, Edwards conveys her sense of identity confusion and outrage during a time of readjustment, as well as her eventual journey to greater self-acceptance."
2 of 4 6/3/18, 9:06 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Apocalypse Child; A Life in End
Times
Meg Nola
ForeWord.
(Dec. 27, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 ForeWord http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Flor Edwards; APOCALYPSE CHILD; Turner Publishing (Nonfiction: Autobiography & Memoir) 15.99 ISBN: 9781683367680
Byline: Meg Nola
Flor Edwards's Apocalypse Child is an engrossing account of growing up within the strangely insular Children of God cult. Followers of the cult, founded in the late 1960s by David Berg, accepted his twisted interpretation of Christianity and viewed their leader as a lion-headed prophet. Born into the cult in 1981, Edwards was essentially sequestered from the outside world and raised to believe that the Children of God's lifestyle was the chosen way.
Edwards recalls a childhood spent mostly overseas, moving often to avoid the Antichrist and "outsiders," or to spread the word of God. Her lucid, almost deceptively serene language describes her parents and extended cult family, along with an ever-growing roster of siblings -- her mother gave birth to a new baby each year due to Berg's forbidding contraception.
Beyond the collective family unit, however, lurks an undertone of children observing cult member orgies or being drawn into sexual activity themselves. There is also "flirty fishing," or young cult women being encouraged to act as "hookers for Jesus," seeking out lonely men to seduce and recruit or from whom to solicit a donation for providing intimate companionship. As a girl, Edwards dreaded reaching puberty and having to join this unsettling adult realm, and she lived in further terror of Berg's predicted 1993 apocalypse.
Following Berg's death in 1994 -- from illness, not the apocalypse -- Edwards's family drifted away from the group, which received unfavorable legal and media attention and was reorganizing. Edwards's reentry into society and move to the United States as a teenager was both liberating and traumatic.
With expressive yet measured candor, Edwards conveys her sense of identity confusion and outrage during a time of readjustment, as well as her eventual journey to greater self-acceptance and spiritual peace.
3 of 4 6/3/18, 9:06 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Nola, Meg. "Apocalypse Child; A Life in End Times." ForeWord, 27 Dec. 2017. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A520983394/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a6e89ae7. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A520983394
4 of 4 6/3/18, 9:06 PM
- Kirkus
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/flor-edwards/apocalypse-child/
Word count: 515QUOTED: "The narrative is vivid. ... The moving story carries a muted, often dark sense of humor, with a wry sense of timing."
"an impressive religious memoir—candid and inspiring without being sensationalistic or self-pitying."APOCALYPSE CHILD by Flor Edwards
APOCALYPSE CHILD
A Life in End Times
by Flor Edwards
BUY NOW FROMGET WEEKLY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Email AddressEmail this review
KIRKUS REVIEWA debut book focuses on a young girl growing up in the infamous Children of God cult and the bizarre locales that she was raised in.
Edwards’ memoir chronicles her upbringing in the religious movement the Children of God, also called the Family, a doomsday cult formed in the late 1960s by David Berg. Berg prophesied a looming apocalypse, claiming it would occur in 1993. Often in hiding, he sent letters to instruct his followers, with the prophet encouraging an atmosphere of wanton sexuality and constant ministry, interspersed with tales of his alleged erotic conquests to offset his own impotency. From a young age, Edwards had her doubts about the “evil” that the walls around the family’s residences supposedly protected her from as well as a great fear that her life would end in martyrdom. Much of the early years of her and her twin sister, Tamar, was spent in Thailand, staying in overcrowded conditions while their parents did “outreach” work, which often meant begging. The book delivers another account of the Children of God, whose history of incest and sexualization of minor-age children has become notorious since the 2005 murder-suicide committed by former cult member Ricky “Davidito” Rodriguez in the U.S. Rodriguez killed an associate of his mother’s and then took his own life. Edwards’ experiences portray a different yet no less oppressive Family half a world away. The author will not be a stranger to some readers, having been extensively interviewed, and she brings the same presence and charisma to her memoir. The narrative is vivid, from its depictions of the blood of her mother’s first miscarriage to the constant dust and grime of life near the Mekong River. The moving story carries a muted, often dark sense of humor, with a wry sense of timing. Edwards’ shock at forgetting to minister to a brawny Russian who hoisted her above a deep freezer in Thailand (“Wanna feel cold?”) is one particularly endearing and startling case. But the author’s years of awakening after her family’s exit from the Children of God, while not rushed, feel abbreviated. The accounts of her realization that she grew up in a cult, ranging from a story in Seventeen to her teenage rebellion and even her attempted suicide, are presented with a self-awareness and charm that will make readers want more.
An impressive religious memoir—candid and inspiring without being sensationalistic or self-pitying.
Pub Date: March 13th, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68336-769-7
Page count: 224pp
Publisher: Turner
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20th, 2018 - Daily Caller
http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/12/flor-edwards-sex-cult-memoir/
Word count: 563Woman’s Memoir Details Childhood Experience In Sex Cult [VIDEO]
3:39 PM 03/12/2018
Gabrielle Okun | ReporterA woman is detailing her childhood experience in a sex cult, in a memoir set for release on Tuesday.
Flor Edwards, 36, a community college teacher in California, details her experience in the apocalyptic sex cult “Children of God” and her harrowing escape, in a new memoir called “Apocalypse Child: A Life In End Times,” reported the New York Post. Edwards grew up in Thailand, one of 12 children who grew up doing practice drills preparing for the apocalypse.
WATCH:
She was instructed that the West had satanic influences. Members were told to breed as much as possible to produce “end-time soldiers,” and were brainwashed to believe the world was supposed to end in 1993. When Edwards was younger, she was taught that she would live until the age 12.
“It started out very innocent. A bunch of young hippies joining together … and trying to do good things,” said Edwards. The “Children of God” cult started in 1968 by David Berg ,”Father David,” who claimed he was a mouthpiece of God. The cult gained support from young hippies and at first echoed the ideas of peace, free love, sharing and lack of material possessions.
Edwards’ father dropped out of college to join the movement with his five brothers. Her parents met at a “Children of God” commune in Spain in 1978, according to the New York Post.
The “Children of God” also encourages incest and for adults to have sex with children. Edwards details her own experience with the sexual abuse within the cult.
“I am fully aware that all the adults are inside engaging in sexual congregation,” wrote Edwards, recalling a memory from age three. “I don’t know how I know, but I’m certain an orgy is taking place inside.” Edwards was instructed to engage in “flirty fishing,” a practice where members were encouraged to promote the cult by “show[ing] God’s love” through sex. Edwards was dressed in a frilly dress at age nine to attract new members.
Also WATCH: Obama’s Presidential Portrait Places Him Squarely In … The Bushes?
“Father David” would mail notes, instructing her family to move around to different compounds. “Father David” told cult members in 1994 that God decided to give an extension for the apocalypse and that people should start moving back to the West. Edwards’ family moved to Chicago and eventually California. Once in California, Edwards and her sisters convinced her parents to leave the cult. “They left the group for us,” she said.
Following her departure from the cult, adjusting to life in California in her teenage years was difficult, she says. She received a degree from the University of California, Riverside. Her childhood may have been taken away from her, but she does not have a grudge against her parents.
Her parents “loved” her memoir, she said.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.Tags : children of god flor edwards thailand
- News
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/birth-control-was-banned-so-they-could-create-as-many-endtime-soldiers-as-possible/news-story/cce4ae71b38e7c512d2bfe39619fa9fa
Word count: 2178QUOTED: "He was this obscure image that we had in our minds. I never saw him, my parents never met him. ... He was very much like a monarch. I remember being scared that if I said anything against him it would be blasphemous."
"I was never hungry but the food we ate was quite bland, as everything we got was for free and we didn’t have money for sugar or oil. ... I always felt embarrassed for having to ask for things for free. There’s something inherently humiliating about needing something from another human being, especially when it was not your choice to be in that position."
"My brother was there, touching the button, and the water was coming out in an arch. ... All of us crowded around it because we had seen nothing like it before ... the fact that this clean water was coming out of this spout was amazing."
"Because the world was always a mystery to me, I want to understand it."Birth control was banned so they could create as many ‘end-time’ soldiers as possible
TRAPPED in a compound in remote Thailand, a young Flo Edwards was terrified she wouldn’t make it out of the cult alive.
Jane Ridley
New York PostMarch 11, 20185:43pmVideo
Image0:02
/
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I Escaped A Sex CultDRESSED head to toe in black and wielding broomsticks like guns, a band of assailants in helmets burst through the doors shouting and screaming like terrorists.
As instructed, 5-year-old Flor Edwards hid under the stairs with the other children before the invaders hunted them down and pretended to shoot them dead.
After remaining still for a few minutes, the kids rose, trancelike, from the floor — lifting their arms as they mimed flying up to meet Jesus at heaven’s gates.
“[The drill] was to prepare us for the apocalypse,” Edwards, now 36, told The Post. The routine “practice raids” were staged by adults in the notorious Children of God sect, of which her family were members, living in a compound hidden behind an 8-foot-tall fence in remote Thailand.
Flor Edwards escaped the cult when she was a teenager. Picture: John Chapple PhotographyFlor Edwards escaped the cult when she was a teenager. Picture: John Chapple PhotographySource:New York Post
“I was terrified,” she recalled.
Now a teacher at a community college, Edwards left the scandal-ridden doomsday cult in her early teens and has written about her unconventional childhood in the memoir “Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times” (Turner Publishing), out Tuesday.
Like Hollywood celebrities Rose McGowan and Joaquin and River Phoenix, who were also raised in the Children of God, Edwards lived in poverty and was programmed to believe that her existence would be snuffed out in 1993 by followers of the Antichrist. “[Up to the age of] 12 was as long as I was supposed to live,” she said.
Devotees were taught that, following their inevitable death, they were destined for a blissful afterlife in the Garden of Eden while the rest of the world rotted in hell.
Growing up, Edwards recalled, “Death was heavy on my mind. I’d think about it constantly ... and imagine my future in heaven. I’d think about [how] I’d never become a woman.”
It was in the mid-’70s that her father, a geology student, dropped out of University of California, Davis, to follow his five older siblings into the Children of God, which had been gaining traction among young hippies since 1968. The John Lennon-esque philosophy of peace, sharing and free love captured the mood of a generation. Possessions and other material things were considered unnecessary. The cult’s leader, David Berg, known as “Father David,” lived in seclusion and claimed to be the mouthpiece of God.
“It started out very innocent. A bunch of young hippies joining together ... and trying to do good things,” Edwards said.
But over time, things turned dark. Writing to his followers in rambling letters, Berg espoused that America and the West were satanic influences and predicted that a warmongering global government would destroy Earth. Birth control was banned among the Children of God so the members could produce as many “end-time soldiers” as possible to assist in the fight against evil.
Flor Edwards, like her sister and many other kids, were scared of the cult leaders.Flor Edwards, like her sister and many other kids, were scared of the cult leaders.Source:New York Post
“He was this obscure image that we had in our minds. I never saw him, my parents never met him,” Edwards said of Father David. “He was very much like a monarch. I remember being scared that if I said anything against him it would be blasphemous.”
Edwards’ father met her Swedish mother in 1978, at one of the group’s communes in Spain. The couple went on to have 12 children, with Edwards and her twin sister, Tamar, the third and fourth of the brood, born in 1981.
Edwards never experienced the cult’s reported worst practices — including incest and sex between adults and children. But in the shabby commune houses, where as many as 50 people would live at once, there was little privacy. Even at a tender age, she knew group sex was going on.
“I am fully aware that all the adults are inside engaging in sexual congregation,” writes Edwards of one of her earliest memories, from age 3. “I don’t know how I know, but I’m certain an orgy is taking place inside.”
Edwards also experienced a bit of the group’s infamous “Flirty Fishing,” which encouraged female followers to recruit new members by “show[ing] God’s love” through sex. In one passage, Edwards describes being sent out in a frilly dress to a fishing town near the Thai-Malaysian border. She was nine years old.
At the harbour, where the sailors they saw as potential converts were loading supplies, Edwards, her pregnant mother and her sisters sang Christian songs to them.
“In unison, we gestured open palm to heart and then out to the audience of mostly men, as if to spread God’s love generously to anyone who was willing to receive it,” she writes. “Sometimes the sailors gifted us with souvenirs from their native lands, and we would accept them, allowing the men to wrap their arms around us and pull us in for a hug or a kiss on the cheek.”
The compound in Udon Thani.The compound in Udon Thani.Source:New York Post
The family lived a nomadic existence, moving between compounds on the mysterious, mailed instructions of Father David. He transferred his disciples — which, at one point, numbered 144,000 people around the world — at his whim. Edwards lived in 24 different homes by the time she was 12, experiencing over and over the heartbreak of leaving new friends.
She said that one of the most demeaning aspects of life in the cult was begging for groceries. “I was never hungry but the food we ate was quite bland, as everything we got was for free and we didn’t have money for sugar or oil,” said Edwards, who would be sent out on food-scouting missions with the other children. “I always felt embarrassed for having to ask for things for free.”
“There’s something inherently humiliating about needing something from another human being, especially when it was not your choice to be in that position.”
Edwards recalled once seeing the movie “Annie” — in which the main character is whisked from an orphanage to a mansion and given a fancy wardrobe and toys — and “wondering what it was like to have everything.” Instead, she was ordered by Father David to give up her few possessions, including a beloved doll. “It wasn’t my choice to give up my dolly,” she said.
As for education, it was practically non-existent. Chores, babysitting and performing marching routines like soldiers took up most of the children’s time. But they were occasionally homeschooled in math and geography in between reading and reciting portions of the King James Bible. Outside books, movies and music were largely forbidden. “It was an off-the-grid existence,” she said. “And we weren’t allowed to be children.”
Discipline was left to the strictest and strongest “uncles” in the communes, who would beat the children with paddle boards.
One day, “I was told after lunch that I was scheduled for a date with Uncle Paul at 2pm to receive the dreaded board,” Edwards writes of punishment after a perceived infraction she can’t even recall. It could have been for something as innocuous as laughing at the “wrong” moment. She continued: “Each of the seven strikes sent me into a deeper state of delirium. ‘Please stop,’ I begged.”
A young Flor Edwards in one of the cults ‘homeschool’ classes.A young Flor Edwards in one of the cults ‘homeschool’ classes.Source:New York Post
The one time Edwards was confronted with the issue of sexual abuse was when her mother told her that an uncle at the commune had been banished for crimes against his stepdaughter. “Personally, I always felt safe and protected by my parents,” she said, revealing that her family usually all shared one bedroom. “Some kids got it a lot worse than me. Some kids were abused, some kids were sexually abused.”
When 1993 came and went without the world ending, Father David announced that God had given them an “extension” of their apocalypse deadline. But when he passed away in 1994, members of the cult began leaving in droves. “Once he was gone, the group started to disintegrate,” said Edwards.
That same year, when she was 13, the Edwards family was told Father David had had a “revelation” and that it was time for the cult members to return to the West. They would be moving to Chicago.
Leaving Thailand for America was immediately eye-opening. Edwards recalled seeing a water fountain for the first time at the airport. “My brother was there, touching the button, and the water was coming out in an arch,” she said. “All of us crowded around it because we had seen nothing like it before ... the fact that this clean water was coming out of this spout was amazing.”
Shortly after settling in Chicago, the family moved to California, where Edwards and her sisters lobbied to finally abandon Children of God. “We wanted to go to school,” she said. Other children also wanted to leave, but “a lot of parents stayed in the group and said, ‘You’re on your own.’ My parents did what was best for us — take us all out, and stay a family. They left the group for us.”
But the adjustment wasn’t always smooth. Edwards recalled trying to make friends and “being rejected” and admits to abusing alcohol and running with the “wrong crowd” in high school. She did find her path, however, first earning admission to California State University, Fullerton and then later, the University of California, Riverside.
She later went on to become a writer and educator, coaching underprivileged kids in Los Angeles. Her father also got his degree and became a tenured professor in mathematics, although Edwards chooses not to reveal where her parents are today or what their lives are like, other than to confirm she is still close to them and that they both “loved” the book.
Edwards, who is single, never met Joaquin or River Phoenix or Rose McGowan during her time in the cult, but she did run into the boys’ father, John Bottom, when she worked as a yoga teacher in Costa Rica.
“We shared memories of the Children of God and he told me he tried to write a book,” she said. “Then he looked at me in a [funny] way and said: ‘The book has not yet been written.’ I took that as meaning I was supposed to do it.”
Edwards said that “my childhood was taken away from me” and that she finds the world to be “an intense place.” But, she added, “because the world was always a mystery to me, I want to understand it.” She doesn’t hold a grudge against her parents for raising her in a cult, either.
“I read memoirs and there’s always really horrible parents who beat and abuse the children,” said Edwards. “Mine didn’t do that. They just made one big mistake — joining the church.”
This story was originally published in the New York Post and is republished with permission.