https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/woman-born-cult-recalls-harrowing-30280384?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_campaign=12at12_newsletter2&utm_medium=emailExclusive: Woman born into cult recalls harrowing marriage ceremony when she became a wife at three
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT Serena Kelley was born into the Children of God cult and became a 'poster girl' for the controversial organisation. After making her escape, she is now sharing her story with The Mirror
By John Bett Features Writer
07:58, 21 Jun 2023
A woman who was born into a cult has shared details about her harrowing marriage where she claims she became a wife at the age of three. Serena Kelley, 40, was a poster child for the Children of God a religious organisation founded by David Berg which at one stage had bases all over the world including the Philippines and Japan. The group, which has widely been denounced as a cult, encouraged promiscuity among members and believed that children became adults at the age of 12. Serena says she was given as a wife to David Berg aka Father David by her mother, Sara, who was a leading member of the organisation, and now she's opened up about her harrowing marriage ceremony. Serena from Austin, Texas, said: "I think the most famous story from my very early childhood with Berg was when I was given to him as a child bride by my mother, so she brought me to him after I turned three just after my third birthday. She put me on his lap and he kissed me and he gave a whole speech about how I'm going to be his forever and we're having a union. Things that don't make sense to a three-year-old. Then he gave me a ring and the ring was quite big, but what he had done was wrapped tape around the band to make it thick enough to fit on my finger and he told me to always wear the ring and take tape off as I got older so the ring would always fit me. He had already been married to multiple other teenage girls, I happened to be the youngest at three. There were other girls aged 12 to 15 who had been given the ring, it's a heart with two hands holding it."
Berg managed to convince his thousands of followers that the end of the world was coming and the only way they could gain salvation was through sex and orgasms. Women had to make themselves freely available to any man who wanted to have sex with them. And then Berg issued one of his doctrines The Law Of Love. It stated that anyone within the cult could have sex with anyone else, including children. After her 'marriage', Serena said she lived alongside the senior members of the group and witnessed years of systemic abuse. She alleged: "In Berg's house I was subjected to a lot of sexual abuse, both for myself and what I witnessed. There were orgies in Berg's house all the time, many times I'd be left alone to wander the house by myself because there'd be drunken orgies in the living room. I'd be swimming in the pool and there would be orgies at the other end of the pool. There was nakedness and sexuality all around me. We were in the Philippines and the women would walk around naked or topless, and the men would walk around in boxers."
She told how Berg lived in a separate house but would come over for play sessions in which they'd have to call him 'Grandpa'. What struck her most was the 'terrible' smell about him, which she later recognised to be alcohol. Relieving those awful sessions, she said: "It was mostly kissing and cuddling in the bed, very inappropriate things. There were other kids including his own daughter and his granddaughter, my older sister, there were a lot of girls that were subjected to this. Berg believed that we should follow bible rules, so in the bible they believe that a child becomes an adult at 12. Berg literally said when you're 12 you're an adult now so you're going to start having sex with adults, and start living like an adult so working, having adult responsibilities. The 12-year-old girls would look after me. They were considered old enough to do that, and they would have to have sex with adults."
