There, in a two-room suite he had rented, Moses David laid out the doctrine of “The Law of Love.” He explained that the Old Testament rules were superseded and covered by only two commandments from Matthew 22:36–40. “‘Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?’ Jesus declared, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
According to Moses David, all things were lawful under love, including sex outside of marriage. He declared it a new revelation of the Bible for a new generation that was ready for more freedom. As always, he backed it up with his interpretation of the scripture.
This doctrine, which had been in the works as theory for some time, helped to justify and legitimize his relationship with Maria, who was “chosen by God” to help him in his new ministry and to further experiment with it. And it gave singles and young couples separated by long distance for work the possibility to have sex outside of marriage. Incorporating the sexual freedom of the hippie generation marked a huge departure from the traditional, celibate-until-marriage doctrine that my father’s family had grown up with in the church. This revelation was only for top leaders and would not filter down to the disciples for a few more years.
Aunt Faithy, my father, and Esther were chosen to lead the pioneering efforts in Europe in the late summer of 1971, leaving Nehi and Hobo, my father and Esther’s second son, born only a few months before, in a colony in Washington.
MY MOTHER IS ASSIGNED A HUSBAND
In the fall, Ruthie was picked to go to Europe with the next wave of disciples. She was first sent from the Ranch to a Home in New York, where a young man with dark Italian good looks approached her. He introduced himself as Giddel, then told her that it was God’s will for them to get married. My mother was completely flabbergasted. She’d never even talked to this man before and didn’t know how to react when he told her that the leader of the Home where they were staying had suggested they marry immediately so they could lead a team in Europe; only married couples could open new Homes, he said.
My mother wanted to be yielded to God’s will, so she prayed about it and reluctantly agreed. Two weeks later, she and Giddel and five other baffled and excited couples were married in a communal ceremony. The following week, Ruthie and her new husband were on their way to England to join the overseas evangelistic efforts. But after three months together, the marriage wasn’t working, so it was a relief when Giddel traveled with a team to Italy, and Faithy, after receiving many letters from Ruthie, took my mother on as her personal secretary. At just twenty-six, Faithy was a top leader of “The Revolution,” a true firebrand who was passionate in her missionary zeal and already known for her drinking and her temper.
PIONEERING EUROPE AND DAMNING AMERICA
My mother traveled with Faithy to London and Paris, where the two would now be headquartered. My father, who was also tasked with overseeing the pioneering work in France, split his time between Paris and London as well. In Paris, he and my mother became reacquainted, although their relationship remained strictly platonic. Nehi and Hobo were finally brought to London to rejoin Esther six months after she had arrived, and in the three years that followed, Esther gave birth to four more children in quick succession: the twins Josh and Caleb, then Aaron and Mary.
In the spring of 1972, Moses David, who was now also living in London, wrote a letter to his disciples titled I Gotta Split, warning that all escape routes out of America would be closed as soon as “the Storm of God’s judgments begins to break upon the wickedness of the Lowlands of America!” Moses David informed his followers that due to the ongoing persecution, he, like Jesus, had to go away in body (physically) to be with them in spirit. Instead of teaching his flock in person, as he had at the Ranch, he would now be communicating with them strictly via the written word—communications that came to be known as the Mo Letters. None of his followers were aware that he had already left the country, but Grandpa knew that with the law already on his tail in the US, he had a better chance to lead his flock through his writings while staying mobile. New York’s charity-fraud bureau was investigating the group based on activities at its Staten Island commune, with accusations of fiscal chicanery, obstruction of justice, and alleged physical and mental coercion of followers.
Grandpa immediately followed up this first written pronouncement with a second dire warning that he outlined in an emergency Mo Letter, Flee as a Bird to Your Mountain, in which he urged his followers to run for their lives from the coming doom of America, which was going to be punished for its sins. His forewarning sparked a mass exodus, and by 1973, there were more than 130 colonies, with some 2,400 disciples in fifty countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Not many of the original three hundred disciples remained in America, but new disciples would steadily join over the years and Homes continued to thrive there, with small communes in every state of the union.
GRANDPA TAKES A SECOND WIFE
With Moses David and Maria now living “underground,” his personal family members and their spouses, whom Grandpa referred to as the “Royal Family,” carried out his edicts and set to work printing and distributing his writings in hundreds of thousands of leaflets distributed by hand for donations around the world.