In one of the first Mo Letters, One Wife, Moses David introduced to his disciples the idea of sharing mates, proclaiming the wife of one man was also the wife of God, and of all other men. He pointed to biblical examples of polygamy as justification to take up the practice, deeming traditional marriage “selfish” and against God’s will. Then, in the Mo Letter Old Church, New Church, he compared Mother Eve (Jane) to the Old Church, the traditional church, critical, rebellious, stuck in her ways, and unwilling to follow the new revelations. Moses David said that one evening in the Ark, when Eve was criticizing him for always demanding sex, saying that he was too carnal to be a true man of God, the spirit of God rose in him, and he slapped Eve for her rebellion. He had prayed for God to send him a woman who believed in him. Maria, he explained, “like the sexy New Church, or the Family, eager for Jesus’s and King David’s seeds, and willing to do anything he asks,” had been the answer to his prayers.
Having paved the way for plural wives, he publicly took his young disciple Maria (Karen Zerby) as a second wife. But she soon became his only wife, as Eve took up with another, somewhat younger male disciple. With Maria now at David’s side, urging him on, the Children of God would forge a path far outside the bounds of societal norms and even laws.
Meanwhile, Aunt Faithy, eager to harness the group’s musical appeal, launched Les Enfants de Dieu, a musical performing group, complete with a troupe of dancers that included my mother. Ruthie had not fully realized her dream of dancing on Broadway, but the recognition she was receiving as a member of this traveling troupe delighted her. The band’s popularity was instantaneous, with their hit single “My Love Is Love” topping the French charts in 1974. Soon, there were record contracts, regular television appearances, bookings at live-stage venues, and a month-long Europe 1 tour of France.
FLIRTY FISHING BEGINS IN SECRET
Back in London, Moses David and Maria started secretly experimenting with a new form of witnessing in the local nightclubs. Maria would seduce men on the dance floor under his direction, bring them home for sex, and later introduce the men to Moses David to witness to.
At first, he told only the top leadership about this exciting new ministry of “Flirty Fishing,” where the female disciples, the “bait,” would flirt with and often have sex with preferably well-to-do men called “Fish,” as a witnessing technique to gain followers and monetary donations. The Fish were Systemite men in need of God’s love and salvation. Moses David wrote that “sex is a bodily need as great as hunger or shelter. Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes, so they would not be so hungry and could hear his teachings. In the same way, the women have to satisfy a man’s sexual desire before they are ready to hear about Jesus.”
Moses David wanted to bring more women into his inner circle to expand his experiment, but he was concerned about how this technique would be received by English society, which tended to be uptight when it came to sex. So, in 1974, Moses David, Maria, and a group of carefully selected female disciples moved to the Canary Island of Tenerife, a tourist destination with a more relaxed attitude. The women were expected to “go fishing” two to five nights a week. “Just as Jesus laid down His life, so must you lay down your life (or wife), for these men,” Moses David preached.
THE NEW PRINCE IS BORN
Early the next year, on the twenty-fifth of January, Maria gave birth to a baby boy named Davidito. Moses David was thrilled, and “Little David” was immediately heralded as the young prince, the new heir to the throne. With Maria’s new role of mother, Moses David began calling her “Mama Maria,” and eventually Queen Maria to his King David; he would later declare that Davidito and Mama Maria would be the Two Witnesses cited in Revelation 11 who would lead the true Church through the End Time.
MAKING FRIENDS WITH GADDAFI
Several months after Davidito was born, Grandpa paused his activities in the Canaries to visit Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s head of state. My father and Faithy had met him at a press conference in Paris, after which Gaddafi issued a formal invitation for Moses David and the Children of God to visit him in Tripoli. Moses David had been courting a relationship with the enigmatic, revolutionary young colonel from a distance, so he saw this as an opportunity for his Flirty Fishing ministry. He traveled with several members of the Royal Family, including my parents, and brought his girls from Tenerife to win over the Libyan leaders. My mother was excited to be included, but she was more thrilled that the End-Time Prophet himself had extended an invitation to her and that she was going to finally meet him in person. What a rare and incredible honor! Other than the few months of her marriage, my mother hadn’t had sex for nearly five years while evangelizing in Europe, since the sexual freedom of the Royal Family leadership was still forbidden to the disciples.
MY PARENTS BECOME POLYGAMISTS
In Libya, Moses David took a liking to my mother; he admired her dedication and her willingness to do anything for the cause. He advised my father to take her as his second wife and secretary to help with the fledging publishing work of the Mo Letters. My mother was flattered but told Moses David that she’d prefer to stay on as Aunt Faithy’s secretary. But he told her to be with my father and to love his son as she loved him, Moses David. Her faith was such that she yielded to his will as to God’s. Aunt Faithy was not pleased at losing her secretary and faithful servant, but no one dared oppose the Prophet’s direction.
After two months in Libya, it became clear that Gaddafi was not going to convert from Islam; he was more interested in using the Children of God’s thousands of followers to distribute positive literature about himself across the globe. Disappointed but recognizing a dead end, Grandpa returned to Tenerife to continue “FFing” with his team of women.
But he had a new mission. Up until then, the Mo Letters were distributed to the disciples as tracts, and now there were many hundreds of Letters. He and my father decided they should be compiled and printed into books with an index of topics to enable members to study the many thousands of written pages. Grandpa gave that job to my father, with assistance from Ruthie, as she was a fast typist.
Upon their return from Libya, my parents spent a couple of weeks with Esther, who was now in Italy, to bond as a threesome marriage. Then my mother and father took recordings and transcripts of Moses David’s writings to a hotel room in Malta, where they worked tirelessly for a month putting together the first volume of the Mo Letter books.
I’M BORN IN HONG KONG
A few months later, my parents were sent to Hong Kong to set up the printing, binding, and shipping contacts. It was there, while on a trip to a deserted beach, that I was conceived, according to my mother. She was thrilled to learn she was pregnant, though flabbergasted. At twenty-seven, after years of unprotected hippie sex in her teens, she didn’t think she was able to get pregnant.