New York Times: What’s on Tonight

What’s on Tonight

Press » New York Times » 2007-09-05

By Kathyrn Shattuck

7 P.M. (Cinemax) CHILDREN OF GOD: LOST AND FOUND Children of God, later known as the Family and now called the Family International, was founded by David Berg in 1968 in California as part of the countercultural “Jesus movement.” It began to employ a method of evangelism called “flirty fishing,” using sex to demonstrate God’s love and win converts (and their money), a practice that continued until 1987. Noah Thomson, above, who was born into the cult on a commune in Brazil in 1976 and left as a young adult, traces his childhood, using film he obtained while working in the Children of God’s in-house video production unit in Japan when he was 18. He also tries to interview his mother about her decision to rear him in a group that was repeatedly accused of child sexual abuse, but she’s not talking.