Children of God

Excellent and tragic portrayal of a particularly destructive group that still exists. Thank you to the Padillas for such openness. Truly.

Children of God (1994) is a documentary about the cult of the same name, who's disturbing practices have been reported to include extreme sexual abuse. This documentary was informative, however it felt lacking and quite bland. Although, I do suspect this is because it came out in the 90s.

This film included a heavy subject matter and it's a cult I've been reading about for a while. The documentary successfully shows the horrors of being manipulated into a cult and how controlling they can be.

It was well and clearly narrated, but got hard to pay attention to at times. It ended very abruptly and I would've liked the documentary to be longer in order to add more detail and delve deeper into the history of the Children of God.

There was a lot of archive footage and photos used, which was interesting to see, but the documentary itself wasn't exactly well edited and didn't flow well. However, the archive footage used was unsettling and really showed how much of a sick individual David Berg was.

It also used face to face interviews for most of the film in which we focus on a family that luckily was able to escape the cult. I liked these parts a lot, and it made me feel so sorry for all, especially the children, abused in this cult. The words from the ex-members hit very hard, and I hope they're doing well nowadays. But, some of the interviewer's questions were rather insensitive and the questions could've been approached better.

This was really the only techniques I saw used in this documentary, which leads me on to my final point. This doc was most likely considered good for the time it came out, but it shows how much documentaries have changed and progressed since then. For me, this format hasn't really aged well.

I think a lot of people cursing the mother and questioning the impact of the documentary don't seem to have experience or knowledge of abuse and manipulation to this degree.

Some question how a mother can let this happen for so long and even the interviewer kept asking them why they didn't leave. The worst thing to ask an abuse survivor.

Manipulation can be so strong where it doesn't occur to you and your reality is completely shaped by the abuser.

The fact this was in the 80s when seeking therapy and connection to the outside world was limited made it that much harder.

The documentary gave us a glimpse of the world of Children of God. But it was flawed. The ending was very unfinished and it felt like half the picture was missing. I wasn't surprised no male members were willing to be interviewed...the church served them well.

It's a worthwhile beginning to the cult but needs a follow-up.

If you are expecting a sensationalized documentary this isn't the documentary for you. Facts and interviews are presented and narrated telling the horrifying story of the Padilla family's life in "Children.of God". It's a sad story of sexual abuse and control behind an already precarious doomsday cult. This cult exists now as The Family.

It's understandable if you aren't familiar with trauma to look at the mother and this family and think they don't care. The way the mother keeps anxiously fiddling with her sleeves and nervously laughing is due to the fact that she is uncomfortable talking about her time in the cult. She is uncomfortable with the feelings it brings up. The human brain does amazing things to protect itself from trauma and distancing yourself is one of them. At the time of the documentary it had only been 3 years since they left the cult the whole family may have not processed everything. Having PTSD doesn't automatically mean you will be in hysterics when telling your story especially when you may still be in survival mode as this family was clearly in, trying to deal with the outside life. That can also happen when someone has told their story more than a few times.

So if this family seem callous it's simply because they didn't have time to deal their trauma yet. Not to mention feeling vulnerable enough to process an emotion on camera with a stranger for someone who isn't always in front of one would be rare.

*Trigger Warning for SA and child abuse and Child SA* for this documentary.

How did this Mother and father escape prosecution? This was an admission by the Mother allowing her underage children to be abused. The Mother laughed while telling her story. I seen nothing funny about it.