Berg's group, founded in 1968 among the counterculture youth in Southern California, gained notoriety for incorporating sexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods.

Berg's maternal grandfather was John Lincoln Brandt (1860–1946), a Disciples of Christ minister, author, and lecturer of Muskogee, Oklahoma.

[7] Virginia and Hjalmar were expelled from the Disciples of Christ after publicly testifying of her divine healing, which was contrary to church doctrine.

In later years, their missionary zeal and disdain for denominational politicking often set them at variance with the conservative faction of that church's hierarchy, causing them to work largely as independent pastors and evangelists.

[10] Berg and his family founded the organization Teens for Christ, operating out of the Light Club coffeehouse in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968.

[11] While in California, after receiving strong resistance from local churches due to his followers picketing them, he took the whole group of 40–100 people on the road.

[12][13][14] In the mid-1970s, Berg began preparing his followers for a "revelation" he had about Flirty Fishing, or winning important, influential men through prostitution.

Former members have told their stories in widely disseminated media reports,[23] though official inquiries at the time found no evidence of child abuse.

In support of his views of an international Jewish conspiracy, he cited the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but disclaimed the label "antisemitic.

[27] In the 1970s and 1980s, sexually suggestive photographic depictions of Rodriguez with adult caretakers were disseminated throughout the group by Berg and Zerby in a childrearing handbook known as The Story of Davidito.