Karen Zerby

Karen Elva Zerby (legally changed to Katherine Rianna Smith and uses the aliases Maria, Mama, Queen Maria, Maria Fontaine, Maria David, or Maria Berg) (born in Tucson, Arizona, July 31, 1945) is the current leader of The Family, a new religious movement.

Zerby joined the group, then called Teens for Christ in 1969. After becoming a private secretary to David Berg, the group's founder, a sexual relationship started between the two. In a prophecy titled "A Prophecy of God on the Old Church and the New Church", Berg explained that he had been told by God to leave his first wife, Jane Miller, who represented the "old church", for Zerby who became his soi-disant second wife, who represented the "new church".

With David Berg's health declining in later years, Maria began to take a leadership role within the group. Upon his death in October 1994 she assumed full leadership of the group and married her long-time partner, Steven Douglas Kelly (known to members as King Peter, Peter Amsterdam or Christopher Smith).

Senior Family leadership including Zerby has long attempted to keep their photographs and legal names from common circulation (see "selah"). Although by now most of the group's members have seen photographs or video footage of Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly, their identities and location are still heavily guarded by those members working closest to them. Before being posted here, recent photographs of Karen Zerby, as well as Steven Kelly and most World Services (WS) members, were not readily available even to fulltime members of The Family.

Photos

Karen Zerby, early 2000s

Karen Zerby and partner Steven Kelly

Early 2000s

Karen Zerby, circa 1970s

Zerby on the right of David Berg in Tenerife, 1977

The Maria Monologues

Karen Zerby (most commonly known as Maria in the Family) is the spiritual leader of The Family International. On a typical workday, she spends hours attending to Family-related affairs. Because of her position of spiritual authority within the group, her staff records her comments on a variety of issues.

The Maria Monologues contain excerpts from the transcripts of these tapes. They provide valuable insight into the inner workings of The Family as well as Maria’s character and leadership.

• The Maria Monologues #1
  “. . . having sex. It's pure to us, there's nothing wrong with it, so we let our kids be in on it, we let them get in on it if they want, we even play it with them because it's nice, it makes them feel good & they enjoy it.” --Maria. December 12, 1990
• The Maria Monologues #2
  “I have a feeling that a lot of our Family are getting the idea, maybe only subtly or covertly, that what we have printed & what we have preached is wrong.” --Maria. December 10, 1990
• The Maria Monologues #3
  “Mene is trying to make Dad's sexiness look like the most evil thing in the world, when it's very normal & natural and common amongst many others in similar situations. . .” --Maria. January 11, 1994
• The Maria Monologues #4
  “I guess it pretty much shocks us to see that we talked so openly about a child of under 11 having had regular dates with the men in the Home where she had been.” --Maria talking about Mene. August 1, 1992
• The Maria Monologues #5
  “If the Law of Love is right, then it applies clear across the board no matter what age it is.” --Maria. August 15, 1992

Documents

• King County Name Change Order - Documents Karen Elva Zerby name change to Katherine Rianna Smith (11/04/1997)

References

• House, H. Wayne (2000). Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements. Zondervan Publishing Company. ISBN 0310385512.
• Lewis, James R. (2004). Controversial New Religions Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195156838.