Flirty Fishing

Flirty Fishing (FFing) is a form of evangelistic religious prostitution practiced by female members of the Children of God, currently known as Family International (TFI), from around 1974 to 1987. According to some sources, hundreds of thousands of men were "fished" before the practice was discontinued.

The term is derived from Matthew 4:19 from the New Testament, in which Jesus tells two fishermen that he will make them "fishers of men". Cult leader David Berg extrapolated from this that women in his movement should be "flirty fishers" (also called "bait" or "fisherwomen"). The targeted men were called "fish". The cult published several documents with exact instructions. Flirty Fishing was defined as using sex appeal for proselytizing. If masturbation, oral, or penetrative sex ensued, this was termed as "loving sexually" and also counted as a "deep witness", meaning that the "bait" earned more brownie points within the group than by mere flirting. Berg noted that Flirty Fishing did not necessarily entail intercourse, but that this was by far the most efficient method of proselytizing.

Women who objected to being what the cult itself bluntly described as "God's whores" or "hookers for Jesus" were admonished not to "let self and pride enter in" and reminded that their body did not really belong to them as according to 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 it had been "bought" (by Jesus through his crucifixion) "with a price". After an initial phase, male members no longer partook in this drive, partially because of the cult's dismissive stance towards homosexuality, but also because Berg thought it did not "pay off financially". Many of the flirty fishers had boyfriends, were married, or had children. In Family publications, flirty fishers and escort servicers (see below) frequently reported that they found their work hard, dangerous, and exhausting.

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