Flirty Fishing (FFing) is a form of evangelistic religious prostitution practiced from around 1974 to 1987 by female members of the Children of God, currently known as The Family International (TFI).

The term refers to 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.

Initially, male members also participated, but this it was deemed to be insufficiently profitable financially, as one of the main drives of the recruitment was to garner new followers who would donate to the organization.

Flirty Fishing eventually evolved into “Escort Servicing” where female members of the organization would work as call girls primarily, proselytizing if the occasion arose.

The Children of God also disapproved of birth control, and as members were required to maintain comprehensive records, it can be said with some measure of accuracy that more than 223,000 men had been “fished” resulting in a large number of “Jesus babies”.

From The Family’s own materials:

Q: “What is FF’ing?” Many of you asked for a definition and what should be reported as actual FF’ing.

A: We would like to answer that FF’ing is going out witnessing the love of Jesus with the serious intent to use sex or sex appeal as the bait, regardless of the situation or place. This can be anywhere!–On the street, in a park, while going to the local store, in discotheques or in clubs!

Here are some of the actual forms and reports used by the organization:

The rise of AIDS resulted in The Family discontinuing Flirty Fishing in 1987 along with sex at all with “Systemites” (non-members of the organization), although the organization continues to support the practice in principle.

Image via Xfamily. Note that some of the images on this site include samples of comics portraying nudity.

Via Wikipedia and Xfamily, a wiki assembled by former members of The Family International/Children of God.