Teens Taken From Cult at Center of New Film

May 2, 2008— -- Three teenagers were removed from a New Mexico doomsday cult compound after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. The teens — two girls and a boy — were removed Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the church leader, Michael Travesser, said state officials.

The Lord Our Righteousness Church centers on Travesser, who led his acolytes to Strong City, N.M. seven years ago and declared himself the son of God and the sect's messiah, according to material posted on the group's Web site.

Travesser has acknowledged that naked, underage virgins had laid with him on his bed, according to the group's Web site.

Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, said that the state took three children into custody.

"We did receive information alleging inappropriate contact with minors on the compound," Serna confirmed to ABC News. Serna would not say who provided her department with the tip, but said it came from a "very reliable source."

Though he admitted in a new National Geographic documentary to lying naked with minors — to bring them closer to God — Travesser denies having sex with them.

"Nakedness is another symbol of our relationship with God. We are naked and unashamed," Travesser told National Geographic in a film that airs next week. "I treated them with the same deference as if I was a physician, an M.D. who was doing surgery."

"Esther," a cult member, described her interaction with Travesser.

"He took me to bed and laid me down and somehow it was like all of heaven was open to me, somehow I started to see God, after all he is the son of God," she told National Geographic.

In 2000, shortly after moving to the New Mexico property in the state's northeastern corner, Travesser, 66, began claiming that he was annointed by God as the group's divine leader, according to the group's Web site.

"God said to me, 'You are messiah,' certainly by no instruction from me," Travesser told National Geographic. "Two witnesses, these two left their homes, left their families and it wasn't at my instruction or behest."

The group began in California after Travesser broke from the Seven Day Adventist church in 1987 to form his Lord of Our Righteousness Church. Reports have put the number of church members between 50-60 people.

Serna said that the state is looking into the best options for the children. "From a child protective standpoint, our concern is the parental role where the parents, either by neglect or active participation, abandoned or neglected a child," she told ABC News.