(The only information a subsequent internet search turned up was an August 31, 2006 story in the Hamilton Spectator about Mirella Brun del Re whose parents, Lucie and Renato kidnapped her from the suspected cult out of fear for their daughter’s psychological well-being. The story is repeated on the cult-warning website rickross.com but there’s little else to be found.)
Mirella wouldn’t stay away from the church though and doesn’t seem to care about her parents’ and brother’s possible incarceration. Her brother Giancarlo, who’d always been Mirella’s best friend was close to tears a couple of times as he spoke of the changes in his sister. Mirella’s mother Lucie said, "The hate she developed towards the siblings, the family - the arrogance, the hate towards us. Like we didn't mean anything any more. She was in another world."
Watching Mirella, it was plain to see that she has blocked all emotion connected to her family. She spoke without a trace of compassion or understanding, but with utter indifference. It’s clear that she can no longer assimilate her feelings for her family with the feelings that Rigo and the group have engendered within her. On a gut level she may have objections to her pastor’s methods, rules, analogies or language, but because it’s all done in the name of God, she has allowed herself to become dependent on the group for this moral “high” and no longer knows how to function if she does not have easy access to it.
Rigo, of course, makes them think that their rapturous states of mind are evidence of God, when it’s really a state of mind that one can reach in far less dangerously dependent ways. The fact that he is using God is about as despicable as one gets. (The Rigos of the world might call it satanic if referring to someone else who was using such methods.)
I'd be interested to learn more about Peter Rigo. (He seems repellently familiar. Hamilton is not far way.) And what about his wife, Peggy? Was there a reason why she wasn't also featured? She too was listed as a pastor of the church. What’s her story?
Peter Rigo claims that he doesn’t force anyone to stay, but he uses the Bible to convince young people that it’s quite all right to abandon their families if they aren’t sympathetic to the dictates of the church. (Rigo mentioned Matthew 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.) [I wonder how he explains the Fifth Commandment, Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land…. (Exodus 20:12)]
It is obvious that he has some warped ideas about what it means to be a "Christian".
When he was demonstrating his disrespect of other churches - pretending that they compete for membership by saying, "our girls give better blow jobs than your girls do” (and “we get laid twice as quick at Christian school as you do at regular school”), some of his young congregants appeared embarrassed (though they also looked as if they were trying hard to be cool with his talk).
I don’t know about anyone else, but that particular remark – in its context – made my skin crawl.
His toilet talk teeters on the brink of perversion. From using a “bowel-movement” metaphor in describing those who attend church inattentively, to saying that if you don’t live according to the bible you might as well “wipe your ass” with it, to describing his former life as doing whatever his “dick” told him to do, he destroys any chance for invoking reverence and awe. (In what sort of hell is Peter Rigo dwelling and why does he need to take others with him?)
When he tried to dismiss the notion that his ‘church’ is actually a cult, once again he expressed disdain, pointing out that "all I can gather up…are a handful of young people and a couple of moms and dads. But I’ll keep working on it. We’ve got to get to the people with the money if we’re going to succeed.”
Of course I don't doubt that he would claim that he was being facetious, that he was only “mocking” the idea that his church is a cult. Clever sarcasm is one thing. Trying to conceal vile aspects of one’s personality within a mockery of what “others” “might say” is something else indeed. So is hiding one’s true motives behind “I’m only kidding” after a self-serving comment has been uttered. It’s a manipulator’s method and a coward’s act.
When some of his followers were interviewed in their top floor cafeteria, they admitted that the ‘cost’ of being a member was giving up the ‘outside world’ and friends and family (though one member called it a “privilege”).
“I’m here seven days a week,” said one young man. “I love the place. I work around here. I eat here. It’s basically become my life – by my choice.” When asked if it was possible to participate as a part-time member, he half-laughed and said, “well you can but you would definitely feel like an outsider”.
Though the story was interesting, it left some questions unanswered, such as, do they charge for meals in their restaurant, or is it run as a co-op? Do they make a profit? Is that how D.C.C. followers spend their time when they’re at the church “seven days a week”? And if it is a for-profit enterprise, how is that profit spent?
I’m afraid that Rigo’s motivations have more to do with his own ego and lifestyle than with helping people to find strength in their beliefs. Let’s hope he fades away and that these young people (and the adults) keep each other strong when they decide to rejoin the world – and begin to actually practise their ideals.
I hope W-FIVE keeps an eye on this story and does a follow-up.
See also: The Stockholm Syndrome
Bookmark me for future posts: Beware Group Rapture;Brain waves, Biofeedback and Balance;
No comments:
Post a Comment