One day in March 2022, I received a phone call from my mother. At that time, I was in Xuzhou, and she said she would bring a dress to me. Since she spoke to me in a mysterious tone, I guessed she must’ve been hiding something from me. Despite my repeated inquiries, she didn’t divulge anything more except that she would either come to Xuzhou herself to visit me soon or she would ask a bunch of brothers and sisters in Xuzhou to bring the dress to me. She explained that those brothers and sisters were also college students of about my age, and that they were all nice people. As a person living alone in an unfamiliar city, I would rather not to have any contact with strangers, let alone those suspicious “brothers and sisters” whom my mother mentioned about. Although I kept asking her about it, she wouldn’t say more, asserting that the phone call would be tapped by the police if she talked about it over the phone. Her words made me so worried that I talked to her in tears because I believed there must be something wrong or illegal if she had to phone me in such a furtive way. But my mother hanged up on me. Then I called her again, she hanged up on me once more without uttering a word. I didn’t give up easily and kept calling her again and again. At last, my mother told me in a cold tone that her battery was about to be flat, which made me unable to pump more information out of her. So, I replied with a noticeable reluctance, “OK. So long, Mum!” After hanging up, I thought it over and over. I wouldn’t want any stranger to disturb my life, nor was I willing to let my mother travel all the way to Xuzhou all by herself. Then I made up my mind that I would go back home to see what was really going on soon after my end-of-term exams.
More than a week later, I finished my exams and returned to my hometown. That night, my mother secretly preached the fallacies of the “Almighty God” cult to me. As my mother graduated from a primary school and could barely read, she bought an Mp4 player to learn the scriptures by watching videos, which was a much more efficient way to brainwash people’s mind than reading them. According to my father, my mother indulged herself with cult videos every day. Same as me, my father was an atheist. He didn’t know what my mother became obsessed with was called “Almighty God”, which was a kind of evil cult. And he didn’t know the real reason why I returned home, thinking I just wanted to hang out for a few days.
When I got back home, my mother lent me some books, one was called The Word Appears in the Flesh, and another had a yellow cover with a picture of Noah’s ark as the background, which seemed to be called The Last Ticket for the Boat. I remembered that I saw it in the deputy captain’s bookcase when I went to report the situation to the National Security Bureau. It appeared that The Word Appears in the Flesh was a must-have book for the “Almighty God” followers when they did the “Communion”. I clearly recalled that it was written on the cover of this book that followers must did the “Communion” as least 3 or 4 times in a sermon. As to the content of the book, I didn’t look at it in depth because I wasn’t interested in its fallacies.
Besides books, my mother also showed me some cult videos. I clearly remembered that there was more than just one memory card, each of which was either 4G or 8G in capacity. My mother hid them in an unobtrusive small box.
At that time, my mother hadn’t been quite obsessed with the cult yet because she just got roped in. Although I kept arguing with her about those fallacies, she insisted that concepts instilled in her mind by cult followers were truth. Because of that, I lost my appetite for days in a row. I couldn’t stand mum’s blind faith in those nonsense. However, I didn’t realize at the beginning what mum madly believed in was a cult.
The next evening, after looking up “Almighty God” on the internet, I found out that it was founded by Zhao Weishan and that it was a kind of cult with the purpose of obtaining property by deception and breaking up families. This cult was manipulated by overseas anti-China forces who provided it with internet servers. Later on, I joined a family group of “Almighty God” victims by chance.
Through various channels including websites and QQ, I learned that many families were suffering from this evil cult. In most cases, it was the kind-hearted and honest women in their 40s and 50s who ran away from homes to preach “Gospels”. Most of them disappeared without a trace for years, among whom some even abandoned their infants and left them crying with hunger. In other cases, some had abortions because of their faith in “Almighty God”. As a result, innocent unborn babies lost their lives before they had a chance to see the world.
At that time, when my uncle suggested that I report such situation to the National Security Administration, I was a bit of nervous because I hadn’t dealt with any government agency before except that I once went to a police station to have my photo taken for my second-generation ID card. Later, I made up my mind and went to the municipal public security bureau with anxiety. I arrived there much earlier than the opening time so that I waited for over an hour before I met a police officer. I told him everything I knew. Then he discussed with me and work out a series of plans.
It was dark when I walked out of the office and I got lost because I wasn’t familiar with the area where the municipal public security bureau was located. On my way home, I took the wrong bus so that I had to grope through the darkness to wend my way home. In the end, it took me over 2 hours to get back home. In the meantime, I missed calls from my parents as I set the phone to a silent mode. So, I had no idea that my parents called me dozens of times and waited anxiously for me to call them back. The mixed feelings were so strong that I almost cried my way home.
On my way home, I walked up to my mother who was looking for me. She cried and apologized to me the rest of the way home, saying that she nearly collapsed because she didn’t get any news from me after she called all my relatives and classmates. Through my clenched lips, I said emotionally, “whether you could imagine what we would feel like if you were the one missing now. Putting yourself in my shoes, you must’ve understood how I’m suffering every day because of your obsession with the cult. I barely ate in the past few days. Could you really understand what I had been going through? Do you have to put your faith in strangers for the safety of our family?” I felt that my words touched her. On our way home, my mother kept begging me not to tell my father anything about her obsession in case he might freak out. For that, I made a promise to my mother.
When I got home, my father found out that I looked grieved. Therefore, he kept asking me questions such as “What happened to you?” or “Why were you crying?” I turned my face to avoid my father’s eyes, saying that I went to someone’s place to play. I was sure that my father realized I had something unwilling to disclose. So, he walked away and left the room with me and my mother. Then I had a peaceful talk with my mother by reasoning instead of accusing. Finally, my mother listened to me and promised me to break away from the cult. On the one hand I was pleased with her decision, but on the other, I wasn’t so sure it was true. Therefore, I offered to go with her the next day and proposed we go to bed for now since it was late. She agreed.
At noon the next day, my mother went visit the woman who preached “Almighty God” to her, and I tagged along. I told the elder woman many of my opinions. And I warned her not to spread any cult fallacy to my mother anymore. Otherwise, I would tell the elder brother of her sister-in-law all her wrongdoings. Because he was one of local celebrities and cared a lot about his good reputation, he would definitely take action against her if he knew that his relatives did any shady thing behind his back.
In the next few days followed, I kept observing my mother’s behaviors and discussing with her to provide an effective psychological counseling. In this way, the first month passed quietly, then the second month also passed with peace……
Half a month ago, after talking with my mother for a long time while she was doing housework, I came to know that she did change a lot, both ideologically and mentally. And I would keep on my observation of her.
