Author: My name is Zeng Guiyang (a pseudonym). I am 43 years old this year, living in the Bishan District of Chongqing City. My mother is 72 years old. Although we are all farmers, we have been living quite well for some time because I am the only child in this family and my father and I often worked outside to earn money, leaving my mother farming at home.
Illness strikes suddenly, leaving my mother exhausted
2009 was an unstable year for my family. My father was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, gradually unable to do physical labor, which significantly reduced our family's income. The heavy responsibilities of farming, household chores, and taking care of my father all fell on my mother's shoulders. Also, in that year, my mother often felt leg pain, but influenced by outdated ideas and fearing the expense, she never went to the hospital for a check-up. She just took some folk remedies and only went to the health clinic for pain relief medication when it got severe. The physical pain combined with the mental burden quickly exhausted my mother.
Stranger talks glibly, luring my mother into cult trap
One day, a woman visiting her relatives in our village came to our house and quickly struck up a warm conversation with my mother. Somehow, she knew about our family's troubles and told my mother: “Your family has been facing a series of misfortunes lately, with one person falling ill after another, because you haven't been protected by God. Now, God has incarnated for the second time and has come to Earth as a 'real God'; only by believing in God can your family be blessed with peace and prosperity. After you join the 'Almighty God', 'God' will bless you, and all your family's illnesses will be cured.”
Believing that any deity capable of averting disasters, curing diseases and ensuring the family's safety and freedom from illness was worth following, my mother joined the "Almighty God" cult. She even signed a pledge of absolute obedience to this "God", ready to heed its call, sacrifice everything for it, and accept any of its punishment should she fail to comply.
Mum becomes increasingly ensnared, plunging our family into darkness
From then on, my mother often followed a woman to a secret meeting place in Dingjiagou to attend sermons, buying books and DVDs like "The Word Appears in the Flesh" and "Almighty God, You Are So Good". Despite having only a few years of elementary education, she watched these materials repeatedly, pondering over them seriously, and sometimes even inviting one or two "fellow believers" to our home to "exchange" insights. At first, my father and I didn't take it seriously, but gradually, we noticed that my mother seemed possessed with it. She neglected the farm work and household chores, focusing solely on these activities and "spreading the gospel". She stopped taking medicine for her leg pain, enduring it with constant muttering. She firmly believed that it was "God's" protection every time she got through the pain. What's worse, I discovered that she had secretly thrown away the medicine my father was taking for his rheumatism and heart problems, and forbade us from getting more medicine from the hospital.
Because of this, my father was furious and had a fierce argument with my mother. I tried my best to persuade my mother, but she said, "I am helping the family, praying for blessings from God, and for your father and me to get rid of the illness."
Bankrupting family for "God", the doomsday fallacy leads us to confusion
During a period, my mother felt her legs were not as painful as before, so she became even more convinced that her devotion had moved "God", and became much more active in working for the so-called "Almighty God". To go to other places to "spread the gospel", she secretly took out the family savings, sold the family's possessions and then offered the money to "Almighty God." And she often left home for at least three to four days, and at most more than a month. My father and I initially looked everywhere for her in a pucker, later becoming disheartened and helpless.
As my mother fell deeper into the cult, our home gradually lost its warmth. I was the only one working to support the family, and my time at home became increasingly scarce. My father was powerless to intervene and could only let things be. On December 21, 2012, the day the Almighty God cult heavily promoted as the "end of the world", my mother desperately wanted my father and me to wait with her for the "end of days", claiming that "God" would come to take our family. However, the "end of days" did not arrive as scheduled. Seeing the sun rising as usual and the village looking no different from any other day, my mother muttered to herself: “Impossible! How could this be?”
I thought this lesson would wake my mother up, but I found that she was still secretly and even more crazily believing in her so-called "God". The town's anti-cult volunteers heard about the situation and came to talk with my mother several times, analyzing the dangers of the cult. However, all of this was in vain. In my mother's eyes, anyone who opposed her was "the devil Satan". She said, "It was God who postponed the end of the world and saved everyone, otherwise, we would all die! Only God can bless me with eternal life." In her heart, her loved ones had become obstacles to her journey to "eternal life".
Mum finally becomes aware of her errors, and our family returns normal again
In early 2013, my mother's condition worsened due to neglecting proper treatment and constantly traveling to "spread the gospel". She was in so much pain that she couldn't even walk. After much persuasion from friends and family, she finally agreed to go to the hospital. The examination revealed that she had avascular necrosis of the femoral head. Because the treatment had been delayed for too long, a surgery was immediately necessary. However, due to donations made to her faith, our family was left in poverty, unable to afford the medical expenses. That period was the most difficult time for our family, with my father and me scrambling to raise funds for the treatment while caring for my mother in the hospital. We were utterly overwhelmed.
Seeing my father's frail body and my exhausted demeanor, my mother finally came to a sudden realization: at this critical moment of life and death, it was not her "God," but her family accompanying her, and saved her from peril.
Eventually, with the help of the township government and our friends and relatives, we managed to gather enough money for my mother's surgery on her legs, and our family's life slowly returned to its former tranquility. During the recovery period, anti-cult volunteers helped my mother see the true face of the "Almighty God" - the so-called "God" was nothing but an evil incarnation that donned a "God" disguise to harm people and amass wealth. From then on, my mother truly stepped out of the shadow of the "Almighty God". But my father passed away on the seventh day of the first lunar month in 2014 due to rheumatic heart disease, leaving us forever. My mother felt deep regret for it and often cried, telling me remorsefully: “If I hadn't joined 'CAG’ and hadn't refused medication, my illness would have been cured earlier, and I would have had time to take care of your dad so that he wouldn't have left us so soon. If I hadn't joined 'CAG’, our family wouldn't have become impoverished, you wouldn't still be unable to find a wife, and our once happy family wouldn't have been ruined like this.”
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