Posts
CTV's flagship news magazine show W-FIVE last night devoted its full hour to investigation of the controversial Hamilton-based religious organisation Dominion Christian Centre (DCC). The reporter talked to pastor Peter Rigo, current members, former members, and families whose children rejected them after joining DCC.
The show is entitled "The Pied Piper of Hamilton". A transcript is posted here; the four-part video of the show can be accessed at that page as well.
Pastor Peter Rigo is DCC's head honcho.
"When He said to come, He said - drop a plumb line and establish a people that know me and that live for me," Rigo told W-FIVE.
The pastor's voice drips with disdain and sarcasm when he talks about other churches and how they spend most of their time competing for parishioners.
. . .
Rigo went to Bible College but never graduated. He was affiliated with the Open Bible Faith Fellowship, a network of evangelical churches across North America, but they recently kicked him out.Rigo tells W-FIVE, "I don't accept what we've called Christianity to date. A lot of teaching goes on in the name of God. Very little living. So the standard that I read in a relationship of God and of the Word is - if you love me, you'll obey me. Not, if you love me, you'll learn about me."
Right from the get-go, Mr Rigo's lack of theological depth is apparent. He writes off without qualification "what we've called Christianity to date". In 2000 years of church history, nobody understood God—until Peter Rigo appeared on the scene.
After joining DCC, Mirella Brun del Re became estranged from her parents, Dr Renato and Lucie Brun del Re, and brother Giancarlo.
Mirella was spending every spare minute at the D.C.C. - helping out in the kitchen, anywhere she was needed. Anywhere except with her family.
"I couldn't believe what was happening. It was like in a movie. You can't even try to make some sense out of it. It was so difficult," said her mother.
And as time went by, Lucie noticed that Mirella's indifference towards her family was turning into something darker.
"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," she said.
The family came to believe that 23-year-old Mirella was being brainwashed. They hired American deprogrammer Mary Alice Chrnalogar, kidnapped Mirella, and confined her at the family home for about a week until she escaped. Six people, including Renato, Lucie, and Giancarlo, have been charged with abduction and forcible confinement. Mirella says she will have no misgivings about testifying against her family if that proves necessary.
W-FIVE interviewed other parents whose children have disappeared into DCC. Several stories were told of children who joined DCC, only to tell parents a few months or a year later, "I won't ever see you again".
And what does Peter Rigo have to say about all this? Basically, that it's all God's will.
He told W-FIVE, "The gospel separates families. Jesus said very clearly in His word: 'I did not come to bring peace and unity, I came to bring division with a sword. And whoever loves the father or the mother, their husband or wife, brother or sister more than me is not fit to serve in my kingdom.'"
There's one reason why Bible school drop-outs shouldn't be pastors: They tend not to know their Bible very well. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing indeed.
Yes, Jesus did say that, but in what context? And with the aim of teaching what exactly? That Christian children should tell their parents to take a hike? Of course not. He was warning his disciples that they could be persecuted by their families for following him, not that they should persecute their families. He was saying their families would reject them, not that they should reject their families. Families will be broken because of the gospel, but the disruptions would be initiated by unbelievers, not by believers.
Mr Rigo, get thee back to Bible school.
Furthermore, if this guy were a genuine Christian pastor, he'd be concerned that so many of his younger members are violating the Fifth Commandment. Jesus became extremely angry at the Pharisees for teaching their young people to subvert the Fifth.
And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
If Peter Rigo were a Christian pastor, he'd get after his members who had snubbed their families and tell them to go back home and be reconciled immediately. Since he sees no problem, however, Mr Rigo reveals himself as a false teacher, and Dominion Christian Centre is therefore not a Christian church but a cult.
That does not excuse or justify the kidnapping of the Brun del Res’ daughter, although any loving parent would readily understand the family's action.
Small-time cults like the Dominion Christian Centre have come and gone countless times, and they virtually always end badly. One day, a crisis will come upon the congregation and they will be split apart. Some emerge so spiritually damaged that they spurn organised religion for the rest of their lives. Others, mercifully, find their way to a caring, nurturing, and genuinely loving church where the Lord Jesus is worshipped in spirit and in truth.
UPDATE 1 (30 Oct.): God’s love sustains family facing abduction charges h/t: Religion News Blog
UPDATE 2 (30 Oct.): David Koyzis, who teaches at Redeemer University College, near Hamilton, also watched the show. He knows one family now dealing with sorrow caused by DCC. Everyone involved needs prayer.
