He Had Some Strange Ideas
For context, my dad is the second youngest of 15 children. My oldest aunt has a son who is around the same age as my dad, we’ll call him Vince. Vince and my dad knew each other growing up, and always got along. Vince was even one of my dad’s groomsmen.
A few years after that, Vince became very openly religious, and would try to get family members to go to church with him.
Except then my family started to notice that Vince would change which church he would go to after about a month. Fast forward to when I was a kid.
There was a family get-together, and Vince and his girlfriend show up. It takes a dark turn. They start making people uncomfortable with their religious talk. Not the normal day-to-day stuff, but actually telling people they are going to heck for drinking.
They were also telling people that Vince is becoming a preacher and they need to attend his services, or else damnation, etc.
According to my mom, I was really sick at this time and she took me to another room to give me some peace and quiet and hopefully I would stop fussing.
She overheard Vince and the girlfriend in the next room talking about who they can single out and who would go along with them.
My mom freaked when she heard my dad’s name, and Vince saying that he would be easy to convince, and his job should be able to fund things.
My mom immediately went and got my dad and told him what she heard. Dad confronts Vince, and a huge argument ensues. Vince ends up leaving and saying everyone is damned, they are Satan, etc.
The rest of the family then talked about what happened, and it all came clear. He was not a good guy. His sister had kicked him out because he was mooching off her, refused to get a job, and she found him taking money from her purse. My aunt had to do the same for the same reasons.
The same story over and over. Basically, they realized Vince was just a scam artist trying to live off others. Fast forward to the late 1980s, and not many people have heard from Vince recently.
There is a huge family get-together again, and two aunts and a few cousins refused to attend because Vince was not welcome at the party. They were saying that Vince was the “Lion of God” and we were wrong to reject him.
Another fight ensues, and the two aunts and handful of cousins don’t end up attending. Fast forward to the mid-90s when my grandma passed. One of the two aunts comes to the funeral (the other had passed a few years earlier), with Vince in tow.
Vince was warned that he could come pay his respects, but to behave himself. My aunt was timid and repressed near him, and was open and nice when he wasn’t around. It was really weird.
My parents didn’t want to talk about it. Later that night, I did some internet searches and found out the chilling truth.
Apparently, Vince was now the leader of a religious cult. He sucked in my two aunts, about seven of my cousins, and about 30-40 various people through the years.
All the same M.O.: They must give up their money and belongings to join and “serve God.” He especially preyed on immigrants who came over by themselves. Basically, he bought some farmland, his disciples work the land, he sells what they grow/make, and he keeps the money.
He is still active to this day, and many people who have left him have their own websites against him. It’s honestly head-spinning thinking about this guy. Story credit: Reddit / aesoth