{"id":177466,"date":"2019-09-11T19:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T00:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/09\/11\/give-me-that-old-time-religion\/"},"modified":"2019-09-11T19:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T00:29:00","slug":"give-me-that-old-time-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/09\/11\/give-me-that-old-time-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Give Me That Old Time Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
It turns out that a church known as the Imperial Valley Ministry has been enslaving homeless people to line their own pockets<\/a>.<\/div>\n

This is old school religion, as any Pharaoh would agree:<\/p>\n

Inside a beige bungalow in California\u2019s Imperial Valley with a well-trimmed lawn and beds of pink flowers, the 17-year-old girl felt imprisoned. The doors were locked from the inside. The windows were nailed shut. <\/p>\n

Like the other homeless and vulnerable people who came to Imperial Valley Ministries seeking shelter, food and rehab, the teenager was not allowed to leave without supervision, was not allowed to contact her family, to \u201cdiscuss things of the world\u201d or read any book but the Bible, according to federal prosecutors. Those who lived in the church\u2019s group homes had to turn over their money and welfare benefits, their identification and all of their personal belongings, so that even if they wanted to leave, they couldn\u2019t, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

Then, once they settled in, they were allegedly forced to panhandle up to nine hours a day for six days a week in parking lots and on street corners \u2014 turning over every penny to the church. <\/p>\n

Finally the 17-year-old had enough: She busted through the locked window to escape, bleeding from the shards of glass, and ran to a neighbor to call the police. <\/p>\n

Now, after her outcry helped propel an FBI investigation, the girl\u2019s alleged captors \u2014 Imperial Valley Ministry\u2019s religious leaders \u2014 were charged Tuesday with forced labor for allegedly luring in dozens of victims under false pretenses only to lock them inside group homes and compel them to panhandle for the church\u2019s profit. Prosecutors also say a dozen ministry leaders defrauded taxpayers by taking guests\u2019 welfare benefits. The victims gave the church permission to take up to 40 percent of their benefits to go toward their expenses. Instead, prosecutors say, IVM took everything. <\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer, of the Southern District of California, called it the \u201cmost significant labor trafficking prosecution\u201d in his district in years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe indictment alleges an appalling abuse of power by church officials who preyed on vulnerable homeless people with false promises of a warm bed and meals,\u201d Brewer said at a news conference Tuesday. \u201cInstead these victims were held captive, stripped of their humble financial means, stripped of their identification, their freedom and their dignity.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/p>\n

Victor Gonzalez, a former pastor who allegedly directed much of the conspiracy, denied he\u2019d done anything wrong last year when the FBI raided the group homes and the main church office in El Centro, Calif., a small city in the arid Colorado Desert, just north of the Mexican border.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

With the proceeds the church earned largely on the backs of the homeless, prosecutors said, church leaders opened 30 affiliate churches throughout the United States and Mexico, although the criminal conspiracy focuses on five group homes based in El Centro, Chula Vista and Calexico, Calif., from 2013 to 2018, when Victor Gonzalez was in charge.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The participants would immediately be forced to turn over all of their documents, money and belongings to the home supervisors, he said. They would then sign an agreement that laid out a strict set of rules and expectations, all designed to isolate them from the rest of the world. \u201cThere will be no use of the telephone,\u201d Rule No. 3 said. \u201cYou have two meals daily except on Sundays,\u201d sometimes a day of mandatory fasting, Rule 25 said. \u201cIf any of the above rules are broken there will be discipline,\u201d Rule No. 28 said.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

If convicted of the forced labor conspiracy, benefits fraud and document servitude, Gonzalez and the 11 others could face up to 20 years in prison. Most will be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not long enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It turns out that a church known as the Imperial Valley Ministry has been enslaving homeless people to line their own pockets. This is old school religion, as any Pharaoh would agree: Inside a beige bungalow in California\u2019s Imperial Valley with a well-trimmed lawn and beds of pink flowers, the 17-year-old girl felt imprisoned. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[368,364,387,380,706],"class_list":["post-177466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-corruption","tag-evil","tag-hypocrisy","tag-religion","tag-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}