His wife, Karen Zerby, inherited leadership. But the cult landed in the headlines again in after their son, Ricky Rodriguez, killed himself and another former member of the group.
Rodriguez was well-known in the cult—his childhood had been recounted in a parenting manual spread among the members. The New York Times, after reviewing pages of the book sent by former followers, reported that in it , "the toddler Ricky is described or else pictured as watching intercourse and orgies, fondling his nanny's breasts and having his genitals fondled. At the age of 29, Rodriguez invited one of his former nannies—a woman who appeared in the book documenting his alleged abuse—and stabbed her to death before killing himself.
His wife gave reporters a video he recorded the night before the murder-suicide. A spokeswoman for the group recently told the BBC that , "although the Family International has apologized on a number of occasions to former members for any hurt, real or perceived, that they may have suffered during their time in our membership, we do not give credence to tales of institutionalized abuse.
In , the church again changed its name to the Family International. Followers are now allowed to live in private homes and work outside of the cult. In , the leadership announced that they no longer believed the apocalypse to be imminent. United States. Type keyword s to search. It's time to talk! Joaquin Phoenix got candid in the December issue of Playboy , sharing his childhood experience of being raised in the religious group Children of God and whether his encounter was nearly as traumatizing as other stars have claimed.
The actor's parents joined the controversial cult in the s and took Joaquin and his siblings — the late River Phoenix , Rain , Liberty , and Summer — to travel through Central and South America with the group. Eventually, his parents ended up becoming disillusioned with Children of God now The Family International , which has since been accused of sexual misconduct by former followers. These friends were like, 'Oh, we believe in Jesus as well.
Cults rarely advertise themselves as such. This is a community,' but I think the moment my parents realized there was something more to it, they got out. Penniless and unsure of their future, they boarded a freighter to Winter Park, Fla. It was on their trip that Joaquin and his siblings saw fishermen taking creatures from the ocean and pulling them aboard.
The sight horrified the kids, who turned to their mother and asked if those were the animals that they were fed back in Venezuela Joaquin recalled the scene as "violent" and "intense" and the family adopted veganism as a way of life and never looked back.
After leaving the cult, they changed their last name to Phoenix and in , the whole family loaded themselves into a station wagon and drove to Hollywood, where they pursued careers in entertainment as a troupe of child actors and singers, finding parts in Family Ties and Hill Street Blues. The oldest son and most immediately successful of the Phoenixes, River, shot into stardom before his tragic end outside of Johnny Depp's Viper Room.
Knowing about Joaquin's family's involvement with the Children of God, not to mention his family's amazing underdog success story, puts some of his performances in a much different light. There's almost always something undeniably dark about the work he does and one can even make the ties to his personal life and struggles he and his family went through.
His take on Johnny Cash in Walk the Line can be traced to the singer's own personal tragedy with his brother.
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