In 2005, a new coworker of mine called in to the office and said she was going to be late due to a family crisis. I did not know her very well, but when she got to work around noon, she proceeded to break down and tell me why she had been late that day. Her partner had been best friends with Ricky Rodriguez. I had never heard of the Children of God in any great detail, though I was aware that River Phoenix’s family had been affiliated with some sort of upsetting cult in his childhood. My coworker proceeded to tell me in great detail of the contents of the video tape confession they had received that morning from Ricky Rodriguez. He had shot the video and then murdered his former nanny, as you mentioned earlier this video, then taking his own life. I believe she told me that he said that he was copying the tape and sending it to a few individuals and maybe the news. My coworker’s partner, utterly devastated, called the police, and they subsequently found Rodriguez and his victim. She was mortified to hear what he had endured in that video and couldn’t help but tell me about it in great detail, her tears bubbling over uncontrollably as I hugged her in the break room. Almost 20 years later, I have never been able to shake how eerie and horrific my small window into these events was that day. My heart still hurts for all the victims of this horrific cult.
Oh man. Ricky’s story breaks my heart every time. I can’t even begin to imagine what his life must have been like and how horrible he felt. I can only hope he’s found peace wherever his soul may be.
@elsa-lb7vm I watched the video about him and the Children of God. I've never heard of them before. This was maybe 10 years ago. it breaks my heart what happened to him. I could care less about vile nanny. 'll always remember Ricky, a person I only knew about because of You Tube. I can't imagine how hard it would be to deal with his loss if actually know him. His mother will burn in hell along with David Berg. EVIL
When you've been brainwashed this deeply, you may genuinely believe that the abuse that would horrify every outsider looking in is actually the best possible thing for your children. Remember that these people are *not* thinking rationally, and have been conditioned to not believe or trust outsiders.
I hope that delving into these cults isn't too damaging on the team's mental health. It's difficult seeing Joyce near tears so often this episode. Take care of yourselves!
@@jadawilliams6531 you basically have no life outside of it. That’s how you know. You go 4+ times a week to things like Bible study, preparing for rites, deep personal dives into your past with large groups of strangers…
@@jadawilliams6531the difference between cult and religion is cult pulls you away from your sense of identity, makes u drop everything for church and rituals, a lot of brainwashing. that's how you know
I love and respect this series so much because you guys actually talk to survivors and experts and have real opinions. I truly think this series will help other ppl who have been in these situations or maybe even currently are in a cult looking for a out so ty to whoever came up with this series I never miss one
I’ve always loved Merle’s and Joyce’s contents, they make great hosts and content producers on buzzfeed. Probably watched all Merle’s vegan recipes and basically at this point, anything with Joyce in it. Really into the idea of them teaming up and carrying BUN with this series. But I have to give it to them specifically that their grounded personalities carry these difficult topics in a very safe way. They’re set up with the open mindedness with embracing survivors from the get go and watching them uncandidly empathizing with the people in the cults brings something I rarely see in other programs/videos about cults, especially ones in youtube. They tend to be just informative/detached, or sensationalize them, but Joyce and Merle make it feel as if you’re watching a thorough documentary with friends and you share this beautiful human moment with them hoping that people heal, and it’s probably a healing process you share with these friends too. I hope to see this series thrive as a new hit on BUN, especially with how victim and empathy focused they are.
I think that it's incredible how you can joke around and laugh but still be respectfull and somber towards the victims and survivors of cults. It's truly comendable, you two are doing an amazing job. Creating awareness of how cult leaders bait people and how easy it is to accidentaly or intentionaly end up in one.
Strange bazaar how the true believers in God who read the scriptures and God could have gave them a hint that they were in the wrong cult but did honestly absolutely nothing? Then 2000 Christians of the Jesus of Scriptures Drank the Coolaid Committed or forced Suicide? BABIES AND ALL. 1978 I REMEMBER IT AS CLEAR AS DAY AND WHY A GRADUALLY LOST MY SO CALLED LIE OF FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED. WHICH ACTUALLY IS NOT THE SMALLEST SEED.
Thank you for making this very informative piece. I joined the group when I was 16, and got out 21 years later. I think Faith hit the nail on the head when she said we sacrificed everything and came out with nothing. So true. Aside from having to deal with survival, which is a whole tale of its own, I also had this great hunger to learn after leaving. The sad part is that the Family has never paid for their crimes. By the way, the central leadership made a lot of money off of us. We lived in squallor. They lived like kings.
13:47 when you realize that Ryan and Shane tried to contact River Phoenix in a previous Buzzfeed Unsolved episode - Hollywood Legends of the Viper Room. 😢
Why'd they get fired? Edit: I looked it up a bit and according to Merle back in December 2022, she was laid off. Not quite the same as fired, but might as well be. With how the Huffpost Union thing is going, it seems Buzzfeed has A LOT they need to rectify. I hate how many employers are taking advantage of people sigh. We need better laws, man.
I like the fact that you didn't go into much details about the children abuse, because I heard them before and it's wayyyy worst than you can all imagine 🤢
Not everyone does experience trauma. Not every sadness or negative experience is trauma. Weve taken therapy buzz words out of context. What that woman experienced was trauma, but not every persons sad experiences is trauma
Comic books!! You just reminded me!! Pope John Paul II came to Australia when I was in primary school. My parents, being traditional Catholics, took my brothers and me to see him. The church had "souvenir" type stuff that one could buy, one which was a comic book which was the story of the pope's life. My mum got it for me and it's been YEARS since I thought of that comic book 😅 I wonder where that comic ended up, I'd love to see it now as an adult (especially as I'm not in the least religious!)
They love bombed teenagers doing orange sunshine acid in Huntington Beach. They brought them to the lighthouse and fed them and indoctrinated them while they came back to reality from the acid trip
It’s interesting when she talks about sex education at 10:50’ , because it almost sounds like what’s happening today in some schools. There a depth of sex education and age appropriateness that it’s being crossed to favor some groups. That’s damaging and has consequences. I’m glad some states are banning certain books and subjects, and setting a certain age group for that education which should never be under 10 years old.
Rose McGowan from charmed TV series grew up in the Cult and someone from the group recruited her father to make illustrations for the comic book and one of them had to do with the idea kids and sex wanting to be drawn and she loosely says that's when they got out of the cult and she can or recalled handing out flyers the flirty fishy series in France and having to collect the USA version of pennies and coins for food Joaquin Phoenix Family was a different name at the time They were in it He's known for his role was playing Johnny Cash in the Walk of line movie The arquettes Patricia David Alex and another arquette I can't remember her name Patricia arquette is known for the show medium Alex is a transgendered woman she also played as a as his birth form man as the goth lover of Chucky's bride movie these are all a part of the children of God cult because their parents were in it
As much as I enjoyed this epsiode (as always), I really think that Buzzfeed & YT need to back off from their constant, obnoxious warnigs about "suicide and self-harm," which are not only annoying to see every few minutes, but actively interfere with the viewing of this video! You see, I put this vid in a short playlist, and despite repeatedly clicking on the "I wish to continue" button, YT skipped over this video more than half a dozen times before they would let me watch, and then only when I clicked on the video straight away! We're all GROWNUPS here, people, and we don't need this constant hand-holding and "protection" from learning about controversial topics.
I'm pretty sure it's RUclips who does it lol and it happens once, I don't want my kids to watch this by accident so I think it's good. Is one click really that hard 😅😅😅😅😅
Suicide warnings are important. You need to make sure you're prepared to watch such things. If someone who wasn't prepared watched this video, like a child for example, it could be very, very damaging. So yes, there does need to be that many warnings. Just because you don't need them doesn't mean nobody else does.
The warnings themselves are extremely important. Not everyone on RUclips is a "grownup"! And even among adults, if someone has auto play on I wouldn't want anyone to be surprised by something that could possibly be triggering, or even just upsetting. But there are definitely bugs in how the system works. I use Chromecast and even if I click allow on my phone I have to also navigate to the remote in the app to click allow on the tv. I can imagine that other set-ups can be even more frustrating! tl;dr I think the warnings are extremely necessary and good, but the implementation is buggy as hell
The forced crying is too much 😂 such an edit cut between try hard gen z quotes with played tears I don't respect the hosts :/ Calling someone making a cartoon of themselves narcissistic? Jesus christ
@@astrowolvez the crying through talking then snapping back to "it's givinggg" and talking normal the exact next sentence. Not natural empathy..it's put on
In 2005, a new coworker of mine called in to the office and said she was going to be late due to a family crisis. I did not know her very well, but when she got to work around noon, she proceeded to break down and tell me why she had been late that day. Her partner had been best friends with Ricky Rodriguez. I had never heard of the Children of God in any great detail, though I was aware that River Phoenix’s family had been affiliated with some sort of upsetting cult in his childhood. My coworker proceeded to tell me in great detail of the contents of the video tape confession they had received that morning from Ricky Rodriguez. He had shot the video and then murdered his former nanny, as you mentioned earlier this video, then taking his own life. I believe she told me that he said that he was copying the tape and sending it to a few individuals and maybe the news. My coworker’s partner, utterly devastated, called the police, and they subsequently found Rodriguez and his victim. She was mortified to hear what he had endured in that video and couldn’t help but tell me about it in great detail, her tears bubbling over uncontrollably as I hugged her in the break room. Almost 20 years later, I have never been able to shake how eerie and horrific my small window into these events was that day. My heart still hurts for all the victims of this horrific cult.
Oh man. Ricky’s story breaks my heart every time. I can’t even begin to imagine what his life must have been like and how horrible he felt. I can only hope he’s found peace wherever his soul may be.
Uiiiiu o p⁰😊😊😊😊the 😅😊
@elsa-lb7vm I watched the video about him and the Children of God. I've never heard of them before. This was maybe 10 years ago. it breaks my heart what happened to him. I could care less about vile nanny. 'll always remember Ricky, a person I only knew about because of You Tube. I can't imagine how hard it would be to deal with his loss if actually know him. His mother will burn in hell along with David Berg. EVIL
Question is , why they where they never convicted a crime
As a mother, it’s infuriating that parents would subject their children to this abuse. Disgusting.
When you've been brainwashed this deeply, you may genuinely believe that the abuse that would horrify every outsider looking in is actually the best possible thing for your children. Remember that these people are *not* thinking rationally, and have been conditioned to not believe or trust outsiders.
It’s just sad
Back then so many people showed such little interest in their children…
I hope that delving into these cults isn't too damaging on the team's mental health. It's difficult seeing Joyce near tears so often this episode. Take care of yourselves!
I grew up in a religious cult and feel so much for those who cannot escape them. For those who can and did escape them, I am so proud of you!
Question how can you tell when your in that situation bc what if you don't see it like that but sb else on the outside looking in will
@@jadawilliams6531 you basically have no life outside of it. That’s how you know. You go 4+ times a week to things like Bible study, preparing for rites, deep personal dives into your past with large groups of strangers…
@@jadawilliams6531the difference between cult and religion is cult pulls you away from your sense of identity, makes u drop everything for church and rituals, a lot of brainwashing. that's how you know
Don't drink the Cool aid?@@1donutatday
I love and respect this series so much because you guys actually talk to survivors and experts and have real opinions. I truly think this series will help other ppl who have been in these situations or maybe even currently are in a cult looking for a out so ty to whoever came up with this series I never miss one
I’ve always loved Merle’s and Joyce’s contents, they make great hosts and content producers on buzzfeed. Probably watched all Merle’s vegan recipes and basically at this point, anything with Joyce in it. Really into the idea of them teaming up and carrying BUN with this series. But I have to give it to them specifically that their grounded personalities carry these difficult topics in a very safe way. They’re set up with the open mindedness with embracing survivors from the get go and watching them uncandidly empathizing with the people in the cults brings something I rarely see in other programs/videos about cults, especially ones in youtube. They tend to be just informative/detached, or sensationalize them, but Joyce and Merle make it feel as if you’re watching a thorough documentary with friends and you share this beautiful human moment with them hoping that people heal, and it’s probably a healing process you share with these friends too. I hope to see this series thrive as a new hit on BUN, especially with how victim and empathy focused they are.
I think that it's incredible how you can joke around and laugh but still be respectfull and somber towards the victims and survivors of cults. It's truly comendable, you two are doing an amazing job. Creating awareness of how cult leaders bait people and how easy it is to accidentaly or intentionaly end up in one.
Strange bazaar how the true believers in God who read the scriptures and God could have gave them a hint that they were in the wrong cult but did honestly absolutely nothing? Then 2000 Christians of the Jesus of Scriptures Drank the Coolaid Committed or forced Suicide? BABIES AND ALL. 1978 I REMEMBER IT AS CLEAR AS DAY AND WHY A GRADUALLY LOST MY SO CALLED LIE OF FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED. WHICH ACTUALLY IS NOT THE SMALLEST SEED.
One of the most disturbing cults that I’ve ever heard of! 😭
What any cult does is disturbing.
@@RiresDelven 💯
deep thought here🙄
@@petermiletic8213 I mean more disturbing than others that I’ve heard of. 😊
Ant Hill Kids is the worst one ever. Ever.
Thank you for making this very informative piece. I joined the group when I was 16, and got out 21 years later. I think Faith hit the nail on the head when she said we sacrificed everything and came out with nothing. So true. Aside from having to deal with survival, which is a whole tale of its own, I also had this great hunger to learn after leaving. The sad part is that the Family has never paid for their crimes. By the way, the central leadership made a lot of money off of us. We lived in squallor. They lived like kings.
This is so horrifying. And I had no idea how many celebrities were involved
Celebrities from all over the world, even celebrities in countries like India.
like? @@NoName-dm7xo
13:47 when you realize that Ryan and Shane tried to contact River Phoenix in a previous Buzzfeed Unsolved episode - Hollywood Legends of the Viper Room. 😢
I love how you show your empathy this way, bless both of your hearts ❤
It’s wild that BuzzFeed laid off Merle and will still air this. I really hope Joyce wasn’t laid off!
They fired the disgusting black fat one?
Poor Ricky. Watch the tape he made before he went to murder that lady. My break just breaks for him.
merle and joyce r literal angels
No, they are literally not literal angels.
Speechless. Omg wow
THE River Phoenix was part of this???? Wow… speechless. It makes sense why his life was so awful :(
The drug use is incredibly understandable. The things he went through and/or saw must've been horrific.
That's how u get names like river and Phoenix lol usually a cult involved
I was only still watching this channel because of Merle and Joyce but now that you've fired them, I'm unsubscribing after this series is over.
they were fired??
Why'd they get fired?
Edit: I looked it up a bit and according to Merle back in December 2022, she was laid off. Not quite the same as fired, but might as well be. With how the Huffpost Union thing is going, it seems Buzzfeed has A LOT they need to rectify. I hate how many employers are taking advantage of people sigh. We need better laws, man.
@@mimixmin yeah the day after they finished filming this
@@Nikki-rx8ri Makes it five times worse
I'm off too, they really don't know how to run a viral business, let alone a moral one.
For your RLM fans this is the group that made the SOS video.
Stay away from those bar codes!
And much more!😎
Was not expecting to hear river phoenix!
This is so horrifying
I like the fact that you didn't go into much details about the children abuse, because I heard them before and it's wayyyy worst than you can all imagine 🤢
Not everyone does experience trauma. Not every sadness or negative experience is trauma. Weve taken therapy buzz words out of context. What that woman experienced was trauma, but not every persons sad experiences is trauma
Comic books!! You just reminded me!! Pope John Paul II came to Australia when I was in primary school. My parents, being traditional Catholics, took my brothers and me to see him. The church had "souvenir" type stuff that one could buy, one which was a comic book which was the story of the pope's life. My mum got it for me and it's been YEARS since I thought of that comic book 😅
I wonder where that comic ended up, I'd love to see it now as an adult (especially as I'm not in the least religious!)
Interesting case
“It’s giving Manson💅” ☠️☠️☠️☠️
Your intro card about the number for the lifeline is missing the final digit. People will not be able to call for help.
ty
Video came out 2 minutes ago and still has almost no interactions. Buzzfeed down bad.
It's way too scripted.... 😕
Interacting
Ryan and shane not on this channel
When I click on this, I get redirected elsewhere. Comments are from 6 months ago.
"Seminating" not inseminating. For whatever reason.
I promise I'm not a cult leader
Why can’t I watch this?? RUclips keeps skipping it.
Creepy
Aww hell nah I miss Ryan and Shane 😅😂😂😂😂
3:14 which is crazy cuz Jews are similar to Christian’s also Jesus was Jewish…
Oh god
He did not create teens for Christ his teenagers began working with them teens for Christ still exists in California he did not create it
They love bombed teenagers doing orange sunshine acid in Huntington Beach. They brought them to the lighthouse and fed them and indoctrinated them while they came back to reality from the acid trip
you gotta do a video of mh370 🙏
Merle looks like she doesn't know what she's doing in 5:05 mark. lol
Every video on this channel is spoilt by the hosts. They should be narrating and not continually showing themselves.
It’s interesting when she talks about sex education at 10:50’ , because it almost sounds like what’s happening today in some schools. There a depth of sex education and age appropriateness that it’s being crossed to favor some groups. That’s damaging and has consequences. I’m glad some states are banning certain books and subjects, and setting a certain age group for that education which should never be under 10 years old.
Jack the ripper
Wow this was so... DIGUSTING
Rose McGowan from charmed TV series grew up in the Cult and someone from the group recruited her father to make illustrations for the comic book and one of them had to do with the idea kids and sex wanting to be drawn and she loosely says that's when they got out of the cult and she can or recalled handing out flyers the flirty fishy series in France and having to collect the USA version of pennies and coins for food
Joaquin Phoenix Family was a different name at the time They were in it He's known for his role was playing Johnny Cash in the Walk of line movie
The arquettes Patricia David Alex and another arquette I can't remember her name Patricia arquette is known for the show medium Alex is a transgendered woman she also played as a as his birth form man as the goth lover of Chucky's bride movie these are all a part of the children of God cult because their parents were in it
The narrator's voice is so hard to listen to...
What narrator?
@@astrowolvez the black one
As much as I enjoyed this epsiode (as always), I really think that Buzzfeed & YT need to back off from their constant, obnoxious warnigs about "suicide and self-harm," which are not only annoying to see every few minutes, but actively interfere with the viewing of this video!
You see, I put this vid in a short playlist, and despite repeatedly clicking on the "I wish to continue" button, YT skipped over this video more than half a dozen times before they would let me watch, and then only when I clicked on the video straight away! We're all GROWNUPS here, people, and we don't need this constant hand-holding and "protection" from learning about controversial topics.
I only get one warning at the start.
I'm pretty sure it's RUclips who does it lol and it happens once, I don't want my kids to watch this by accident so I think it's good. Is one click really that hard 😅😅😅😅😅
I had to click over a dozen times, eventually taking it out of a playlist and re-accessing it: that's not right. So "LOL" yourselves. 😎
Suicide warnings are important. You need to make sure you're prepared to watch such things. If someone who wasn't prepared watched this video, like a child for example, it could be very, very damaging. So yes, there does need to be that many warnings. Just because you don't need them doesn't mean nobody else does.
The warnings themselves are extremely important. Not everyone on RUclips is a "grownup"! And even among adults, if someone has auto play on I wouldn't want anyone to be surprised by something that could possibly be triggering, or even just upsetting.
But there are definitely bugs in how the system works. I use Chromecast and even if I click allow on my phone I have to also navigate to the remote in the app to click allow on the tv. I can imagine that other set-ups can be even more frustrating!
tl;dr I think the warnings are extremely necessary and good, but the implementation is buggy as hell
"Picture this kiddos"
If you hadn't realised it was buzzfeed yet. Have some decency.
The forced crying is too much 😂 such an edit cut between try hard gen z quotes with played tears I don't respect the hosts :/
Calling someone making a cartoon of themselves narcissistic? Jesus christ
Oh that's right, I forgot it was buzzfeed
Keep telling yourself that.
Some people have empathy, I know that’s a hard concept to grasp.
@@astrowolvez forced empathy isn't empathy
@@astrowolvez the crying through talking then snapping back to "it's givinggg" and talking normal the exact next sentence. Not natural empathy..it's put on
Thanks for sharing your trauma with us. I hope you have found peace.
So many awful things in the name of religion.
Whenever you guys cry, I cry. I think we are all crying.
Heyo
Nah stop I live in HB