Michele’s Deception
In Part 3 of this series, we learned how Michele became intolerant to the fact that her former husband wanted to remain a member of the World Mission Society Church of God while Michele wanted to leave.
In this part of the series, we will learn how Michele began a campaign, which even included deception, to try to get him to leave the Church. This behavior made living with Michele unbearable. Let us continue learning Michele Colon’s former husband’s story.
As the frequency of arguments between Michele and I increased, I even felt like never going back to my own home. I felt better staying at Church. When I was home, I would rather study the Bible to avoid entering into another heated argument with Michele. I felt this was more constructive and enjoyable way to spend my time.
Michele became very mean and spiteful. She would constantly send me information from online articles that argue against the beliefs of the Church, or claim things about the Church and its practices that I know–from first-hand knowledge–were completely untrue.
I finally decided to move out because I knew the situation was not healthy for either of us. After some time apart, I spoke with Michele and agreed to move back home. I invited her to come back to the Church by studying or keeping service from time to time, but I never pressured her. My hope was that if she gave it a chance and kept an open mind, she would find joy in it as she used to, as I had, or at least she would come to better understand why I chose to remain a member of the Church.
Michele decided to come back to the Church and repeat all of the studies again. She would even come and keep service on the Sabbath. But things were not getting any better. Even during this time when she was “trying” to give the Church a second chance, she continued making every imaginable effort to get me to leave the Church.
By Michele’s suggestion, and in my effort to show my wife that I loved her, we decided to see an independent marriage counselor. As soon as he began counseling us, I felt Michele and the counselor had already designed a plan on how they would get me to agree with them on what they felt was best for me. There was even a point in the counseling session that they would speak to each other as if I was not even in the room.
Michele then asked me to see another marriage counselor. Since I wanted to leave the door open to see how we could work out the problems in our relationship, I agreed to go again, even after the awful experience the first time. When we got to the “counseling session,” I saw that this man (who I thought was a marriage counselor) worked from his home. After entering his office, the man proceeded to speak for the next four hours about his experience and personal achievements. Then, for the next two hours, he told me how bad he believed the Church was.
The marriage counselor began to say that the Church was just manipulating me to exploit me financially because that is what the Church thrives on. I asked him frankly, “Fine. Let’s say this Church is all about the money. So what are they doing with all this money? Show evidence of the lavish lifestyles of the leaders? Show me pictures of the mansions the leaders own and the fancy cars the leaders drive?” He had no answer to my questions.
I should have realized before, but believing Michele I tried to hear the man out for all those hours. He even tried to get me to lose all communication with anyone other than my wife. He wanted Michele and I to stay near his house for 3 days with no contact with anyone else on the outside, this was absurd. I left with Michele, extremely angry after realizing that she had deceived me and brought me to a self-proclaimed “cult expert” by the name of Rick Alan Ross. I did some research on the guy afterwards. He had a history of kidnapping people and forcibly deprogramming them.
I felt betrayed by my own wife, and lost a lot of trust in her. I do not understand how Michele could ever claim that the Church caused a divide between us. What caused division between us was her intolerance for my religious belief, and her manipulative methods to get me to renounce my faith.
I know there are couples in the Church whose spouse is not a member and yet they live happy marriages. I don’t understand why we couldn’t do the same.
Michele Colón went as far as lying and deceiving her then husband into an involuntary “cult expert” counseling session. Under these circumstances, who can have a healthy relationship? The more we hear his story, the more we can understand that, contrary to what Ms. Colón wants people to think, she created an unbearable environment for her husband.