Colman Domingo Tells This Bone-Chilling Story About His Encounter With a Cult in Mexico

Colman Domingo opened up about a bizarre encounter with a “group of nice people,” but after researching, he noticed something was off.

Angela Wilson

The Root
August 20, 2025

In a recent interview, actor Colman Domingo discussed everything from Hollywood’s elite habits to the importance of community. But it was his recollection of a run-in he says he had while in Mexico that has folks shook.

Domingo sat down with Josh Scherer on an episode of “Mythical Kitchen” which came out Tuesday (August 19). While sharing a meal, the pair were discussing how some celebrities seem to live secluded lives, almost “cult-like,” after finding success in Hollywood. Scherer asked Domingo in jest, “You haven’t joined a cult yet now that you moved to Malibu?”

That’s when the “Euphoria” star admitted: “I almost joined a cult in Mexico City, but that’s another story.”

He went on to explain exactly what almost went down. “It was just a group of nice people, and then I was like, ‘Wait a minute. This is weird,’” he said. “I was like, ‘What’s up with you guys?’ This is my first encounter, but as I did research and found out more about them, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a cult.’”

After Scherer joked that they still “should join” the cult, Domingo referenced the podcast itself, asking: “Is this a cult? It might be.”

Historically, Black people have been both victims and leaders of cults. Groups like the multiracial organization Peoples Temple (led by Jim Jones, a white man, with a 80% – 90% Black membership by the 1970s) and the Black Hebrew Israelite group Nation of Yahweh (founded in the late 1970s by Hulon Mitchell Jr., who called himself Yahweh ben Yahweh, was classified as a Black supremacist cult by the Southern Poverty Law Center), offered an escape from poverty and racism.

Some cults, especially those with Black leaders, gave members a sense of power and control over their lives in a world that often made them feel powerless. We’re glad Domingo didn’t join one so we can enjoy his talent on the silver screen, especially his highly-anticipated portrayal of Joe Jackson in Michael Jackson’s biopic in 2026.

https://www.theroot.com/colman-domingo-tells-this-bone-chilling-story-about-his-2000057204

HISTORY OF HEBREW ISRAELISM

Southern Law Poverty Center

The Hebrew Israelite movement is rooted in Black Judaism, a belief system birthed in the late 1800s by black Christians from the South's Pentecostal "Holiness" movement. They claimed to have received a revelation: America's recently emancipated slaves were God's chosen people, the true Hebrews.

The Hebrew Israelite movement is rooted in Black Judaism, a belief system birthed in the late 1800s by black Christians from the South's Pentecostal "Holiness" movement. They claimed to have received a revelation: America's recently emancipated slaves were God's chosen people, the true Hebrews.

According to Black Judaism doctrine, when the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed, the Israelites were first scattered across the African continent and then selectively targeted by enemy African tribes who captured and sold them to European slave traders for bondage in the New World.

"It's a common myth that slaves were randomly shackled up and carried off to slavery," "General Yahanna," leader of the present-day Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, told the Intelligence Report. Actually, "Slave traders sailed for months and days to get to specific pickup points. They knew what people they were taking — specifically, the lost tribes of Israel."

Black Judaism leaders preached self-empowerment and economic independence, an early form of black nationalism that was foundational for later groups like the Nation of Islam. Their rhetoric, emphasizing the biblical theme of an oppressed nation being led to a promised land, informed black activist thought right up through the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.

Although followers of Black Judaism thought of themselves as the descendants of the biblical 12 tribes of Israel, most did not take that to mean that other people deserved condemnation or attack.

One notable exception was F.S. Cherry, a self-declared prophet who in 1886 started a "black Jew" church in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he preached that white people were inherently evil and hated by God. Cherry also instructed his followers that the earth is square and that Jesus would return in the year 2000 to install blacks over whites through a race war.

Just as today's racist Hebrew Israelite sects are hateful but smaller detachments of a larger, non-racist faith, Cherry, who relocated his congregation to Philadelphia in 1915, was far less popular in his time than non-racist Black Judaism founders like the Rev. William Christian and William Saunders Crowdy.

After Cherry, the next major purveyor of racist dogma among black Jews was Eber ben Yomin, also known as Abba Bivens, who in the 1960s broke away from the "Commandment Keepers," then the dominant mainstream black Jewish organization, to launch his own extremist sect, which became known as the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge.

Initially based in a Harlem apartment, this new black Israelite group soon moved to a building on New York City's 125th Street, Harlem's main drag. Three of Bivens' disciples — Ahrayah, Masha and Yaiqab — joined with four "high priests" named Chaazaq, Lahab, Yahiya and Shar to take over leadership of the Israelite School. Collectively they were referred to as the "Seven Heads," the inner-circle governors of the black supremacist Hebrew Israelite movement.

Although they employed the same kind of radical rhetoric and confrontational street theater that other militant black groups of the 1970s did, racist Hebrew Israelites held themselves apart. They rejected the "Muslim" beliefs of groups like the Nation of Islam and refused to join with the pork-eating secularists of groups like the Black Panthers.

In the 1980s, the Seven Heads changed the name of their group to the Israelite Church of Universal Practical Knowledge.

The Israelite Church attempted to expand its visibility in the 1990s by declaring, as F.S. Cherry had before them, that Jesus Christ would return to earth in 2000 to enslave and destroy the white race. Meanwhile, some members began to break away and form their own racist Hebrew Israelite sects. One such member, Yahanna, started a chapter and reclaimed the original name Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge for his group.

When the year 2000 came without the Israelite Church's prophecy coming to pass, its leaders rebranded the organization as the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, the name they still use today. The organization was taken over in late 2000 by "Chief High Priest Tazadaqyah," born Jermaine Grant, who declared himself the "Holy Spirit" and "The Comforter." Grant recently prophesied that a vengeful black Jesus would soon return to earth to kill or enslave all whites. Unlike Cherry, however, he didn't set a date.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/history-hebrew-israelism

Hanukkah stabbing suspect searched ‘why did Hitler hate the Jews,’ prosecutors say

Shayna Jacobs,
Deanna Paul, Maria Sacchetti and Hannah Knowles
December 31, 2019

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — More than a month before he charged into Hanukkah celebrations with a machete, prosecutors say, Grafton Thomas used his cellphone to search the Internet: “Why did Hitler hate the Jews.”

That query — entered three more times over the following weeks — was just one red flag authorities found when they combed through Thomas’s belongings, officials said. There were more online searches, for temples “near me.” There were journals with the words “Nazi Culture” on the same page as a swastika and a Star of David.

The discoveries detailed by an FBI agent would bring Thomas to court Monday on federal hate-crime charges, a day after he was charged with attempted murder in the stabbing that wounded five people at a rabbi’s home in New York’s Rockland County. The 37-year-old defendant answered routine questions, telling a judge he was “coherent,” before shuffling away slowly, feet shackled, to be held without bail.

Thomas’s family has said the suspect has “no known history of anti-Semitism” and attributed any responsibility in Saturday’s rampage in the New York suburb of Monsey to “profound mental illness.” But the federal criminal complaint points to Thomas’s handwritten journals and online history as evidence that the man sought to target Jews in an assault that quickly renewed fears of rising anti-Semitic violence.

Thomas, a resident of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., did not enter a plea for the latest charges at his court appearance in White Plains, where he faces five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon and causing injuries. He pleaded not guilty on Sunday to five state counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

Even before Monday’s charges brought a potential motive into focus, many officials and community leaders had denounced anti-Semitism and expressed concern about a spate of attacks on Jewish residents. Saturday’s stabbing was the 13th anti-Semitic incident in three weeks in New York state, the governor said, calling the Monsey stabbing “domestic terrorism.” Earlier this month, four people were fatally shot in what officials called a targeted attack on a Jersey City kosher grocery store.

The hate-crime charges were a welcome sign of accountability to Yossi Gestetner, who lives near the rabbi’s house and headed over the night of the stabbing. He doesn’t think the anti-Semitism described in the complaint has heightened his community’s fears, though, because “the concern that hate exists was already out there.”

“People in the Orthodox Jewish community have been expressing concern for a very long time that there is a strain of hatred targeted toward them,” said the co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. He said of Thomas: “We saw today … he chose Orthodox Jews.”

Authorities found Thomas within hours of the attack, with blood on his clothes in a car that smelled of bleach.

The suspect’s browser history showed queries related to Nazis, Jews and synagogues dating to at least Nov. 9, according to the complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. A day before the stabbing, the complaint says, Thomas accessed an article on New York’s decision to increase police presence in multiple Jewish neighborhoods amid fears of anti-Semitic violence.

Journals discovered in Thomas’s home also include anti-Semitic statements, an FBI officer wrote in the federal complaint. One page questions “why [people] mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide.”

Another says that “Hebrew Israelites” have taken from “ebinoid Israelites,” an apparent reference to the Black Hebrew Israelites, a movement that officials said the suspects in the Jersey City shooting expressed interest in. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have pointed to members’ anti-Semitic beliefs, prosecutors note.

Thomas’s family sought to dispel accusations of anti-Semitism in a statement released Sunday through a lawyer, saying he was not a member of any hate groups and “was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races.” Speaking to reporters Monday alongside Thomas’s mother and the family’s pastor, attorney Michael Sussman said his client’s behavior on Saturday stemmed from hallucinations — “one might say demons” — and he emphasized Thomas’s history of hospitalization and medication for mental illness.

Thomas described hearing a voice or voices that instructed him to go to the place of the attack, Sussman said.

“My impression is that the situation he found where he went in was not the situation he expected to find, and that may have been a trigger for him,” he said.

Noncompliance with his medications could have played a role, Sussman added, saying Thomas has psychosis and “severe depression.” He is seeking an in-hospital evaluation of the defendant.

The lawyer rejected descriptions of his client as a “domestic terrorist” who carried out a targeted attack. He said his review of papers from Thomas’s home revealed not anti-Semitism but the “ramblings of a disturbed individual."

In federal court Monday, defense attorney Susanne Brody asked that Thomas receive medical attention in jail, saying that she understands “there are issues with bipolar and schizophrenia.”

Little more about the defendant’s mental health was discussed as the defendant said he understood the proceedings and declared himself indigent and eligible for free counsel.

Brody said it’s not clear whether the state’s case against Thomas will proceed, and the Rockland County district attorney did not immediately clarify Monday.

Federal prosecutors said the hate-crime charges should send a “crystal-clear” message, as the filing drew approval from groups that had called for concrete steps to address anti-Jewish attacks.

“As alleged, Grafton Thomas targeted his victims in the midst of a religious ceremony, transforming a joyous Hanukkah celebration into a scene of carnage and pain,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement, calling the eighth day of Hanukkah and the new year moments “for renewed hope and resolve: To combat bigotry in all its forms — and to bring to justice the perpetrators of hate-fueled attacks.”

Other officials have vowed action to prevent more violence.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), who directed the state’s Hate Crimes Task Force to investigate, is calling for harsher punishments for mass attacks motivated by hatred of an identity group. Officials in Rockland County said police would partner with private security to give area synagogues armed guards — a measure that community members say some congregations have already taken in recent months amid concerns about attacks across the country.

Cuomo calls stabbing at Hanukkah celebration 'act of domestic terrorism'

As most leaders focus on anti-Semitism, one federal official on Monday attempted to link the attack to unauthorized immigration.

“The attacker is the U.S. Citizen son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants. Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son,” Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and a longtime immigration hawk, said in a now-deleted tweet. Signed by President Ronald Reagan and passed with bipartisan support in Congress, the landmark 1986 law granted legal status to 2.7 million undocumented immigrants who entered the country before 1982.

Thomas’s mother, Kim Thomas, is a “law-abiding” nurse and longtime resident of New York City who gained citizenship in 1986, said Sussman, the family’s attorney.

DHS, the domestic anti-terrorism agency where Cuccinelli is second-in-command, did not immediately respond to requests for information about his allegations. Hours later, Cuccinelli’s tweet was deleted.

Saturday’s stabbing shook a county where a third of the population is Jewish and where officials said anti-Semitism has risen in recent years as increasing numbers of Orthodox Jews have made homes there.

Concerns in the Orthodox community flared last month after a 30-year-old rabbi said two people approached him from behind on a secluded street in Monsey and beat him for several minutes — though Police Chief Brad Weidel has said there is no evidence that the man was targeted for his religion.

Acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in New York and elsewhere, leaving Jewish community rattled

Then came Saturday’s attack as dozens celebrated the seventh night of Hanukkah inside the home of Hasidic Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg. Face covered with a scarf, the assailant told those gathered, “No one is leaving,” according to Monday’s federal complaint.

Witnesses say he unsheathed a machete, described by one person as a sword nearly the size of a broomstick, and started slashing at random, moving through the entryway, then into the dining room and eventually toward the kitchen, where people fled through a back door.

Attendee Joseph Gluck said he eventually hit the attacker in the head with a small coffee table from the entryway. Both men moved outside, and Gluck realized that the man was headed toward the synagogue, where congregants locked the doors after hearing the commotion at the rabbi’s house. Gluck screamed warnings, then watched as the man tried a second door.

The attacker fled to a car and sped away, officials say, but Gluck was able to write down the license plate number. Authorities arrested the suspect in Harlem about midnight.

Authorities found Thomas with a machete and a knife, both showing what seemed to be traces of dried blood, Monday’s federal complaint says.

Yisroel Kraus, a 26-year-old teacher who was celebrating Hanukkah at the rabbi’s home with his family, said it was lucky that people had already started to filter out for the night when the attacker starting swinging at “everyone he could.”

“If he had come 10 minutes earlier, the place would have been packed,” Kraus said. “No way to move. No way to run. It was a miracle. It was a Hanukkah miracle.”

Katie Mettler, Marisa Iati and Kevin Armstrong contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the hate-crime charges were filed in Manhattan. They were filed in White Plains. The article also described Thomas as 38 years old based on his statement in court; his lawyer said he is 37.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/12/30/monsey-stabbing-grafton-thomas-suspect/

Who are Black Hebrew Israelites?

Jack Jenkins
Religion News Service
December 13, 2019

(RNS) — On Tuesday (Dec. 10), two individuals opened fire on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey. The violent attack — which occurred shortly after the assailants allegedly killed a police officer in a nearby cemetery — ultimately left three bystanders dead and three people wounded, including two police officers.

Law enforcement authorities later announced they are treating the incident as a case of domestic terrorism and said the suspects — both of whom were killed in a shootout with police — were “fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs.”

Officials also noted that one of the suspects had posted anti-Semitic comments online and had ties with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a category that includes organizations labeled as hate groups and members who have voiced beliefs widely seen as anti-Semitic.

But just who are the Black Hebrew Israelites, and where did they come from?

According to Judith Weisenfeld, religion professor at Princeton University, the short answer is: It depends.

“There’s no such thing as ‘the’ Black Hebrew Israelites,” Weisenfeld, author of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration, told Religion News Service. “There are lots of different theological and political orientations within that broader umbrella.”

The movement, which typically does not associate itself with mainstream Judaism, has a long history in the U.S. and has exhibited a variety of permutations. At the most basic level, members are loosely bound together by a common claim that they are affiliated with the Twelve Tribes of Israel mentioned in the Bible.

But within that community, there is much diversity. Weisenfeld pointed to at least two different strains of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement that have evolved over time. The first developed during a period that stretched from the late 19th century and into the 1920s, when a group of black worshippers emerged who believed that slavery and bondage had “forced a Christian and Negro identity on them” that was false.

“They were saying that ‘the Negro’ is a product of enslavement and an invention of white people, and Christianity is not ours,” she said. “So some people in this period turn to the Bible and say, ‘There it is: we were actually of the lost tribes (of Israel).’”

These groups tended to reject racial categories ascribed to them in the United States. Some wrote in alternative racial identities — including “Hebrew” — on draft cards during World War II.

Communities associated with this iteration of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement — or at least connected to it — still exist, including Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, Illinois. That congregation is led by Rabbi Capers Funnye, who is Michelle Obama’s cousin and has been called “Obama’s Rabbi.” A prominent figure in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, the Forward once touted him as someone who could potentially move the movement “closer to the center of mainstream Jewish life.”

Jacob Dorman, professor at University of Nevada, Reno, and author of "Chosen People: The Rise of American Black Israelite Religions,” argues for even further nuance, insisting this wing of the movement can be delineated into two separate “waves.” But both he and Weisenfeld agree that a new iteration emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

“(These groups) rejected the term ‘Jew’ and emphasized the illegitimacy of white Jews as part of a style that was militant, black nationalist, macho, and patriarchal, frequently focused (on) emigration, whether to rural communities in the South, or, in one case, to Liberia and then Dimona, Israel,” Dorman told RNS in an email.

He added that these groups are often characterized by a preference for “confrontational” street preaching and have produced “messianic leaders and, on occasion, criminal conspiracies.”

The beliefs and practices have caused divisions within the broader Black Hebrew Israelite community.

“The older groups tend to disagree with both the content and the style of the newer groups,” Dorman said. “There is also fighting and factionalism amongst third wave Israelite groups. These movements are very schismatic.”

Funnye told RNS in January that he objects to some of these groups even using the term Hebrew Israelites and criticized some of their street preaching practices.

“I can assure you that we have nothing to do with this group whatsoever, in any way, shape, form or fashion,” he said at the time.

This more recent wave has also caught the eye of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. The SPLC has labeled 144 Black Hebrew Israelite organizations — but by no means all — as hate groups on its website. It cites evidence of what experts call “a rising extremist sector within the movement” due to the “antisemitic and racist beliefs” of some Black Hebrew Israelite groups.

Dorman argued for a nuanced understanding of the groups, saying SPLC’s approach is “highly problematic from a scholarly perspective, as it takes public statements at face value.”

Even so, Black Hebrew Israelites have drawn national attention in recent years for wading into national political discourse. A group affiliated with the movement was seen hurling insults at a group of Covington Catholic students in January 2019 for wearing hats emblazoned with President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Meanwhile, Michael Symonette, a man often seen at Trump rallies waving a “Blacks for Trump” sign, is reportedly also connected to the movement, according to The Forward. His own views appear to deviate from any of the main Black Hebrew Israelite strains: He sees Ashkenazi Jews as “blessed people,” Sephardic Jews as “false Jews” who “hate the blessed people,” and Black and white people as the “real Hebrews.”

The exact nature of the connection between the Jersey City gunman and the Black Hebrew Israelites remains unclear, although the SPLC noted that “anti-law enforcement sentiment is not a core tenet of the Black Hebrew Israelite ideology.”



https://religionnews.com/2019/12/13/who-are-black-hebrew-israelites/

Philly-area Black Hebrew Israelites leader speaks out about Jersey City Shooting

Here’s what they had to say about the attack on Jersey City kosher supermarket.

Becca Glasser-Baker
Metro
December 12, 2019

Earlier this week, there was a deadly attack on a Jersey City kosher supermarket. Multiple outlets have reported that one of the two assailants involved in shooting appeared to be linked to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.

The New York Times reported that David N. Anderson, 47, was allegedly involved in a Black Hebrew Israelite movement. It is not clear what his involvement and status was within the group.

It is also not clear if the other assailant Francine Graham, 50, was also involved.

CNN reported that followers of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement are black people who believe they are true descendants of the biblical Jews.

The Black Hebrew Israelite movement is labeled a hate group and has a strong presence in the Philly area. It was reported that they have been active in Philly for over three decades.

Inquirer.com interviewed the leader of the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, Yahanna. There are a sect of the movement and condemned the shooting. It was reported that the organization’s chapters in Philly and elsewhere are nonviolent, despite their rhetoric.

Commanding General Yahanna of the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, spoke to Inquirer.com about the incident. He told them that he does not know Anderson. Yahanna’s real name is John Lightbourne, and he claimed that if Anderson was affiliated with the group, he would have “learned the opposite” of violence.

Yahanna added, “They just assume we’re going to be street thugs and criminals. We pull brothers out of prison and off the street and turn their lives around, have them open a Bible.” He believes his movement is a scapegoat and, “Hebrew Israelites are the most unviolent people out of the entire black community... They don’t go to jail, don’t sell drugs, they don’t go out shooting people. ... We are totally against that kind of activity. It doesn’t help us one bit to go out and shoot somebody.”

It was reported that Yahanna’s group is not connected to mainstream Judaism.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal did not confirm Anderson’s link to the group and told outlets that the situation is still under investigation.

This is not the first time that the group has been under fire. Earlier this year, Black Hebrew Israelites went viral after a video of high school student, Nick Sandmann, mocking a Native American elder, Nathan Phillips, surfaced.

A longer version of the video showed the Black Hebrew Israelites using profanity and mocking a group of teens; although the teens did also seem to be taunting the group.

https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/philadelphia/philly-area-black-hebrew-israelites-leader-speaks-out-about-jersey-city-shooting

New Bedford native speaks out against child marriage

Susannah Sudborough / Boston University Statehouse Program

Milford Daily News 

June 15, 2019

Monteiro said her husband would tell her she was a bad person who was going against Christ, and would punish her by trying to ruin her relationships with friends.

BOSTON – Tammy Monteiro was married at 16.

“My whole life has been a struggle to do basic things because I was married so young,” she said.

Under Massachusetts law, a judge can give permission for a person of any age to marry if a parent gives consent. There is no statutory age limit. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 1,200 girls under the age of 18 were married in the commonwealth from 2000 to 2016.

Human rights advocates say child marriage robs girls of their childhood and violates their human rights. Monteiro’s experience is no exception.

Born Tammy Smith, she was born and raised in New Bedford. At age 3, her father was incarcerated, and from then on was in and out of prison. Her mother, she said, struggled to take care of her, as she suffered from mental illness, severe social anxiety, and was disabled and unable to work.

“As a teen, I was raising my mother,” Monteiro said.

Monteiro was put into a foster home at age 15.

She then met a 24-year-old man who “took interest in her.” She said he had a Bible and would teach her Scripture. He was a part of the Branches of Christ Church congregation in Brockton, a sect that falls under the umbrella of a larger faith commonly known as the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Followers of this religion, whose practices and affiliations can vary, are united in the belief that African Americans are the true descendants of the tribe of Israel, and believe they are God’s chosen people.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have called some denominations of this religion “hate groups” for their controversial views on LGBTQ+, white and Jewish people.

Monteiro said the man told her she was a part of God’s chosen people, which made her feel special and appealed to her young sensibilities.

“I was just a young girl looking for male acceptance,” Monteiro said.

After less than a year, Monteiro said, the man told her that the only way they could be together was to be married. To do this, the couple would need the permission of both a judge and one of her parents. Her birth mother gave permission, Monteiro said, because she believed this man would take care of her daughter.

“He was very charming, educated and well-spoken,” said Monteiro. “She fell for it. She thought she was doing the right thing.”

Reborn as Raiyah

As for the judge, Monteiro said he talked to the groom-to-be for about 20 minutes, asking why he wanted to marry her. She said he told the judge it was simply because he loved her. With no further investigation, the judge gave permission, giving her new husband full custody of her.

In January 1999, they wed. From this point on, everything changed, Monteiro said. She said she was immediately pulled away from her friends and family. She was even given a new name as a part of being reborn in her new religion: Raiyah.

“I was groomed and indoctrinated from the day we were married,” she said.

As part of her new religion, Monteiro said, she had to follow a multitude of rules, such as always wearing a head covering, wearing only ankle-length dresses and specially decorated clothing, and eating a strict diet.

Monteiro characterizes the religion as “male supremacist.” She said she was taught that women were not supposed to speak out, that wisdom was only given to men and that to “get right with God,” a woman must submit to her husband.

On the church’s YouTube channels, leaders explain their beliefs regarding the role of women in two videos uploaded in November. The videos show one of the two church leaders teaching doctrine including ideas that women were created to serve their husbands, that independent women are being led by Satan, and that husbands are to rule over their wives.

A friend of Monteiro’s who was a member of the church for 23 years and requested anonymity said that the church was even more restrictive in terms of what a woman was allowed to do when she first joined in the 1990s. She said they taught a wife was a man’s possession, and that the husband must “train” her.

She said not everyone followed the doctrine to the letter, and that over time the focus of the church shifted from strict gender roles to finding peace in Christ. But, she said, it still teaches similar doctrine, including the idea that how a woman “serves” her husband is how she shows gratitude to God.

A spokesperson for the Branches of Christ Church said that it neither encourages nor condones child marriage. The spokesperson also said church teachings come directly from the Bible, and that it does not believe in interpretation.

Monteiro said she was taught that while her husband was out building his career, she was to be a keeper in the home and to have children, which she dutifully did. She said she was even praised as a role model for others.

“People would say ‘see how Sister Raiyah obeys her husband?’” said Monteiro.

This situation was ideal in the religion, the friend said. But she clarified this was not meant to keep a woman “captive,” and that the church did not encourage men to mistreat their wives. In fact, she said, most people coming into the congregation were looking to better their lives, and were looking for a life with more unity and family.

“The goal is to get these men to stop smoking, stop drinking, read the Bible, read the Commandments,” said the friend.

Still, she said, given the age difference between Monteiro and her husband, she believes her friend was not able to stand up for herself the way an older woman might have, and that her husband misused the teachings of the church.

“You can give two people the same instruction, and based on where that person is in their mind, they could manipulate those scriptures to fit their own needs,” the friend said.

Struggle for ‘sense of self’

Monteiro said that while married, she was unable to build a career, educate herself or do anything but be his wife. She said she had to fight to be allowed to wear pants, go to the library and get her driver’s license.

“I struggled to be my own person and find a sense of self,” said Monteiro.

A few years into the marriage, Monteiro said she convinced her husband to leave the group. But even once he did, he retained the group’s rules and beliefs.

Because she was supposed to “be fruitful and multiply,” Monteiro said she was not allowed to use contraception. As a result, over nearly 20 years, she gave birth to eight sons. Her eldest is now 19.

Monteiro said being a mother and creating a family atmosphere came naturally to her. She said she considered herself a professional, home-schooling the children and doing her best to build a good life for them.

“He expected me to be this super woman of God, which was so much to live up to,” said Monteiro.

From the outside, the friend said Monteiro and her husband seemed happy. She described Monteiro as “a hell of a mother” and said she was always cheerful and finding meaning in the home she was building.

“People thought we had a picture-perfect marriage,” said Monteiro. “We were married for so long and we had great kids. But under the surface, his relationship with me was bad.”

Monteiro said her husband was nice to everyone else, including her children.

“It was different with me because I was supposed to be his possession,” said Monteiro.

During this time, Monteiro and her husband were interviewed by the Standard-Times of New Bedford when he lost his job. She said that while the article accurately portrayed their positive family life, the “high spirits” described in the article were not representative of what she was truly feeling.

“If a reporter comes into your home, you’re going to act like everything is fine,” said Monteiro.

‘Living his truth’

In 2012 and 2013, Monteiro went through a difficult time when her mother died and her sister committed suicide a few months later. Her husband was not supportive during this time, she said, and even often became angry at her for being sad, which weakened the marriage.

“When my mom and sister died, I realized I had to live more authentically,” said Monteiro. “I was living his truth.”

Monteiro said she began to change rapidly, working hard to educate herself. She said she became interested in other religions. She recalls going to the library and picking out books such as “The Power of Now,” by Eckhart Tolle, and other books on self-empowerment.

But Monteiro said her husband told her that by doing these things she was not worshiping God the right way. She said he would tell her that she was a bad person who was going against Christ, and would punish her by trying to ruin her relationships with friends.

When Monteiro finally asked for a divorce, she said her husband started to be more appreciative and do nice things for her. She stayed because she was forgiving and believed he would change, she said.

“The first 15 years, he didn’t pay any attention to me,” said Monteiro. “Then I get rebellious and he’s smothering me.”

Monteiro said she felt “emotionally squeezed” by her husband, who was controlling and paranoid about her interactions with others. She said that while she loved her husband, she was afraid of him.

“He wouldn’t divorce me,” said Monteiro. “I was in a relationship with someone who didn’t accept me. He wanted me to stay the same.”

Monteiro said the two tried to work out their differences but were unable. In the fall of 2017, she went to The Women’s Center in New Bedford to seek help. There she was shown a “spiritual abuse wheel,” that detailed what spiritual abuse is like. She said she was floored when she realized she had experienced everything listed.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline describes spiritual (or religious) abuse as when someone ridicules or insults the other person’s religious or spiritual beliefs, prevents the other partner from practicing their religious or spiritual beliefs, uses their partner’s religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate or shame them or uses religious texts or beliefs to minimize or rationalize abusive behaviors. It is often accompanied by other forms of abuse, such as emotional or physical.

“It’s a different level of abuse when they’re using God as justification,” said Monteiro.

Leaving the home

In the final months of 2017, Monteiro said she made plans to leave the state. She took her three youngest children in the middle of the night and stayed with a friend who lived nearby for several weeks. She then traveled with the children to North Carolina, then on to Atlanta and finally to Pennsylvania where she currently resides.

“The marriage left me spiritually strong but in financial ruin,” said Monteiro.

Without a career or an education, Monteiro said, her husband had kept her dependent on him. When she left, he closed down her bank account and would not allow her to use her car.

In the months following her departure, Monteiro said she was on the verge of homelessness and had to get food from pantries to get by.

“This is what being married does to a person,” said Monteiro. “It leaves you in pieces.”

Eventually, Monteiro said, her husband came to collect the children. He threatened legal action against her, and knowing nothing about the law, she acquiesced.

“It was the hardest day of my life,” said Monteiro.

Monteiro said her husband is currently preventing her youngest sons from having any contact with her, though her older sons have been able to. She is currently working with lawyers from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that provides legal and emotional resources to women who are victims of child marriage, to gain visitation rights.

Monteiro, now 36, works as an Uber driver, caregiver and activist. She has a new partner who helps empower her to tell her story.

“He’s teaching me that I can be in a relationship and still be me,” said Monteiro.

Her life has been much better since leaving her husband, Monteiro said. She said she hopes to one day become a minister and help other people who have been hurt by religion. She said she does not subscribe to any particular doctrine and sees beauty in all religions.

Monteiro runs a Facebook page called “Sister Raiyah.” She said her followers, whom she considers her congregation, have donated money to help her, and that she does not know what she would have done without the emotional and financial support she has received through social media.

“I’ve gotten to see who I am without him,” said Monteiro.

Monteiro still goes by Raiyah, as she said she finds it difficult to relate to her original name. She maintains that her negative experiences all stem from being married as a minor, and believes the commonwealth bears some responsibility, as it allowed the marriage to take place.

“Where my parents failed, the state should have held integrity,” said Monteiro.

Monteiro said that she feels she lost out on her childhood and was unable to do all the things normal teenagers do.

Still, she does not see herself as a victim. She said she wants to help other women in similar situations.

In late March, Monteiro joined other survivors of child marriage at the Statehouse to protest child marriage and support House and Senate bills that would make 18 the absolute minimum age for marriage. In doing so, she became the first woman from Massachusetts to speak out about child marriage.

“I know my future is bright,” she said.

https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20190615/new-bedford-native-speaks-out-against-child-marriage