What Happened to Rick Dupuy/Watchman?

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THE FAMILY FULFILLS EZEKIEL 34--through force and cruelty

What Happened to Rick Dupuy/Watchman?

Originally posted on Excognet.com by "Tommy Gunn," 1998-05-31

The FamilyCOG likes to imagine that David Berg or MO is a fulfillment of the verses in Ezekiel chapter 34 about David the "one shepherd". Any student of Bible prophecy can show you these predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But the COG/Family does fulfill some of the prophecy, the part about the cruel and evil shepherds: "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost, but with FORCE and with CRUELTY have ye ruled them." (Ezk.34:4) Because of their cruelty, I believe the Family is as guilty in the suicide of Rick Dupuy, or Watchman as he was known, as if THE FAMILY had MURDERED HIM themselves! I've known Rick for many years and I'd like to share a little about him and why I believe the Family is implicated in his suicide.

Rick Dupuy was an extremely intelligent and multi-talented individual. He was a songwriter and producer whose music and videos have circled the globe--A gifted speaker and performer who shared his beliefs and played his music to literally millions--A genuine comedian who could make a small group of friends or a large audience convulse with laughter at his many and varied characterizations. But, if there was one word to describe him, it would be that Rick was a "pioneer". He had the vision, faith, initiative and courage that true pioneers must have to break out of comfortable conformity and start something completely new. Even as a young teenager he had the boldness to go running off on his own, living in New York City, hitch-hiking across the States and finally ending up in Tucson, Arizona in the early part of 1969. While living in a commune in the mountains near Tuscon he had a spiritual conversion to Jesus Christ. He also met a group of Jesus freaks called Teens for Christ who said they were revolutionaries for Jesus. Rick liked their all or nothing commitment and decided to join them. One of the first songs that Rick ever wrote reflects this commitment:

"ALL I WANT TO DO IS SERVE HIM"

One day I took I took an honest look I tried everything, I played every game in the book,
And I saw that there was nothing in this world to live for anymore. Then one day, one day I heard about,
A certain man who could work things out,
So I came to Jesus, you know He came in and He showed me the way.

Now all I want to do is serve Him, that's all I wanna do now,
Now all I want to do is serve the King, that Others may know Him, And the power, the power of His Love.

With some poetic license, Rick took most of the words right out of the Bible and straight out of Jesus' mouth. The song goes on to demand that we be hot or cold and sell all that we have to follow Jesus Christ. It was a heart-felt, bold cry for total commitment and this song became one of the anthems of the revolution for Jesus.

The Teens for Christ grew to the Children of God and Rick became one of its chief proponents. Rick led the way on countless witnessing excursions going places most other Christians would never dare. He opened up some of the first Children of God communes in tough cities like Detroit and with his fluency in Spanish he pioneered works throughout Mexico and Central America. As the Latin work grew, Rick opened clubs and discos to reach the youth and appeared with other musicians on radio and television singing and sharing his faith with hundreds of thousands.

When David Berg dissolved the Children of God leadership structure in 1978, so he could assume even greater control, Rick suddenly found himself outside of a movement that he had helped to create. Lacking formal education, but armed with his characteristic ingenuity, Rick talked his way into a job with the Holiday Inn Corporation and in only a short while worked his way into an executive position with the company. Rick had a beautiful, loving wife, Katrina, growing children, and opportunity for a great future. Sad to say, Rick didn't get to see it. Instead, Faithy, Berg's daughter met with Rick and some other "backslidden" former COG leaders and musicians and pleaded with them to come back to help the "new" Family. Faithy really knew how to win her men and soon Rick, and many others found themselves back in the supposedly new "Family of Love".

The Family was at the height of its sexual insanity, as well as its worldwide radio ministry. Soon Rick was totally immersed in organizing a mail ministry to respond to the thousands of listeners all over Latin America who were writing in to Musica Con Vida. Shortly thereafter, he began working with Family musicians and dancers, and produced a series of television shows and some award-winning Christmas specials which were seen by millions throughout Latin America.

Rick's last effort for the Family was to produce a series of music and children's videos which were sold worldwide by the Family (gaining hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars) and are still used to support their work. It was during this time that the Family decided to put Rick through its new "loving" mental-meat-grinder called the "Victor Program", It was the Victor Program that Rick attended at the Family compounds in Japan that turned Rick from an outgoing, confident, positive, leader and pioneer into an introspective, depressed, hopeless suicide. He became a man who was so tortured by what had happened to him that he chose death to escape the memory of the nightmare of the "Family of Love".

To understand What happened to Rick in the Victor Program it's necessary to lay a little groundwork. I see the Family's descent into its present state of delusion and Victor Camp brainwashing as a gradual slide into darkness. In the beginning of the Family, despite David Berg's personal perversions and heavy-handed leadership, most of the teachings were based on the real gold of God's Word. But very early on, when MO began his MO-Letters, he took the teachings completely off the 'gold'-based theology of the Word beginning with the "David" series where he claimed to fulfill messianic prophecy. Then, with his concept of "sharing" sex with other disciples, and his "flirty-fishy" series, promoting sex as a main witnessing tool, he tossed out the last vestige of 'silver'-based morality of the Word. The MO-Letters became nothing but MO's junk-metal-theories and crap covered "paper-pig-prophecies". But the Family still think it's God's real gold-- they still have the faith in MO's worthless words, his "Paper Pig", and run in terror everytime MO (and now Mama) unleashes their paper-pig on them.

People in the Family are trapped there because of their belief in the MO-Letters. Their belief and faith in MO's paper prophecy, has taken it from the dirty little pig in Papa's poopyard, that it really is, and inflated it into this enormous monster that can devour them with horrible judgments from God for forsaking MO, or David the Endtime Prophet, as they like to think of him. Contrarily, they also believe, MO's (and now Mama's) poop-plastered paper pig will lead them into tremendous blessings and rewards from God for following MO. This belief is reinforced by "vested interests" in the group, which includes having your family and friends in the group, years spent in the group, leadership positions in the group, things, family or positions given up to join or stay in the group. not wanting to face the humiliation of saying you were wrong to former family and friends if you leave the group, etc., etc. These two dynamics of belief and vested interest act as prison bars which keep people in the group. They are the restraints which have always allowed MO's mental manipulation to work from the beginning and which now allow the Victor Program to work and to be able to destroy people like Rick Dupuy.

Besides MO's other problems with alcoholism child abuse, channeling demons, false prophecies and so forth, he was also an EXTREME CONTROL FREAK!!! The reason he gave for dismantling the leadership structure the COG at the "RNR" in 1978 was so that he could, "'assume more direct control"-- as if the Family needed more. This move of his almost destroyed his work, which just shows you what lengths he felt compelled to go in order to fulfill his obsesslon with control. Gradually, though, he was able to surround himself with a brand new core of underlings, the typical no-conscience, step-and-fetch-it, yes men and women that all tyrants love having around. Actually it was not much different than the way it had been before the "RNR" but now it was to be total, absolute control, tolerating no difference of opinion in the new "parental regime" of Daddy and his paper "Queen", Mama Maria.

MO began by publicly humiliating all the "old Bottle" leadership in the MO-Letters and systematically purging them out. By 1983, after rebuilding his yes-man leadership structure, he was ready for more control. Since MO had an "only-room-for-one-personality-in-this-town-pardner" mentality, he decided he had to humble all leaders who had developed a "cult of the personality following". He "invited" his daughter Faithy, co-leader with her "mate" Juan over Musica con Vida, to come to the "King's house". Then MO and Maria began Faith's personal and private "rehabilitation program" which included some mind-boggling sexual sessions that we just won't go into here. The MO-Letter "You Must Obey the Least of These Commandments!" was the beginning of Faithy's public humiliation. MO raked her over

the coals for the "sin" of getting a suntan. With this letter, MO began to equate ALL his nit-picky, eccentric rules of behavior as commandments from God. He said, "Even to doubt some of these rules! That is the seed of treason in your heart!... I beg you, not to break a single rule or it will be an avenue for the Devil to get in... & it will be worse from there on until you fail God & me and the Family... and gotoHell Because that's where you're going to go if you spend your life just doing it your way!" (ML DO 1827) Faithy was reduced to "babes status" and began a litany of published confessions about her pride, stubbornness, self-will and, above all, "NOT DOING IT DADDY's WAY" and of course, "HOW SHE WAS A NOTHING". Maria now became Mama to Faithy and everyone in the "King's house" was her elder.

Around this same time, Keda Sky, the leader of the Family in all .of the Pacific and Asia area was also "invited" to "Daddy's house" as they started calling it. Keda, later redubbed Magdalene, was the lesbian leader whom MO had put in charge of his son Hosea and the Dietrich brothers, Caleb and Big Josh" to humble their damn pride". Keda was the "poor sex-hungry" lesbian of MO's Letter "The Girl Who Wouldn't" where MO scathingly rebukes and calls down the fires of hell on a heterosexual Family girl for not wanting to get it on with Keda- a letter which, by the way, gave Keda a field day with Family women. After one of MO's talks to his household staff, Keda made a dumb, innocent remark that she'd like to have more teaching instead of dancing as the "Endtime Prophet" had just suggested. This comment sent MO into a nutcase rage at her insolent pride and macho lesbian posturing, as he called it in his lengthy diatribe. Immediately, Keda joined Faithy on "Babes's Status" and humiliation training, some of which you can read about in the "Keda .Series" of MO-Letters.

So, at "Daddy's house", the new "babes", Faithy and Keda/Magdalene, were treated to months of endless vocal and written self-incrimination sessions; continuous mind-numbing work details; abasement and humiliation training; screaming-in-your-face and frothing-at-the-mouth exorcism sessions to deliver them from their demons of pride and self-righteousness; hours of daily reading assigned MO-Letters about their "problems"; and learning how to bring every minute detail of their lives in line with "Daddy and Mama's way". Finally, thoroughly retrained Daddy and Mama pronounced them "sweet and humble". United as a team, Faithy and Magdalene were then commissioned by Mama and Mama's boyman Peter, to go to Family HQ in Japan and "invite" Family leaders in for the exact same "Retrainining Program" they went through in "Daddy's house". SOUNDS LIKE A FUN PLACE--DOESN'T IT?

In the middle of 1984 (remember Orwell's "1984" about totalitarian mind-control?) Faithy and Magdalene set up the first RetrainingProgram at the Family's School. in Japan. (Remember MO's nightmare letter "The School", with its "parental regime" and its "Retraining Program") It took some doing to get it going, but with the help of some "humble nobodies" from Daddy's house and other "humble" non-leaders from Japan they started the first session. Leaders were invited in, their marriages broken up, their children taken away, and they were relieved of all responsibilities so they could concentrate on getting rid of their "problems"-HA! The "School" motto was "Learning To Do It Daddy And Mama's Way". Courses offered were: "How To Identify Yourself With Other Problem Cases In The MO-Letters"-"Confess Your Worries, Doubts, Fears and Phobias to Your 'Loving' Leaders"--"Your Confession Will Be Used Against You"-"Let Us Scream In Your Face"--"Exorcising Your Personality"--"You'll Never See Your Mate Again"-"We Will Schedule Your Sex Life"--"Your Children are Not Your Own"--"Why You Don't Deserve To Be Here"-"Constant Correction"-"Isolation"-"Silence Restriction"-"Abject Humiliation"-"Public Confession I-to-lnfinity"--"Video Confession To Dad And Mama"--"Hard Labor I, II, and III", and finally, to graduate "Mental Breakdown".

Leaders were sent to the Victor Program because of "deep seated problems" so deep seated in fact, that most leaders didn't even know they had them. The typical reaction to not knowing why they are at the rehab center is reflected in this comment by long time Family leader Job (now "humbly" called Bert). "When I arrived at the "Rehab" or RTC, I didn't realize what bad shape I was in. So after we explained why we thought we were there, then our Shepherds spelled it out more clearly told each of us in front of the others the extent of our spiritual problems. Whcw!" ( FSM 121) One Family advertisement for these Retraining Centers, in the same FSM, said you could be sent to "rehab" for being "extremely critical, self-righteous, overly-pushy or uncooperative, etc.". "ETC." soon proved to be a category that included the ENTIRE FAMILY-HA! "Etc," was having a haircut that could be considered "coo!" or wearing clothes deemed "too bright". These became "sins" because you were "drawing too much attention to yourself". "Etc." was "thinking" you were somebody. "Etc." was having a carbonated drink, or ice in your drink or, God forbid, sugar. "Etc." was having pictures of your loved ones; having that unauthorized, extra cup of coffee; watching a movie that wasn't on MOron's OK list; accidentally breaking a dish as you washed dishes; teens wanting to skateboard or climb trees; anyone wanting to try something new; getting asthma; not wearing a hat outside; wanting to be alone for a while; etc.; etc.; etc.; etc. These, and myriad more "ETC.'s", were considered by the Family to be -- "just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG brother/sister, that is on the surface, that shows there is plenty more :problems, evil and demons we can't see and which the Victor Program will expose and purge out",

The first graduates from the "retraining program" turned around to help reprogram the next batch of leaders, everyone falling over themselves to prove how "retrained" and faithful "MObots" and "Zerby Zombies" they were (Karen Zerby is Maria's name). Some graduates were commissioned to to back to their countries and launch mind-mashing, personality-purging programs identical to the one in Japan. The Program was continually refined and perfected and "graduates" often found themselves going back for a more thorough purging in more perfect programs. Faithy and Magdalene both became repeat students in "The School" and have gone in for much more retraining in the mental meat-grinder "loving Daddy and Mama" told them to create. Faithy, as well as MO's son Hosea thanks to numerous "rehab's", have been ground into mental mush, at the instigation of Mama who views the more charismatic Berg's as a threat to her wallflower personality: as well as, her throne.

MO/Mama first called these brain-busting bases "Retraining Centers" or "RTC's" or "Rehabilitation Homes". Soon these refraining centers became known as the "Victor Program" -- a rehab center where you were sent to "get the Victory" over yourself and you joined the "Attack Team" to attack the "problem" of your personality and "demons" created by the program itself. In 1991, after much of the Family had gone through "Victor Programs", Mama Mafia concocted a way to implement the "Victor Program" in every Family home and called it the "Discipleship Training Revolution" or "DTR".

The rehabilitation camp for Family teens, first called the "Detained Teen Home" was where the Family began to use the term "Victor Program" to describe their brainwashing "Victim Program". This is the one Merry Berg, MO's own granddaughter, helped to launch in Macau and Hong Kong when she became its first victim. Why was Merry Berg, or Mene, sent to her Victor Program? Because she was "dumb" enough to confess to "loving" Mama Maria that she had doubts about MO. Like, why does he get drunk all the time when he doesn't let anyone else drink? And, why does he have such jealous rages when Maria makes love to others but he says we shouldn't get jealous? And, why does he have such horrible nightmares and demonic attacks if really is so close to God? Mama's "loving" response was to accuse Merry of being demon-possessed and send her to a mental and spiritual torture chamber in Macau. There she was constantly..beaten, put in isolation and silence restriction for weeks at a time, tied to her bed for countless exorcisms, and made to confess her "sins" of "Doubting Father David" and of "Pride" until she was literally driven out of her mind and put in a mental institution. Thank God, by a total miracle of God, she is well and thriving today. Others weren't as fortunate, like young Ben Farnsworth, who jumped to his death off a high-rise in Hong Kong thanks to "Mama's" mind-destroying, hope and faith-destroying Victor Program he went through in Macau with Merry Berg and others.

So now we come back to Rick. Rick came to Japan in 1988 when the VictorProgram was already going strong. He organized a video production team and produced state-of-the-art videos of Family music and children's shows still used today. But no-one was exempt, from "Retraining"--everyone had sins that must be purged. Rick was found to be "too pushy" and accused that he drank too much (only MO was allowed to be an alcoholic). Rick drank a little beer, but was far from being an alcoholic and "too pushy" really means he was "too innovative" and stepped on too many toes to get things moving, which you had to do in the centralized, bureaucratic inertia of the Family.

Who knows why the Family really came down so hard on Rick? It's difficult to understand what goes on in the minds of megalomaniac psychopaths like MO and Mama. Rick was one of the last leaders in the Family with his own unique personality. He had been a leader for years. He was always successful in what he did and others looked up to Watchman as someone to follow. Could MO in his unhinged obsession with total control have wanted to eradicate every "personality" in the group so that there would be absolutely no other possibility for "cult of the personality" worship other than his own and his "IMAGE" that he created, his "MAMA MARIA", his blind, robotic, sex-slave, his FICTION "QUEEN" THAT ONLY EXISTS IN MO'S MAD LETTERS, and who now runs the Family?

MO and Mama received reports on the "progress" Watchman and others were making in these mind-mashing rehab centers. He also received video "confession" from those in the program. MO and his personal robot creation, "Mama Maria", had literally hundreds of hours of these videos with "victorious" confessions of now thoroughly "humbled" leaders who completely prostrated themselves before him in these confessions, "confessing" in detail their sins and how they were absolute nothings and nobodies and they owed "Daddy and Mama" their whole existence. Do you think he received some sort of twisted, sadistic, sexual thrill and perverted pleasure in all of this?--I think he probably did!--Don't you?--WHAT A SICKO!

In Japan, throughout a 4 year period, Rick was put through the Victor Program several times. Lying leadership never let his wife Katrina join him in Japan despite his pleas. Other Family style "mated" relationships he had were arbitrarily and ruthlessly broken up by leadership in an attempt to "punish" him and isolate him. Two of these relationships involved his unborn children. He was removed from all leadership position and restricted from any type of innovative creative activity. His name, Watchman, was taken away from him and he was only allowed to be called "brother" until such time as someone else would get a new "humble" name for him- he was put on silence restriction and forbidden to speak to anyone. When he was allowed to speak again, he was forbidden to talk about any accomplishments he had ever done in the Family ( "From this moment on you will have 'no history' "). He was only allowed to do the most menial of jobs, often under the supervision of a teen. His guitar was taken from him and he was told he would not be allowed to play it until he was sufficiently "humble" and then only the songs that the "home teamwork" (the 3 Mobots who now run Family homes) asked him to play. All his clothes were deemed too "cool", burned and replaced with the dorkiest the Family could find. His hairstyle was deemed too "Cool" and cut to the nerdiest the Family could create. He was deprived of sleep and made to sit for hours at a time, to be harangued by screaming "loving" rehab leaders for what a scum he was. He was labeled a "dog, a pig and a vile worm" by the same "loving" leaders. He was put in isolation time and again "to stew in his own juice" (until an "appropriate punishment "was decided and dished out to him) for the least infraction of MO's stupid rules or for innocent remarks like one time saying to a co-worker that "getting the necessary equipment from Peter Amsterdam is like pulling teeth"- which Peter,. the little Mama's boy. just couldn't handle. This endless, grueling regime of hard labor, self-incrimination, public confession of his "sins", personality-destroying humiliation routines and exorcisms by demon-possessed exorcists finally took its toil. -After four years, Rick had a nervous breakdown.

If Rick could have submitted to the Victor Program and gone through the "expected" mental Iobotomy he would have come out mindlessly "sweet" as other Family members have before and after him. He would have become the "sweet little nobody" that the Victor Program was designed to create. But he couldn't. Rick was trapped in a mental prison of his own beliefs. Try as he would to go along with the program, he was too "real" and honest and couldn't give up the truth about himself, but on the other hand, his total dedication to the MO-Letter belief System wouldn't let him leave the Family and as the pressure increased, he collapsed.

At the point where Rick had reached a state of almost complete mental and emotional confusion, the Family finally granted his long-standing request, shoved him on a plane and shipped him back to the States. Instead of the extroverted, pioneering leader Rick had become a human wreck who looked and acted like he had just come out of a combination Nazi concentration and communist reindoctrination camp.

Rick's family did what they could to help their son with counselors and psychologists. Rick began to read books on cults and saw how the Family fit the description to a "T". As he gradually got his senses back, he began to get mad as hell for what the COG/Family had done to him. He decided to go back to Japan and demand to see his wife and kids. But his wife and children convinced that Rick was a "backslidden demon" rejected him and refused to go with him. Rick threatened the Family with media exposure--the Family retaliated by printing prayers where his own children prayed for God to kill him. Things got nasty, and Rick along with other ex-members, went on an all-out media campaign to expose and stop the Family.

It seemed that Rick was really pulling out of the nightmare the Family had put him through and at times he seemed like he would be able to leave it all behind him. It didn't happen. The traumatic horror and humiliation of his experience kept coming back to haunt him, Probably the hardest question to answer for any of us who have experienced similar situations in the Family is "Why did I allow this to happen to me ?" Nobody put a gun to our head to go through any of MO's Mental Meatgrinders, before or after the RNR, we volunteered for it!--This is very hard to live with. It goes to the very core of your being and can cause many Uncertainties about your own ability to make right decision and even to ascertain the truth.

In Rick's case; it just became too much. He couldn't understand how his wife Katrina and his own children could turn on him and pray for God to kill him. He couldn't understand how people he had once admired and trusted, like Faithy could have led the way in his mental torture chamber. He couldn't understand how close friends in the Family, whom he'd known for years, like Solomon could stab him in his back curse him, and hope for his destruction. He couldn't understand how he could have invested 22 years of his life in something that had turned out to be so diabolical. He couldn't understand how he could have allowed himself to be put through the torture and abject humiliation of the "Victor Program. The utter betrayal of his wife and friends in the Family and the humiliating horrors he had lived through kept playing over and over in Rick's mind like a never ending nightmare until he just couldn't take it anymore--That's what happened to Rick Dupuy, may God rest his tortured soul.