Perform Your Duty (1)
The Church of Almighty God has a very effective way to conduct its ministries. CAG’s followers are very motivated to perform their duties. Its hierarchical structure and management style promote an environment that induces compliance or absolute obedience without conspicuously saying it. “Perform Your Duty” is a term constantly spoken by CAG leaders and even among members to mentally apply pressure or instill guilt in members’ mind as a tactic to urge them to be in line with the group’s norms. It is a form of psychological manipulation by which members of CAG would be mentally conditioned to do what other members are doing to please Almighty God.
Here is an example of Xiaoman’s story as a former member of CAG: “On July 31, 2018, the People’s Court of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province held a court proceeding in which four defendants were all key members of the “Almighty God.” ………. The chief investigator, Guo Yongsheng says, “In the process of becoming a believer these years, the church continues to instill in a person the need for him to have greater confidence to go outside of the family, i.e., to leave the family, and to contribute to the church. This is what the church calls “Perform Your Duty.””[1] One of the four defendants Xiaoman, nineteen-year-old, once got the first place in the class when taking the high school entrance examination, but in order to “perform her duty”, she gave up the opportunity to go to high school. She says, “After I have given up going to [high] school, they said that this was already considered as “perform your duty”, saying that if you “perform your duty” well, you can survive the disaster [even] the end of the world.”[2] Xiaoman has been away from home for more than a year, she “performs her duty” for “Almighty God” as she hides in a host’s family day and night producing “Almighty God” promotional videos.
[1] CCTV News, CCTV.com, “Beginning the cult “Almighty God”: violent doctrines, brainwashing, creating troubles, bewitching believers and exterminating family affection”, accessed January 25, 2022.
At the host’s home, Xiaoman could not use her cell phone, watch TV, watch the news, listen to the radio, and was not allowed to do anything that had nothing to do with “Almighty God.” Xiaoman has only gone outside of the host’s house two to three times in almost a year. She shares her personal story as to how she was “Doing Her Duty:” “Because I [make videos] every day, I feel that the schedule is full. It seems that two or three hours of sleep a day is not enough, so I don’t think about those who say go out to play or whatever. I don’t know how to talk to others anymore, nor do I talk to others. Because you do not need to say anything every day, and you don’t need to speak, as long as you can do things.”[3]
Guo Yongsheng, the chief investigator says, “leaving home to “perform one’s duty” is very common among “Almighty God” believers. It is for this reason that public security agencies across the country have received many reports of missing persons from the families of “Almighty God” believers.”[4]