As an ethics speaker, ethics consultant and ethics book author, I am fascinated by societal arguments that have gone from “right and wrong” or “black and white,” to “possibly or maybe, sometimes to we’ll see.”
California Pastor
I pose my observation by reviewing the recent trial of Pastor Victor Gonzalez. Gonzalez, the lead clergyman of the Imperial Valley Ministries (IVM), has been sentenced to 6-months in jail plus 6-months of house arrest for his involvement with the homeless.
No, the good pastor was not jailed for laying down on a Freeway, protesting the treatment of immigrant families. He was sent to prison for trafficking his homeless congregants for a cheap labor scheme. For good measure, the pastor’s wife, who was complicit in the scam, was sentenced to the same amount of time.
According to writer Jon Brown for Fox News, as the case unfolded,
“Gonzalez and his wife were among a dozen church leaders who were charged in 2019 with forced labor, conspiracy, document servitude, and benefits fraud. He and the others were arrested Sept. 10, 2019, in El Centro, California, San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas.”
The homeless were vulnerable and had no voice. The “religious leaders” forced them into giving up their welfare benefits and “later keeping them against their will by confiscating identification cards, driver’s licenses, passports and immigration papers.”
The people were made to beg for money for the benefit of the church. They were not allowed to go out and get legitimate jobs. They were not allowed to communicate with their families; they were “brain-washed.” The IVM operation encompasses up to 30 churches in the U.S. and Mexico.
Preying on Belief
Throughout history, religious or cult leaders have preyed on the vulnerable because there was no oversight and obviously, a lack of ethical behavior. In this case, the pastors effectively turned their flock into a form of slavery to do church bidding.
The pastors effectively worked to manipulate and enslave people. It was discovered that the homeless, challenged people were threatened with excommunication and removing their children if they didn’t bring in enough money, in addition to what was already being stolen from them in terms of their benefits. Pastor Gonzalez and his wife, instead of representing God, played God by making the homeless totally dependent upon them.
The attorney for Gonzalez and his wife put forth a rationalization that what they were doing with their parishioners was effectively like a tough-love, drug treatment program and not a form of forced labor.
According to the article, “Gonzalez, meanwhile, lived for free in a home in El Centro, California, while raking in a weekly salary and ‘other financial benefits such as occasional $1,000 blessings’ from IVM.’”
The blessings might have been or could have been, programs in drug abuse prevention, social services and psychiatric help. Instead, the poor souls were stripped of every vestige of their dignity and were told that the way to get to Heaven was to enter into a forced labor agreement with these scam artists.
As an ethics speaker, ethics consultant and ethics book author, I am not-at-all surprised that a scam of this nature was allowed to exist and to thrive.
Ethically, when society goes from that have gone from “right and wrong” to “possibly or maybe,” rationalization abounds in the shadow of indecency. I doubt if anyone was helped by Pastor Victor Gonzalez. The great irony, of course, was that above this scam, were once major multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical firms who started the opioid crisis also under the guise of pain relief and the betterment of society.
In a time of the blurring of lines between right and wrong, it is ethics that needs to take the lead. The vulnerable must be protected.
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