Faith Without Reason: The Dangerous Legacy of Armstrongism in the Attleboro Sect

 

In the quiet suburbs of southeastern Massachusetts—primarily Attleboro and nearby Seekonk, along the Rhode Island border—a small fundamentalist Christian sect known internally as "The Body" or "The Body of Christ" operated from the late 1970s through the 1990s. To outsiders, it was often called the Attleboro COG (Church of God) Cult or the Robidoux Sect. What began as a Bible study group splintering from the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) evolved into a highly insular, revelation-driven community that rejected modern medicine, government, banking, education, and science as satanic "systems." At its peak, it numbered around 40 members, mostly from two intermarried families. Its extreme practices culminated in the starvation death of an infant in 1999, leading to criminal convictions, child removals, and the group's collapse. The sect's story illustrates the dangers of unchecked religious authoritarianism, with deep roots in Armstrongism—the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.

Origins in Armstrongism and Early Years

The group's founder, Roland Robidoux (born 1941), had been a pastor in the Worldwide Church of God, founded in 1934 (originally as the Radio Church of God) by Herbert W. Armstrong. Armstrong's theology emphasized strict Sabbath observance (Saturday), the annual biblical holy days (including the Feast of Tabernacles), British Israelism, tithing, and a rejection of mainstream holidays and "pagan" traditions. He positioned himself as God's end-time apostle, with failed prophecies—most notably a predicted Second Coming tied to 1975—triggering widespread disillusionment and splinters in the 1970s.

Roland, ordained in the WCG in 1975 in Rhode Island, left around 1977–1978 amid church scandals and doctrinal turmoil, along with his wife Georgette and a few other families. They initially formed a small "Church of God" Bible study group in Mansfield, Massachusetts, later moving to North Attleboro. Early on, the group retained classic Armstrongist practices: Sabbath-keeping, Feast observances, hostility toward doctors and medicine (a theme in some WCG teachings), bans on birthdays/holidays/TV/jewelry, and a sense of being the "one true church."

Membership grew modestly through the 1980s, with semi-communal living in nearby homes. By the mid-1990s, it included about 19 adults and their children, centered on the Robidoux and Daneau families. Roland ruled with an "iron fist," enforcing dietary experiments and strict discipline, including paddling children to "break their spirit."

Escalation Under New Leadership: Revelations and Isolation

The turning point came in 1997 when Roland (then in his mid-50s) anointed his 23-year-old son, Jacques Robidoux, as co-leader and "Elder." Jacques soon dominated. In 1998, the group formally adopted the name "The Body of Christ" and underwent a radical shift. Jacques claimed direct "inner voice" revelations from God that overrode scripture itself. Members burned non-biblical books and traditional hymns, quit jobs and bank accounts, and ceased all recruitment, believing they alone were God's chosen remnant.

Heavily influenced by Carol Balizet's 1992 book Born in Zion—which portrayed Maine as the "New Jerusalem" and urged total rejection of modern medicine—the group embraced "being led by the Spirit" as the sole authority. They identified seven "counterfeit systems" of the world (banking, education, entertainment, government, medicine, religion, and science) and refused to participate in any. Women wore conservative cotton dresses; men grew long beards. Home births became mandatory, with no midwives or medical help. Eyeglasses were forbidden. A failed 1998 trek to Maine without food or shelter tested their faith in divine provision; the group returned defeated but more committed.

Tragedy and Exposure: The Deaths of Samuel and Jeremiah

The extremes turned deadly in 1999. In March, Jacques's sister Michelle Mingo (née Robidoux) claimed a revelation that God was judging his wife Karen for "vanity." Karen (pregnant at the time) was restricted to one gallon of almond milk daily, while their 10-month-old son Samuel—previously on solid food—was limited to breast milk only, per a twisted interpretation of scripture. Jacques enforced it, removing the child from Karen. After 52 days of systematic withholding of nourishment, Samuel died on April 26, 1999. The family prayed over his body for a week, hoping for resurrection.A second infant, Jeremiah Corneau, died around the same period from complications tied to a home birth without medical intervention (described by some as stillborn due to neglect). The bodies were secretly buried in Baxter State Park, Maine, during the Feast of Tabernacles. Ex-member Dennis Mingo (Michelle's ex-husband) later discovered her diary detailing Samuel's emaciation and reported it to authorities. In November 1999, Massachusetts child services removed 11–14 children from the group. A grand jury investigation followed.

Legal Aftermath and Dissolution

In 2000, Jacques was charged with first-degree murder, Karen with second-degree murder, and Michelle as an accessory. The group rejected the court's legitimacy, refusing to swear oaths or cooperate fully. In 2002, Jacques was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Karen was acquitted of murder but convicted of assault and battery (serving about three years). Michelle pleaded guilty to accessory charges and served roughly four years. Roland faced no charges, as Massachusetts law placed primary responsibility on parents; he died in 2006. The children were placed in state custody, foster care, or with non-cult relatives. By 2002, financial collapse and defections had dismantled the group entirely. Jacques remains imprisoned as of the latest accounts, later describing himself in interviews as having become a "compartmentalized sociopath" who realized he killed his son.

How Armstrongism Created This Mess—and the Dangers It Still Presents Today

The Attleboro cult was no random tragedy—it was the direct, predictable result of Armstrongism’s most aberrant teachings and the psychological wreckage they inflict on believers. At its core, Herbert W. Armstrong’s doctrine demanded total surrender to a self-appointed “apostle” whose failed prophecies (like the 1975 apocalypse) were reframed as divine tests, while British Israelism flattered followers as a superior “remnant” destined to rule the world. This created a toxic psychological cocktail: chronic cognitive dissonance from holding contradictory beliefs, suppression of doubt labeled as “Satanic rebellion,” and an apocalyptic siege mentality that isolated members from reality itself. Critical thinking was systematically dismantled; external authorities (doctors, government, science) were demonized as counterfeit systems, leaving followers emotionally dependent on the leader’s ever-shifting “revelations.”

Roland Robidoux imported this framework wholesale—Sabbath legalism, medical skepticism, and authoritarian family control. But Jacques simply took Armstrongism to its logical extreme: when scripture itself became secondary to “inner voice” revelations, empathy and reason evaporated. Parents starved their infant son to death and prayed over his corpse for resurrection because the theology had already conditioned them to override basic human instincts. The psyche under Armstrongism becomes fractured—plagued by anxiety, paranoia, and a hollowed-out sense of self—making ordinary people capable of extraordinary cruelty in the name of purity.

This pattern is baked into the movement. Hundreds of Church of God splinter groups still circulate these same aberrant ideas today, producing the same psychological damage: former members routinely describe lifelong PTSD, crippling guilt, depression, and relational trauma from shunning, spiritual abuse, and the normalization of child medical neglect or “biblical” beatings. In an age of institutional distrust, Armstrongism’s promise of exclusive truth and elite status continues to prey on the vulnerable, warping minds into closed systems where faith devours compassion. The Attleboro deaths—two infants, broken families, a father imprisoned for life—stand as a brutal warning. Aberrant Armstrongist teachings do not merely mislead; they psychologically disarm people, turning devotion into delusion and love into lethal obedience. Without confronting this hidden mental toll, similar tragedies will keep happening.

Silent Pilgrim