Separate Lives - Exclusive Brethren in Australia

[Music] daily around Australia members of a small religious sect gather for prayer Bible reading ings or Holy Communion they're a Christian Congregation of simple God-fearing folk very nice people and very very sincere um people who I think are very genuine in what they believe and what they want to do these are the exclusive Brethren they believe they're chosen by God and they long for the Rapture when the saints on Earth will be separated from the rest the Rapture is a a teaching that there will be a time when all of uh those who are Christian and alive uh at a particular time will be swept up into uh the next life uh and left behind will be those who are not pure members of this sect are forbidden to vote or to socialize with those outside the fellowship but quietly Brethren have campaigned hard in elections supporting conservative parties and family values tonight Four Corners opens the doors on the Brethren revealing the burden placed on those inside the sect and the price extracted from those who leave you still keep those letters I do I just love to see their handwriting [Music] folded away from the Public's gaze in Australia the exclusive Brethren live their daily lives by the scriptures they say the Bible tells them to separate themselves from Evil separation they say is as old as time itself the scriptures from beginning to end teach separation they're a group that take very seriously the need to withdraw from the world and to keep from being tainted with the world the Brethren claim 40,000 members worldwide around half of whom live in Australia and New Zealand the world leader is a Sydney accountant Called Bruce hailes he's known as the man of God or the elect vessel the man of God is very much a figure of substantial power because uh he uh is the ultimate Authority and the interpretation of scripture within the group and uh uh plays that role Brethren families take their lead from the man of God they won't send their children to University and television radio personal computers and mobile phones are forbidden in common with other fundamentalist Christian groups the Brethren practice excommunication anyone who defies the universal leader risks being excommunicated by disagreeing with the man of God you may indeed be uh in in engaging in a kind of uh devience within the group that the group can't tolerate and that's what excommunication is about Brethren are banned from voting by their leaders that though hasn't stopped the church from campaigning in elections in several different countries focusing on family values and a conservative agenda they've claimed that it's only been individual members uh but the material that these individual members have produced in the political Arena has been very similar in Australia New Zealand uh Canada uh even in the USA as the Brethren have become politically more visible for Corners has been approached by former members concerned that the real story of the sect's Family Values isn't being told get out of here I'll boat the whole thing over for Corners set out to uncover that story but it wasn't easy the Brethren wouldn't be interviewed and their attitude to being filmed is hostile as we discovered when we were quietly filming in a public Perth Street we just realized that you're a chemic crew so we're just giving you crap so who called upop here who called drop here you opposers are you supporters are supporters of what hey just by the way I'll just warn you in 5 minutes if you don't get off have you got a fear Govern of God you Believers you're threatening us we are not threat you I bels we are not threatening you you are threatening us no we're not threatening you yes you are what are you doing you poor C yes you are you believe God do you believe in god get a real I do I do believe in God was your F Man Poor CS the Brethren's leaders wouldn't appear on this program nor would they allow any families within the church to be filmed or interviewed former Brethren say you need to know the history of the movement in order to understand it now the exclusive Brethren sect has its roots in 19th century Dublin where a new fundamentalist Protestant mov movement was born its leader was an aristocratic clergyman JN Darby it came about in Ireland in the 1800s with John Derby particularly um who decided that uh they wanted to to study the Bible and take things more seriously with an emphasis on the evil of the world and separating from the world uh to live a great with a greater dedication for God [Music] its members were known early on as the Plymouth Brethren but soon there were two distinct Breakaway groups the open Brethren and the more Hardline [Music] exclusives Joy n grew up in a Brethren household in postwar England in the early days I didn't think it was anything very abnormal was it good was was it was it a loving close Community yes when she was 10 her father decided they should immigrate to Australia but like many girls growing up in a society that was becoming Freer she felt hemmed in we were much better off and had much more comfortable family life but things started to change um things started to get more strict and I started to feel um embarrassed about belonging to this group of of Brethren embarrassed for what reason because I I wasn't allowed to go to the pictures for instance we didn't have radio and uh I felt I started to feel [Music] different then as now women and girls in the church were expected to be subservient to their husbands and fathers I never forget um later on um when I was a young married woman the coming to me and uh suggesting that I should only speak one tenth of what my husband did in New Zealand na Thomas also grew up in a Brethren family wasn't really until we start I started school that I realized I was different and even then way back um over 60 years ago it wasn't probably so much different to basic fundamentalist Christian family the end of the 1950s proved a turning point in Brethren [Music] history American Big Jim Taylor who' taken over the leadership from his father James Taylor Senior told his fellow Brethren that they had to separate completely from the outside world from then on Brethren families weren't allowed to socialize or even eat with anyone outside the movement that included close relatives prior to the 60s we were able to see Grand parents and uncles and aunties who were on the outside and we used to really cherish those times when we could see those members of the family but um after the early 60s when what they call the eating issue came along when we weren't allowed to eat or drink or um socialize with other people that became very very hard on our relatives it meant that we as a family had to sever our links with relations who weren't amongst the Brethren because my father wasn't born amongst the Brethren he was a Baptist so that was traumatic uh huge heartbreak I mean wives directed in meetings not to go back to their spouse who was not with the Brethren um it was just a time of complete Devastation for families just ripped [Music] apart the 1960s brought other changes the man of God was fond of a drop of whiskey and expected his fellow Brethren to drink it too even though the bre would not admit this he was an alcoholic I can remember um being instructed to um to provide whiskey at meal times when we had visitors and we had visitors um very often um I can remember being um forced to drink whiskey because if I didn't I was hiding [Music] something other eccentric rules were introduced there's aot in the Bible that says without are the dogs so someone decided no pets sounds just crazy well no no one questioned it that's the point if they said you had to get rid of your pets you got rid of your pets it was also a decade of multiple accusations and mass confessions children were shamed in public as Nar Thomas discovered when she was challenged about her behavior in front of hundreds of brethren they came to me because they' heard that there was something between me and um and my cousin and when they asked me if I'd committed fornication I says oh yeah I suppose so because I knew I'd kissed and cut all my cousin down in the bushes down behind his house I was put in my room on my own um U for several days and just sort of um fed through the door um until it was my turn to go up in front of the of the Church of about probably about 5 or 600 people and nobody bothered to come and ask me if I knew what they were talking about I can laugh about it now but um it wasn't very funny at the time how old were you then I was 15 going on 16 so what was it like for a 15-year-old girl being hauled in front of a meeting of several hundred older men and women and and grilled essentially very very frightening very frightening and um uh it's something that I will I will never forget in the frenzy of conf confessions adults too confess to sins of many kinds I have heard people confess to molesting children and were those acts reported to the police definitely not no they were forgiven if the person was sorry if the person showed enough Contrition the Brethren forgave them in 1968 Joy n left the church of her own accord she worked as a secretary in the city and wanted to live her life in the world outside the Brethren the decision had a devastating effect on her mother as she discovered when she returned home to collect the rest of her belongings she opened the door and I could barely recognize her I just said what's wrong and she said I've been fasting to get you back that was typical of my mother she's a very strong believer in in God very strong believer in the in the religion she thought if she fasted I'd come back she thought God would bring me back and so no no food or water had passed her mouth for 3 weeks she was it was a terrible sight did that make you feel guilty oh yes and how long did this guilt last you carry the guilt with you forever once it was clear that she never would return the Brethren excommunicated Joy n she was to use their term withdrawn from they brought in what they call dead separation so therefore if anyone left you had to view them as dead now I do know other religions do that also I'm not saying they're the only ones but if you're unfortunate enough to be brought up in in them and and if you escape then you know that you are treated as dead bastard bastard SC bu SC bu SC you never had it like that you not in 1970 Jim Taylor who'd been the subject of increasing press and public criticism cemented his reputation as a man of God who'd SED too much on Whiskey a meeting in abedine Scotland descended into chaos as he ranted drunkenly at his fellow Brethren he took meetings in abedine uh about the middle of the year and it just became a fast basically um it wasn't Ministry no stinking mom no stink why didn't you bring some CIT with you a very fine meeting yeah that's glad even ungod lier was the man of God's Behavior at nighttime for a number of nights uh he had a lady come into his room who was someone else's wife and she would stay there for a long long time they actually walked in and the lady was naked I find it so hard to believe that the brethren in there are so gullible that they can actually believe the story that they were told what were they told well they were told that that um that nothing happened that she was in there um uh ministering to him by washing his feet and drying his feet with it with a hair and this sort of and I think that's just garbage obviously what the man was doing was committing adultery the evidence was very very clear and and obvious the moral hypocrisy exposed by the abdine incident shook the church to its foundations and as a result some 8,000 Brethren left the fellowship Jim Taylor died the same year and the mantle of man of God passed to a North Dakota pig farmer called James Simington Ron Forks himself a former leader of the exclusive brethren in Australia remembers Simington well in his earlier life he had been a quite unassuming person and once he got control and had this total power over 50,000 people I mean he just became a a monster it's almost as if the power he had just corrupted him as overall leader of the Brethren James Simington received huge donations of cash from his faithful followers around the world the um vast amounts of money uh handed over referred to as as gift s to particularly to the leading Leading Men now that money amounts in the course of a year to Millions all going untaxed Ron Forks alleges that when James Simington was leader he sidestepped Customs regulations by transporting large sums of cash across International borders the amount of money that was transferred through interstate and international borders was just absolutely horrific and I myself was given wads of money to carry for this person across British Canadian American things I hate to think of what would have happened if I'd been you know arrested or CAU was that lawful it was totally illegal totally illegal how much money are you talking about tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars in cash and this was at his request absolutely see that back just pick that up and bring it in here cuz it has to go into this office Brethren believe in the duty to provide for their families and networks of small family businesses Thrive ensuring that there's virtually no unemployment in the fellowship they are economically engaged so that they tend to be comfortably middle class in their economic situation they would also be ready to assist each other uh should need arise so that they would have an internal form of welfare that one could rely on uh and depend on for cradle deg grave of kind of support we have to Wi into that point there but many ex- Brethren believe the church has lost sight of its basic funding Christian principles the church would be very wealthy because of the property that it owns how much I don't know but I mean it you know runs into hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars it's grown Rich need of nothing don't even need Christ anymore they've got their leader all they have to do really is is do what they're told conform and uh try to be as successful as possible materially Jesus told someone to to um sell all that he had and give it to the poor um you don't see that sort of thing happening in there I mean uh we don't need to be materialistic as as a Quaker now um I'm probably the least materialistic than I've ever been in my life na Thomas married her husband Dennis when they were both in the exclusive brethren it turned into a lifelong love affair which survived the trauma of them both being excommunicated in 1974 then as now the use of contraception was forbidden nari at the time had four children and had recently suffered a slight stroke on her doctor's advice she took the pill to avoid falling pregnant again and because of this she says they were disciplined we were shut up what they call shut up or put into Soldier confinement closed up in our house they bought in this rule of of of no sex while you were shut up and uh they tested us out for a week and uh there's no way my husband wanted to obey that that rule I mean when you're told you can't do something those the very things you want to do and so um when they came around the following week and asked you know have you have you um he says no but of course as soon as as soon as they were gone I said to him you were very truthful there you should have you should have just come out with it and said yes we did because we had every right to um so he rang them up and said look I'm sorry I actually told you a lie and uh that was on the Monday night by the Tuesday night we were withdrawn from what do you feel now in retrospect about this enormous interrogation you endured and the fact that a lot of it was about your sex life your very private life I think it's abuse I think it's some psychological abuse hi Nar how are you I Rec recce you straight away n Thomas wrote a book about her experience called behind closed doors Joy n is sharing her story for the first time the two women met during the filming of this program they belong to a growing band of ex- Brethren who support each other in a fellowship outside the fellowship this support helps many ex- Brethren deal with a terror they feel at stepping away from the church it's known to those who leave as the three FS everyone knows the three FS that's been in the Brethren and that's fear families and finances and it's it's my belief that more people would leave more people would have left if they weren't ruled by fear um fear of the consequences of leaving fear of divine retribution finances because they're very good to their members they're very you know they're very generous and and help people people with money and of course the families of course you you're more likely to stay in if you've if you're faced with not ever seeing your family again n Thomas's family did it tough on the outside her two older children went to prison and one of her boys became a father at the age of 15 her daughter had terrifying nightmares she thought she was going to hell she'd wake up um crying at night time because she was going to um into the Lake of Fire and get burned up she she was um she was eight at the time mostly it's a window Joy n's father was excommunicated late in life after years of disagreements with the Brethren leadership his wife stayed in the church when he tried repeatedly to contact her he was sent a solicitor's letter telling him to stay away he was 82 years old till the day of his death he never gave up asking about my mother every time I would visit he said have you heard from her I he had a stroke and I rang them and told them one of them said that he wasn't a Christian so they didn't have anything to say and hung up but as a matter of fact when he lay there with it after he had the stroke he was very agitated he couldn't speak but the nurses realized he was pointing to his Bible and they put his Bible in his hand and he became very peaceful whatever his faults I don't think that he should have been treated like that and as I walked in the door when after he had his stroke he immediately looked beyond me to the door I knew he thought that my mother would come and see him but she didn't and he died a week later with no reconciliation the exclusive Brethren told for Corners no one is compelled to be in the Brethren Fellowship children are nurtured protected and instructed but finally every individual has to arrive at their own conviction The Believer cannot be other than living in Fidelity to his Lord and Master that some for their own reasons have left and become embittered and faithless to the relationship they've entered into shows their supposed conviction was never true the Brethren's strategy of separation is Extreme isn't it and a spectrum of Separation amongst Christian groups it is uh it is Extreme yes as the most senior leader in the church in Australia from 1976 to 1984 Ron Forks enacted this Doctrine you were involved in excommunicating people weren't you sadly tell me about that uh there weren't a lot of cases um thankfully but there were cases where I was involved uh and I make no uh uh um excuse indeed I I'm ashamed totally ashamed of uh of activity that I was engaged in particularly in the area of um uh of custody and access uh cases which I was involved in in several what was your aim in those cases what were you trying to achieve the aim was to forbid the uh the person who was excommunicated or not with the Brethren to have nothing to do with with his own family tragically for Ron Forks the worm turned and in 1984 he himself was excommunicated he says for speaking out against the man of God James Simington I had a knock on the door saying that we um uh We've excommunicated you uh you're not to sleep with your wife tonight um I asked the reason for the excommunication they said you better find that out work that out for you yourself I mean I had a hunch uh but that was what I was told what kind of organization tells a husband that he can't sleep with his wife an evil one did you agree to it did you obey it yeah I did I did because I was just so devastated so brainwashed so just so immersed in Brethren teaching and theology that I knew if ever I was going to get back I had to do exactly what I was told but he didn't get back and Ron Forks had to leave his home his wife and his six children behind in a court settlement he was promised adequate access to his children one of the elders who now has passed on he said that that was there to satisfy the court and that uh I knew the score and of course I I did know the score but you knew that it was a shame knew it was a sham total sham because you yourself had participated absolutely in similar Shams [Music] exactly the access never happened it's this aspect of Brethren behavior that former church members find hardest to reconcile with the fellowship's professed support for family values I've never seen any of my children for 22 years except when I knocked on uh one of the doors of of my children and was ordered off the property how many grandchildren have you got I don't really know I think at least 14 have you ever seen them no like many other Brethren fathers who've been excommunicated Ron Forks received letters from his children but not the letters he was hoping for I don't blame them for the letters they wrote they were doing the bidding of others but uh to Dad I do not want to have anything to do at all with you this is because you're under discipline and I stand by 2 Timothy 2 which states everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity well this is very sad this one because this is from my eldest son who is autistic and uh no real ability to rationalize I mean we were very very close he loved me so much and I loved him um to Dad I don't want to see you because you're not right and withdrawn from and out of Fellowship yeah you still keep those letters I do I just love to see their [Music] handwriting this book was produced by the Brethren wasn't it yeah I received it some years ago I was very grateful for it because For the First Time in many many years I was able to have a look at my children the thing that upset me actually at the time was the fact that there's no reference to me whatever Ron FKS was soon written out of Brethren history so too was his brother Phil who says he was expelled from the church on the day he shared a drink and a snack with another person who' been excommunicated they came around later that night and said I'd been with drawn from and I wasn't to live with um or wasn't to sleep with my wife we lived like that for a period of about 3 months um I knew that all the time they were seeing my wife during the day the priest would come while I was at work and would see her and were working on her children used to let me know this picture here is of his family and his wife former wife and uh no reference to Philip when Phil Forks went away on a business trip to Sydney the Brethren came and moved his wife and family out of their home in Perth he returned in the middle of the night to find them gone finally I located them and then turned up at 8:00 um on the doorstep to see what had gone wrong that's when my daughters um they got to me at the side window of a bedroom they followed down followed me down out the side window they said this is not what we wanted um it was done against our will and uh you know they were physically dragged looking back on that now is that acceptable behavior to drag your daughters physically out of their home oh it's totally unacceptable totally unacceptable there's certain things that um I just have to live with and I accept because I've never pursued anything that is going to cause more hurt to my children hope into enough so you haven't gone to court for example no no I could have you know I've paid the maintenance and thenal that sort of thing but I could not bear to see my children suffer anymore Phil Forks isn't the only man to have his wife and children removed from him by Church Elders this home video was made in 1992 selwin Wallace and his wife Julianne had both been excommunicated she was torn between staying with him and remaining in the church and her fellow brethren in New Zealand encouraged and helped her to move out of their home selwin Wallace hired a private investigator to film the scene and help him tape phone calls between Elder and his wife truth if some there right and wrong C up and with no resolution to problem yeah it'll be inevitable we separation yeah what I heard almost immediately was these the Elders of the church encouraging my wife to um separate from me um offering to pay her legal fees take her to see a lawyer arrange the meetings which they did and uh and telling her that the separation of the marriage was inevitable after listening to a few few tapes I just decided to keep recording but not to listen to them I was getting too angry selwin Wallace faced a tough battle to persuade his wife Julianne to leave the Brethren with him he succeeded but even now Julianne is still too fragile to talk about it so when three Church elders came to visit him at work his anger nearly boiled over they wanted my wife to have custody but they wanted to refuse me access to my children and one of them had the audacity to say to me we're giving you the house and the business now we want the children so I got my lawyer to send them a letter to tell them that my children went for sale so this is the grav down here yeah that's right I knew his mother and his brothers in the church and uh they he was the the man that they found hanging from the the tree and the grounds of the exclusive brethen church and Perth the human cost to those who are disciplined and separated is impossible to quantify but anecdotally the toll of suicides is alarming my wife's grandfather committed suicide in the church and my sister's father-in-law my grand Uncle um the first cousin of my mothers and enough of two or three others um about 5 years ago I was asked to carry the coffin of a an ex-member that took his own life here in Perth he was found hanging in a in a from a tree in the grounds of the church the the headquarters here in Perth swin Wallace won his battle against the church Elders he left the fellowship and took his family with him but not before his wife Julianne had been first rewarded for her loyalty to the brethren and then threatened by an elder when she departed when she was back in the church she was she was getting uh mandatory cash gifts thrown at a left right and center and there was even a secret there was a bank account opened up and somebody else's name um because she was accepting welfare payments but when Julianne told the Brethren she couldn't separate from her husband she received a dire warning the church in Oakland said to her if you don't return to the CH church one of your children might die it'll be God's punishment or it'll be God speaking to you he'll speak to you through one of your children and then yeah just about 4 and a half years ago that we did lose our older son James he he died at the age of 17 in asleep and we believe it was cardiac arhythmia did your wife believe that that threat had been carried out um yeah yeah At first she she didn't but then um as parents going through the loss of a child um doesn't matter how strong you are I guess it weakened your mind and it certainly played on a mind um I guess it played on mine too for a while um and I ended up having to seek medical assistance for her I work for father father like selwin Wallace Warren mcalpin comes from a family that's had its share of heartbreak his brother Tim he says was ex communicated for underage drinking and died in a motorcycle accident when he was 18 I think the comments were made at the time that Tim was was leading a worldly life outside of the Brethren and uh this was as a result of that in other words that it was if Tim hadn't left the fellowship he wouldn't have died that's right Warren mcalpin was still inside the church but in the late 1980s he fell out with the man of God a Sydney accountant called John hailes whose son Bruce hailes also an accountant is the current Universal leader he insisted on having a look at the uh business accounts of every businessman involved in the exclusive brethren in aubury I refused I said I've got an accountant to to look after my books I don't need John Hales going through my cans Warren mccalpin saw the demand to look through his books as part of a continuing campaign by the hailes family to control the Brethren businesses but his refusal to comply had him branded a troublemaker if you question something um you really an opposer and that's what I've been labeled as since that period of time but nothing could be further from the the truth I love these people but the leadership under the halil's family has resulted in so much trouble and so much family breakdown and so much heartache and it's got to stop Warren mccalpin was excommunicated he believes for speaking out against John hailes it cost him his first family and any meaningful access to his [Music] children Warren mcalpin says the bre went to court repeatedly to stop him seeing his children and that even when he won in court the Brethren refused to comply we are a higher court is what they believe and they refuse to uh obey the courts and refuseed to oby the orders that were were set down that that I should have access when he did see his children there were signs they had been indoctrinated against him one of my boys uh earlier on when he was a about five or six came to the door and spat at me and called me the devil I now know that that was not what he was thinking um as far as a hatred towards his dad later like run Forks before him his sons wrote to him it was two registered letters from Jeremy and Richard and I think they were eight and seven at at the time just read me a few sentences from one of those letters I never want to come with you again I am eight and a half now and I'm standing on my own two feet before Jesus waren mccalpin is still estranged from his sons but he did see them one more time they were in their 20s some 15 years later um but the love of a dead for his kids and the love of kids for their dad um never ceases it's there as strong as the day when they took the children away um both boys hugg me and said you dad you don't have any bad feelings against us do you and I said no I don't have any feelings I in fact I don't I don't hate the brethren for what they've done um but certainly don't I don't hold any hard feelings towards you two boys whatsoever most of those who've left the fellowship have continued to maintain their strong Christian beliefs for Warren mccalpin it involved a fresh conversion to a different kind of Christianity it didn't involve any accountant from Sydney or a p pig farmer from America or a Whiskey Drinking alcoholic from New York it involved a transaction personally with Christ and that's what I took up I have a very strong faith indeed my faith was strengthened as a result of what I went through which I thank God for but um I don't obey now because the Breen say it or anyone else says it I obey it because God says it renewed Faith though doesn't dull the memories or the pain after her father was excommunicated Joy n took her son to see her mother to check that she was okay and was where she wanted to be she was behind a closed door I just couldn't bear it I couldn't bear that I was so close and couldn't see her and I suddenly remembered they always have a scripture to go by they we always have something and it's the door the closed door you weren't allowed to let an ex-member through an open door and I suddenly saw there was a fly screen and the door and I said Mom if you open the door there'll still be a closed door and she took the bait and open the door and all the words of condemnation of the that I was going to Hur hurl at her just went I just looked her and I said I love you Mom and to my amazement she mouthed she mouthed I know silently and then said go and get right with God out loud so that the people in the house would not know I've never forgotten it and I turned and went and took my son these people claim to represent Christianity in its purest form um but you look at the history stretching back 30 or 40 years and it's just Carnage broken families broken lives um children that don't know their parents brothers and sisters that haven't seen each other for 20 30 years and it's all over the world um and that's that's one reason why I'm speaking today the Carnage must stop and if we don't speak out the wheels of pain will just keep [Music] turning [Music] [Music]

Channel: Discern4Media

Views: 224,644

Keywords: cult, flds, lds, mormon, jehovah's, witnesses, ACMTC, greens, polygamy, polygamist, wayman mitchell, potters house, the door, cfm, upci, united pentecostal, jesus, christ, latter day saints, exclusive brethren

Id: 4tVdoRRUT2o

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 18 2012