by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
A meeting to remember
Aftermath - The Monarch of the Glen
This visit would have to be the most interesting, the most revealing dialogue I have ever had with a human being, other than perhaps with Tony McCorkell in 2007. To some degree this session has left the waters a little unsettled for the Blenheim hierarchy, due to the Monarch’s unintelligent exposure of the ‘world leader’, which means that there is unfinished business on this matter.
This visit took a year or more to organise. A meeting time would be set, but the Reverend Deck would become unwell etc etc. I made this visit conditional on one matter – that his wife Ann, accompanied him. There was a specific reason for this request –
1. The women (sisters) amongst the EB’s are always kept in the shadows, and have no say nor defence in any of the administrative matters. They just accept unchristian judgements while being subject to their husbands.
2. The women are not guilty for the human atrocities committed by their husbands.
3. The women do not generally treat us ‘outs’ with the same bitter attitudes of their husbands.
4. I had a plan to involve Ann in our discussions.
5. If I started to lose my cool, (wouldn’t be the first time in my life) I would achieve a quicker recovery time, in regaining coolness, if women were present.
6. If, there is to be a genuine recovery amongst the Exclusive Brethren, the only honest material left for God to work with, might just be in the older women.
Those to attend the meeting (at Norm Clifford’s home) were, Norm and Marion, John Fisher, Richard Beatson, Terry and Ann Deck.
I spoke to my brother-in-law Norm Clifford before leaving my home, to be told that Terry Deck had decided to leave Ann at home. After 40 years of being bitten by this diseased wolf, he had the audacity, in a ‘review’ situation, to bare his teeth at me again. This decision was not a good start for him, nor was I going to bow to it. I told Norm to send him home and bring her in. Norm returned to say that Ann was tired and was in her night attire. I said I will wait until she was ready and that I would not attend unless she was present.
When I was assured by Norm, that Terry had been sent on his way to honour our agreement, I went straight to Norm’s home and prepared myself for the meeting of the MONARCH, and his wife of course.
As he loomed tall and erect in the doorway, I suffered those horrid flashbacks of the past, this was the man alright, the cruellest man ever in the Blenheim fellowship. I shook the hands of the newly promoted War-Cabinet, embraced Ann, but decided not to shake hands with the Chief of the Gestapo until he convinced me that he could be trusted; for the first time in 40 years.
It may not profit anyone for me to detail the following 3 hours, it would also add several more chapters, but it was 3 hours that I will never forget, most of which I was shocked with.
My Christian upbringing had conditioned me for this visit, and I was prepared to forgive Terry, and endeavour to establish a Christian friendship which I had never been able to do, despite years of trying. In 1965 he became implicated in the chaos of the Hales’s attempt to seize world power off J. Taylor Jr, and as a result, was exported from Motueka to Blenheim. What was Motueka’s gain became Blenheim’s loss. Since that time, he had hung and quartered a number of fine people including a poor crippled man and his wife. He thus rose to Chief of the Gestapo in this area.
Tonight, whether he liked it or not, he would face up to a little of the damage he had caused during his 40 years of abuse and false doctrine. I was not overly concerned about the damage he had caused in my home, but rather what he had done to others.
From the many topics we covered this night, perhaps just 4 will be of interest. The first of these will be of interest to any ‘out’, but an embarrassment to any ‘in’.
Topic One:
THE MONARCH – clears his throat for action as afore times, but poor little me did NOT jump right out’a my chair this time! He had been my Mother’s priest when she was excommunicated for no justifiable reason. T. Deck must have thought that I was going to raise my bayonet at him for his part in this, so he went to some length to persuade me that he was not to blame.
As I did not trust him, I got him to repeat word for word what he had reported about my Mother to the alcoholic butcher in Neche. To my surprise everything he repeated was true, and well remembered after 25 years. I suddenly thought, if that is the case, then is he committing the unforgivable sin of laying the blame at the feet of his ‘Fuhrer’? If so, then this was the highest act of ‘treason’, a violation of allegiance to a sovereign power which always carried the Exclusive Brethren instant death penalty. I could not believe my ears. Because none of the High-Command present, had stepped forward to shield the ‘world leader’, I was a little perplexed as to where we were all heading; I decided to dig deeper.
I asked him if this was just his assessment of my Mother’s case, or had the local brethren come to the same judgement. He stated that the Blenheim assembly had come to this judgement and had reversed my Mother’s case, which meant that the blame had to be laid at the feet of the ‘world leader’. I remember feeling stunned by his admission, surely this is their moment of madness, no one since 1959 had ever blamed a ‘world leader’ without suffering a pack attack. I looked around at all present but they all looked like comatosed monks, blissfully supportive of his admission, not aware of the hole he had dug for them all. I commented that – “this is a very interesting situation”.
I think there is more mileage yet to be extracted from this admission.
Topic Two
When questioned about how he had coped with reviewing 40 years of preaching false doctrine, he said that he had considered two choices:
A . “just throw everything overboard, go into the world and forget it all;”
B. “if I had stood my ground amongst the brethren I would probably have made it / or won.”
Once again I could not believe what I was hearing. It was all about his status, which was void of morality. Here was this evil Nazi throwing his weight around again, while all the chubby well-to-do little monks continued to sit at ease in their seats. Knowing the nature of Norm, I fully expected this Nazi to be thrown out of Norm’s house, but not even an eyebrow twitched, so I thought maybe they were leaving it up to me! So I told this monster that if he ever went into battle against the brethren to seize control again, I would rejoin the fellowship and help them deal with him. Oh my, the irrepressible prestige and ego of a Monarch!
Topic Three
With all his ranting and chomping on the poor brethren for those 39 years, I asked him if he ever felt that the Lord had blessed him.
THE BLESSED – “Well, um yes, I do feel that the lord has blessed me
on some occasions.”
Right now I wished I could have borrowed the Lord’s eyes, because mine seemed to have been out of focus for decades, I didn’t notice him being blessed. The God I know does not bless bastards. Blessings can be private of course. He had an awfully extended stomach, which could have been copied from that fat butcher, maybe he felt it was a blessing to look like his master; but probably not, because this extended paunch was not a blessing when reaching quickly for that mic, in fact it caused him some grief. If the mic was where he could reach it, he couldn’t see it, but if the mic was where he could see it, he couldn’t reach it!
Whatever the nature of his blessings, maybe he would share one.
THE UNFOCUSED – “would you like to share a blessing with us?”
BLESSED ONE – “I had the great privilege of being in the presence of the ‘man of god’.”
Oh really, wonder what other insane blessings he’s swallowed ?
SEMI FOCUSED – “What other ‘blessings have you had?”
BLESSED TWO – “I was blessed to be in a private home with the ‘man of god’.”
Getting to sound like that parrot again isn’t it ! Ann has been sitting with her head bowed low since the minute she arrived, but now I could use her for one of the reasons I had invited her for.
FOCUSED – “Do you think you have been blessed with who is sitting beside you?”
Oops, the Monarch wasn’t expecting that one, how could a woman be a blessing to an Exclusive General, when they are only supposed to be seen and not heard? His head went through the motions that it went through when about to pick up the mic. He looked at her, looked away, looked around, back to her. This was repeated several times, because he was not sure what or who I meant
BLESSED THREE – “You mean my wife.”
N. McC – “Yes.”
More turnin’s and swayin’s, poor beggar had never thought of her this way. She cooked good meals and formed lovely babies.
BLESSED THREE – “Well yes I do.”
N.McC – “What about your children too?”
I was trying to expand his vision out beyond the range of one fake dictator in Neche, and bring reality right into his own home.
BLESSED THREE – “Yes I do.”
N.McC – “Do you feel it is a blessing for your children to have grandparent’s who they have contact with?”
BLESSED THREE – “Yes it is good for them.”
N.McC – “How do you feel after taking that blessing away from my children, from knowing their grandparents for 25 years?”
What is printed above was similar to what we spoke over, for about 3 hours.
As I mentioned in Round 2, I had the liberty to ask him what he had seen in the mirror when he returned home from his only visit to our home 25 years earlier – you guessed it, he had forgotten.
As with M. Hamilton and P. Fisher, T. Deck’s reactions to matters raised since the above meeting have shown him to be callous and without natural affection. Not the hallmark of a Christian.
Final Episode Next Week
Cast Outside The Camp conclusion: Cast Outside The Camp – The Conclusion
Read all published installments of the McCallum story.
Neville McCallum and his wife Philippa tell their often harrowing story of experiencing Exclusive Brethren Assembly discipline in a series of installments. Neville and Philippa live in New Zealand with their family. If you would like to be alerted when another installment is published in this series, please subscribe to Peebs.Net » Personal Stories by email for Cast Outside The Camp or any other Personal Story in the future.
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