The story behind the following Today Tonight Australian news footage is even more dramatic than the high-speed car chases, mindless intimidation and the images of squirming cult members.
The underlying facts here involve the heart-wrenching story of an Exclusive Brethren teenager who is confused as to his sexual identity. In any tolerant and modern social environment, this is a topic for discussion, understanding and above all, caring. It is an opportunity to display love and compassion.
This would be the case in almost any community, Christian or not, but here we deal with the Exclusive Brethren …
June 28th, 2009
In Australia’s The Age today, Michael Bachelard author of the acclaimed ‘Behind the Exclusive Brethren‘, presents a heartbreaking report that proves beyond doubt that the Exclusive Brethren cult will go to any length to rip families apart.
In an astonishing judgement in Melbourne, Justice Brown allowed the cult to legally prevent their excommunicated father from having anything further to do with his two children. As is usual in these cases, the Exclusive Brethren spared no effort or cost in their legal campaign:
“… The Exclusive Brethren paid for the mother, Elspeth, to hire one of Melbourne’s top family court QCs, Noel Ackman, as well as a junior barrister and a solicitor… “
Read the full article in todays Sunday Age:
Ex-Brethren father loses battle for children
The Age
Michael Bachelard
June 28, 2009 – 12:00AM
A grieving father’s only contact with his Exclusive Brethren children will be permission to buy their photographs from the sect’s school, as long as they are not there at the time, a Family Court judge has ruled.
Justice Sally Brown has comprehensively ruled against the father, who can be known only as Peter, denying him any contact with his son, 15, and daughter, 10, after a five-year court battle, waged mostly in their home state of Tasmania.
After spending $100,000 winning court orders in 2006 for access, then trying unsuccessfully to enforce them, Peter could only afford to represent himself in the most recent retrial.
The Exclusive Brethren paid for the mother, Elspeth, to hire one of Melbourne’s top family court QCs, Noel Ackman, as well as a junior barrister and a solicitor.
The church’s “doctrine of separation” prevents people who have left the fold having any relationship with those still inside, including their own children.
Continue reading »
October 31st, 2008
Current Affairs: Behind the Exclusive Brethren
Media Reviews
by Sandra Hogan
October 31st, 2008
Reviewed by Sandra Hogan
Just before the 2007 Australian election, a woman called Sophie squeezed through the crowd at the Granny Smith festival in John Howard’s electorate to confront him. As Sophie tells the story, she grabbed the Prime Minister’s hand in hers and said, ‘Mr. Howard, I’m Sophie, and I’m an Exclusive Brethren, and I feel utterly and totally betrayed by you. There are thousands of us who have lost our families.’ And he shook his head and said repeatedly, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ Sophie’s story is one of the painful stories of cruel family break-up told in Michael Bachelard’s book Behind the Exclusive Brethren. Under a policy of separation, people who question the principles or practices of the Exclusive Brethren can be expelled from the community and their business and forcibly and permanently separated from their parents, partners or children.
We present two distinct reviews from two distinct spectrum of religious and perhaps political viewpoints. One a lawyer, writing for the Jesuit Community in Australia and the other, a gay journalist in New Zealand who presents one of the clearest summaries of the Exclusive Brethren we have ever read.
We recommend you read them both – either before or after you purchase Michael Bachelard’s book – truly a “... magnum opus of investigative journalism“.
Continue reading »
September 22nd, 2008
We have been sent a copy of the Jackson-Wells spin-doctors’ media release. It is a remarkable document that offers an in-depth and wide-ranging rebuttal. There is only one problem, they have yet to read Michael Bachelard’s new book – ‘Behind The Exclusive Brethren’.
Is it fair to suggest that by waiting 24 hours or so they might have gained a little more respect? What an extraordinary error!
We reproduce the media release in full:
—– Original Message —–
From: Ben Haslem (bhaslem@jacksonwells.com.au)
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 12:32 AM
Subject: Exclusive Brethren Media ReleasePlease find attached and following a media release from the Exclusive Brethren Church.
Media release – September 22, 2008
New book ‘a transcending work of fiction’: Brethren
A book about the Exclusive Brethren Church to be launched tomorrow is likely to be “a transcending work of fiction”, according to the Church.
Continue reading »
You know that sound that pennies make when they hit the floor after being in free-fall for a while? It just happened.
It all started with a surprisingly (one could say comradely, friendly, even nauseously) gentle article in yesterday’s The Australian that shone a whole new shade of pink over the Topic du Jour – the Exclusive Brethren and their outright panic over the about-to-be-launched ‘Behind The Exclusive Brethren’ by investigative journalist, Michael Bachelard.
For those with a strong stomach, we present:
Brethren lift veil on their exclusive lifestyle
The Australian
Brad Norington
September 20, 2008Daniel Hales says talking to his neighbours would help dispel negative perceptions about the Exclusive Brethren straight away.
“If you went up and down our street,” Hales says, “they would say, ‘oh yeah, they’ve got some funny beliefs, but gee, they’re nice people, they’re good people’.”
Continue reading »
September 21st, 2008
Members of the Exclusive Brethren were actively attempting to donate to John Howard’s re-election campaign last year in a manner that meant the cash injection would not have been disclosed to the public, according to a new book about the secretive Christian sect.
Fairfax newspapers say a senior Liberal Party source has confirmed in the book, Behind The Exclusive Brethren, that in the weeks leading up to the November election he was approached by a group of Exclusive Brethren men in a Sydney hotel who offered him a large, anonymous financial donation. Continue reading »
Q: When is a public house no longer a public house? A: When the Exclusive Brethren own it.
Now watch for security fences, steel padlocked gates, CCTV and blocked-out windows.
Exactly what persuaded Staffordshire’s Development Control Committee to grant approval for the conversion of a local pub to a very non-public house last week remains unclear. It seems, in a highly controversial decision, that the Lynton Tavern, Bodmin Avenue, Stafford, UK has now passed into the hands of a local cell of the Exclusive Brethren.
The Development Control Committee members cannot complain that they have no idea whom they are dealing with! There has been excellently-organized community support in attempting to prevent this example of community self-mutilation. As always with the Exclusive Brethren, there are ‘wheels within wheels’ and only time will tell whether the town officials maintain their ‘ostrich-in-the-sand’ posture.