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 …
To be entirely accurate, Clive Petrie was a member of the Exclusive Brethren right up until accusations surfaced of past sexual misconduct. Petrie was then immediately shut up (shunned) by the Exclusive Brethren and was subsequently withdrawn-from (excommunicated).
The Exclusive Brethren sent their then current PR Spokesman, Anthony ‘Tony’ McCorkell to attempt to diffuse the growing scandal in New Zealand. McCorkell failed rather dismally and returned to his Australian employer, Exclusive Brethren leader, Bruce D. Hales. McCorkell’s efforts on behalf of the Exclusive Brethren attracted the attention of some investigative journalists and shortly thereafter he also faded from view.
So the Exclusive Brethren washed their hands of the man who had grown up within them, expelled him and left him to the courts. The law took its course …
Former Brethren jailed for sex crimes
The Nelson Mail
Dec 8th, 2009An elderly former Exclusive Brethren member has been jailed for 2½ years for sexual crimes against four young girls and will pay them a total of $20,000 in reparations.
Clive Allen Petrie, 74, of Enner Glynn, was sentenced in the Nelson District Court this morning.
He had been found guilty by a Nelson jury in September of nine charges of indecently assaulting girls and one charge of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him.
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Craig Hoyle also featured in a December 2009 episode of 60 Minutes on NZ TV
Final Part of the Craig Hoyle story
And immediately, we refute our own heading – no way is this the final instalment in the story of Craig Hoyle! The bubbly infectious personality that Craig enjoys means that this 20 year old man has many more pages to write.
Craig had the courage to publicize his experiences as a young gay male both within and then outside the homophobic Exclusive Brethren cult. The stories he has told of disciplinary measures, ‘chemical castration’ and the manner in which even his own family was forced to disown him has shocked all who have followed his story.
This website has received hate-mail for even reproducing his story! Comments from several Exclusive Brethren members have been so obnoxious that they could not be printed even after editing. How a group that attempts to call themselves ‘christian’ can produce members who offer such hate-filled correspondence is beyond extraordinary, it is perhaps the most compelling argument of all that the Exclusive Brethren are no longer Christian.
They have extensive historical Christian roots and up to 40 years ago, they were well respected in all areas of society. The impact of American James Taylor Junior in the 1960′s and subsequent leaders has been spiritually catastrophic. The Taylor/Symington/Hales branch of the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren is rightly described as a cult by many today.
The story of Craig Hoyle was published in late 2009 by GayNZ.com and it led to Craig’s appearance on NZ’s 60 Minutes. (Click here or the image above to watch the TV3 episode)
Read the three Craig Hoyle Articles:
Part 1 – What is it like to be gay in the Exclusive Brethren?
Part 2 – Excommunication fron the Exclusive Brethren
and Part 3 - After the Exclusive Brethren: Craig looks ahead
New Zealander Craig Hoyle
Part 1 of the Craig Hoyle Story
New Zealander Craig Hoyle is hilarious, intelligent, warm, loving … and gay. What is especially remarkable is that 20-year-old Craig Hoyle, like generations of his family, was brought up in the Exclusive Brethren Church – one of the most homophobic of modern-day cults.
As you read Craig’s story, you will begin to understand why his life became unbearable and why he decided he had no choice but to leave the Exclusive Brethren.
It is sad to add that Craig’s story is not unique – not by any means.
The special thing about Craig Hoyle is his courage.
We salute the man Craig Hoyle!
Notoriously isolationist and conservative, the Brethren started in the UK in the 1820s but it only arrived in Invercargill, NZ in December 1992. It now has around 160 members in NZ’s southern-most city.
The eldest in a family of seven children ranging down to nine years old, Craig until recently worked in his dad’s Invercargill tyre shop. His whole life, from his day to day work and leisure through to his lifetime prospects, were mapped out inflexibly, and enforced, by the church.
Perhaps it might have been a bearably conformist life if Craig wasn’t gay.
In his own words Craig, comfortable with being identified by his real name and background, tells his remarkable and inspirational story to GayNZ.com’s Matt Akersten.
Inside New Zealand: How To Spot A Cult
A two-part documentary that investigates the Exclusive Brethren and other cults is due to air in New Zealand next week. The first part of ‘Inside New Zealand: How To Spot A Cult’ is due to be broadcast on November 25th and the conclusion December 2nd.
Ever since Kevin Rudd, now the Australian Prime Minister stated clearly that the Exclusive Brethren are “… an extremist sect and cult”, the media have correctly portrayed this little-known religious group as one of the more destructive and dangerous cults.
Inside New Zealand: How To Spot A Cult gives viewers an intimate view of what life is like inside groups that some former followers say are cults operating in New Zealand.
“These former members have consistent stories about how the different organisations actually work,” explains producer Gary Scott, “and the techniques they say were used to control them, even though the belief systems can be miles apart.”
The recent Exclusive Brethren sex abuse case in New Zealand is likely to feature, together with details of the destructive foray into politics that marked the early leadership of Australian Bruce D. Hales.
The two-part documentary consists of ex-believers’ stories, and investigates the similarities they say exist between groups including the Exclusive Brethren, Scientology, Centrepoint, Gloriavale, Avatar and the International Church of Christ.
‘Plague’ of sex abuse in church alleged
Sunday Star Times
October 18, 2009
The Exclusive Brethren Church is being rocked by accusations that it has covered up a “plague” of sexual abuse in its ranks.
Last week a former member of the church, 74-year-old Clive Allen Petrie, was found guilty in Nelson of nine counts of indecently assaulting girls under 12 and one of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him. The case involved four girls, three in the 1950s and 60s, and the fourth in the 1980s.
Former church member Neville McCallum, who last week sent a letter to all 1900 Brethren households in New Zealand about alleged crimes and cover-ups within the church, says the Nelson case “is only the tip of the iceberg”.
And one of the four women assaulted by Petrie told the Sunday Star-Times there were many other cases of sexual abuse in the church.
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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.
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July 31, 2008
Brethren rejects claims of links to crime
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
July 31, 2008The Exclusive Brethren says three Indian sisters have failed in an effort to bring criminal action against the sect.
In a statement, the Exclusive Brethren said the High Court in Canberra had refused to accept a writ the women tried to file today.
The writ alleged the controversial group had been involved in fraud and kidnapping.
The women, who yesterday said they were on the run from the Brethren, also claimed it was involved in money laundering and immigration fraud in New Zealand, and bribing police and members of the judiciary in India.
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Scientology under attack – are the Exclusive Brethren next?
November 21st, 2009
The impact of Australian senator Nick Xenophon’s comments in Canberra this week regarding the Scientology ‘church’ should not be under-estimated.
First there is the man. Nick Xenophon is an independant and carries no party allegience. His 400BC namesake was also a soldier as well as a respected historian. Nick has a background in law and is a resourceful and intelligent political warrior. Several are noting that the modern-day Xenophon seems to have a strategy in his carefully worded attack against the ‘religion’ of Scientology.
This is not a ‘flash in the pan’. Xenophon has been planning his attack for some time:
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