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.

Final Episode of: Cast Outside The Camp by Neville and Philippa McCallum (2008)

Aftermath - The Conclusion 

It is worth a pause here, to note the irrational and unintelligent action of all the EB’s present this night. Some of us ‘outs’ have been trying to penetrate this thinking during the ‘review’ process. In both our case and my Mother’s case (as T. Deck states), it was Jim Symington (Neche) who gave the killer blow which was obeyed with precision by our tormentors and the local brethren, but when our cases were reviewed, both cases were overturned and we were reinstated.

You would then have to conclude that JHS is also in error, but definitely not – the world leader can not be wrong even though his judgements are overturned. This fallacy stems from a MIND-BENDING statement made by leadership in NZ:

” No matter what the world leader does, it could not be wrong”

For any sane human to believe this obvious fallacy, shows the level of mind control they are capable of, as in another statement of brain washing:

“When the brethren are wrong they are still right”

I am convinced that the cultish indoctrination they have succumbed to during the last 40 years, has lowered their IQ levels.

The current position of our three priests, is that they follow, promote and worship a dictator who publicly (in ministry books) encourages the young folk to do what Moslems are taught to do to their unbelievers , i.e. to act in violence against those they perceive to be against them, and to spit on those that have been excommunicated. If, after the return of our priests in the ‘review’, they had shown in real life that their lives/fruits were in keeping with what came out of their mouths in confession, I would not be exposing these men by name. I have a right according to scripture – ‘by their fruits you will know them’ – I do know them, and I have no fear in exercising my Divinely given right.

These priests/leaders state that the current world leader has not sinned since holding power in the early 2000′s which puts him on the same level of infallibility as Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This heresy is believed and preached in unbridled devotion to the world leader.

I have a feeling that the Exclusive Brethren game is almost ‘up’. It is time to stop playing ‘ping-pong’, and withstand the leaders for at least three reasons:

1. The qualification for leadership is anti Christian.

In 2007 I spoke to Russell Davis (Palmerston North) and asked regarding the criteria for their leadership. I was shocked to hear him state the following –

“If anyone steps forward to lead in a Christian fellowship, the Lord must be supporting them”.

Embodied in this statement is the dominant error of the EB’s.

The scriptural basis for leadership is non existent, and their fellowship is not Christian. On Russell’s statement, it will only be the most forward, arrogant and proud type of person who pushes forward to lead; like the Hales family. Embodied in the scriptural criteria for leadership, are the humble, forgiving, meek, honest, disciplined etc. These folk are now silent.

2. To release the 1000′s of genuine folk (including our own family) from being  trapped in a serious mind control state so that they can make their own judgement calls on good and evil.

This one event would greatly reduce the carnage within the family unit, which in turn would help curb the level of children being sexually abused.

3. Prevent further damage to the testimony of the Christian Faith, and stop good people being taught to do bad things.

Other conservative type churches have been damaged by the public testimony of the Exclusives, to the point where I know of one Open Brethren hall having to change its name.

The treatment that Pip and I were subjected to, was not as serious and devastating as it was for many others. Our hearts go out to those folk who lost absolutely everything they possessed, and to those who even lost their hope in life.

Fortunately for us, we were never besotted over Jim Symington. The reason for this, was connected with his support for the Gestapo. These hit-men continually jammed the notion of his infallibility down our throats. It was said that even if their Fuhrer was given wrong information he could not give a wrong answer. I was not convinced, so set about putting His Majesty to the test. The religious crooks leading in NZ were well known – T. Deck, E. Malcolm, P. Malcolm, J. Hart, A. Smith, L. Simkin and plenty more. I decided that if Mr Infallible continued to promote these crooks, then he had to be a crook himself, and he was. Endangering my head with the king was not an experiment nor a risk, as a believer in Christ, it was my duty.

The hierarchical abuse started around 1959/60 with the introduction of extreme separation, when under the disguise of – providing a clean place/church for the Lord – we actually separated from our communities so that we – could commit evil. We also despised the Great Commission by tearing down the ‘Welcome to the Gospel’ signs so that we could turn inwards to create a micro-climate for the production of infidels. This was accelerated by the devious and arrogant Hales family of Sydney in 1965, and their use of private investigators to spy-hop on members, as they did in Nelson and other localities.

In my mind, it was about this time in 1965 with the intrusion of the Hales family that the Gestapo was born. Because the Hales’s influence was never properly repudiated, and because most of us only connect the Hales’ ‘System’ with commerce in the assembly, I will write a few lines on what I witnessed.

In 1965 the Hales brothers, John and W. Bruce (in their late 30s approx) suddenly burst onto the scene with a flamboyance that we had never seen before. There is an ‘out’ alive today who was present at a meeting with the Hales brothers and the ‘world leader’, J.T.jr. At this meeting J.T.jr, (W. Bruce’s Father-in-law), suggested that perhaps he should reconsider his ministry on the issue of extreme separation, due to the number of family divisions.

Both the Hales’ withstood this suggestion. Why? The Hales brothers realized the advantage of the manipulation that could be administered through extreme separation on anyone who did not obey leadership. This punishment tool (fear), would assist any leader with aspirations to control the fellowship through a dictatorship. The Hales’s rampage to create this dictatorship expressed itself in two specific ways.

1. They moved the focus of the fellowship away from a spiritual relationship with Christ, and replaced this with a drive for material wealth by introducing commerce into the assembly while interfering in hundreds of businesses, of which many were damaged as a result, including my family’s business. The power of their demands were so crushing that very few objected. In a display of unprecedented arrogance, they rolled the Brethren assemblies, country after country.

2. They both launched into a campaign of verbally abusing the brethren, both in the meetings and in private. No one had ever witnessed such abuse and sarcasm before. The loudest bellower was W. Bruce, but the most cruel and calculating of the two, was John. I witnessed his bitter, unjustified attacks on the brethren, many of whom were stunned into silence for a long time. I know of one person who was handled physically, by a raging W. Bruce. The people they were abusing, were members of the body of Christ. There were times when they ordered people out of the meetings, poor older folk, just because they did not have enough money to do what the Hales Bros wanted them to do. As these old folk walked out in shock, they were shouted at and ridiculed until they disappeared.

In my mind, I classify number 2, far worse than the commercial error. A prominent NZ lawyer who acted for the EB’s, and knew John Hales better than the brethren did, said of John:

“He is no church leader, he is driven by Lucifer”

In 1966, J.Taylor Jr, withstood the Hales ‘System’, with just five words, “No commerce in the assembly”. Both W. Bruce and John were excommunicated. Commerce in the meetings and their influence in private businesses stopped, but the cruelty and arrogance they had bred into the now younger War-Command, flourished.

I believe that the treatment Pip and I received during our time of being ‘shut-up’, was the result of the seeds sown by the Hales brothers back in 1965, and continues to this day.

One of the most prophetic utterances I have ever heard, relates to the ‘System’ days, and was voiced by Bob Sparrow of Wellington just as the ‘System’ crashed in 1966:

“Evil often casts a shadow before it, imagine the ‘system’ returning in a religious form!”

And so it did, in all its horror. Thousands of brethren who repudiated the ‘System’ in 1966 as wicked, now welcome it with open arms. Both the Hales brothers came back into the fellowship later. W. Bruce became an alcoholic and drove a taxi. John became ‘world leader’, divided families and led the EB’s to trust in the dollar before morality.

The foundation for this abusive system became full-blown at the Aberdeen incident, when J.Taylor jr was caught in bed with another man’s wife. Despite this exposure, any member who would not, and does not (today) worship J.Taylor jr as ‘pure and infallible’, is excommunicated. It is this wicked ideology of the ‘world leader’ as not having to be morally or ethically responsible to anyone, not even to God Himself, that provides a basis for the control and abuse of the body of the brethren. For many members that have and are asking questions, the abuse they suffered was not unlike the cruelty of the infamous Mafia.

Did God give us an opportunity to arrest the rapid decline within this fellowship? Yes He did. The turning point should have been the Aberdeen incident in 1970. The most responsible witness still living today, who was privy to 100% of the facts in 1970, presented a evil report to the New York assembly, which in turn bound all other assemblies around the world to follow this error, until the present day.

This person who held the key for either Honour or Disgrace for the Exclusive Brethren movement, chose Disgrace. He is J.Taylor 3rd. Is his name etched into one of those great millstones? Only God knows.

Religious corruption nurtured within the hierarchy has led, what was once a genuine evangelical church, to become a very wealthy club awash with alcohol. To highlight their reliance on alcohol to entertain their young folk, I will quote what I was told by a father of four. This would be the most callous statement that I have ever heard regarding so many fine, valuable young people. When questioned about the abuse of alcohol, he replied:

“Well, you know Nev, it is all the young folk have got to do.”

Many of us ‘outs’ hold our hands out in compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and love to our families and friends who continue to condemn us as evil enemies and strangers. Despite all of the above and the irreversible carnage wrought by the leaders, I do have some compassion for those who have fallen victim to more powerful dictators.

We ‘outs’ are accused of being attackers, bitter, headstrong etc. This is a lie, we are not. We just care about the safety of our family and friends. Because so many have been misled, injured and killed, I believe that near to a deep ocean somewhere, in the long grass, there are many great millstones ready with chains and collars attached – as scripture promises. God will not be mocked, especially as many of us ‘outs’ have turned the other cheek and offered friendship and hope, during the last 8 or more years.

With TRUTH, we will persevere with our warnings, and as scripture says: “what you have spoken in the ear in chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” – so a few of us are searching for the highest housetop in the land, to expose the secrets of their chambers. In doing so we (‘outs’) have no fear of the hierarchy whatsoever and we owe them nothing. God removed this fear at the time of our being thrown outside the camp. True love has cast out this fear, leaving only our fear for the salvation of the body of the brethren.

Maybe God is saying again, as he said to the Pharaohs of Egypt, “Let my people go that they might serve Me”, or has He given them up to a “reprobate mind”?

IF there is to be a recovery and/or enlightenment within the Exclusive Brethren fellowship, it will be in God’s own time, and His alone. My following statement is void of any vindictiveness, i.e. any person that has taken a leadership role in priestly (so called) interrogations or in the enforcing of the false doctrines of ‘world-leaders’ over the flock, these leaders should never ever be trusted, until, in honest repentance they volunteer the same attitude that is quoted of King David on the cover page.

Until this time, there are three titles that should not be stated or connected with the Exclusive Brethren:

1. Christian.
2. Church.
3. Evangelical.

Much of the past cannot be recovered. Despite Pip and I speaking with our hearts and feet in 1981, by remaining separate from the EB culture, I still feel responsible for remaining silent for so long (when a member) while so many of my family and friends were ill treated. It does not sink in, until you are the victim.

I was never involved in priestly administration, but forever I will carry the burden of, the sin of silence. It was a little like those who, during the reign of Hitler, watched men women and children being dragged away to be gassed:

They came and took away my friends, – I did not object.
They came and took away many of my own family – I did not object.
They came and took away the weak and crippled – I did not object.
They came and took away my own Mother, I wept – I did not object.
Then they came and took us away – and no one objected.

I was being taught a life changing lesson.

It has been said, that evil increases rapidly when men remain silent, or do nothing. The body of the brethren have fallen silent, to their peril.

Matthew 13:25. “while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares”

When I did object, albeit late, I paid a heavy price, but this will not stop me from continuing to object.

Psalm of David –

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon
me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host
should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war
should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Deliver me
not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are
risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had
fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living.

If you forget all of the above pages, remember this:

In a family there were three brothers, two of whom were officiating priests, and the third, a real sinner. Early on a cold winters morning, the two priests were standing in front of the open fire relating the spiritual visions that they had encountered during the night. Both had had powerful visions, so when the sinful brother stumbled into the room rubbing his eyes from a hangover, and trying to get his fair share of the fire, his exclusively religious brothers told him of their visions while still warming themselves in front of the fire. Looking down on their brother of debauchery, they snidely asked –

Priests – “And what vision did you have during the night?”

Sinner – With a yawn, and freezing cold, he replied, “I had a horrible dream. I dreamt I was in Hell.”

Priests – “Well what did ‘Hell’ look like?”

Sinner – “I don’t know, I couldn’t see the FIRE FOR PRIESTS!”

Sadly, I fear, that without a strong focus and practise on the gospel of salvation, as a Christian foundation, ‘world leaders’ including Bruce Hales and his priests (so called) could be leading 1000′s of unconverted souls towards the, GATES OF HADES.

At the second coming of Christ (the rapture), whether we are taken or left, we all will be, priest’s included -

“Feeling our Positions”

SELAH

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 peebs.net  Personal Story  is published in the future, please subscribe to Peebs.Net » Personal Stories by email.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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.

And now matters start coming to a head ...

ROUND 15 (Part 1)

- Excommunication -

After the last Round, I had to do a little homework, in case I was employing the 18 year old illegally. I contacted the Labour Department, and enquired into the matter. The laws of the land were as follows –
It was lawful to employ any person who reached the age of 18 yrs without joining them to a union, providing they had not been approached by a union official. There was no responsibility on the part of the employer to even suggest to any employee that they should join a union. The fact that no union official had ever set foot on my property let alone speak to my employees, left me in the clear legally.

I asked my 18 yr old employee, if she had ever considered belonging to a union. I got an emphatic NO. The result of the above enquiry was like ‘music to my ears’.

I was ready for the return of the thugs.

Pip and I are standing at attention as the knock knock knock rings out as usual. We go through the, go-slow, go quietly, look sad, formality, and glide over to and sink into our personal seats.

There was no need by now to point or nod to a suggested seat, we all knew just where to sit. The spiritual ritual of going slowly and quietly did not abate with time, as it must have been the hallmark of spiritual superiority before going into battle. Funny though, it never seemed to help the battle to ebb in their favour. After so many losses, wouldn’t you have thought they would have tried another tack?

PRIEST –”Last time we were here we went over the unrighteousness of your staff not belonging to a union, and the direction of the ‘man of god’. What have you come to in working through this matter with the lord.”

Why worry the Lord about it, it was so stupidly simple you only needed half a brain to work this one out, let alone the hassling of Divine Persons. Two minutes on the phone to the Labour Department and it was over. I decided the time was overdue for them to be given some homework.

N. McC – “Last time you were here I asked for help as to how to work this matter out. Have you given this any thought?.”

PRIEST - “We rely on what the ‘lord’s servant’ indicates.

N. McC – “Have you contacted Mr Symington about this matter?”

PRIEST - “No we haven’t contacted him, but the brethren trust his judgment in everything.”

N. McC – “I have done my homework, and it appears that I am not running my business unrighteously.”

PRIEST - “When the ‘man of god’ speaks, it is for our good to follow his direction, even though we might not understand what he is getting at.”

I had been caught out with this devious ploy before. Whenever a ‘world leader’ demanded a change of direction, if it was not intelligent enough for the average brain to comprehend, it would be classified as part of the mystery (a scriptural term), or it may be classified as an ambush, (a military term). Both these terminologies convey the idea that we are not able to fully understand unless we were the author of the deceit.

The authors of these terminologies were beyond questioning as to the meaning of these mysteries and ambushes lest the real truth escape and they be exposed thereby. This strategy in leadership is called – ‘dog whistle politics’. When you whistle a dog, both you and the dog know the meaning of the call, with dogs being able to hear a pitch higher than humans can hear, which means that no one else can interpret the call. This is why it has no place in the Christian faith, as confusion is not of God.

Any member who challenged the foundations of these deceitful mysteries would be judged wicked and dealt with, as, – “being against the lord’s anointed”. This offence could mean instant execution. In the 3 years of being imprisoned we had lived a life of getting back to reality, putting lying mysteries and ambushes behind us.

Mysteries and ambushes were (and still are) used extremely effectively to brainwash the body of the brethren and to keep them in a state of uncertainty, suspense and in awe of these leaders who could secretly interpret the pitch of these ‘dog-whistling’ calls. They never had to reveal the basis or foundations of this cultish psychology.

World leaders, assuming to be, ‘men of god’, ‘lord’s servants’, ‘bible teachers’, ‘pure men’, could all jump into bed with young naked women behind closed doors, conceal the favours provided and actually get exonerated in PUBLIC meetings for it, providing the body of the brethren were duped into believing this orgy was an ambush. Small wonder so many under-leaders strive to achieve the dizzy heights of their Supreme Commander! A glorious position involving high-pitched whistles and silk sheet favours!

To simple Christians like Pip and I, there is no mystery in the Christian faith, and our God is not a God of confusion. It was time to offer these confused souls an opportunity to understand the simple, clear directions of the scriptures when faced with making a decision regarding good and evil.

N. McC – “What you should do is to go to the Labour Department and inquire about NZ law regarding how a person is to join a union, and then come back and tell me who is right, you or me. If I have to do what you are demanding, my business will fold within 6 months. If it is wrong/sinful to register an employee with a union, then instead of going about it in a underhand, back door way by hiring managers, we should hold up our Christian flag, and do what is right, and face going to gaol if necessary for our faith.”

This one really cleared the deck. They were out and gone, from what was a very short visit.

I took courage, I thought they were off to the Labour Department to check it all out. We waited for them to see the light, and to FEEL THEIR POSITION and finally become friends again. The tide of battle had ebbed and flowed for 3 years, surely there would be a fair and honest decision. We were desperate for news of our families, because we knew that had one of our family been involved in an accident, or death, we would probably not have been told, or, worse still, been blamed for it. Pip worried a lot about her aging parents.

Finally a phone call comes through – another visit appointment? Not likely…

MERV –”Neville, during our visits you have been CONTENTIOUS, and now you have ENDANGERED YOUR HEAD WITH THE KING. The brethren have judged you to be UNFIT for Christian fellowship”.

Well, that was it. It was like the prison gate slamming shut, and the click of the padlock. The Neche murderer had struck again and another innocent family had fallen.

After 3 years, it was all over. We were outside the camp for good.

It was now clear, that because they could not drive us into submission and collapse us personally, by attempting to cripple our business, there was a chance that our needs would become severe enough as a family, so that we would have to capitulate.

I would go to work fearing that these Nazi U-Boats would surface at my home while my wife was unprotected, as I knew this had been done to other women. A husband would arrive home to find his wife and children were gone, never ever to SEE or SPEAK to their family again. The fear of perhaps having to face this human atrocity was unexplainable. I would leave work early and speed home (ten minutes), sometimes phoning just before I left to make sure Pip was still at home. As I approached the house, I would look for a movement to know if she and the kids were still there, the tears of relief would flow, but I never allowed her to notice what I was going through.

I had made a decision, for better or worse, that if these vultures visited her alone without her or my approval, I would have rushed home, or arrived at their home and dealt to them physically.

I was thankfully spared of this action. These slimy-creeps did phone her while I was away and suggest that she live separate from me, which was the first step towards taking her off me. I knew it would be now, that the pressure, real emotional and mental pressure, would be forced onto her behind my back to walk out and possibly never return. The next time they phoned I was home, but Pip would not even respect them by talking to them. She told me to tell them that she had no interest in talking to them.

Pip was excommunicated for being indifferent.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Outside The Camp – Round 15 (Part 2)

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.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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 sometimes hilarious human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

Where Pip suffers a terrifying experience!

ROUND 12 (Part 2)

- Royal wedding on TV – Nudity – Richmond field day -

FIELD DAY

This charge had a funny side to it, and we scraped through without a scratch.

We decided to travel to Richmond (near Nelson) to attend a horticultural field day to look at the latest irrigation technology for our vineyard. We packed a picnic lunch, kids on board and away we went. We drive into the showgrounds with tents and stalls everywhere, and round a tree we go and nearly run right over Miles Deck (Pip’s brother-in-law) and his brother Phil, two very wicked excommunicated men.

Pip ducked and I swerved, but they were so close they spotted us. Speaking with an ‘out’, was almost an unforgivable sin. Much worse than speaking to a member, or one who was just ‘shut-up’, it meant the immediate excommunication of that culprit. How were we going to hide for hours at the same field days as we never dreamt that they would be there?

We had never contacted any EB’s or ‘outs’, including family members since we had been ‘shut-up’, except the Norm Clifford bulldozer affair. We parked as far away as possible, while we sweated it out for a while. Unbeknown to us, Miles had heard that we had been excommunicated (not just ‘shut-up’), and was so thrilled to see us again he came searching for us. We were half way through a cuppa and we see Miles and Phil heading straight for us. We threw everything in the boot and I grabbed the kids and headed West. I told Pip to run in the opposite direction.

Pip, in her wisdom, spotted a long narrow building with a door in the end and thought it was the ‘ladies’ so headed right inside to hide. Once inside she slowed down to gather her thoughts, and then noticed that there were men in attendance, talking and shaking things about, but each time a man looked at her, these men’s faces changed and a lot of ‘zipping’ resulted! She walked the entire length of the man’s urinal before realising where she was. She had never had the excitement of being in one before.

I watched in stunned unbelief as she ran in one end and did not come screaming out again. Perhaps she had run into an EB priest in there and he had cornered her for further questioning! I could not yell out to warn her of the dangers, because I was some 50m away heading in the opposite direction, so I offered a little prayer hoping she would not get up to mischief in there, and thankful that I was not in a predicament like she was, or at least thought I wasn’t!

In my haste to lose my pursuers, I headed for the closest cover, I darted into a tent/stall and nearly collided head on with Chubby Trewavas, an Exclusive about my own age from Motueka. I never worked out who got the greatest shock. I would get into deep trouble if seen talking to an ‘in’, and so would he! He’d be in hot water for talking to a ‘shut-er-uppera’, which would result in priestly visits for him. We would both be charged with – listen for it – NOT FEELING OUR POSITION.

We both went to say something but didn’t. I had to get out of that tent quick in case he potted me to the Blenheim priests, so out the other end I went, straight into the stall of Merwyn Boyd who was a wicked excommunicated person, he was so glad to see me hurrying into his domain after a number of years of (him) being ‘out’, and he thought I was also ‘out’ and that I had come to do business with him. He grabbed my hand and shook it until it nearly fell off, all in front of Chubby Trewavas who could now pot me for not feeling my bl—y position, which would strengthen his position in the Motueka fellowship for being observant and having the courage to be: faithful to the position, by reporting on this wayward ‘shut-er-uppera’ caught shaking hands with a convicted moral criminal.

So here I was, shaking the hand of a wicked person who would not let me go, being watched by an Exclusive Brethren who would pimp on me, being hunted down by two more wicked men (Deck brothers), while my wife was cavorting in the men’s toilet in full view of the Exclusive Gestapo. Could life ever get more complicated? Absolutely not. I looked up and prayed for the rapture!

By this time Pip had run the gauntlet and was out the other end grinning from ear to ear having done what no other Exclusive Brethren woman had ever done throughout history! I was now really worried that Trewavas might have seen her lascivious act with those men in their toilet, and now this would be added to any further charges that we were yet to face. I tried disentangling myself from Boyd telling him I was not ‘out’, which only made him more persistent in telling me how I should get out of the EB’s. Finally I was free, but with all the hold-ups, where was Miles and Phil Deck? I did a 360 degree sweep, but saw nothing and bolted, thinking that things could not get much worse.

I stumbled right into another EB with a stall, they were everywhere. I shut my eyes and kept going still dragging my two kids, who thought we were on a merry-go-round I think, I would rush past a spectator and the kids (little beggars- thought we were playing) would go around the other side of him/her, like a dog on a chain going the round the wrong side of a tree, we were not getting anywhere fast.

I paused for a breather, looked around to see that Miles guy almost on me, grinning. The game was up, I was cornered by an ‘out’, in full view of those ‘ins’. Miles was pleased to see me, but I quickly told him we were not ‘out’, and he graciously let me escape as he knew the repercussions if I was potted with him.

Pip and I finally found each other, so we headed back to the vehicle to tell our stories and finish off our cuppa. Her story was considerably more exciting than mine. For the rest of the day we bounced off and around ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ until we didn’t know if we were ‘in’, ‘out’, ‘over’ or ‘under’ ourselves. We laughed all the way home, and still joke  about this One Day in our lives.

A few weeks later, you guessed it, there was more to come.

PRIEST - “It has come to out attention, that you were in Richmond recently, and not feeling your position by speaking to persons in an excommunicated position”.

N. McC - “Well we did, but it was not our fault. We did not approach them, they approached us.”

PRIEST - “You were seen going into the Brethren stalls too.”

N. McC - “I did not know that the brethren went to field days (they were never allowed to), so I was not expecting any stalls to be Brethren stalls. As soon as I realised who they were I left, I was trying to FEEL MY POSITION.”

With a sigh of relief we both scraped though this one uninjured; had a whisky, and felt like we were waking up from a bad dream.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 13

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.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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 sometimes hilarious human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

UNSCRIPTURAL!

ROUND 12 (Part 1)

- Royal wedding on TV – Nudity – Richmond field day -

This Round covers three charges, with a mixture of success for both sides.

Royal Wedding

The wedding of Charles and Diana was imminent. Because we were living like ‘moles in a hole,’ a neighbour felt sorry for us and invited us to come and see the wedding on TV. This was the most exciting thing that had transpired for us in years! We consulted with ourselves as to whether it was worth the risk, and we decided to accept the invite. Pip and I still talk about the trauma of that very first cuppa with a non member of the brethren cult. It was the first time we had eaten, drunk, or been in another persons home socially (other than a EB’s) since 1959; 22 years.

I attempted to lift the cup to my mouth several times, before finally risking it, fearful that I would be struck down by God’s judgement, so I would try and time my sips in between the the sips of others so that technically I was not drinking at exactly the same time as these ungodly pagans. Every time I took something to eat the same trauma occurred, we could not believe the awful thing that we were doing. Little did we know that some of the brethren had hired motels so that they could watch the wedding on TV, and they all got caught and paid the penalty. Possibly all ‘shut-up’ for a while, until they did what I was supposed to be doing – feeling my position.

This visit commenced with us being asked if we had done such a thing. We admitted the truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth, along with all the repentance required to prevent the priests from walking out and excommunicating us.

NUDITY

Now comes the real sexy part – shut your eyes girls! I was up for full frontal nudity! Some EB spied on me and dobbed me in for wearing a ‘G’ string, no no not quite, it was short pants.

Oh no, I was caught naked from my knobbly knees to half way down to my ankles, all of 30cm of raw flesh, bony, scarred from bike crashes, surplus hair, all of which was apparently being lusted after from all sides! How could some female EB feel so threatened by this sight that they prompted a priestly visit to inspect my knees? Maybe the MONARCH was getting jealous, because his legs never saw the sun? Maybe some of his harem were straying towards these suntanned legs of mine? Come over girls! I felt quite honoured. No matter what the reason was, these idiots had a scripture for this evil act of mine.

PRIEST - “Neville how do you feel about wearing short pants?”

N. McC - “I feel fine wearing them in my vineyard.”

PRIEST - “You know that the ‘man of god’ has spoken about the wrongness of this, it is in his ministry.”

N. McC - “I don’t wear them to town like I used to.”

PRIEST - “There is a Psalm that clearly says that ‘God taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man’.”

I nearly said, how come God lets the women get away with this, and us men are allowed to study their bare legs from all sides?

I wondered then, why did God give me legs at all. He would not create something that He did not like? If God “hath not pleasure in my legs” he would have given me wheels. Surely my legs were taking me in the right direction, they took me to church ten blinky times a week. They were quite capable of kicking deranged priests up the ‘you know what’ too. Even the bible encourages us all to WALK in the paths of righteousness. There were so many scriptures that said good things about legs and their bits and pieces, I thought of getting my legs out for these leg-haters, unwrapping them for a search and study session.

‘Precious the feet of them that preach glad tidings of peace’.

In the old testament days you got your great toe cut off if you were naughty, to prevent you from being a warrior, so legs must have been of use when you were good. We are to ‘run the good race’, etc etc. I felt like paralysing these halfwits with science, but they had the verse to base their ideology on, and they were not about to change their minds.

N. McC - “I was not aware that anybody was taking pleasure in my legs.”

PRIEST - “It is more to be in line with what the lord’s servant (JHS) is saying currently.”

N. McC - “I really feel the heat on the vineyard in the dust and no trees around. I have to bend down 100s of time a day doing irrigation trench work, and long trousers pull on my knees every time I bend down, which aggravates my spine injury. The vineyard is 15ks out of town.”

I felt like saying that if any EB lady was getting turned on by my legs she must be short of legs to look at. Ladies came to church in public with plenty of leg showing, but it is evil for me to expose just my knees away out in the country. This exchange continued for some time until I said sorry, and a promise not to wear them again. Pip was getting worried in case I had to wear long pants to bed!

There is one way of summing up this session: out of the four of us, two were aliens from another planet! We were starting to worry in case further visits were conducted at such a unintelligent level.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 12 (part 2)

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.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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 sometimes hilarious human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

A new Exclusive Brethren industry?

ROUND 11 (Part 2)

- Claim to be a Good Boy & the Aphrodisiac Stag -

I was up on two charges:

1 - Claiming to be a good boy;

2 - Yarning with someone else who was also ‘shut-up’, and wait for it – not Feeling my Position in all of the above.

In nearly three years of interrogations, I had never been in the mire so deep. Now the long silences worked in my favour, I laid plans for my escape – somehow. The claim to be ‘a good boy’ was only a joke, but try and convince these two sour-faced, stick-in-the mud’s it was a joke took some time, but this was moving fast and they (priests) were losing ground, so now we had to get down to details.

PRIEST – “Neville, if it was a joke, what were you joking about?”

Now I was caught, because if I told the truth, that we were laughing about being ‘shut-up’, things would be worse for Norm and me. Two ‘shutter-uppera’s not feeling their position could be deemed to be, party activity, a coup, or worse! If I said the joke was about him working on a Sunday, it would have exposed him to further priestly interrogation. This joke was backfiring big time.

N. McC - “Well, he was asking how things were going for me, and I made a joke about being a good boy – just a joke.”

PRIEST - “How can you have high thoughts about yourself when the Brethren are carrying your position in prayer?”

N. McC – “I haven’t got high thoughts about myself, I didn’t think it would be taken seriously.”

PRIEST - “All things should be taken seriously when you are ‘shut-up’.”

Oh really. I took a lashing for some time over this one.

PRIEST – “Why did you have to go off your property and approach Norm in the first place?”

Ah ha! Now I do what priests do, get technical again. I needed this break.

N.McC - “What Norm was trying to do was dangerous, so I thought it only fair to assist him across the road, as this road is a busy road.”

- well sort of, and they didn’t know the road anyway.

After some discussion, I got away with this one. What a feeling, when the tide of the battle turns in your favour! I must keep doing what priests do. Hallelujah, I had survived this visit, or at least I thought I had.

Just a moment please, one more question.

PRIEST - “Now that we have been over your ‘good boy’ matter and the reason why you made contact with Norm, we need to know how long you were with Norm, and what other matters you discussed with him”.

– Oh no.

How could I pimp on the only person that had smiled at me for nearly three years! But all of a sudden I realized that that is exactly what he did to me, pimped on me (as a joke of course). Norm would not have told them that the ‘good boy’ statement was only a joke; he would have pretended to be serious, just to get these indoctrinated clones off his back, because that was how the system worked. It is called pressure relocation. In the advent of the pressure becoming too uncomfortable, then drag some other poor unsuspecting victim into the quagmire to share the load.

I was going over all the things that we talked about to quote something that did not incriminate either of us, at the same time praying for more Alzheimers, when suddenly I remembered the stag deal.

Righto Norm we can both play the pressure relocation game, and this will take the focus off me, so here we go!

What made the next statement hit home was that recently Norm and his wife and Pip and I (mentioned earlier) had almost been ‘shut-up’ in a city meeting for going hunting. I took a pounding in this meeting as I was the oldest. It was my sister who suggested we all go hunting (we were all hard up and at about $60 per animal in 1979 it helped a lot financially). She sat in that meeting grinning away as Norm and I took the medicine, so I had a score to settle with her as well. JHS (world leader) had said it was OK to hunt gophers over there (USA) as they were a pest, so I thought it was OK to help eradicate pests (pigs/deer) in NZ, but no, ‘I had not understood JHS ministry’. What Christian could?

N. McC – “Well we did not talk much at all, we were both busy getting his machine across the busy road, but one thing he did tell me was that he had been out hunting (I see a change in the priests posture) and he shot a nice big stag!”

Paul’s head flops down, Merv’s mouth falls open – I’m loving this – it’s all falling into place!

N. McC – “… and because the Asians like chewing on the soft velvet antlers for an Aphrodisiac…”

I think I saw Merv’s mouth say, “give me some of that stuff”!

N. McC – “… and he sold it for $12.50. Hunting came up in the meeting you will remember, and because I don’t go hunting anymore, I thought that was being a good boy.”

This was one of the most hilarious moments of my life! If only I had taken a photo of these two stunned mullets. Paul’s head almost hit the floor, looked like he had curvature of the spine. Merv was chomping on his dentures in shock. I had not only salvaged my good boy reputation, but had dobbed Norm and Marion in up to their eyebrows, and got these leeches off my back all in one sentence.

MERV - “Oh! Oh really! So Norman has been hunting stags?”

PAUL - “Yes Merv, hunting has come up and it is not right.”

MERV - “It is sad that you both have not been feeling your position as you should.”

Shhhhh! My weapon now was silence, while my salvo sunk in, and sink in it did.

I was feeling my position alright, and it had never felt so good. I was rapt with it, but I dared not tell my face so until they had left! I could see their big guns rotating to take aim at my cheeky unsuspecting brother-in-law who was doubtlessly tucked up in bed. It was going as planned.

MERV - “Paul, it’s getting late (probably earlier than usual), perhaps we should be going?”

In all our visits, never did those priests leave our home so suddenly, it was like watching a scud missile land in the enemy’s camp. I will always cherish this moment.

They were out the door and gone, to interrogate Norm for covering gross evil, or perhaps to catch him quick enough before he sold all of that there sex stimulant! He might just share it with them! No no, not for Paul though, he had eight children in about as many years, and now has curvature of the spine!

Pip and I sat there, loving what Norm and Marion would be going through instead of us. Twenty three years later in the ‘Review’ of 2000-2004, I reminded Norm of this time, and the good laugh we had had on each other.

This Round was another KO for the poor. The poor were getting to enjoy this feeling!

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 12

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.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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 sometimes hilarious human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

Nev is careful but the cat comes out the bag this time

ROUND 11 (Part 1)

- Claim to be a Good Boy & the Aphrodisiac Stag -

For this visit the priests had their weapons fully loaded as usual, but we had nothing. We were completely in the dark. I was going to have to be quick off the mark to win this one, whatever it was. Priest Merv, and his wet nurse Paul, seemed to be sharing equally in the responsibility of this round, until it got to the crunch question, when Paul did the deed.

PRIEST - “Neville we just wondered if you had come to anything over not ‘feeling your position’?”

I just kept playing the game as before, careful not to buck the priesthood. Finally I repeated the same statement as in Round 8:

N. McC - “You will have to tell me.”

The response to my question was beyond belief. The background for the following debacle is as follows.

A few weeks previous, we were heading out for a picnic on a Sunday. It was picnics with the kids on the lonely weekends that kept us sane. On our way, we spotted my brother-in-law, Norm Clifford driving his bulldozer, on Sunday of all days! This was excommunication conduct! I leaned out the window and shook my finger at him (100m distant) pretending I was his officiating priest, YOU NAUGHTY BOY, making money on Sunday.

His response was to give me not the fingers, but the thumbs up! Pip and I laughed our heads off because we then knew he was ‘shut-up’ too. Marvellous! Perhaps we still had one friend or family member that had not turned against us. Our minds boggled at what misdemeanour had plunged him and my sister under assembly discipline, because he had always been (and still is in 2008) a ‘fringy’, i.e. one that cavorts around the extreme limits of the EB rules without copping a fatal shot.

The next day I hear a bulldozer trying to cross the tarsealed road next to my vineyard, which has to be done by placing timber planks under the tracks. I check out the machine and sure enough it is young Norm Clifford. I need to capitalize on this situation somehow. Two important messages hit me instantly:

1 - If he was ‘shut-up’, with no friends to talk to, perhaps we could secretly have a yarn, as we were 15ks out in the country. No priest ever came out here, where us tillers of the ground scratched out a meagre living. If caught, how could I justify it, because if Norm wanted to be a ‘un-shut-uppera’ (released), and uncharacteristically had a ‘spiro-turn’, to strengthen his repositioning within the fellowship he might just dob me in by confessing that I had approached him to be friendly. This would without doubt give him brownie points and guarantee Pip and I a further dozen visits. Another friend had done this to me in the past, so I was looking for a water-tight excuse. The penny dropped, I will do what priests do (first time ever for me), manufacture a Technical point to justify absolutely anything I want to think, say or do.

2 - I could justify running out to help him across the road, by moving the planks from the rear of the machine around to the front. This would save him from having to get off several times, and technically, this would lower the danger of a vehicle speeding down this straight road on a fine day with good visibility and crashing into a 10 ton bulldozer of which the driver had not seen in the middle of the road! Great I thought, first time I have taken a liking to this word called Technical. I jump on the Yamaha and putt out to the road.

How would he greet me? Maybe after 30 months of not seeing me, he might already have had a spiro attack and repented of his fringy ways and now be feeling his position, or worse still, he might have become one of those terrible priests himself! I jump off my bike alongside his machine and stiffened up as I made eye contact, not knowing what to expect. I am greeted with a beaming smile, my soul rises to the heavens in thankfulness, I still have one friend left on this earth. As Pip and I had not eaten or drunk with or hardly spoken to another person in 30 months, I cannot explain without weeping what that first smile meant to me, after every family member and friend were treating us like evil low-life’s.

N. McC – “Gidday Norm, how are you, how about I shift these planks around for you?”

- now to cover my ass in case he is still a priest:

N. McC – “It will make it safer if a vehicle comes along?”

- yeah right!

NORM – “yeah great”.

I carry out my safety duties with enthusiasm, wondering what will happen when I finished. I was still apprehensive, because if JHS (world leader) had changed the rules on working on Sundays, then Norm might just not be ‘shut-up’ at all, so he would be in a position of religious supremacy to rebuke me severely for – wait for it – not feeling my position – for being friendly to him. Good thing I had my trusty little Yam alongside, I could escape real quick if he came on too strong.

He pulls up onto the grass verge, and turns his machine off. Why has he turned the dozer off, could I be lucky in that he wants to have a chat? Surely not, anyway now I will know if he is a friend or a foe; just hang onto that beaming smile Norm, and he did. I feel my blood pressure lower immediately. We lean on the machine, and this is where the story begins.

In real life the paragraph above was not humorous. The Exclusive Brethren abuse system adulterates thinking and actions of good people to the point where you cannot predict the outcome of any situation, nor the level of cruelty. My suspicions above about Norm, are absolutely justified as 100’s of excommunicated members would witness to. He was a friend this day, but he could have been a murderous wolf working under cover for the Exclusive Gestapo, set up to take advantage of me personally.

From memory, he was ‘shut-up’ for arguing with my former priest, M. Hamilton, over bulldozing areas. In case a member of the EB reads this record, I will not reveal what we talked about (otherwise they might visit him 28 years later for not telling them all the truth in 1980) other than what I revealed to the priests, so I pick up our conversation at this point:

N. McC - “you working on Sunday Norm, boy you will get yourself into trouble!”

NORM - “oh yer ha ha, why, wouldn’t you do that?”.

N. McC - “No Norm, I’m a good boy now.”

We both chuckle.

At this point, Norm has to also be very very careful in my presence, because if I am looking for brownie points to butter up my priests, no better way of doing this than pimping on someone else who is breaking the rules. There was premier points given to anyone who dobbed a family member rather than a non-family member, as this was deemed to be of greater moral courage. Many many families around the globe, were butchered in this wicked fashion, as family members were set against each other. So right now Norm’s blood pressure is lowering, synchronised with mine, because we are both smiling.

We spoke for about fifteen minutes and the EB’s were not mentioned once, we would never make fun of our devoted priests either! Finally the conversation included the following:

NORM - “Had a bit of fun the other day, got to go hunting and I shot a nice ten point (antlers with ten points) stag. He was in ‘velvet’ so I sold the velvet for $12.50.”

Antlers in velvet are sold to the Asians, who chew on the velvet for an aphrodisiac. Norm drove his machine away, it was a very pleasant chat.

So back I come to our priestly session, as they request I tell them why I was not ‘Feeling my Position’.

PAUL - “If you were ‘feeling your position’, why would you tell someone that you are a good boy now?”

My brain went into overdrive for a minute, why would I say such a dumb thing? I nearly accused them of not telling the truth. Fortunately I just kept saying my memory was not working. After the usual long silences and many requests for me to remember, they let the cat out of the bag – or perhaps the culprit out of the bag.

PAUL - “You told Norm that you were a good boy.”

I was totally exposed, and I could just see Norm and Marion, after exposing us to their priests, laughing their heads off, knowing that the priests couldn’t wait to get back to me because they now had a really serious issue, a life threatening issue to lay at my feet.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 11 (Part 2)

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.

Order the Book! Neville and Philippa have self-published a book of their experiences. Use the form below to contact them direct in order to receive further information:
[contact-form-7]

An Invitation! If you have a Personal Story of Life in the Exclusive Brethren, please consider sending it to us here at peebs.net. This website reaches thousands of people every month and there is no better way of telling our story than by describing it in human terms. We like to publish via installment and would work with you to maximize the publication impact.

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 sometimes downright sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

ROUND 10

- Not Feeling My Position -

This round turned out to be the most confusing of all, but had the most humorous ending. I was keen to meet them again after their KO in the last round, and see how they had recovered. As mentioned earlier, there was no need to prepare morally for these mind-bending excursions, just an early night prior to the night of the visit so ones brain was in sharp focus – a few deep breaths for increased oxygen intake and we were ready.

I let them in and walked behind them to see if their tails were still between their legs from the previous visit. We sit quietly, there are deep breaths, Merv’s mouth is working, something is about to happen, and it did, with the most obnoxious cliché on earth:

MERV - “Neville, we feel that since you have been ‘shut-up’, you have not been Feeling Your Position.”

I nearly swore out loud. Another blinky mystery trip. How long will this one take, and it does start all over again, long pauses, clock chimes, belly rumbles, immediate attack of Alzheimer’s and tail between my legs this time.

Priest - “When you are under assembly discipline, if you want to get right, then you would act accordingly, in FEELING YOUR POSITION …

bugg—r my position

N.McC - “I am thinking, but nothing comes to mind right now.”

This cat and mouse game followed along the same pattern as for my interrogation about my worldly girlfriend. Caught on the spot, I could not think of anything that was a test of fellowship, or even just a little bit naughty. I was not playing dumb, I just did not know what they were talking about. So after an hour or so, -

Priest - “An assembly minded person would feel their position and the lord will help you to remember where you have fallen below the standard. We can give you more time to think about this.”

These power hungry men were desperate for a win after two devastating losses. You could see this written all over their faces as they rose up with dignity to leave – I could hear them thinking – take that McCallum, sweat on that one for a couple of months.

And sweat we did. We must have done something quite serious. We went back over our every move during the last two and half years; nothing. Perhaps it was something that happened in private – were they peeping in our bedroom at night? We knew of other couples who had been in trouble for sleeping together (and the ‘extras’ that this involves) while under assembly discipline. We were expecting these sensitive private matters to come up, as the priests feel they have the right to control all urges that are humanly pleasant during the ‘shut-up’ period.

Being ‘shut-up’ is a suffering position; but without having to attend 10 meetings a week, early nights and sleep-ins Sat and Sun mornings, we were having a ball, we had never had it better! It took about a year to catch up on the sleep we had lost during the previous 5 or so years, then we couldn’t believe the clarity of mind we enjoyed. Especially the time we could enjoy with our children. So what had we done that was so sinful without knowing it? We wondered if one of the prison guards while on a spy-hopping mission had spotted our little caravan parked up out in the country, or at the beach parked too close to worldly people – wearing short pants – skinny dipping?

These spying little would-be leaders were known for their slippery after-dark tactics. At our home we had noticed an EB spying on us at night, driving around with no lights on. We wondered which windows he was peeping in after the lights were dimmed, so I laid a formal complaint against spy-hopping and the poor beggar had to say he was sorry for it – it was quite exhilarating for Pip and I to have a turn at being ‘untouchable priests’ and to see humans bowing down to us and grovelling in repentance.

Spy-hopping is a surveillance technique perfected by killer whales for peeping over the edge of sheet ice (that has broken off the ice pack), to detect the whereabouts of a seal, including ‘shut-up’ seals!! The leader then signals to the pack (pod) to form a line and charge the ice piece to create a formidable wave which crashes over the ice piece and washes the seal off the other side while the killers duck under the ice (Assembly attack) to lynch the disadvantaged seal, before he can apologize for not offering himself as a meal, at an earlier date.

Exclusive Brethren Gestapo gangs and a pod of hungry Killer Whales, is there any difference? YES – the whales only tear their victims apart once, the Gestapo gangs have perfected the art of repeating their savagery, wave after wave, (includes psychological and emotional abuse) which for some of us has spanned more than 30 years, with more waves to come, but from bitter experience the ‘shut-up’ and excommunicated seals have now mastered the art of sticking to the ice better, knowing lives depend on it.

A major disadvantage that any ‘shut-up’ person had, was that the priests had spent months building a case against you, involving the entire War Cabinet, e.g., Terry Deck, Jumerbum Malcolm, Don Scarlet, JHS (world leader) and others, but the ‘shut-up’ person had to think while talking. Just before we were ‘shut-up’, an EB couple in Blenheim spoke to me, and wept over the way that Terry Deck and others had treated them while they were ‘shut-up’, telling me the details of their case. Evil bullies like those mentioned above, always gloat over picking on the weak, the poor and lame and the unsuspecting. The brother who wept with me, was a crippled man. From that night forward, I hated the motives of the Exclusive hierarchy with a bitter hatred. I took the advice my father (a hunter) gave me regarding bullies:

“They are like arrogant wild pigs, if you poke them in the face hard
enough and long enough with a pointed stick they will back off”.

I had tried this technique in Round 2 during our first private interrogation and it had worked. I started to create more pointed sticks.

It crossed my mind, should we confess to something that we had not done, just to get over with this. But I remnembered my father had once quoted J.T.sen ministry to me, that stated quite clearly ‘you do not bow to evil, by confessing something that you did not do’. So we decided to only tell the truth.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 11

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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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 sometimes downright sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

ROUND 9

- Sexual Promiscuousness (Concluded) -

A few months on and the next visit is booked. I warn Pip that if they continue for the third visit (spaning about 9 months), to shaft me about my past and ignore my truthful answers, I would deal with them. She decides to go to bed instead. I twig that if they could extract a sexual tid-bit out of me, they would be assured of an invite with the upper echelon to the War Command hideaway in Bristol. They were going to work hard for it.

All three of us glided across the room. I had given up ushering them to their favourite chairs, we were like cows drifting into our milking stalls, as we had done many times before.

If the girlie-thing was not on the agenda anymore, then I would keep my cool, if not, then I was looking for a fight.

PAUL - “Nev, we still carry the same concerns, but the lord (again early) is gracious and waits for us to remember and face our past, and be with the brethren in what we are going through.”

I thought: What a load of bullsh-t. I’m going to have you filthy minded creeps.

N. McC - “Paul, if you think I am a dirty filthy beggar then why don’t you tell me to my face?”

PAUL – “Oh no no Neville (head now level with ankles) I would never say that, I have never thought that about you.”

dribble dribble.

N.McC - “Well, SHUTUP then!”

The closest yet to a double somersault for Paul! As the dust settled, I saw two stunned jellyfish, looking as if they were about to do a runner or cry. They did what they were told, they ‘shut up’, and the ensuing silence is hard to explain. I remember the old clock chiming at least two quarter hours, as if we were waiting for a bomb to explode. I was on the verge of walking out and going to bed with Pip and leaving them to it.

This round was blown, a total defeat for them. They left, never to raise this matter again.

Never once did they respect the sovereignty of God’s right to forgive. Even if one had confessed and been forgiven years back, this was treated as null & void if the local perverts had not been stimulated with all the gory details, and then blurted it all out in the meeting to prove what thorough investigators they were. If forgiven and forgotten by Divine Persons, why would a mortal priest want to dig it all up? There is rejoicing in heaven over one repenting sinner, why would the church not want to rejoice also? These filthy abased criminals, were trespassing in Emmanuel’s land, disguised in ‘priestly robes’.

Pip and I were getting worried that perhaps there was no way out of our predicament. It seemed that one thing after another was thrown at us and yet, the very matter we were ‘shut-up’ for, had hardly, or never been mentioned. We realized from this, that all their smiles and good manners before we were ‘shut-up’, was a mirage.

If all the matters now being raised were prior to our actual time of being ‘shut-up’, then why were they not raised earlier? At that point then the penny dropped: perhaps this was one of those mystery things called ‘an ambush’?

If so, then so far it had failed for them.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 10

Read all published installments of the McCallum story.

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 sometimes downright sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

The priests try some digging...

ROUND 8

- Sexual Promiscuousness (Continued) -

We are seated as usual, and it’s like the start of a play or a musical; the lights are dim, all goes quiet, all movement ceases. I expect to hear a rushing noise as a spirit descends to empower the two sexually over-active Pharisees sitting in front of me. Pip and I felt like two kids who had been caught in a haystack being over friendly with each other.

Look out! Paul is starting to fidget, up come the guns again!

PAUL - “Merv and I were just wondering if the lord (lord is getting earlier) had been working with you to help you to remember any matters that need assembly clearance.”

Time to go dumb, no just honest.

N. McC - “No he doesn’t seem to be, I still can’t think of anything”.

PAUL - “We have been patient with you, and given you some months to go over and remember past matters. The lord is helping the brethren through with this purge, and we encourage you Nev not to hold back, we can go through this together”.

N. McC - “Well, because I can not remember anything, if you do not help me, then where do we go from here?”

PAUL - “when we face our histories with the lord, he helps us to become honest, and when we are honest, we can remember matters that need to be exposed”.

N. McC - “I am being honest, I can not think of one thing. You will have to tell me”.

The mind games above continued, with long stressful selahs until there seemed no end. At this point I expected the charge of lying, or the covering of evil to surface, but no, it was quite different, like something in distant history that had been forgotten about, that suddenly flashes in ones face.

PAUL - “One area of concern, is that when you were about 18 yrs old, you had a worldly (non-EB member) girlfriend, and we thought you might want to go over your involvement with her.”

Oh sh-t, after all this, I had forgotten something! I could not believe my ears. Their beady eyes were looking right through me, as if to say, after 7 Rounds locked in mortal combat ‘now we have got yuh’, but right away I knew these drooling perverts were in for a huge disappointment. I could almost see the hormones in their eyes dancing with glee. Paul’s head is erect for the first time and Merv’s mouth is opening and closing like a goldfish’s mouth. I now realised why they used the word, uncleanness earlier.

My defence started immediately, to restrict the arousing of priests.

N. McC - “No no, not at all. She was a Sunday school leader, an extremely clean-living person. I have nothing to confess.”

I had seen the odd pricked bubble over time, but this was a classic. Heads rotated downwards in disappointment. Long silence, and the old mantel clock chimes the hour.

PAUL - “Our concern is, is that she was a worldly girl, and Nev we do not want to leave anything unattended to, we encourage you to come forward and go over anything that the lord would not be happy with.”

At this point to shorten the story, I will say that the next hour or so was a repeat of the above. Continual interrogation to unearth some sexy ‘tid-bits’. Because she was a worldling, then she had to be a whore. I nearly put my foot in it by saying that some of the exclusive girls should take a leaf out of her book when it came to favours; but what a rat’s nest that would have opened up. I would have been excommunicated for not pimping on my friends earlier.

I felt angry at their unjustified attack on a person that they had never met, and the evil of judging a person’s motives. I felt like asking them, why didn’t they come and help me clean up the used condoms that I found thrown around my apple pack house after we had a Exclusive Brethren wedding on our orchard property?! If I had mentioned that one, I would have jumped from the frying pan into the fat, because it would have taken another 20 visits to prove that the used condoms were not mine; married men were not allowed such evil coverings. Imagine what a field day all the priests would have had sorting this one out; would have kept these horny old beggars occupied until they reached the ripe old age of impotence. On the above wedding night mentioned, you certainly did not have to be in your own home or even married to have fun during that wedding.

It may have been during this visit, that a series of musical tummy rumbles (during a Selah) sent Pip into uncontrolled giggling. It started me off as well, which was not morally compatible with the seriousness of the moment. Here I was, about to lose my life for bonking some worldly whore, and my wife, my only lifeline was killing herself laughing at our priest’s stomachs. It was the second time I had to do a ‘Paulie’, with head between knees to avoid being told that I was not feeling my position.

After more questioning they left in the usual manner.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 9

Read all published installments of the McCallum story.

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 sometimes downright sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.

ROUND 7

- Sexual Promiscuousness -

The background for this sinister turn needs to be covered here.

About this time, the Neche Butcher embarked on one of his vicious marauding raids to further cement his control within his dictatorship by decreeing a Purge. This involved every historical misdemeanour being exposed in front of the entire fellowship, including the children. Any past sins repented of, forgiven and forgotten through the blood of Christ, were wickedly investigated and then dragged out into the open by the Wolf Pack for all to perv over, then cast the naughty culprit outside the camp (shut-up or excommunicated) for seven days or more. The sexually perverted priests must have had a ball. This was the first Exclusive Brethren public sex education, and it was free. The unmarried and very young could not believe their ears. The most intimate functions of the human anatomy were explained by way of repentance. The mind boggles at how this would have inflamed the carnal desire of some priests handling these colourful acts of human intimacy when they got home with their wives and blew the candles out. Is my imagination running a little wild? Not at all. I will recount my conversation with an ex-Gestapo member (now ‘out’ of course and name withheld) who was in this blood and guts campaign:

“Two priests undertook an investigation into the sexual cavortings of a young (not married) couple. During this filthy-minded interrogation, they extracted from these young folk, all the different body positions that they had tried during love making. That night, pervert 1 (priest) and his wife were staying in the same house as pervert 2 (2nd priest) and his wife. After pervert 1 and 2 were settled into their bedrooms, there was so much noise and laughter echoing out of pervert 1’s bedroom, that in the morning pervert 2 inquired of pervert 1, as to why so much hilarity was coming from pervert 1’s bedroom during the night? The reply – ‘we are just trying out all those different position we extracted out of Jack and Jill yesterday’.”

After my informant had relayed the above to me, he stood in front of me and openly wept because of his involvement. I believe there is a need yet, for unprecedented weeping among filthy hypocritically-minded priests.

Unbeknown to Pip and I at this point, we were being rounded up for the same fate. If I had known this, I would have hired a blue-movie for our two sexually over-active priests and sent them off home really early to show their wives! This would have given Pip and I an early night too!

The bell for Round 7 has rung, and our visit has now commenced, and when seated, I notice things look more serious than the last half dozen visits; just when we expected things to be getting brighter. Paul’s head is bowed suspiciously low, too early in the visit for this, surely. Merv’s mouth is more settled than usual, that meant that this next matter was Paul’s baby. Paul’s head sways from side to side, and without looking up, he fires the first shot, and for once it was not aimed at my bike:

Paul – “Nev, the Lord (here is that Lord again early in the piece) is searching all the assemblies with a purge, and many have come forward with matters that have not been brought out into the assembly before. Matters that go back for many years. We would love you to be involved with the brethren and be free to bring out anything in your past that is sinful so we can go over (perv perv) any matter with you”.

Things are real serious; Paul is almost prostrate on the floor and Merv is doing the eye-swirl act again until I feel giddy. I have to again choose one of three options: play dumb, duck or repent. Playing dumb had worked several times before, I was becoming a professional at this game of ‘fake it till you make it‘.

N. McC - “I am sure the Lord wants me to be transparent, but I am struggling to think of anything”

– long silence of many minutes –

Paul – “The brethren are responding to the ‘purge’, things are being cleared, including matters of uncleanness. Nev, the Lord wants everything out in the open and the ‘man of god’ has laid this upon us all”.

Things were turning a little sexy at this point, so his head hadn’t come up for a breath yet. I would have paid anything to know what he was thinking.

N. McC - “I am sure He does”.

Another long silence, with the clock chiming to break the boredom.

Paul - “Wouldn’t you like to feel being ‘with the brethren’, as going through this together? Everything out in the open”.

N. McC - “Yes I would if I had anything to offer”.

Paul - “You know Nev, if we want to be honest, the Lord (lots of ‘Lords’ in this round) helps us with our memories”.

N. McC - “I am sorry, but I must have lost my memory”.

I was praying I would! I was starting to get tingly toes by now. Things were getting more serious by the minute, where were we heading?

Paul - “We don’t want you to be left behind, when the Lord’s Servant has set something on for us all to be involved in. Anything can be repented of and we want to encourage you to bring out anything that the Lord has not been happy with”.

By this time in the evening, with the long, deathly serious selahs, it was probably midnight. I remember during one of these visits, the old clock chiming the 4 quarters leading up to the full 12 bongs of midnight. These pauses were great, not only for the annoyance factor, but the bongs sometimes interrupted the priest’s spiel. I had milked the dumbness-facade to the limit, I now had to finish the night saying something that would please these jerks, something that was not threatening and definitely not repentance, but kind of submissive, like a cry for help. This would give me more time.

N.McC - “You will have to help me, I can’t remember anything that needs repenting of”.

With all heads bowed low to the earth, we had reached a stalemate. I could not remember anything worth grovelling about and I knew that they did not have one single charge that they could lay against me, well that was what I thought, but I was wrong.

Paul - “Well perhaps we should give you more time, and come back again. The Lord will help you to remember Nev, and bring conviction about what the Lord’s Servant has set on”.

Having sat motionless for about three hours, our bodies creak and groan as we all stand up slowly together. In true sanctimonious form, these Pharisees silently glide out into the night with heads still bowed, with hardly a good-bye. What do we do now? This round was 50/50. Two major issues exist, one is obvious and the other is about to surface. The obvious issue is theirs, i.e. the enemy (me) is still entrenched. The other issue is my problem, i.e. if, after another few months or visits, my memory does return, and I do confess to a misdemeanour, I would be hung and quartered for the unforgivable sin of having covered evil, because I had said I knew of nothing. On the other hand, if they have evidence of a misdemeanour on me, then I’m gone, for lying. Despite playing dumb in public, I was doing some serious thinking in private. Two visits over several months, goading me to vomit up corruption, could not be ignored. Maybe someone had dobbed me in because I had dobbed them in, some years back, because the whole evil cult system was political at every turn. Maybe some dear brother was collecting brownie points to attract the interest of those in control of the invites to Bristol. I was beginning to feel like the poor chook that was sick, cowering in the corner while being slowly pecked to death while others feed their faces.

It was obvious that I would have to say sorry for something, and it would have to be sexual. Pip and I scanned back over our moral histories, which didn’t reveal anything really exciting at all, unless it happened in our sleep somehow, in fact nothing that would have tickled the fancy of these horny perverts. They were after the real juicy stuff to liven up their dull uncreative lifestyle. I could not think of anything, even going back for years, that was serious enough for public interest, interrogation and humiliation. Jesus Christ my Saviour had not only forgiven my sins, but had put them as far as the East is from the West and forgotten them for eternity. Why was some other sinner so excited to know the details? While single at 24 years, being shy and ugly, I had only gone out (think the girls asked me !) with two young sisters (sorry, names withheld !), who were very very moral, who I respect to this day. I will never forget the many teenaged clean pranks we enjoyed, but if I confessed these, it would dobb in my friends, and enemies, including Paul Fisher my priest. Ha Ha, now here is my chance, is it worth the risk?! No, I remembered those in my position who had lost their lives for, bucking the priesthood, but my mind scanned back over the past functions of my lowly bowing priest Fisher, (thought I should quote some in case he reads this) and I thought of the vandalism he (and myself) dealt to Malcolm Beatson’s property just before the 6am Worship meeting. As Malcolm has now passed away, I hope priest Fisher confessed and paid his dues in time; and the young sister who exposed my priest (1965 approx) for his inappropriate laying on of hands!! One day, who knows, imagine it, I just might be my priest’s, priest, and bring some colourful acts of remembrance back into their lives!

Maybe I could confess a really hilarious prank and make my priest’s laugh, but J.Taylor senior, (world leader in the 1950s) said that if you laughed while in the power of the Spirit you lost power, so I did not want to weaken the power of spirit-filled priests! If I could spit out something filthy, perhaps they would bless me, lay hands on me and leave.

As we waited, with life in the balance, we had plenty of time to spend with our children, no meeting every night, the odd sleep in, but we were not excommunicated, so we did not feel cut-off completely.

To Be Continued

The next installment of Cast Outside The Camp will be: Cast Ouside The Camp – Round 8

Read all published installments of the McCallum story.