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.
“We feel you are a bad influence on the young people”
“We feel you are a bad influence on the young people”
ROUND 4
-125cc farm bike -
The next visit was about five months later. We were to be treated to another interesting turn of events. These priestlies were full of surprises!
M. Hamilton was nowhere to be seen and Merv Johnson walks in followed by his new ‘wet nurse’, Paul Fisher. M. Hamilton had been demoted (‘shut-up’ I think) for arguing with my brother-in-law over bulldozing rights in certain areas of Marlborough.
Paul Fisher was my age, and after several years of out-squirming us reprobates, he was near to achieving his goal of becoming an ‘ordained’ priest, so here he was eyeball to eyeball with me at my door. One trait that had enhanced his rise to Levitical glory was his ability to produce two faces on the same head. He had one face for outside the meeting room (quite normal as faces go), and another for when preforming a religious roll either inside during the meetings or when preforming as a priest while on official duties away from the meeting room. This trait I detested, and was not about to enjoy.
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 deep, insightful, personal human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
ROUND 3
- Trusteeship – Caravanning -
Seven months on and the phone rings: we were not excommunicated after all, because the priests want to visit us again.
In thirteen months of being ‘shut-up’ (other than at my work place and Pip buying supplies), we had only spoken to two brethren members, which were T. Deck and M. Hamilton at our first priestly. Trying to hold a young family together for 13 months was a long time. To our amazement our tormentors were now M. Hamilton and Merv Johnson. Where was the Chief of the Gestapo (T. Deck)? Hadn’t he recovered from his belly flop in our lounge?
Continue reading »
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 deep, insightful, shocking and sometimes hilarious human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
ROUND 2
Keith Dartnell v Phillip Malcolm
After six months, the first visit is booked for our interrogation. We dress like brethren, check the magazine rack, kick the new cat outside (we weren’t allowed cats), dust and realign the Exclusive Brethren pedigree photo of the – five pure men of god – and peer out into the darkness to see how many are coming.
Would they smile, perhaps shake our hands, ask how work is going, tell us some Peeb gossip, have a whiskey, maybe forgive me on the spot? We were in for a shock, but so were they. This was to be the War Cabinet’s belly flop number two, but this time in private.
Continue reading »
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 deep, insightful and often shocking human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
ROUND 1
One law for the rich and another law for the poor
Background to our last meeting amongst the brethren in Blenheim.
Dave Fisher sold his bakery business in 1979 to a non-member, but retained the exclusive right to use a certain recipe. The new owner dishonoured this agreement regarding the recipe, by using this recipe, which goaded the local War Cabinet (Terry Deck and Malcolm Hamilton) into leading the charge to interrogate this new owner by visiting him, using a tape recorder during these visits, etc.
The above interference by these priests then spilled over into the meetings in a dramatic way. Almost every meeting was coloured by this issue, to the point where M. Hamilton finally threatened all of us in a ministry meeting, that if we did not join in the fight, for Dave Fisher’s recipe rights, then we were going to be in trouble. None of us were asked if we wanted to fight for Dave Fisher’s recipe problems, we were forced to join this ill-fated battle.
Two points were not adding up to me –
1 - Why was the assembly being forced into doing battle with something that was none of our business in the first place? It was a Fisher problem, and Fisher only.
2 - As JHS (James Symington, world leader) was being asked for his opinion, despite it being none of his business either, why did we not wait for his reply before threatening the brethren into making further decisions?
Continue reading »
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 deep, insightful and often shocking human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
Cast Outside The Camp by Neville and Philippa McCallum (2008)
CAST OUTSIDE THE CAMP
1095 DAYS (1979 – 1981)
REVIEWED (2000-2004)
by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Blenheim, NZ
WRITTEN 2008
AUTHOR’S EXPLANATORY NOTE
The motivation for this writing is explained in the text. A further inspiration for writing was the words of Bruce D Hales in a letter to the author.
“As to the truth coming out, let it, one is never afraid of the ‘truth’ and can never do anything against it.” – Bruce D Hales
If this was followed through with diligence and sincerity I could only expect that a happy restoration of relationships is inevitable. Fear of truth is preventing this. I hope this record brings healing and laughter rather than hardening.
Continue reading »
Breakout – David Tchappat’s escape from the Exclusive Brethren
June 1st, 2009
David has written an unique autobiography in that it represents the first published story of life in the Exclusive Brethren during the last 30 years. There have been a number of books written regarding life in the 1950′s and 1960′s, but David Tchappat was born after the Aberdeen Incident of 1970 and grew up in a brethren family in Australia under the iron-fisted rule of Neche, ND pig farmer James Symington and following his death, John Hales who is the father of Bruce Hales, the current Exclusive Brethren leader.
It is very much an Australian book – Aussie slang terms pepper the pages – non-Aussie readers will need to know the meaning of such words as ‘stoked‘, ‘bloke‘ and the visually effective ‘ropeable‘.
Written over a 5 year period, the autobiography covers the author’s upbringing in the Exclusive Brethren cult and his eventual departure as a 19 year old in the mid-1990′s. It is an important publication in that it is the most contemporary book detailing life within the EB.
Continue reading »