A powerful high-quality and full-length 2006 Australian TV documentary about the Exclusive Brethren that explores the nature of the cult.
This Australian Broadcasting Company – Four Corners episode first aired Mon Sep 25 2006.
Further information and background interviews and details can be found on the Four Corners website:
Separate Lives explores the cult known as the Exclusive Brethren (2006)
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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 sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
Nev experiences the EB 'Clone Mentality'
[Editor note:
This is a continuation of a conversation between the Exclusive Brethren priests and Neville. The priests have just made an outrageous accusation regarding the way Neville operates his small business and Neville has decided to push back.
If you want to refresh your memory as to the earlier interrogation, click here.
The previous installment will open in a new window.]
ROUND 14 (Part 2)
- Business (continued) -
N. McC – “How could I be righteous if I am still employing the same person?”
PRIEST – “It’s simple, you put the responsibility onto the manager. If he joins her to a union then you are not responsible for this error, and if he does not join her to a union then it is the manager not you, that is acting unlawfully. So whatever the manager does you can be righteous, yet still employ the same person.”
The deceit here was to create a technical cop-out, in that if an EB employer (like myself) was asked, “Do you employ union labour“, I could technically answer “NO“, because I only employed the manger/contractor, who did not legally have to be joined to a union.
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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 sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
Nev and Pip grew to hate the ominous sound of the priests shoes on the path as they approached the front-door
Nev and Pip grew to hate the ominous sound of the priests shoes on the path as they approached the front-door
ROUND 14 (Part 1)
- Business -
The trouble makers are returning, the click-click-click of their approaching heels on the concrete was like (other ‘outs’ have also stated this) listening to the high-boots of the Gestapo echoing louder and louder in the corridors as they approach the front-door.
We are sick of their faces. They arrive at the same time; they knock the same way every time; they glide across the lounge with no difference; they sit in the same chairs; the long silences are the same; heads bowed and curving spines the same as before; slobbery mouths still spitting venom and unintelligent crap; they rise up to leave the same; they would depart the same with a nod and identical movement of the mouth…
We were now looking for a change, we wanted to go forward in life. That was was perhaps closer than we knew, but there would still be some more surprises.
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The public pay for the barricades?
Australia’s Daily Telegraph is outraged today that an Exclusive Brethren school has landed more than AUS$9 million in extra government funding. The reason stated was that “rated one of the most disadvantaged schools in the nation, equivalent to an impoverished Aboriginal mission school“.
Why would this be newsworthy? Why shouldn’t a ‘disadvantaged’ private school receive unlimited public assistance as long as it meets the necessary requirements?
The answers to these questions can be found in looking at the reasons why the Exclusive Brethren have schools and their motivation for doing so.
It is a vital reason and a powerful motivation – it’s called Survival.
The Exclusive Brethren’s house is built upon a single principle – Separation from Evil. The easiest definition for this is that You are Evil and they are not.
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by Tim Twinam
Portions of “Old Habits Die Hard” were first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
The first scene I ever saw in the cinema - it terrified me!
The first time I ever went inside a cinema, I was with my school mates. We didn’t pay. Well, we did, but we had nowhere near enough for 12 individual tickets. So, with a plan worthy of the Marines, we improvised. We had enough between all of us for two tickets, so a brief lottery ensued.
The winners entered by the front door and a group of ten early teenagers stood quietly in the shadow of a fire exit doorway.
A few minutes passed and then the door clicked open. “Don’t come in all at once!” he hissed, “It’ll look too suspicious.” Frankly, one boy going to the mens room and eleven coming out, sounds fairly miraculous. We had one distraction on our side and that was the film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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by Tim Twinam
‘Be Ye Separate’ was first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
Being Separate always was fundamental to the Exclusive Brethren. As a child it was an unquestioned part of our existence, I knew of no other way. The family was enough because it was a huge Family. The Family was more than my parents and five younger sisters, it included all Exclusive Brethren everywhere.
As a teenager, long before the Aberdeen fiasco, I was aware that I could travel to almost any UK town and to many other countries around the world and would always be able to find a friendly door upon which to knock. Once announced as a brother belonging to the Sevenoaks Local Assembly, I would be given a welcome and immediate unconditional hospitality.
This was always the greatest aspect of the Little Flock. We shared a commonwealth of each other. We were the Church. We were the Bride. We, the ‘Un-named’, were the lonely banner-wavers of the only Truth in an evil world. We looked after each other.
From the time that an invited audience of local brethren gathered in a room to witness the complete immersion in warm water of a week-old infant, a new member of the church was added to the list of the Beloved. Each child was nurtured and became the spiritual responsibility of the wider community. I answered to my parents of course, but I was also expected to be subject to all members of the assembly. Well, some more than others if I’m honest.
From the earliest age the boundaries were carefully explained. I remember the time that an older relative told me firmly not to use a drinking fountain in the park because “Unclean people drink from there, dear.” I must have been between three and four years old. Evil was portrayed as a disease that we would be damaged by, if we allowed ourselves to come into contact with it. Eating with others was not a problem in the pre-school years because we were only ever in the family environment. But all that changed when we entered the public school system. At that time, during the Taylorite 1960′s, there was no such thing as an Exclusive Brethren school.
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This letter from the Collected Writings of J.N. Darby displays the origin of the harshness with which the Exclusive Brethren treat those whom they discipline.
Parts of this letter deal with JND’s view of setting up new ‘tables’ (forcing a division in a town) and also in how to view those who are no longer in fellowship. The entire premise in Darby’s viewpoint stems from the fact that he assumes only his church to be the witness in any one place. This is the very definition of ‘Exclusivity’ and many believe that this is the core problem of the Exclusive Brethren.
Just a few years before this letter was published, Darby set up a ‘new table’ in Plymouth. This was done to force a division in Plymouth and in turn led to the 1848 Bethesda Division where the entire Plymouth Brethren were ripped in two.
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The Exclusive Brethren today physically enforce the biblical concept of spiritual Separation
This 19th century document is probably the closest thing to a Constitution for the Exclusive Brethren. To this day, the Exclusive Brethren verbally use the title of this pamphlet in response to questions about their anti-social activities.
John N. Darby taught that a physical separation from the world was necessary for the Exclusive Brethren and this philosophy, together with his insistence upon central administration of the ‘Assembly’, were some of the early major influences behind today’s cult.
In typical Darby form, he broaches no criticism and allows no deviation. It must be done this way. His way is right. This is why many years later, Alfred J. Gardner, a London-based senior member of the Exclusive Brethren, wrote a paper on The Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth which extolled the development of the philosophy described in the attached document.
To those unfamiliar with the ways of the Exclusive Brethren and who baulk at the thought of trying to understand Darby’s words, we will attempt a quick paraphrase:
The established Church (Roman, Anglican, in fact most other established churches) has fallen into Apostasy (disagree with our teachings – this is Bad).
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John Nelson Darby (JND)
A highly detailed and meticulously recorded narrative of events at and surrounding Ebrington Street in Plymouth during 1846 written by John Nelson Darby.
Although JND states in the first paragraph that the narrative is not aimed at “clearing up one’s own grounds of conduct…” it is nevertheless a comprehensive document that seeks to place the writer as far above the events as possible.
Much of the described conversation and events in this often fascinating document seems petty today – a little more than two educated and powerful men bickering at each other; but at stake was a growing new movement and a sphere of influence that was starting to spread internationally.
No matter whether Newton (often referred to as ‘Mr. N’ by JND) was a heretic or heaven-forbid, doctrinally incorrect, it was John Darby who instigated the eventual division and history shows he did so with extreme predjudice!
“I had rather see my child die than be under the moral influence that rules at Ebrington Street.”
- JND
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Exclusive Brethren Schools
The following extracts are from Sect pupils in a class of their own, The New Zealand Herald, published on Sunday May 9th, 2010.
This furore commenced on May 2nd, 2010 when a former Exclusive Brethren school teacher was fired for using a non-approved textbook. The fired teacher spoke of clauses within her employment contract that includes proof that the cult attempts to prevent any of their children from going onto university education.
Why? They’re scared!
Imagine a school whose books had words blacked out or pages removed and large parts of the curriculum – particularly anything to do with puberty and sex – was simply not taught.
A school where teachers received unexpected late-night visits at home to check on their moral probity.
And where all aspects of school life are governed in every detail by a sacred text, but a committee has absolute discretion in deciding how to interpret it.
It may sound like the worst excesses of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Iranian mullahs, but this is the prevailing orthodoxy in 15 Westmount schools across the country run by the Exclusive Brethren.
The Exclusive Brethren have replaced conscience with rules and directives. They do not practice faith, rather they separate themselves from society. They do not allow the strength of character that is built by learning right from wrong and the normal development of self-control – instead, they rip out pages from books!
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