Growing up in a smaller Australian town we had quite a few PBCC members. When I was in primary school they still sent their kids to mainstream public schools. We always looked at them as odd. Taken out of sex ed. Taken out of any times where the teacher put on a tv show. Very quiet and only played with the other PMCC kids. At this time they home schooled for secondary school before opening their own line of schools. Between the skirts and head scarfs/hair ribbons I can pick out a PMCC girl/woman a mile away. Growing up I worked in a small family supermarket that was 1min walk from their main meeting hall. We use to have the cricket games on the tv. The PMCC boys were allowed to come to the supermarket but while they did they stayed crowding the tv to watch the cricket 😂 I’ve watched them grow significantly in the area from the simple beginnings of accessing public schooling and their meeting home from the outside was just a big shed to where they are now with private schooling and fancier meeting halls. If you want an Aussie perspective excultboy on TikTok is an ex member who left the church.
My family comes from a chapter of the Open Brethren in the midwestern US. There used to be a closed brethren group in the same town and we would get together (under the radar. That brethren group has disbanded since then, so I feel okay talking about it now) for socializing once a month. I heard about the high control that they experienced compared to our group and I hope that our fellowship was able to help some of their group find some relief. Not that we “open” brethren were much better. I left the brethren years ago and only occasionally interact with old friends, so I had no idea about what has been going on recently! I am devastated to hear about the mistreatment your guests experienced. I cannot imagine how awful it was to live through. I’m so sorry! My heart goes out to you both and your stories reinforce my decisions to leave. Thank you for your courage in sharing.
Yay!!! Cheryl and Richard are awesome! Craig Hoyle from New Zealand might be keen to talk to you - he put out an autobiography at the end of last year, I’m reading it now 😊 he’s gay and became a reporter for one of NZ’s big newspapers and has exposed a lot of the brethern stories
Wow Cheryl's story. its so moving to see someone so close to home to me going through such horrific things. i grew up with a lot of hutterites and ex hutterites. Spiritual abuse leading to sexual abuse is such a real thing no matter where you live.
Thanks for having this episode. What crazy similarities between the brethren , FLDS and mainstream LDS church. I’ve been out of the lds church for 7 months now and I’m hoping my husband follows me. I’m considering showing him this episode. Maybe this would help open his eyes to the cult like control of the church we were born and raised in. Thanks all for sharing this message, and Sam and Melissa thanks for all you continue to do. It’s so needed and appreciated. 💕
PB in Australia are sooooo rich. All the men drink heavily, the women buy up whiskey when it's on sale. And the temper and yelling from the men at the kids is abuse. I have some across the road...
They’re very rich in New Zealand, too. All alcohol is top shelf and they drink like you wouldn’t believe - I read a book about them, apparently they encourage drinking because it loosens the tongue. Their houses are massive and very new, too.
Hello from Edmonton! I was curious so I checked ... Pro-West Investigations is still an operating company in Calgary and Stu Morse is listed on their website as their Managing Director. 😆🤣😆🤣
@@PaulaRoberts-q6j Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. They used to be called the Exclusive Brethren and rebranded themselves PBCC due to a charity status issue
Im sorry, but i cant imagine how you think these 2 cults are very bible based.. if it was bible bases, it would never be what it is now. It sounds like they choose 1 scripture from the bible, twist and perverse it, and base their religion on it. I feel a bit offended that you said your cult is bible based, let alone, Christian...
Well, the Brethren beliefs are supposedly Bible-based, although we know the leaders twist scripture to manipulate their church members. They're taught that the leader is the final word -- a lot like Catholics and the Pope -- no matter what the Bible says, if the Pope says it -- his word trumps Bible. I grew up in a little town of many Exclusive Brethren. These people need our prayers. Many of them love the Lord and just want to live right, but they're brainwashed. And the intense fear of leaving everything they know is horrible. It's those high up the echelon who are to blame. They get their church members into such debt by loaning money for businesses and expensive homes -- and they feel trapped. And any who do have the courage to leave are insanely harassed with threats, letters, phone calls, etc. It's hard on them. So pray for them, even though it's easy to condemn.
My family live near were some breatherens are in western Australia. My mum said some left but stayed in the town. Think the breatherens live just outside of town
A very interesting comparison of religion riddled with corruption. And similar methods of implementation of their rules and practices. I got out from EB before it became PBCC as a young person. What I bore witness to was clearly even to me not morally correct. But there was a good part of being brethren, before the rot set in. It was to be found in the rank and file brethren, those who didn’t take a lead, were not interested in being “somebody” or a person of influence over brethren. What was to be found there was fairly simple believers, genuinely interested in scriptural truth and looking for help, which could be obtained, discussed freely, and put to use. The narcissist element came in the early 1960’s from ambitious Australian brethren, who recruited brethren with similar narcissism who became their disciples and enforced their agenda on unsuspecting brethren, which ultimately resulted in the complete control of financial matters, employment, schools, every aspect of brethren life coming under coercive control and power, with the threat of excommunication and family breakdown ever present. The corruption was exposed in 1970 with the leader at the time being found in bed with a woman, not his wife at Aberdeen Scotland, where he had been leading meetings, which had turned into a riotous session of bad language, blasphemy, and very uncharacteristic behaviour. The leader was in a late stage of alcoholism, which may help explain but not excuse the behaviour. The bedroom incident which was discovered by my father, and another brother and faithfully reported to local brethren caused the whole matter to be disclosed and from that point forward those that believed the witness removed themselves from fellowship. There were only 2 families in Aberdeen at the time who chose to remain loyal to the leader. Many in Scotland removed themselves from fellowship, along with a significant number of English brethren. However many outside of the UK and a few from England were influenced to remain 100% behind the leader, who by this time had returned home and concocted a story that was incredibly thin, that he had been ambushed in my home by opposers of his, and that he had done nothing wrong. Clearly in his mind there was nothing wrong with having a naked married woman half his age in his bed. But some believed him, and his story was seized upon by his supporters who immediately and frantically contacted brethren and promoted this cover story. In simple terms a pack of lies. That is what PBCC is based on in recent times, since 1970. Lies, ambition and coercion. The ambition has resulted in a business empire, dubious in many aspects, and this particular aspect of church business is now under investigation by the Australian Tax Office, who have finally stepped in to uncover the money laundering and fraudulent practices of PBCC. Their political activity in more than one country has reached the heights of scheming to remove a sitting Prime Minister, and there is evidence of widespread fraud in the recent pandemic with PBCC at the heart of it. To say nothing of the mistreatment and abuse of differently abled people, young children exposed to sexual abuse on a scale that is more common than in many parts of society. It is nothing short of evil.
Great interview. I'm definitely going to have to check out this podcast, especially since they have sects here in Canada. I went to university with a guy who was Brethren, he said. But I have no idea if it was this group or some other group.
There is also Mennonite Brethren, which is completely different. The Plymouth Brethren in my area unofficially are called open (or loose) brethren (they have the chapels) or closed brethren (they have the halls), but they still often socialize between the groups.
Rapid Relief is very well established in New Zealand and have had a presence helping out in recent natural disasters - including the flooding in the cyclone in Hawkes Bay in particular, February 2023. They may have changed their name but they’re still very much exclusive, they will always be exclusive brethren to me.
@utuberhoda it's like using inclusive language - same meaning minus annoying one side of the conversation. I'm trying to converses with the "cults" who come knocking on my door, calling their religion/lifestyle a cult doesn't work, saying that I find spific behaviours cultish is softer. ATM I'm saying that it concerns me without sounding too alarmed. Now I have words I can use
My family background was open brethren but we moved when I was 3 and there weren’t any chapels close by so we went to evangelical churches so interesting to learn about this. I thought there was just one Plymouth brethren. This exclusive is much different than my parents open brethren church (we travelled every couple months and went to the chapel) a lot I could say about it, and one thing though, he mentioned a comment that Christianity and Mormonism have so much in common and you probably know, that evangelical Christianity is vastly different from LDS doctrine. So different. Even though the open brethren chapel my parents used to go to (subsequently, all my cousins and aunts and uncles went- and my mom had 13 siblings- they don’t believe in birth control-so all my cousins went and it wasn’t a cult like exclusive brethren but so strict that most of my cousins went a little crazy and were super rebellious) my family was sort of the black sheep because my parents let my sisters and I go to dances and listen to secular music.
Sam and Melissa, please, please please interview Elissa Wall from Short Creek. Just watched her on Mormon Stories and would love to see her on your show. You have to know her!
Aleister Crowley "the wickedest man in the world" went to a PBCC school in Cambridge, which was where I was born and raised. He attributes his descent in to the occult to the PBCC headmaster of the school, H. D'Arcy Champney, who he described as a sadist. The PBCC hymn book still has a hymn by Champney. PBCC "man of God" James Taylor Jr's brother also went to the same school as Crowley. Crowley is by far the most famous and influential alumnus of the PBCC school system.
@@klondikepapers Interesting! Brings it right down to the seed. I was going to say that it would seem to give one great insights into his trajectory in his 'spiritual' path. As I go, quite often I've known bits and pieces of a lot of different things which makes me not a particular 'expert' on most topics. I don't seek to be one anyway. Over the years I have looked into a lot of things. I've been connecting dots you know. Yes, the wickedest man that anybody knew of that's for sure! I never knew that he actually came right out and attributed his course into the occult to PBCC/Headmaster.
Only tax dodgers love tax dodgers. Honest hardworking people have to pay more tax to cover the deficit. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. By evading $millions in tax every month, the fabulously rich PBCC is stealing from ordinary working class people like construction workers and restaurant servers who pay their income tax on every payslip, and adding to the cult's already obscene wealth. Save your sympathy.
