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Cheryl takes a stand by naming the lawyers behind efforts to silence critics. Discover why accountability is now center stage. The legal battle heats up June 18th. Watch podcast 172 for full story #plymouthbrethrenchristianchurch #rapidreliefteam #PBCC #exclusivebrethren

#unchosen I have to watch this, when we lived in the Uk we had a family that were Plymouth Brethren they were way weird, all sorts used to go on in that house 😟

On the heels of the global outrage over the PBCC pet ban, Bruce Hales isn't backing down. Instead, he's reaching back into the archives and resurrecting some of his most infamous ministry from 2003. And he didn't do it once. He did it two Thursdays in a row. That tells you this isn't about nostalgia or revisiting church history. It's about re-establishing boundaries and reminding members exactly where the lines are. The reaction inside has been unlike anything I've seen in years. Members are questioning, families are arguing, young people are pushing back, and priests are being left to explain how rules from 2003 are supposed to work in 2026. Some members think Bruce Hales has completely lost touch with reality. Others see this as the "door" they have been waiting for: their Aberdeen moment all over again. Meanwhile, parents are scrambling to contain the pushback happening inside their own homes as younger members hear teachings that many never experienced the first time around. How extreme are these rules? Imagine being told that entering a restaurant is a spiritual breach because worldly people use the same door. Imagine being told that a football stadium is off limits because worldly people walk through the entrance. Imagine being told that a swimming pool, skating rink, or public event becomes sinful simply because you're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary members of society. That isn't an exaggeration. Those are Bruce Hales' own words. Head to 5:36 for the first meeting and hear the full audio for yourself. Then jump to 1:24:40 for the second recording, where the separation doctrine becomes even more explicit. Many insiders believe Bruce Hales is deliberately creating an Aberdeen-style moment, forcing members to choose a side and exposing who is prepared to follow him wherever he leads. Others believe this is a final attempt to tighten control before eventually passing the torch to the next generation of leadership. Whatever the motivation, one thing is clear: these recordings are not the words of a mainstream Christian church. They reveal a system built on separation, conformity, and control. Judge for yourself. But to us, this is about as culty as it can get! #plymouthbrethrenchristianchurch #pbcc #exclusivebrethren #rapidreliefteam #OneSchoolGlobal Get A Life Ep.171: Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Cult Leader Double... youtu.be/g4e-ywtXx3U?si… via @YouTube

Leaked Plymouth Brethren election campaigning document. The videos released by the Age are even worse (if you are Labor or Green you are a lowlife says one senior brethren member. If only we had a story of them doing similar in the UK.... eh Boris 😉

Is there any investigation into the all-consuming attempts by the #PlymouthBrethren at electoral interference in Australia’s democratic processes? This is a secret & regressive sect masquerading as a church with all the tax benefits this status bestows. @smh with thanks.

Secrecy, loyalty, discipline: Videos, texts blow lid on Brethren election conduct High-ranking church members have been caught on camera coaching volunteers to be evasive and aggressive, undermining the separatist religion’s claims it played no role in the federal election. Michael Bachelard May 30, 2026 archive.is/igLaC Detailed instructions and pep-up videos issued to Plymouth Brethren Christian Church booth workers during last year’s federal election have emerged, undermining the separatist religion’s claim that its members were acting independently of the church when campaigning for Peter Dutton. The extraordinary new evidence leaked to this masthead, including videos and a key document, reveal a highly co-ordinated, centralised campaign baked in secrecy, loyalty and evasiveness. The evidence has been sent to the federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, to inform its ongoing investigation into the last election, which is closely scrutinising the Brethren’s activities. As a charity, the church is prevented from engaging in party political activity. It risks losing its valuable tax-free status if its involvement in co-ordinating the pro-Coalition push could be demonstrated. The church formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren was labelled a “cult” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the campaign. It exercises a high level of control over every aspect of its followers’ lives, including recently ordering them to purge their households of pets. However, it publicly denies any role in organising the thousands of its members who campaigned for Dutton. The church’s submission to the parliamentary inquiry agreed that “many of our parishioners” were active but claimed: “Our church did not participate in the election nor co-ordinate the political involvement of those who did.” The new material obtained by this masthead shows that, in fact, the effort was run by people at the highest levels of the church hierarchy, confidants of the church’s world leader, Bruce Hales. They directed booth workers to echo Hales’s words as an election slogan, and election documentation issued to booth workers and distributed nationally insists “LOYALTY is paramount” and “CONFIDENTIALITY is mandatory”. Also undermining the church’s attempt to distance its members from the church is guidance from Sydney-based Hales, the church’s “Elect Vessel” himself. In words considered holy writ by his followers, he preaches that nothing they do in their lives can be separated from their roles as members of the Brethren “assembly”. “Assembly-minded persons would carry the feature of the house of God everywhere we go. So wherever we are, in any circumstance, in every detail of our lives, we’d be related to the house of God,” he preached to his followers in Trinidad in 2014. Former members of the church, speaking anonymously out of concerns for retribution, have told this masthead that a senior Brethren figure had agreed to appear before the committee but, after the hearing date was confirmed, had pulled out of the grilling. A key “guidelines” document issued to Brethren campaigners spells out the centralised and secretive approach to the work. This masthead has confirmed with multiple sources across the country that it was distributed by senior Brethren to electorate workers nationally. The document demands loyalty, confidentiality and evasiveness. “Loose lips sink ships. Project discussions in [Brethren] social settings is unacceptable … Remember to protect your family from information. Need to know principle applies,” the document says. It warns that its members should not create a digital footprint, saying, “No need for official records or documents”. “Protect what you care deeply about” – likely a reference to the church itself. “Stay out of trouble, stay out of sight.” It then schools church members in the messages they need to push on the polling booth, including being evasive about their membership of the Brethren. “You are a concerned business owner/team member and Christian worried about the future of Australia; You are supporting and volunteering for your local candidate ‘insert name’.” The “insert name” line is a demonstration of central organisation – a claim confirmed by multiple Brethren sources. In a series of videos, also leaked to this masthead, members of the church elite closely linked to Hales instruct people in how to campaign. Businessman Gavin Grace, who lives in Victoria and was co-ordinating the Brethren campaign in the marginal Sydney seat of Bennelong, was recorded delivering instructions about how to avoid discussion of being Brethren. Grace occupies an elite position in the Brethren hierarchy. He grew rich under COVID when his company, Westlab, made more than $500 million, including from federal government contracts. Westlab’s “independent auditor” in that period was church leader Bruce Hales. Hales’s family likewise benefited from COVID. Another company owned by Grace later hired Coalition health minister Greg Hunt as a special board adviser after Hunt quit parliament in 2022. In 2023, the Melbourne-based Grace paid $14 million for a mansion in NSW that ex-Brethren members, who spoke to this masthead on condition of anonymity, believe was purchased on behalf of Hales. The church denied this at the time. In his video address to booth workers, Grace issues instructions about how to respond to questions about the church. “Firstly, they might ask, ‘Are you Plymouth Brethren or Exclusive Brethren?’. The response would be, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to ask my religion. I’m volunteering for Scott Jung, and it’s my right to volunteer’. “Another question could be, ‘Has your church asked you to volunteer for the Liberal Party?‘. The response would be ‘No. I’m volunteering for Scott Jung today. I just love our country and want to help get Australia back on track. My religion has nothing to do with me volunteering’. “Another question they may ask is, ‘Are you voting?’. The response would be, ‘Yes. Everyone in Australia over 18 votes, are you voting?’.” Brethren typically do not vote, though that rule appeared to change, at least temporarily, during the election campaign. In the video, Grace appears to be reading from a script. Asked who wrote it, he told this masthead, “I would’ve written myself some notes so I knew what to say and didn’t start rambling.“ But virtually identical answers to similar questions were given across the country, including in the Perth electorate of Curtin, where a Brethren member was recorded on video answering, “everyone over 18 votes in this country”. Grace said in answer to questions that he had been a volunteer for the Liberal Party for more than 10 years, including in NSW, despite his Victorian address. “My church has nothing to do with my choices to volunteer for the Liberal Party,” he said. Another video obtained by this masthead shows wealthy NSW Brethren businessman Paul Humber geeing up volunteers in the marginal NSW seat of Robertson, using wartime metaphors to tell them how to “win” on the “battlefield”. “And don’t forget, Make Australia Smile Again,” he says, using a slogan coined by Hales when he kick-started his flock’s election activism last year in a message sent via the church’s “Global Media Stream”. Humber instructs volunteers to stake out a position as close to the polling booth as the electoral law permits, then “hold those positions”. “So, you’re strung out along the line ... don’t be intimidated, don’t hold back … Be strong, speak loud, speak assertive,” he says, his voice rising. “‘Put Labor last!’ Just tell them what to do on the way down ... get out there and have a good go, support one another, don’t give in, speak loud.” Most of the volunteers from Labor and the Greens were “low-lifes”, Humber says. The parliamentary committee is investigating multiple allegations of intimidation at polling booths, including by Brethren volunteers. One young mother – a survivor of domestic violence – gave evidence last year of running a “gauntlet” of Brethren men on a booth in Queensland as she shielded her small child from them. The Brethren men hit her on the head with Liberal Party pamphlets as she passed. “I felt really intimidated and unsafe – I just wanted to cry,” she told the committee. Asked about his instructions to volunteers, Humber told this masthead it was “standard for volunteers to use various tactics like those you mention, and they wouldn’t differ much between polling booths or political parties”. Humber said his own experiences on booths were “overall positive and pleasant”. Brethren spokesman Lloyd Grimshaw has consistently denied any church involvement in organising the campaign, and the church’s submission to the parliamentary inquiry late last year says: “To be completely clear – the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church does not campaign for, nor support, any political parties and did not organise or coordinate any volunteer efforts. “There were senior members of our church who said that they would be volunteering at the election … What followed here was a strong showing of volunteers from members of our church. But to say that was organised by the church would be wrong.” The chairman of the parliament’s joint electoral matters committee, Labor MP Jerome Laxale, told this masthead the committee had received “significant amounts of evidence that the Brethren were involved at scale at the 2025 election, despite not registering as a significant third party”. Independent teal MP Monique Ryan, a member of the committee, said her constituents, among others, “would love to hear from the Brethren about their rationale for campaigning in electorates like Kooyong, and the extent and nature of that activity”. Video source: The Age archive.is/igLaC #plymouthbrethechristianchurch #PBCC #exclusivebrethren #rapidreliefteam #OneSchoolGlobal

@victorshannock Yes, but the PBCC are only about 30% of the Exclusive Brethren. Just because the Sheringham group were exclusives doesn't mean they were PBCC.

@klondikepapers When living in Sheringham there were both the open and exclusive each with their own meeting places. I refer to the exclusive and yes it was some while ago but not as long as you’re suggesting

I have to put in a good word for the Brethren. I met with them as a teen in Sheringham. They were accepting, pious, great teaching, generous in charity I did receive a sense of the presence of the Lord. What people don’t like is they’re not “inclusive” but “exclusive”

You ever have a case that really REALLY makes you understand Lt. Col. Frank Slade's energy here? Well I got one. I'm taking a run at the 8th Amendment in the context of a school locking an autistic 5 year old in a closet to punish him. randazza.com/wp-content/upl…

The Plymouth Brethren leaders instructing their members to get rid of their pets is receiving growing coverage. Remember this is the cult saying only last year that they have no rules 🤷 Can you imagine the pain for children, families being told they must give up Dogs & Cats.

A heartbreaking look into the dark history of the PBCC. This survivor reveals the traumatic day the leading brothers forced families to destroy their own pets. Watch this gut-wrenching story as we revisit podcast 91 now that the PBCC has forced this "no pets" rule again. #PBCC

A chilling look at the Plymouth Brethren and their dark history of forced pet euthanasia in the 1960s. This cult’s rigid, cruel rules tore families apart. Watch this disturbing story here. #PlymouthBrethren #Cults #AnimalCruelty #TrueCrime

Plymouth Brethren Christian Church: This Christian sect wants you to purge your pets!! youtube.com/shorts/m6j1Z-b… via @YouTube

@DailyMail The cult that kills cats - see reddit.com/r/animalwelfar…

@DailyMail Cruelty to animals is a huge problem in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church reddit.com/r/flds/comment…

2001 Warren Jeffs banned dogs in the FLDS after a child in the cult was bitten. 2026 Bruce D Hales banned pets in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church after a child in the cult was bitten. In both cults multiple pets died Different cults. SAME BULLSHIT reddit.com/r/cults/commen…

In light of the new Pet Ban edict in the PBCC, we are revisiting Podcast 91 on animal abuse in this cult. A shocking case of animal cruelty has surfaced, exposing a disturbing pattern within the #PBCC. One man admits to weapon possession after a cat was shot with a crossbow.

In light of the new Pet Ban edict in the PBCC, we are revisiting Podcast 91. A chilling firsthand account exposes the dark side of the PBCC. This survivor recalls disturbing acts of animal cruelty that shed light on why the group bans pets. Watch the full story here. #PBCC

Why are these people so stupid? Why do people follow this stupid cult? Exclusive Brethren pet ban order sparks fears of global cull in sect, The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church smh.com.au/national/my-ch…

Sure you didn't... you didn't because now mainstream people know you did so you gotta pretend you didn't... classic cultic moves A prominent sect has denied telling members to euthanise their pets, but confirmed they have been urged to get rid of them. Members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, better known as the Exclusive Brethren, were told households needed to be "freshly cleansed" of animals after a relative of church leader Bruce Hales was attacked by a dog last month. 9news.com.au/national/exclu…