imported>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Books about Australian history to :Category:History books about Australia per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 March 6#Category:Books about Australian history

2026-03-21T22:24:11Z

Merging Category:Books about Australian history to Category:History books about Australia per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 March 6#Category:Books about Australian history

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{{Short description|2008 non-fiction book by Michael Bachelard}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Behind the Exclusive Brethren
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Behind the Exclusive Brethren.jpg
| caption = Book cover
| author = [[Michael Bachelard]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = Australia
| language = English
| series =
| subject = [[Exclusive Brethren]]
| genre = Non-fiction
| publisher = Scribe Publications Pty Ltd.
| pub_date = 2008
| english_pub_date =
| media_type =
| pages = 288
| isbn = 1-921372-28-1
| oclc = 261340893
| dewey =
| congress =
| preceded_by = The Great Land Grab
| followed_by =
}}

'''''Behind the Exclusive Brethren: Politics Persuasion and Persecution''''' is a non-fiction book by journalist and author [[Michael Bachelard]] about the group [[Plymouth Brethren Christian Church]]
, focusing on the sect in Australia. It was published in 2008 by Scribe Publications Pty Ltd. Bachelard first became interested in the organisation while a journalist for ''[[The Age]]'', after finding out that prior to the [[2007 Australian federal election]] the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to [[John Howard]]. He spent two years researching the group, focusing on its history, influence in Australia, and ties to the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] and to Howard. The book gives a historical background of the group's origins 200 years ago in Ireland under [[John Nelson Darby]]. Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally. The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including some of its more controversial methodology including [[excommunication]] of former members from their family still within the group. Daniel Hales, brother of the organisation's worldwide leader Bruce Hales, described the book as part of a trend of what he said were lies told about his group by critics and disaffected former members.

The book was a [[bestseller]] in Australia, and in November 2008 it hit number 8 on a list of top ten best-selling books in the country in political and social science books according to data from [[Nielsen BookScan]].<ref name=":0" /> The book received positive reception in books reviews and media coverage. ''[[The Sunday Age]]'' called it a "sober" and "well-argued" expose.<ref name="sussex" /> ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', called the book an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia".<ref name="elder" /> ''[[GayNZ.com]]'' characterised ''Behind the Exclusive Brethren'' as a "comprehensive reference work on the sect".<ref name="young" /> ''Media/Culture Reviews'' noted, "The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."<ref name="hogan" />

==Author==
At the time of the book's publication, Bachelard was a journalist for ''[[The Age]]'' newspaper.<ref>{{cite news | last =Bachelard | first =Michael | title =Sect attempted secret donations to Howard — Federal politics | work =[[The Sunday Age]] | publisher =The Age Company Limited | page =10 | date =21 September 2008 }}</ref> He began investigating the organisation in his capacity as a newspaper journalist.<ref name="power"/> Bachelard's first book ''The Great Land Grab'' discussed the ''[[Wik Peoples v Queensland|Wik]]'' and ''[[Mabo v Queensland (No 2)|Mabo]]'' cases, and was first published in 1997.<ref name="mcinnis" /><ref>{{cite book | last =Bachelard | first =Michael | title =The Great Land Grab: What Every Australian Should Know About Wik, Mabo and the Ten-point Plan | publisher =Hyland House Publishing Pty Ltd | year =1997 | isbn =1-86447-031-3 }}</ref> Bachelard became an [[investigative journalism|investigative journalist]] with ''The Age'' in 2006, and wrote about conditions in the workplace.<ref name="hogan" /> In April 2008, he became a senior reporter for ''The Sunday Age''.<ref name="hogan" /> Bachelard received Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Best News Report in 2008, for his reporting on [[WorkChoices]].<ref name="hogan" /> After discovering that prior to the 2007 election the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to [[John Howard]], Bachelard became interested in writing a book about the group.<ref name="elder" /> He researched the organisation's history, and focused on the version of the group in Australia; analysing its ties to the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] and to Howard.<ref name="elder" /> He spent over two years researching the organisation.<ref name="hogan" />

==Contents==
Bachelard discusses the Australian branch of the [[Plymouth Brethren Christian Church]],
a movement formed approximately 200 years ago by John Nelson Darby of Ireland.
<ref name="brethrenlift">{{cite news | last =Norington | first =Brad | title =Brethren lift veil on their exclusive lifestyle | work =[[The Weekend Australian]] | publisher =Nationwide News Pty Limited | page =005 | date =20 September 2008 }}</ref> The introduction emphasises the point that intense investigation should not be seen as vilification of the organisation.<ref name="mcinnis" /> He writes that since the organisation's beginnings in Ireland in 1827, it has maintained that the world external to the group is evil, and has kept a "doctrine of separation" from non-members.<ref name="mcinnis" /> Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally.<ref name="mcinnis" /> The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including its approaches to business and finance, as well as its methodology with respect to charity, Sunday services, and preparing the dead for burial.<ref name="mcinnis" /> Bachelard asserts that the group had "elements of cultishness", but had recently reduced its standards of stringency.<ref>{{cite news | last =Jackson | first =William | title =Brethren plans new school | work =Leader — Diamond Valley News | publisher =Nationwide News Pty Limited | page =007 | date =29 October 2008 }}</ref>

According to the book, wives are deemed second-class citizens within the organisation, and cannot hold positions higher than administrative jobs at companies owned by the group.<ref name="brethrenlift" /> The book describes the story of the treatment of Alison Alderton, an 85-year-old woman who was [[excommunication|excommunicated]] from the organisation.<ref name="conway">{{cite news | last =Conway | first =Doug ([[Australian Associated Press]]) | title =Brethren "sorry" over excommunicated sister | work =AAP News | publisher =Financial Times Information Limited | date =22 September 2008}}</ref> For twenty years, Alderton did not see four of her six children after she had been excommunicated by the organisation.<ref name="conway" /> During the 1980s, Alderton and her husband Bob had served within the organisation as senior figures at the group's location in [[Bathurst, New South Wales]].<ref name="conway" /> The author quotes former Family Court chief justice [[Alastair Nicholson]], who had said that methods used by the organisation to excommunicate family members were "abusive ... psychologically it's very damaging to the child".<ref>{{cite news | last =The Sunday Age staff | title =Just a sect, Exclusive Brethren is not above the law | work =[[The Sunday Age]] | publisher =The Age Company Limited | page =16 | date =12 July 2009}}</ref>

The author publicises a letter in the book that was written by the organisation in 2004 to [[Brendan Nelson]], the former minister for education in Australia.<ref name="patty" /> According to the letter, a survey of membership within the organisation found that individuals were in the "middle to upper levels of the socio-economic group", over the last few decades.<ref name="patty" /><ref>{{cite news | last =Dennehy | first =Kate | title =Brethren's Qld schools gain $3m in public funds | work =[[The Sun-Herald]] | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =9 | date =19 October 2008}}</ref> Bachelard writes, "Any funding system which delivers poverty-level funding to a group that boasts of its average wealth, needs to be reviewed."<ref name="patty">{{cite news | last =Patty | first =Anna | title =Brethren schools net $18m funding | work =[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =5 | date =2 October 2008 }}</ref> ''Behind the Exclusive Brethren'' describes how the organisation paid a private detective in New Zealand to put forth information claiming that the husband of politician [[Helen Clark]] was homosexual.<ref name="sussex" /> The book details methods of social control used by the organisation, including the usage of exclusion from the group as a threat used to police members.<ref name="sussex" />

The book reveals that members of the organisation had attempted to donate funds to the 2007 re-election campaign of [[Prime Minister of Australia]] [[John Howard]] in a way in which information about the financing would not have been available to the general public.<ref name="sectmembers">{{cite news | last =Australian Associated Press | author-link =Australian Associated Press | title =Sect members "tried to donate to Howard's campaign" | work =AAP News (Australia) | publisher = Financial Times Information Limited | date =21 September 2008 }}</ref> Individuals describing themselves as a "private group" had met with a senior figure within the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] in a hotel in Sydney, and offered him a significant amount of money by way of an anonymous donation.<ref name="sectmembers" /> The book's source recounted the events: "They said 'We are a private group'. I asked them if they voted. It was a testing question. They said they didn't. It was a very short discussion."<ref name="sectmembers" /> The organisation's members are instructed that government is controlled by God, and they are told not to vote in elections.<ref name="sectmembers" /> "We're in the business of ideas and so are the Exclusive Brethren. I regard many of the party's views and those of the Exclusive Brethren as inconsistent. What the [Liberal] Party stands for should not be confused in the mind of the electorate by the acceptance of donations from fringe groups. In my view, if you accept this money, you're arguably accepting some of their opinions," said the book's source, explaining that he had turned down the offer of funds from the organisation.<ref name="sectmembers" />

==Response by organisation==
Daniel Hales, brother of the organisation's worldwide leader Bruce Hales, described the book as part of a trend of what he said were lies told about his group by critics and disaffected former members.<ref name="brethrenlift" /> He said such criticism showed it is "open season to kill us".<ref name="brethrenlift" /> "We're happy to live our lives in anonymity, just quietly in our neighbourhoods in our low-key way. We're quite happy to have our beliefs questioned, ethically debated, and points of religion looked at. That's not a problem. We don't mind being criticised. We don't even mind being despised because of it. But once it starts to be charged that we're acting criminally, we're acting illegally, we're acting immorally, we're acting against society, then we felt that we really had to put our point of view. We felt that it wasn't fair to our members," said Daniel Hales to ''[[The West Australian]]''.<ref name="brethrenlift" />

==Reception==
In November 2008, the book hit number 8 on a list compiled by [[Nielsen BookScan]] of the top 10 political and social science bestsellers in Australia.<ref name=":0">{{cite news
| last =Data supplied by [[Nielsen BookScan]]'s book sales monitoring system from 1000 retailers nationwide. | title =TOP 10 – Best-Sellers | work =[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =36 | date =29 November 2008 }}</ref> The author was a featured presenter on the topic of his book, at the 2009 [[Sydney Writers' Festival]].<ref>{{cite news | last =Meares | first =Joel | title =Bookmark — Issue #73 May 2009 – Fashion issue | work =The Sydney Magazine | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =56 | date =30 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last =Falkner | first = Tony
| title =Writers — Australian writers; International writers; Sydney Writers' Festival www.swf.org.au| work =[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =18 | date =28 March 2009 }}</ref>

{{quote box |width=25em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |salign=right|quote="This is a very fair assessment of the modus operandi of an influential Christian sect."|source= —''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]''<ref name="elder" />}}
''[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]]'' noted that the book investigates, "One of the world's most mysterious religious sects, little is known of the origins, intentions and beliefs of the Brethren, seen as increasingly powerful in Australian politics."<ref name="power">{{cite news | last =Power | first =Lisa |author2=Ray Chesterton|author3=Cheryl Critchley|author4=Lucy Chesterton | title =Book Reviews | work =[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]] | publisher =Nationwide News Pty Limited | page =042 | date =4 October 2008 }}</ref> Writing in ''[[The Sunday Age]]'', Lucy Sussex described the book as "one of the most sober and well-argued exposes I have ever read."<ref name="sussex">{{cite news | last =Sussex | first =Lucy | title =Behind the Exclusive Brethren | work =[[The Sunday Age]] | publisher =The Age Company Limited | page =M27 | date =5 October 2008}}</ref> Shelley McInnis reviewed the book for ''[[The Age]]'', and commented, "Michael Bachelard is brave to investigate the Exclusive Brethren sect".<ref name="mcinnis">{{cite news | last =McInnis | first =Shelley | title =Living in a world of their own | work =[[The Age]] | publisher =The Age Company Limited | page =22 | date =25 October 2008 }}</ref> McInnis elaborated, "The Exclusive Brethren is a conservative Christian sect with a scrappy, pit-bull attitude towards the outside world, and Michael Bachelard is courageous for investigating it. The award-winning Sunday Age journalist has received a number of legal threats from the sect since he began reporting on it for ''The Age''".<ref name="mcinnis" /> McInnis described the author's work as that of "a scrupulous reporter".<ref name="mcinnis" />

Bruce Elder reviewed the book for ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', and described it as an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia".<ref name="elder">{{cite news | last =Elder | first =Bruce | title =In Short Non-fiction | work =[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | publisher =John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited | page =31 | date =8 November 2008}}</ref> Elder concluded, "This is a very fair assessment of the modus operandi of an influential Christian sect."<ref name="elder" /> Craig Young reviewed the book for ''[[GayNZ.com]]'', and called ''Behind the Exclusive Brethren'' a "comprehensive reference work on the sect", and a "most incisive book".<ref name="young">{{cite news | last =Young | first =Craig | title =Book Review: Behind the Exclusive Brethren | work =[[GayNZ.com]] | publisher =www.gaynz.com | date =20 October 2008 | url =http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/31/article_6632.php | access-date =25 November 2009 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090415030552/http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/31/article_6632.php | archive-date =15 April 2009 | url-status =dead }}</ref> In her review of the book for ''Media/Culture Reviews'', Sandra Hogan wrote, "Bachelard has done his research very thoroughly. He has interviewed both sides of the story: people who left the Exclusive Brethren or were expelled from them and also, as much as possible, the current leaders of the group. He has witnessed Brethren documentation, and has spoken to politicians from major and minor parties as well as to lawyers and judges. The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."<ref name="hogan">{{cite news|last=Hogan |first=Sandra |title=Current Affairs: Behind the Exclusive Brethren |work=Media/Culture Reviews |publisher=reviews.media-culture.org.au |date=31 October 2008 |url=http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2935 |access-date=26 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110311035202/http://www.reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2935 |archive-date=11 March 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Australia|Books}}
*[[Edmund Hamer Broadbent]]
*[[Evangelicalism]]
*[[Exclusive Brethren]]
*[[Gospel Hall Assemblies]]
*[[The Local Church (affiliation)]]
*[[Needed Truth Brethren]]
*[[Open Brethren]]
*[[Plymouth Brethren]]
*[[Raven-Taylor-Hales Brethren]]
*[[William Kelly (Bible scholar)]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite news|last=Grimshaw |first=Tracy |author-link=Tracy Grimshaw |title=Extract from Behind the Exclusive Brethren |work=[[A Current Affair (Australian TV series)|A Current Affair]] |publisher=[[Ninemsn]] |date=30 September 2008 |url=http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=639273 |access-date=26 November 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002153516/http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=639273 |archive-date=2 October 2008 }}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080906002059/http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/behindtheexclusivebrethren ''Behind the Exclusive Brethren''], at official website of publisher
*[http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781921372285/behind-the-exclusive-brethren-politics-persuasion-and-persecution ''Behind the Exclusive Brethren''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716062159/http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781921372285/behind-the-exclusive-brethren-politics-persuasion-and-persecution |date=16 July 2011 }}, product description at Readings.com.au
*[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2008/2372350.htm LateNightLive: Behind the Exclusive Brethren], interview with author, on ABC Radio National

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Behind The Exclusive Brethren}}
[[Category:Books about Evangelicalism]]
[[Category:2008 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books about politics of Australia]]
[[Category:History books about Australia]]
[[Category:Plymouth Brethren]]
[[Category:Christianity in Australia]]
[[Category:Works about religion in Australia]]

Behind the Exclusive Brethren - Revision history

imported>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Books about Australian history to :Category:History books about Australia per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 March 6#Category:Books about Australian history