Child’s death drives churches to call out coercive control and cult-like behaviour

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How did one man convince 13 other people to let an eight-year-old girl die?

This is the question haunting many people of faith in the southern Queensland town of Toowoomba.

Elizabeth Struhs died after members of a cult called The Saints withdrew her medication for her type 1 diabetes. They prayed and sang around her until she perished.

Then they prayed to God for her resurrection.

Fourteen members of The Saints, including Elizabeth’s parents, are now serving jail time for manslaughter.

The leader of the group is Brendan Stevens, a self-styled pastor who exerted absolute control.

He taught followers that doctors and medications were evil, and that only God could heal.

According to Brendan, you couldn’t be a Christian without the physical manifestation of speaking in tongues. Without that, he argued, you were not imbued with the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, Brendan viewed himself as the messenger of God and his followers as chosen ones, superior to normal human beings.

His extreme Pentecostal theology led his members on what’s known as a “purity spiral”.

‘God shall prevail’

Kerrie Struhs, the mother of Elizabeth, was a devotee.

This wasn’t the first time she had rejected a doctor’s advice to give her daughter insulin.

Two years before, in 2019, Kerrie refused to follow a doctor’s instructions.

On July 15, 2019, she had the following text message exchange with Brendan:

Kerrie: I know you are already praying but could some of you have some praying NOW for Elizabeth and me.

Brendan: Yes indeed Kerry. God is faithful praise God … in my vision I see Elizabeth turning to you and saying ” I am getting better mummy …”

Kerrie: AMEN It can’t happen any other way.

A day after those text messages were sent, Elizabeth was in deep trouble. She could no longer walk.

Kerrie sent another text message to Brendan, telling him that her husband Jason was taking their daughter to the hospital.

“GOD shall prevail not JASON,” Brendan replied.

Following that 2019 incident, Kerrie was convicted of neglecting her child and served nine months of her sentence.

Three weeks after she was released from prison, Elizabeth was dead.

Content retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-10/death-elizabeth-struhs-saints-cult-coercive-control-church/105620890.

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