Former members describe leaving the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church
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More than 50,000 people belong to a global religious sect that has restrictions around television, eating with outsiders and attending university. Some who’ve left the church say they still carry the trauma of what they experienced there.
Members from that same religious group also run schools and a charity that have been given millions of dollars in funding from Australian taxpayers.
Tom Grace was aged 10 when he was told that, for religious reasons, he couldn’t keep his sulphur-crested cockatoo.
He remembers the time when he was taken down to the aviary with his brother and watched as his father cut a hole in the wire.
Tom, who lives on a property outside Adelaide, thought the bird, called Cocky, would jump at the chance to spread its wings.
“We wanted to encourage him to fly,” Tom recalled.
But the bird barely budged – and after two days remained behind the wire.
By the third day, it had died.
“Rather than run for the opening, [Cocky] actually retreated to the other side of the cage,” Tom said.
“Looking back on it, it’s really an example of what being trapped in a cage can do to an animal — and I believe it’s the same with humans.”
Tom often thinks of his pet parrot when he reflects on his time in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren.
Tom’s exit from the church was swift, but moving on from it has taken much longer.
Content retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-19/leaving-the-plymouth-brethren-christian-church-in-australia/104323648.
