Forthcoming book to tell of sexual abuse within insular religious sect
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GUELPH – Brianna Bell was the first journalist to break the story about abuse in the Two by Twos church, a story the Guelph-based freelance journalist wrote for the Daily Dot two years ago.
Six months after that, the FBI announced it was investigating the church and several arrests have been made.
Now Bell is writing a book not just about the Two by Twos, but about the abuse she too suffered at the hands of church members.
Called God Lover, “It’s a deeply personal, gritty memoir,” Bell said in a phone interview.
“It’s a memoir plus – a personal story with social commentary.
“It’s about religious coercion, sexual coercion. It’s what I’m grappling with now.”
The Two by Twos are a religious sect without a name or even a church.
They meet in people’s homes and at annual conventions and members are born into it more often than not.
According to Bell’s research the sect was founded in the late 1800s in Ireland by Scottish evangelist William Irvine.
“He believed the Christian church should follow the guidelines for preaching set out in Matthew 10, a chapter of the Bible in which Jesus instructs the apostles to leave their houses and belongings and travel from home to home, preaching the gospel,” Bell wrote in a story for Chatelaine magazine.
Ministers in the church are called workers and workers travel in pairs staying in the homes of members, spreading the teachings of the Bible.
Hence the Two by Twos name.
Content retrieved from: https://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/forthcoming-book-to-tell-of-sexual-abuse-within-insular-religious-sect/.
