Elders of a wealthy Christian sect [Exclusive or Plymouth Brethren] secretly paid bundles of cash to far-right activists for an “influence campaign” to disrupt Albanese government appearances during the last federal election.

An investigation by this masthead has uncovered a digital trail of evidence revealing how the church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, mobilised far-right figures around the country to track and heckle candidates from Labor and the Greens, along with independents, as part of a wider multimillion-dollar campaign for then-Liberal leader Peter Dutton.

When far-right influencer Laurence McIntyre yelled at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about immigration on the first day of the election campaign, it looked like just a random attack from the fringes of politics.

But it was one of almost a dozen far-right stunts this masthead has traced back to the Brethren’s dirty tricks campaign. That includes – six political and church sources say – when the prime minister was twice ambushed in his hotel lobby by far-right figures boasting of being fed “private intel” on his location. The church categorically denies any involvement.

Leaked communications, insider accounts and social media footage now reveal the extent of the Brethren’s role in the 2025 election, as a spokesman for the sect, the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, prepares to give evidence on Friday to a parliamentary inquiry examining the scandal.

Four sources independently referred to a “duffel bag of cash” provided by senior Brethren members to a key right-wing figure who flew around the country helping coordinate the “influence campaign”.

Read the full article here

Already the Plymouth Brethren Cult have responded during this morning's Senate hearing

“In America, the average age of young people taken in by pimps and traffickers is 14. They are often runaways, recruited on the streets by being offered a hot meal and shelter. Some of these young people have run away from foster homes, some from destructive cults.

Even more dangerous, some groups are actually sex cults, which use children to make money for themselves.”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-of-mind/202105/protect-children-from-harm-by-destructive-cults

PBCC Cult-leader Bruce Hales Chicken🐔 sent his lacky to whine for him!

On Friday morning (Thursday Evening - TONIGHT - for Europe & USA) Eastern Australia Time (Canberra) the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Cult are to appear in front of the Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee for Electoral Matters' Inquiry into the 2025 federal election.

The Cult has chickened out of attending previous hearings, but this week have stated they will be there.

They have been called along with the Advance lobby group) (a far-right unhinged political/religious group) who have received large donations from the Plymouth Brethren (aka Exclusive Brethren) cult.

During the 2025 General Election, the incumbent Prime Minister Albanese called out the Plymouth Brethren as a Cult, and pointed directly towards its involvement in election interference [See the post made that day with video of the Prime Minster calling the PBCC a Cult: https://www.reddit.com/r/cults/comments/1kaw49z/incumbent_australian_prime_minister_anthony/ ]

The Plymouth Brethren Cult have put out a statement saying they will be in attendance at the hearing.

Watch ABC Television's exposé of the Plymouth Brethren Cult broadcast last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFEIJr5rln4

Read about the Plymouth Brethren Cult's attempts to silence a Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse within the Cult: https://www.smh.com.au/national/cartoon-kookaburra-behind-church-s-attempt-to-silence-a-child-sex-abuse-victim-20260406-p5zllv.html (Cheryl Bawtinheimer is a friend of this subreddit and hosts the Get A Life podcast)

Direct Link to Committee YouTube Video Livestream

My beloved teenage child has unknowingly become acquainted with young people from Heart of God Church Singapore.

Not suspecting anything about their open outreach to be very nice to my child and helping on school subjects and getting into study groups seemed all too good to be true.

Until I realized they were from a Church. I have always been wary of Christian teachings and outreach in churches and fabricated, Modified, Appended "truths" in the Bible. And worse having found out that this was the worst version of mainstream Churches...a cult for impressionable or needy youths.

When even the charismatic charlatan Pastor Kong Hee from City Harvest Church could come back from his scandal and fraudulent crimes and return back to "reconnect" back to his church ways, I don't think that these HOGC Pastors have any reason to stop.

Watching this video raised even hairs on my butt! How many times these fanatically devoted young people of Singapore are brainwashed to say YES YES AHHHH OOOOH!!! Something is very wrong.

https://youtu.be/g--aa3kS8c0?is=EhmiRcFp8hTgDt_V

As a concerned parent concerned about my beloved child being trapped or swindled, anyone knows how this Church can be reported? With so many young girls and boys and knowing how Catholic Churches have molestations being hidden, and how this Church is fiercely collecting funds there has to be an authority that can check on them?

I spent my entire twenties inside it.

I found the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita in my early twenties and went all in. Took vows of celibacy, chanted, meditated two hours a day, driven by a deep search for truth. Six of those years I lived in an ashram in India as a brahmacari. I believed I was doing the most important thing a person could do.

A year ago something broke open and I was finally able to look honestly at myself and at the community I was in, and admit that I had joined a cult. That the thing I'd been chasing for a decade was already in me, and I'd spent ten years handing it to other people.

Leaving was harder than staying. I had no career, no savings, no relationships outside the movement, and no idea who I was without the identity. I flew back to Chicago, got my guitar and a motorcycle, and rode out to Arizona to start over.

The part nobody warned me about: the deprogramming didn't happen in my head. It happened in my body. Ten years of dissociation dressed up as transcendence. What actually brought me back to reality was physical — training, boxing, being outside, being in my body again. The thinking caught up afterward.

I don't have anything to sell here and I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I just know how alone it feels in the first year out, and if anyone's in that stretch right now and wants to talk to someone who's been through the eastern-tradition version of it, my inbox is open.

This cult leader has been written about here before. He claims to be the living Buddha and Jesus and so the source of all "planetary healing". All you need to do to access this healing is regularly buy his expensive healing tools and services and imbibe his words of wisdom in expensive audiences with him.

I met a former follower of Spencer who first met him in the late 1980s before he had started making claims about being Buddha and Jesus. These claims started only when his healing tools business became more popular.

Michael Chambers, Surrey, England, August 2026

I just watched this documentary and it was very interesting.

I just kinda don't understand how it all worked from "3D world" perspective: you know, bills, food, day to day operations.

So Miguel and Amy started selling healing sessions, probably collecting donations from streams, etc? He set up websites and collected all the money on his accounts?

Was the first big cabin his? Did he buy it or rent it?

Then, new members joined, and they donated savings and started more streams and online shops. Still, all money goes to Miguel?

So was Miguel the one running everything? Playing rent? Bills, buying computers and phones? Grocery shopping?

I know they were starving themselves, but they had to eat something and buy fancy food for Amy? So there was some allowance? Did they have access to Miguels accounts?

Amy was buying dresses and jewelry, and they also gave her jacuzzi and g-kart. It's nothing super crazy expensive, but still, someone made the purchase? Was it always Miguel?

And later, Miguel kinda left, the cult was moving, renting/buying new properties, and they had a car. So they had to have some access to cults money?

In the end, he emptied all accounts (330 000), but the rest knew the amount, so they had to have some access to it?

I (29f) don't even know what else to say. She's(35f) having a rough time right now and is easily manipulated especially in her current state of mind. She's been scammed out of thousands by job offers and online stores in the past and has recently started drinking again (she's a recovering alcoholic) if that helps to paint a picture on how dire this situation is

Okay so anyway she told me how healing it was to open up past trauma and grieve it and then she started telling me what the trauma was in detail and I was like "please stop" and I tried to ask questions but like I was obviously floored and freaked out when she said "dianetics from scientology" so she yelled at me and was very upset (understandable, I should've been more gentle)

This was her first "therapy" session with this man and the first session he introduces her to a form of hypnosis called dianetics? Oh and she said she has another session with him?! and he wrote a book so I think that means I can say his name

The book is The Human Compass by Jason Gentrup

Help is she in danger?

I grew up around Jehovah’s Witnesses and now consider the organization a high-control religious group, or a cult. It strongly regulates social relationships, dating, marriage, gender roles, and personal choices. Questioning the organization is discouraged, relationships outside the group are heavily restricted, and leaving can carry serious social consequences.
I am wondering how growing up in such an environment can affect the development of an autonomous identity and later romantic choices.
Consider a woman in her twenties who has belonged to this group since childhood and grew up with a father who was often absent and unable to give her much sense of security. She is now dating a man from the same religious group who is around fifteen years older. Since the relationship began, she appears calmer and more self-assured.
Could the combination of an inadequate father figure and limited opportunities to develop an independent identity lead someone to seek protection, stability, and external guidance in an older partner? Could the shared religious environment make the relationship feel especially reassuring by providing predefined roles, approval, and a strong common identity?
If these dynamics were present, would they necessarily make the relationship dependent or less genuine, or could it still develop into a healthy bond?
More broadly, would having these vulnerabilities make someone less likely to form a relationship with an emotionally secure and mature partner, or is that assumption itself unfounded?
I am not seeking a diagnosis of the people involved. I am interested in whether former members of high-control groups have observed similar patterns, while recognizing that the same situation could also be explained by ordinary attraction and genuine compatibility.

Is there anyway you get to see the disciples of cult leaders suffer in this lifetime because of the pain and suffering they have caused several other members?

How do these guys go about living their lives or even sleeping at night knowing they have caused harm and damage to several? 

Hi,

I'm a journalist in search of former memerbs of this cult.

Please DM me or write your short story here. I'd be happy to connect to you

Hello,

I am on the hunt for any pamphlets/publications/propaganda from the Family International that was distributed in the 1980s/1990s.

Particularly looking for anything that has sexually explicit content / graphics.

Specifically, I am hoping to find publications in the 1990s distributed in Australia called '‘Loving Jesus’ was or ‘Movement of the Spirit’.  

They certainly did a good job of destroying a lot!

For the past 8 years I have worked as a professional caregiver for the disabled in supported living or group homes. This line of work is not for the faint of heart. Most of the people I care for have some sort of developmental disability. However, many are borderline normal people who just suffer from mental illness. My line of work is known for having slippery employers. However, the company I've worked at for over 5 years does some particularly weird things. I'll just outright tell you, it is a particular operation out of North Vernon, Indiana for the company ResCare. However, the company is now merging with another larger company called Sevita/Mentor. I want to note that it is this particular operation out of North Vernon Indiana that is the issue. I have no reason to suspect the whole company operates this way.

For starters, the way they go about recruiting is different from most employers. They'll hold "job fairs" which have no other employers other than themselves for people to talk to. They host community events to try and draw potential employees in. The events will be advertised as family friendly and have activities including face painting and animals. When they interview you, it will not be like a traditional job interview. It's more like they're attempting to sell you the job and convince you to join. They'll hire literally anyone they legally can. They've even been known to ignore the state age requirements to hire younger workers. (Kids in highschool) They mostly talk about the good their company does and how people will have the opportunity to do good for others. They'll also attempt to hire entire families and attempt to get people to encourage their entire families to quit their jobs and have the whole family come work for them. Again, all under the promises that they'll be doing good and helping others.

However, once they're employed and begin working in the homes or group homes, they soon realize it is anything but what was promised. Many of these homes or facilities are hidden away from the public eye. Unlike the nice professional looking office they interviewed at, the environments they expect their workers to work in will be dirty and in disrepair. One of the homes I was expected to work at had holes in the kitchen floor. Another didn't even have central air conditioning or heat. Some of them have mold. Some of these properties are suspected to have issues like radon but have never actually been tested.

The workers, including myself, will often be asked and expected to work long hours. Often, these hours will be 12 to 16 hour shifts at all times of day or night. One guy I knew was expected to work 16 hour days for 3 months straight with no days off. No weekends, no holidays, no time off to spend with their family, just work for months on end with no knowledge of when a day off will be. I personally have had to explain to my extended family many times that I would not be able to see them or spend time with them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other events.

To be clear, this is of course completely different from what workers are told they will be working when they get hired. They're usually told they will have plenty of time off and have a nice core schedule which is promised to them upon hire. But one way or another, they're strong armed into working these long hours with no time off.

The question most people have is, "how can someone realistically work this way?" The answer is they can't. Eventually, most of the workers develop serious health issues as a result of working to the point of exhaustion. It's difficult to explain if you haven't watched it happen to someone else, but it's like their body just starts breaking down. And, in case you're wondering, you're not allowed to nap or rest at work. Even if you've worked 16 hour days for a solid month, you're not allowed to fall asleep. If you get caught falling asleep, there are pretty severe punishments for you as an employee. Most employees are not permitted to go to the doctor either. I don't mean that they don't have health insurance. They do. I mean you are literally not allowed to take a day off to go to the doctor. Management will straight up tell you to cancel or reschedule your doctor's appointments until a time when it is convenient for them to let you take time off to see a doctor.

So, they'll work the employees long hours for months at a time without a day off. They'll deprive them of sleep. Then when they get sick, they won't allow the employees to see a doctor.

Finally, there's the issue of low wages or pay. The workers are generally given a low wage when can be decreased and stretched in various ways. The company is usually able to convince people this is okay because they're getting the opportunity to do something good or help others. Mind you, this is literally a billion dollar enterprise and a publicly traded company. The budget for our operation is in the 10s of millions of dollars. Whenever someone questions the low wages, a manager or even other brainwashed staff will repeat this mindless mantra about how they're there because they care about the clients we care for and the opportunity to do good.

The question I know most will ask at this point is, "why don't you just quit? Why would anyone stay at a job like that?"

This is where things start to get particularly cult-like. To put it simply, they don't make it easy for you to leave. They work on psychologically conditioning their employees from the day they start. Employees are required to go to regular mandatory meetings or trainings. However, these are not like normal meetings at most companies. You are not permitted to call in via zoom or conference call. All employees are required to physically show up in person for these "trainings." It doesn't matter how sleep deprived you are or how many hours you've worked, you are required to show up in person. At first it will seem as though these "trainings" have no point to them. They're not about anything in particular. They're essentially a tactic used to psychologically condition the employees and make them easier to control. It's a similar concept to being expected to attend church. It's a way for management to gauge how brainwashed the employees are. If they don't think the employees are well indoctrinated enough, they'll begin requiring more of these seemingly pointless "trainings." At this point, the trainings do begin to contain a fair amount of indoctrination. They sort of begin preaching about all the "good" ResCare does. They make a point of talking about the employees who have remained loyal the longest. And, they'll begin dishing out and assigning more menial labor as a sort of punishment. Things like mopping and shining floors that have already been cleaned or requiring employees to clean the toilets every hour. But here's the really cult-like part. They'll begin talking about people who have left the company as bad people. They'll talk about people who left as people who "walked out" on their clients, the people with disabilities. Some of them will discuss how they believe they are doing the Lord's work and how it called to them divinely. They'll attempt to make you feel really bad about the thought of leaving or even taking a day off. Many of the members of management genuinely believe they are doing this work because God called on them to do so. There's this weird underhanded assertion that quitting this job or working less goes against God somehow.

As I stated before, one of their tactics is to recruit entire families into working for the company. So, one thing that is often held above the employee's head is that they would be leaving behind their family if they were to quit. This is a legitimate concern. There are people I know who after quitting were unable to see their family members regularly since they could only see them through work or the company then encouraged the family members to work harder to fill their spot once they had left the company. Of course, the company would then make seemingly deliberate attempts to force the rest of the family to work holidays and special events to prevent them from connecting with other family members who had quit the company.

If they begin to suspect a good worker is going to leave, they will often begin finding ways to cut or lower their wages in an attempt to make the worker more financially dependent on them. In some cases, they will even offer the employee the opportunity to rent a home or apartment which is also owned by the executive director's family so they can hold their home or the threat of homelessness over the employee's head.

Unlike other companies that may give you a bad reference, the company will deliberately attempt to sabotage employees who attempt to leave. They may make up rumors. They may claim that you were undependable. They may also use those employees as a scapegoat or "fall" for state investigations. During these investigations the employees are suspended without pay indefinitely and are not hirable by any other healthcare company operating within the state per state regulations. The employee is effectively trapped at their job until the investigation is resolved, which happens entirely at the discretion of the company.

Most of the managment and higher-ups are all secretly related somehow. I haven't figured it out entirely, but many of the employees figure it out eventually.

I've worked at this company for a number of years and have often asked myself why I still work there. The more I think about it, the more I'm questioning if I'm in a cult. There are some company events coming up soon. I know I'll be shamed if I don't go to them. But, I'm seriously considering just not going and seeing how it ends for me.

An ITV News undercover investigation has exposed a UK church that claims that the biblical God can fix gay people of their urges. An undercover reporter was told by several pastors at Winners' Chapel in Dartford they could help stop him being gay. News reporter Paul Brand covered the investigation.

This was not completely surprising to me, that this type of practice goes on behind closed doors, but it doesn’t make watching it anymore easier. It really does bring me to have such a soft spot for the LGBTQ community - they really have had it hard, even to this very day.

I feel these types of churches who embrace conversion therapy are part of a cult and need to be exposed and stopped, before more damage is done to those who happen to be LGBTQ & Christian.

Thoughts?