Religion and Child Abuse News: The Cult With No Name

3 Dec 2010

The Cult With No Name

Chain The Dogma - May 3, 2010

The Cult With No Name

by Perry Bulwer

This past February there was a brief report in the Michigan newspaper, Huron Daily Tribune, on the sentencing of a Christian minister for the sex assault of an 11 year-old boy. It's the kind of story that is all too common these days, as my fast-growing archive of news articles related to religion-related child abuse demonstrates. The details in the article are similar to other cases of child sexual abuse in a religious context, except for one thing. The report makes no mention of the name of the organization to which the minister belonged, simply referring to “a non-denominational Christian organization” and “the ministry”. But have you ever heard of an organization with no name? When people organize themselves into groups, even for trivial purposes, one of the first things they usually do is decide on a name. So, who is this Christian organization and why do they claim to have no name?

One clue as to who this group is comes not from that news article, but from one of the comments posted at the end of it by a person named Sal who writes: "This ministry, known as the Two by Two's needs to be exposed.” Well, Sal, here's my little effort. After an easy web search, that clue leads to the revelation that this secretive group that claims to have no name does have a name after all; in fact, it has many names. It is referred to both by members and outsiders by many different names, including “The Truth”, “The Way”, “Two-by-Twos” and several others, and it is officially registered in the U.S. as “Christian Conventions” and in Canada as "Assemblies of Christians", and various other names in other countries. This particular religious ruse is used to perpetuate the conceit that this group has no modern founder, but can trace its origins back to the first Christians, and therefore it is the true church, not a sect or cult. However, as a survivor of a Christian fundamentalist cult I've heard that story before, so when I now hear people claiming to have "the only truth" and living "the only way" cult alarm bells sound off to warn me of the dangerous deceit.

When a reader of my blog recently alerted me to that news article mentioned above, she referred to some of those names for the group, but it was “The Truth” that most sounded familiar to me. I checked and, sure enough, just over two months ago I posted in my news archive an article from the student newspaper of the University of Illinois. It tells the story of a student, Jennifer Hanson, who escaped from the fundamentalist Christian sect she was born into so she could attend university and live her own life. Her's is a familiar story of religious repression, suppression, indoctrination, spiritual abuse and denial of human rights, but familiar only because of media reports of similar religion-related abuses in other more well known groups.

Having no name, or actually, many different names, helps this group fly under the radar by causing confusion as to who they really are and making it difficult for outsiders to 'connect the dots'. It is a common cult tactic, changing names or using many alternative names in different countries or for different aspects of their ministries. It appears to have worked for this no-name cult because “... none of the University professors of religion contacted had heard of Hanson's former group.” Get that? Professors (plural) of religion had never heard of this Christian organization that numbers at least in the hundreds of thousands and possibly in the millions worldwide.

So, is this no-name group a cult? According to the Apologetics Index, [see Update Note below] which keeps track of such groups, “... from an orthodox, evangelical Christian perspective, the movement is considered to be a cult of Christianity.” And according to a Canadian lawyer representing the father in a child custody case the group is a cult:

"We compiled a list of 47 different cult characteristics," says lawyer Arends. "The Two-by-twos meet all the points. They are extremely secretive, have no written doctrine or records, you can't get a straight answer from them, and yet they claim to be the only path to salvation. Their 'friends' must give unconditional obedience to the workers, or they're guilty of backsliding. And if they backslide, they're damned." Mr. Arends says his case is bolstered by California academic Ronald Enroth's work Churches That Abuse, Port Coquitlam author Lloyd Fortt's In Search of 'the Truth', and the testimony of a dozen former members in Alberta.

But it is the next paragraph in that magazine report that convinced me that the cult designation is an appropriate one. That paragraph cites J. Gordon Melton, a notorious cult apologist who thinks there is no such things as cults, only 'new religious movements':

However, Gordon Melton, the California-based editor of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, argues the Two-by-twos are simply an "old-line, 19th-century Christadelphian sect," an isolated subculture of non-Trinitarian Christians. They are not a cult because "there's no real threats or violence," he says.

Alberta Report, "Doubts About a Mystery Church", September 15, 1997

Of course, the absence of real threats or violence are not enough to determine whether or not a group is a cult. Furthermore, what does he mean by “real threats”? Melton seems to imply that spiritual threats, common in such fundamentalist groups, are not real threats, therefore they don't count. As the Canadian lawyer pointed out, he compiled a list of 47 cult characteristics and of those he mentioned none involved violence or real threats, as opposed to spiritual threats. There are many sociological and theological characteristics used to determine whether a group is a cult or not, which Melton, a supposed expert on religion, is well aware of, yet he simplistically dismisses the evidence. It's not the first time he's done that. Here's part of what I wrote about his working regarding the cult, the Children of God, now known as The Family International:

In both the 1986 edition and the revised 1992 edition of the Encyclopaedic Handbook of Cults in America, Melton wrote critically about The Family for five pages, concluding that “The sexual manipulation in the Children of God has now been so thoroughly documented that it is doubtful whether the organization can ever, in spite of whatever future reforms it might initiate, regain any respectable place in the larger religious community.” 20 Yet just two years later, in 1994, he co-edited a collection of essays favourable to The Family entitled Sex, Slander and Salvation; Investigating The Family/Children of God. 21 Kent and Krebs describe 22 how that book was a result of Family representatives seeking advice from certain scholars, including Melton, on how to create a positive public image in the face of negative publicity revolving mostly around allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation. They also describe the substantial efforts The Family took to make sure any potentially discrediting information, such as sexual material involving children, was not available to researchers, and that researchers had access only to special, sanitized ‘media homes’ that were not at all representative of regular Family homes. Unsurprisingly, The Family touts that book, which they offer for sale on their Website, as “…proof of its legitimacy and the group has distributed copies to media in an attempt to gain favourable press.” 23 The Family considers Melton, as well as Chancellor, experts on the group, 24 and in 2000 Melton received USD $10,065.83 from The Family. 25

A Response to James D. Chancellor's "Life in The Family: An oral history of the Children of God"

By the way, I used the term “researchers” lightly as the book of essays is merely propaganda that was entirely financed by The Family cult. In other words, they payed apologists like Melton to write favourable essays for public relations purposes in the wake of child sex scandals. So, if J. Gordon Melton says “The Truth” or the “Two-by-Twos” or the church with no name is not a cult, it probably is. From what I've read about it so far, and comparing it to other well-documented cults, there is no question in my mind it is. Jennifer Hanson's story provides enough details and warning signs for me to come to that conclusion, but there are also other stories out there that corroborate her's, many at the websites listed below. It turns out that a cult by any other name, or no name at all, is still a cult.

REFERENCES & WEBSITES:

University of Illinois student shunned by 'cult' for sake of education

Veterans of Truth - information about abuses in "The Truth" ministry.

WINGS For Truth - created by victims/survivors who have suffered sexual abuse within the "Truth" Fellowship along with individuals who have been both directly and indirectly impacted by CSA.

Christian Conventions - wikipedia entry

Apologetics Index - Two-by-twos [see Update Note below]

Apologetics Index - J. Gordon Melton [see Update Note below]

Rick A. Ross Institute on the Apologetics Index [see Update Note below]

Alberta Report, "Doubts About a Mystery Church", September 15, 1997

A Response to James D. Chancellor's "Life in The Family: An oral history of the Children of God"

xFamily.org - a collaboratively edited encyclopedia about The Family/Children of God cult.

exFamily.org - a source of truthful information about The Family

Cult survivor reveals deceptive recruiting tactics used by Scientology and similar cults

Update on Friday, May 7, 2010 by Perry Bulwer

Note on the Apologetics Index, a source cited in the post above

After asking the question, "So, is this no-name group a cult?", in the post above, I provided two sources to illustrate two different perspectives on that question. One source is a lawyer who provides an answer from a sociological point of view. The other source, the Apologetics Index, provides an answer from a particular Christian perspective. My purpose was to show that regardless of their position, many people would view this group as a cult.

However, it has now come to my attention that the person behind the Apologetics Index, Anton Hein, is a fugitive from U.S. law and is a registered sex offender in California for committing "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years.” That child is his niece, who was 13 at the time. There is an outstanding warrant for his arrest should he ever attempt to enter the U.S. again.

Hein is not a credible source of information, and I should have been more careful to check into his website before citing it. I was in a hurry, but that's no excuse, because a quick search of cult expert Rick Ross's website would have alerted me to the problem with Hein. He has a page on Hein that would have been enough for me to omit any reference to or quotation from him. Lesson learned.

This article was found at:

http://chainthedogma.blogspot.com/2010/10/cult-with-no-name.html

104 comments:

Perry Bulwer24 September 2013 at 17:08
Friends and enemies, truth and lies

By Chris Johnston, The Border Mail Sept. 23, 2013

Elizabeth Coleman grew up in Canberra in the furtive religious sect known as either the Friends and Workers, the Two by Twos, or The Truth. Most people have never heard of them - and this is how the sect likes it.

They have no churches or headquarters and no written policies or doctrines. They are highly secretive and paranoid about scrutiny: when questioned about new allegations of child sexual abuse within the sect's ranks, the ''overseer'' for Victoria and Tasmania, David Leitch, 56, of Heidelberg, says: ''We are not an organisation.''

Members are told to either deny the existence of the sect or, next best, deny it has a name. Yet the ''non-denominational'' Friends and Workers has 2000 members in Victoria, making it a global stronghold; internationally there are about 200,000 members. Core beliefs come from a very literal reading of certain sections of the Bible. But they don't call themselves Christians because they consider themselves the only true religion.

The sect is sometimes called the Cooneyites, and while the two have much in common, the Friends and Workers are strictly speaking an offshoot. The Irish founder of the Cooneyites was the Protestant evangelist Edward Cooney, who moved to Mildura and died there in 1960 - hence Victoria's strong membership.

In Canberra in the 1970s and '80s, Elizabeth Coleman's father was a sect elder, which meant Sunday morning worship was held at their home. There were always the same 20 or so people there, she says, no outsiders allowed, very formal and dour. ''No one greeted each other as they walked in. No one talked.''

Women wore long hair pinned up on their heads; short hair is still forbidden on sect women. Long hair is forbidden on men. Television, radio, movies, dancing and jewellery were banned back then, and in most sect families still are. If they do have a TV, it is often hidden in a cupboard.

These Sunday mornings at the Coleman house were about singing hymns and saying prayers and there was also a series of confessions called ''testimonies''. Coleman remembers these mornings as being very closeted and unwelcoming.

Then on Sunday afternoons were the more open ''mission meetings'', still held throughout Australia today as they were then, in public halls, organised by the religion's itinerant ''workers'' - the highly ranked ministers who, in pairs (hence the sect's Two by Two name), go into communities, country towns or regions and stay for up to a year in the homes of lesser-ranked ''friends'' such as the Colemans to do ''the Work''.

None of this is in any way wrong. Unusual, but not wrong. However, when Elizabeth Coleman turned 19 she wanted out because while she remained under the sect's control she was not allowed to believe anything other than what they preached.

Children in the sect are told that if they stray, bad things will happen - a lightning strike, for example, being hit by a runaway bus, or an illness.

''They believe that all other religions in the world are the work of the Devil,'' Coleman says. ''Going to worship at another church or finding another set of beliefs is considered worse than leaving the religion.''

When she did leave - because she wanted to explore other more open kinds of Christianity - she says she was called ''the Antichrist'' by sect members, was sent offensive mail referring to her ''coldness'' and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder on account of the ''fear'' she carried into her decision.

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Perry Bulwer24 September 2013 at 17:08
But what worried her most were the persistent rumours of male ''workers'' and elders sexually abusing young - some very young - sect girls and getting away with it. There was, she says, a culture of secrecy, cover-ups and denial, and a dismissal of outside authority, which meant sex crimes stayed hidden.

''If something happened between a minister and a young girl, or a young boy, it would be swept under the carpet,'' she says. ''The minister would be moved away and nothing would be said. The families would be outraged - but they would also be scared of being kicked out of the tribe. I have reason to believe this is still going on.''

The sect's method of sending itinerant, celibate ministers into family homes for extended periods of time, she says, was, and still is, dangerous.

The Victorian and Tasmanian leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, is known to be close to Chris Chandler, the former senior sect member who Fairfax Media today reveals will face 12 child sex charges in a Morwell court next month.

Chandler grew up in Dromana. He lives now on French Island in Western Port and describes himself as a ''self-employed ecologist''. Last year he came back from 14 years as a ''Christian teacher and counsellor'' in Uruguay and Brazil, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Last June, Chandler and Leitch wrote a letter to all Victorian sect members announcing Chandler would step down ''from the Work'' because police in Gippsland had begun questioning him about the allegations that have now led to charges involving several alleged victims.

The charges all relate to alleged indecent acts on young girls in the 1970s when Chandler was aged about 20. Some alleged victims were under 12. Chandler claims in the letter he was not a sect member at the time - but he joined only three years later.

Sources say senior members of the sect knew of the allegations that had already been made about him within sect circles at that time, but did nothing. In fact, in 1991 they promoted him to the senior position of ''worker'' - meaning he was travelling throughout Victoria and Tasmania and staying in family homes.

''He was around lots of children from that point on,'' a former sect member says. From 1991 until 2004, Chandler was in Wodonga, Shepparton, Launceston and rural Tasmania.

Sect sources have confirmed that later in his time as a ''worker'', he positioned himself within the sect as a counsellor and a point of contact for victims of child sexual abuse.

''People were drawn to him as an advocate,'' the source says.

Fairfax Media understands that after he announced he was standing down last year because of the police investigation, Chandler attended an overnight sect convention where children were present at Speed, near Mildura, and continues to attend sect meetings at Crib Point near Hastings, the closest town on the mainland to French Island.

The convention at Speed is the biggest in the state; the others are on a farm belonging to the Lowe family - sect stalwarts for several generations - at Thoona near Benalla, in Drouin and also in Colac. In New South Wales the strongholds are at Glencoe, Mudgee and Silverdale.

David Leitch denies sect leaders knew of Chandler's alleged past.

''If that had been the case he wouldn't have been involved in the way that he was.''

Leitch says he does not know if Chandler has continued to attend sect meetings since resigning.

''We would not tolerate any matters that were not upright and in accordance with the teachings of the Scripture,'' he says. ''You might have seen it in the Catholic Church and so on, but we would not tolerate any such stupidity.''

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Perry Bulwer24 September 2013 at 17:09
In 2011 another senior Victorian ''worker'', Ernest Barry, was convicted in a Gippsland court on five indecent assault charges over four years on a girl, a sect member, in the 1970s.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail, but was given a suspended sentence on appeal after Melbourne forensic psychologist Wendy Northey - who has also profiled gangland drug trafficker Tony Mokbel for an assessment used by his defence lawyers - gave a psychological profile of Barry to the court.

Police say they knew of another 12 alleged victims, but could not lay further charges against Barry, who now lives in Warrnambool, because the additional alleged victims would not come forward or press charges. Police also say David Leitch wore a wire to help convict Barry.

Leitch says he ''greatly assisted'' police in their investigation - to improve the sect's image, sect sources say - but he declined to confirm whether he recorded conversations with Barry for the police. ''I don't think that's a proper question to be putting to me,'' he said.

When Chris Chandler was a ''worker'' in Wodonga in 1995, the co-''worker'' with him in family homes was Ernest Barry.

Then last year - this time in South Australia - the issue of child sexual abuse emerged in the secret sect again. A South Australian ''worker'', who has now moved to Victoria, alleged to David Leitch that another fellow ''worker'' had been allegedly sexually abusing children.

Leitch sacked the worker who raised the allegations because he says the allegations were not true and he knew they were not true because he investigated them himself.

''I investigated with the actual people involved, with the people who were supposed to be the victims. They said nothing happened. [The worker] brought forward false child sexual abuse allegations and he was removed from his posting.''

Leitch says if further allegations against sect members were raised he may or he may not tell the police.

''First I would assess how genuine the allegations are. I wasn't going to involve police in that other case because I know it was totally wrong. That would be a waste of resources and it's not common sense, it's stupidity.''

In the Bible, Matthew 10 sets out much of what the sect believes. In it, Jesus sends out his disciples to cleanse the world of ''impure spirits''. Jesus ordered them to go with few belongings and seek out the homes of worthy persons to ''let your peace rest on it''.

But ''be on your guard'', Matthew 10 says, and ''when they arrest you do not worry about what to say or how to say it … for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.''

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Perry Bulwer24 September 2013 at 17:09
A former Victorian sect member now living in NSW says that during her time in the sect as a child and teenager it was ''95 per cent wonderful'', but the older she got and the more aware she became she realised the clandestine culture she was born into was ''misguided''.

''The culture fosters generational abuse,'' she says. ''There's little knowledge of legal matters, there's a real naivety about the wider world. Workers were highly trusted and held in the highest esteem. They had absolute authority. Worship was and still is highly conservative.''

As young sect members got older, she says, they could feel trapped and silenced. In 1994 at Pheasant Creek near Kinglake, a 14-year-old girl, Narelle Henderson, and her 12-year-old brother Stephen, shot themselves with a rifle to avoid attending a four-day sect convention.

Narelle's suicide note read: ''We committed suicide because all our life we were made to go to meetings. They try to brainwash us so much and have ruined our lives.''

That year the then leader of the sect in Victoria, John ''Evan'' Jones, then 84 years old, made a statement to police at Surrey Hills in Melbourne confirming he knew the children, but adding: ''I cannot for the life of me think of any reason why they would do such a thing.''

His statement said the sect was ''financially well-off'', with donated money controlled by a trust fund of three elders. Jones died in 2001 and is buried at Narracan East cemetery in Gippsland.

David Leitch declined to elaborate on the sect's financial affairs now, but sources said it is still well-off, with money held in private bank accounts rather than a trust, to pay for senior members' overseas missions.

In New Zealand and the United States the sect has registered companies called either United Christian Assemblies or Christian Conventions, but no such companies exist in Australia.

A heavily redacted submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious groups by an organisation called Wings - an online group of former members - says the sect is ''haphazard'' in dealing with allegations from within its ranks and ''the main focus has been on protecting the reputation of the Workers and not on helping victims''.

(The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began in Sydney last week.)

According to the submission, contact by sect leaders with victims has been minimal and ''threatening, unwelcome and intimidating'', according to Wings' submission. Victims are discouraged from making contact with police or lawyers.

One recent victim, the submission says, was asked if she ''really wanted to open that can of worms'' when seeking advice about what to do; another victim was told by sect leaders to ''heal herself in silence''.

Elizabeth Coleman, who now works at a Christian school in Canberra, says speaking out was considered the gravest of betrayals in the sect. ''You would be widely seen as selling the group out.''

But like all whistleblowers, she knew about the secrets within and knew they needed to be revealed.

http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/1793857/friends-and-enemies-truth-and-lies/
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Perry Bulwer20 March 2014 at 11:52
Former sect leader pleads guilty to child sex charges

by Chris Johnston, Senior Writer for The Age March 20, 2014

A former leader of a secretive Victorian sect has pleaded guilty to child sex charges in a Gippsland court.

Chris Chandler, 56, of French Island, a former senior member of the shadowy Bible sect known as Friends and Workers or the Two by Twos, pleaded guilty in the LaTrobe Valley Magistrate's Court on Thursday to nine charges including unlawful indecent assaults, indecent assaults and gross indecency on three young female victims.

Several charges were dropped during the committal mention hearing on Thursday but Chandler faces court again in May after entering his guilty plea.

The charges date back to the 1970s when Chandler was aged in his 20s. Some victims were under 12. Chandler was not a member of the sect then but joined only three years later.

A Fairfax Media investigation last year established senior members of the sect knew of the allegations yet promoted him, in 1991, to the senior position of "worker", or minister - meaning he was travelling throughout Victoria and Tasmania and staying in family homes as a "missionary".
From 1991 until 2004 Chandler was in Wodonga, Shepparton, Launceston and rural Tasmania. He later positioned himself within the sect as a counsellor and contact for victims of child sexual abuse.

Chandler, a self-employed ecologist who recently returned from several years in Uruguay and Brazil, resigned from the sect in 2012. Yet he went to an overnight sect convention where children were present at Speed, near Mildura, and last year went to sect meetings at Crib Point near Hastings.

A submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious groups - by an organisation called Wings, an online group of former Friends and Workers sect members - said the sect is "haphazard" in dealing with sexual abuse allegations and "the main focus has been on protecting the reputation of the Workers and not on helping victims".

The sect has 2000 Victorian members and an estimated 200,000 worldwide. It is an offshoot of the Cooneyites. The Irish founder of the Cooneyites was the Protestant evangelist Edward Cooney, who moved to Mildura and died there in 1960 - hence Victoria's strong membership.

Matthew 10 in The Bible sets out much of what the sect believes. In it, Jesus sends out his disciples to cleanse the world of "impure spirits".

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Perry Bulwer20 March 2014 at 11:52
The sect was linked to the suicides of Narelle and Stephen Henderson, aged 14 and 12, of Pheasant Creek near Kinglake, in 1994. It holds five conventions a year at Speed, Colac, Drouin and at Thoona near Benalla.

They have no churches or headquarters and no written policies or doctrines. Short hair is forbidden on sect women. Long hair is forbidden on men. Television, radio, movies, dancing and jewellery are usually banned in sect homes.

The Victorian and Tasmanian leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, is known to be close to Chandler. In 2012, Chandler and Leitch wrote a letter to all Victorian sect members announcing Chandler would step down "from the Work" because police in Gippsland had begun questioning him about the allegations that have now led to Chandler's sex charges.

In 2011 another senior Victorian "worker", Ernest Barry, was convicted in a Gippsland court on five indecent assault charges over four years on a girl, a sect member, in the 1970s.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to jail, but was given a suspended sentence on appeal.

Police say they knew of another 12 alleged victims, but could not lay further charges against Barry, who now lives in Warrnambool, because the additional alleged victims would not come forward or press charges.

When Chandler was a "worker" in Wodonga in 1995, the co-"worker" with him in family homes was Ernest Barry.

Then last year - this time in South Australia - the issue of child sexual abuse emerged in the secret sect again. A South Australian "worker", who has now moved to Victoria, alleged to Leitch that another fellow "worker" had been allegedly sexually abusing children.

Leitch sacked the worker who raised the allegations because he says the allegations were not true and he knew they were not true because he investigated them himself.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/former-sect-leader-pleads-guilty-to-child-sex-charges-20140320-3562h.html
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Anonymous18 June 2014 at 05:57
"....... in a blog conversation between a current 2x2 member and Mike Garde, Managing Director of Dialogue Ireland and an acknowledged cult expert, Mr.Garde declared ' I repeat I do not regard the 2×2′s as a cultist group under any defintion.(sic)' "

Mr. Garde further states:

"He (Irvine Grey) concludes that they are a dangerous cult. I disagree.
However, on coming down on the side of the Two by Twos I do not believe his definition of it being a cult of Christianity is accurate. "

dialogueireland.wordpress.com/about/cultism/
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Daenr23 July 2014 at 08:04
Of course we all have our own views on such things, but if our experience and the testimonies of others who have left or who have been kicked out for the enactment of only a few of the characteristics of cult religions, then why not conclude that any group that purports itself to be the only path to the Lord is in fact a cult.
After all, if any religious organization proclaims openly that it is the only right way led by the only true sent ones, then it's a closed-circuit system that is then automatically subject to any and all forms of spiritual, organizational, monetary and sexual abuse. That The Truth is such a one then qualifies it as spiritually abusive at the least, and, at the worst, a falsely-indoctrinated body of people who commit and/or allow what I term as 'soul rape' in the name of salvation.
What horror!
What arrogance that any sect proclaiming itself as The Truth would be allowed to perpetrate untruthes, deny its essential dishonesty on any member or even worker, with impunity, worldwide!
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Perry Bulwer27 July 2014 at 15:37
Secrets lies and sex abuse as ex sect leader chooses life on the inside

by Chris Johnston, Senior Writer for The Age Australia July 28, 2014

Guilt can be a heavy burden - and this seems to be the case with the latest chapter in the disturbing story of a senior Victorian sect leader now in jail on child sex charges.

Ten days ago Chris Chandler, 56, drove to Melbourne from his property on French Island, in Western Port. Then he went to the Melbourne Magistrates Court to hand himself in.

Chandler was a leader of the secretive Bible sect known as Friends and Workers, or the Two by Twos, who have 2000 Victorian members. He had already admitted his guilt in eight charges in a Gippsland court including unlawful indecent assaults, indecent assaults and gross indecency on three young female victims.

But Chandler baulked at his sentence of a year's jail with a non-parole period of three months, telling his lawyers that while he was guilty, he wasn't guilty to that extent.

But then something changed. He decided he wanted to go to jail. When he turned up at Melbourne's central magistrates court to surrender - not the Morwell court his hearings had been held in, and not the one closest to his home - he hadn't told the policeman who made the charges stick what he was about to do.

Sergeant Darren Eldridge of Moe police was surprised to hear Chandler had given up his fight. He had been working on the case for two years. ''We were assisted in different ways by a number of congregation members,'' he said.

The sect is a strange offshoot of the Cooneyites; it adheres strongly to Bible sections of Matthew 10 to do with Jesus sending out disciples to cleanse ''impure spirits''.

They do not have church buildings or headquarters and do not have written policies or doctrines. Travelling missionaries live with sect families for extended periods.

Television, radio, movies, dancing and jewellery are banned. It is strong in Victoria because the Irish founder of the Cooneyites was the Protestant evangelist Edward Cooney, who moved to Mildura and died there in 1960.

A submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious groups by WINGS, an online group of ex-sect members, said it has been ''haphazard'' in dealing with many sexual abuse allegations.

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Perry Bulwer27 July 2014 at 15:37
The sect was linked to the suicides of Narelle and Stephen Henderson, aged 14 and 12, of Pheasant Creek near Kinglake, in 1994. Narelle's suicide note read: ''We committed suicide because all our life we were made to go to meetings. They try to brainwash us so much and have ruined our lives.''

The sect holds five Victorian conventions a year at Speed (near Mildura), Colac, Drouin and Thoona near Benalla, where a prominent sect family has a farm.

A Fairfax Media investigation last year established sect leaders knew of the allegations against Chandler but promoted him, in 1991, to the senior position of ''worker'', or minister - meaning he was staying in private homes until 2004 in Wodonga, Shepparton, Launceston and rural Tasmania.

He later positioned himself as a counsellor and sect contact for child sexual abuse victims. He recently returned from stints for the sect in South America and Africa.

The Victorian and Tasmanian leader of Friends and Workers, David Leitch, of Melbourne, is known to be close to Chandler. He would not comment but an ex-sect source claimed he has a file on alleged sexual offences by Chandler which he has not given to police. Leitch sacked a sect leader for reporting sexual abuse in 2013.

Ex-member ''Ruby'', of Gippsland - not her real name - said Chandler was close to her family and that she was sexually assaulted by him in 1989 when she was 10. Her allegations led to one of the eight charges against him. She says the pair were at a beach when he rubbed his erection against her and asked if she ''wanted to make him happy''. He later tried to have a conversation with her about sexual rights and consent, she said.

She said the sect had a ''culture of secrecy'' and distrust of outsiders. Sexual abuse of young people and children was common. She said she was visited by sect head Leitch before she went to police. ''He said to me 'if you go to the police there's not much they can do'.''

She said Chandler messaged her through Facebook claiming he was molested as a child, that he had a different memory of the beach incident and that he was not a paedophile but rather suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder.

''It is not so much what he did to me,'' she said.

''I know he did worse things to others who are not emotionally strong enough to act. I want to get it all out in the open.''

Sergeant Eldridge said Chandler had made contact with family members of other alleged victims before handing himself in.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/secrets-lies-and-sex-abuse-as-exsect-leader-chooses-life-on-the-inside-20140727-3cnnc.html
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Anonymous22 August 2014 at 13:36
I wss born into this controlling sect oo. My whole childhood was based around meetings where we kids were expected to follow with intetest every hymn and bible quote with our own bibles and hymn books. If we didn't or looked bored we were punished. We were constantly compared to other "role model" children and told we would go to hell if we didn't change. They even mapped my life out for me from an early age. I never professed but as a result have been wiped off by these "christians". Most of them go around looking for ways to criticize other members and refer to people like me as "going to hell". I could only see through this sect once I had gotten away totally.
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Perry Bulwer26 May 2015 at 15:57
NOTE: THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE DISCUSSES "THE CULT WITH NO NAME" THAT IS THE SUBJECT OF THE BLOG POST AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE.

Criteria for Recognizing a Religious Sect as a Cult

by Roger E. Olson, Patheos May 21, 2015

Note: If you are pressed for time and cannot read the whole essay below, feel free to skip to the end where I list 10 criteria. The essay describes my own history of interest in and research about “cults” and new/alternative religious groups.

Developing Criteria for Recognizing a Religious Sect as a “Cult”

Many religious scholars eschew the word “cult” or, if they use it at all, relegate it to extreme cases of religious groups that practice or threaten to practice violence. “Extreme tension with the surrounding culture” is one way sociologists of religion identify a religious group as a cult. By that definition there are few cults in America. No doubt they still exist, but when one narrows the category “cult” so severely it tends to empty the category.

In the past, “cult” was used by theologians (professional or otherwise) to describe groups that considered themselves either Christian or compatible with Christianity but held as central tenets beliefs radically contrary to Christian orthodoxy as defined by the early Christian creeds (and for some the Reformation statements of faith). Given the diversity of Protestantism, of course, that was problematic because it opened the Pandora’s Box of deciding what is “orthodoxy.”

A Supreme Court justice once said that he couldn’t define “pornography” but he knew it when he saw it. Many evangelical Christian writers of the 1950s and 1960s, for example, couldn’t quite define a “cult” but clearly thought they knew one when they saw (or read about) one. One evangelical radio preacher published a book on the “marks of a cult.” He was not the only one, however, to attempt to help people, in his case evangelical Christians, identify groups that deserve the label “cult.” Many have made the attempt. In the 1950s and 1960s (and no doubt for a long time afterwards) “cult” tended to mean any heretical sect—judged so by some standard of orthodoxy. That standard often seemed to be little more than a perceived “evangelical tradition.” Some anti-cult writers called the Roman Catholic Church a “cult.” Many labeled the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints a cult. One controversy erupted among fundamentalists and evangelicals when a noted evangelical anti-cult writer published an article arguing that Seventh Day Adventists are not a cult. Most Protestants had long considered Adventism a cult—theologically. (Just to be clear: I do not.)

Still today, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, a difference exists about the word “cult.” It is used in many different ways. Following the trend among sociologists of religion most journalists tend to use the label only of groups they consider potentially dangerous to the peace of community. Theology rarely enters that discussion. Still today, many fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals use the label “cult” to warn fellow believers away from religious (and some non-religious) groups that espouse doctrines they consider heretical—even if the groups pose no danger to the peace of the communities in which they exist.

Psychologists often regard any group as a cult insofar as it uses so-called “mind control techniques” to recruit and keep members. Sociologists of religion quickly point out that most religious groups could be accused of that depending on how thin one wishes to stretch the category of “mind control.” Would any religious group that claims members who leave are automatically destined for hell using “mind control?” Some psychologists have said yes to that question. Sociologists of religion point out that would make many peace-loving groups cults.

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Perry Bulwer26 May 2015 at 15:58
The debate over the meaning of “cult” has gone on in scholarly societies for a long time. Now it has settled into an uneasy acknowledgement that there is no universally applicable, standard definition. But there is a general agreement among scholars, anyway, that “cult” is a problematic word to be used with great caution. Calling a religious group a “cult” can mean putting a target on it and inviting discrimination if not violence against it. For that reason many religious scholars prefer the label “alternative religion” for all non-mainstream religious groups. My own opinion is that has its merits, especially where there is no agreed upon prescriptive standards or criteria for determining religious validity, where no idea of normal or orthodox is workable—as in a diverse context such as a scholarly society. Even that label, however, assumes a kind of norm—“mainstream.” If postmodernity means anything it means there is no “mainstream” anymore. But religion scholars cannot seem to abandon that concept.

I have more than a scholarly interest in the concept “cult.” For me it is personal as well as professional. It’s professional because, over the thirty-plus years of my career as a theologian and religion scholar I have taught numerous classes on “cults and new religions” in universities and churches. I’ve spoken on the subject to radio interviewers—especially back when “cults” were all the rage in the media (after the “Jonestown” and “Branch Davidian” and similar events happened). I’ve published articles about certain “alternative religious movements” in scholarly magazines and books. While rejecting so-called “deprogramming” practices, I have engaged in sustained discussions with members of groups about their participation, even membership, in groups their families and friends considered cults—to help them discern whether their participation was helpful to them as Christians and as persons.

It’s personal because I grew up in a religious form of life many others considered a cult. And I had close relatives who belonged to religious groups my own family considered cults.

The professional and the personal came together recently—again. I became acquainted with a man who grew up in (but has left) a religious group to which one of my uncle’s belonged. My uncle’s religious affiliation was always a bit of a sore spot in my large and mostly evangelical family. (I say large because when they were all alive I had sixty-five first cousins. That’s a large family by most standards. I remember family reunions where over a hundred people attended and they were all fairly closely related. And that was only one side of my family!) Among my close relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins) were members and ministers of many relatively non-mainstream religious groups. But my uncle stood out as especially curious to me and to my parents (and, no doubt, many of his siblings). At family reunions, when prayer was said over the meal, he would get up and walk away and turn his back on us. My father explained that his brother believed praying with unbelievers was wrong. So I set out to discover more about my uncle’s and cousins’ religion. My uncle would not talk about his religious affiliation with anyone in our family, so he was not a source of information about it. (My father knew some about it because he was “there” when his brother converted to the group.) Over a period of years I discovered some fairly reliable information about the group even though it is somewhat secretive. The group exists “off the radar” of most people including many religion scholars, but researchers have labeled it the largest house church movement in America and possibly the world.

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Perry Bulwer26 May 2015 at 15:58
Some have called it the church without a name because its adherents and leaders give it no name but only call themselves “Christians,” “the Truth,” and “the Brethren.” (It has some similarities and possible historical connections with the Plymouth Brethren but is not part of that movement.) They have no buildings, no schools, no publisher, no headquarters. They believe they are the only true Christians, but they live peacefully among us and pose no physical threat to anyone. They do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ or the Trinity, but they use the King James Version of the Bible only.

My acquaintance who grew up in the group asked me if he grew up in a cult. (His parents still belong to it.) I found that difficult to answer because of the many definitions of “cult.” Which definition should I pull out of my religion scholar’s/theologian’s grab bag of labels? I couldn’t give him a clear answer. “It depends on how one defines ‘cult’” is pretty much all I could say. I don’t think that satisfied him. It doesn’t satisfy me.

Certainly my family thought my uncle belonged to a cult, but that started me thinking, even as a teenager, what “cult” meant. At school I had been told by friends who were fundamentalist Baptists that my church was a cult. I began to conduct what research I could into the concept of “cult” and found two radically different but contemporary treatments of the concept. One was Marcus Bach, a well-known and highly respected scholar of religion who taught religious studies for many years at the University of Iowa. (I think he founded the university’s School of Religion.) I read every book by him I could get my hands on and they were many. Eventually I had the privilege of meeting him in person and having a brief conversation with him. Bach grew up Reformed, became Pentecostal, and eventually ended up in the Unity movement. His book The Inner Ecstasy tells about his religious pilgrimage in vivid detail. He wrote many books especially about what scholars now call “alternative religions” in America and it was from him that I first learned about most of them—everything from New Mexico “Penitentes” to The Church of Christ, Scientist. I was especially fascinated by his descriptions of Spiritualism—the religion focused on séances as the central sacrament. He claimed that at one séance he did actually have a conversation with his deceased sister and asked the medium questions that only his sister would be able to answer—from their childhood. The apparition answered his questions correctly. He drew no metaphysical conclusions about that, which was typical of Bach. He was interested in, fascinated by, alternative religious movements and groups but held back from prescriptive judgments of any kind.

The opposite book was by a Lutheran pastor named Casper Nervig and the title tells much about his approach to this subject: Christian Truth and Religious Delusions. In it I discovered that the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the “church of truth” and that both my uncle’s religion and my family’s were “religious delusions”—tantamount to “cults.”

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Perry Bulwer26 May 2015 at 15:58
This launched me on a lifelong search to understand so-called “cults” and “alternative religious movements.” Had I grown up in a cult? Was the faith of my childhood and youth an alternative to some mainstream religion of America? We considered ourselves evangelical Protestants, but I discovered many religion scholars (including Bach) considered us “alternative” and even some evangelicals (to say nothing of mainline Protestants and Catholics) considered us a cult.
As a passionate Pentecostal Christian in junior high school and high school I was relentless teased, even sometimes bullied, by schoolmates who belonged to many different religious traditions. I was called a “holy roller” and “fanatic.”

So my acquaintance’s question has often been my own: Did I grow up in a cult? Apparently it depends on what “cult” means.

When I taught courses on cults and new religions in universities and churches I often began by telling my students and listeners that “nobody thinks they belong to a cult.” I also pointed out that if the concept “cult” (in our modern sense) had existed in the second century Roman Empire Christians would have been called “cultists.” (Of course the word “cultus” did exist but simply meant “worship.”) We should be very careful not to label a group a “cult” just because it’s different from what we consider “normal.”

My preference has become to not speak of “cults” but of “cultic characteristics.” In other words, religious groups are, in my taxonomy, “more or less cultic.” I reserve the word “cult” as a label (especially in public) for those few groups that are clearly a threat to their adherents’ and/or public physical safety. In other words, given the evolution of the term “cult” in public discourse, I only label a religious group a cult publicly insofar as I am convinced it poses a danger to people—beyond their spiritual well-being from my own religious-spiritual-theological perspective. To label a religious group (or any group) a “cult” is to put a target on its back; many anti-cult apologists still do not get that.

On the other hand, at least privately and in classroom settings (whether in the university or the church) I still use the label “cult” for religious groups that display a critical mass of “cultic characteristics.” Of many non-traditional groups, however, I prefer simply to say they have certain “cultic characteristics” rather than label them cults. And, in any case, I make abundantly clear to my listeners that if I call a group a cult, I am not advocating discrimination, let alone violence, against them. In the case of those groups I label cults publicly I am advocating vigilance toward them.

So what are my “cultic characteristics”—beyond the obvious ones almost everyone would agree about (viz., stockpiling weapons with intent to use them against members or outsiders in some kind of eschatological conflict, physically preventing members from leaving, harassing or threatening critics or members who leave the group, etc.)? Based on my own long-term study of “alternative religious groups,” here are some of the key characteristics which, when known, point toward the “cultic character” (more or less) of some of them:

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Perry Bulwer26 May 2015 at 15:59
1 Belief that only members of the group are true Christians to the exclusion of all others, or (in the case of non-Christian religious groups) that their spiritual technology (whatever that may be) is the singular path to spiritual fulfillment to the exclusion of all others.

2. Aggressive proselytizing of people from other religious traditions and groups implying that those other traditions and groups are totally false if not evil.

3. Teaching as core “truths” necessary for salvation (however defined) doctrines radically contrary to their host religion’s (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) orthodoxy broadly defined.

4. Use of conscious, intentional deception toward adherents and/or outsiders about the group’s history, doctrines, leadership, etc.

5. Authoritarian, controlling leadership above question or challenge to the degree that adherents who question or challenge are subjected to harsh discipline if not expulsion.

6. Esoteric beliefs known only to core members; levels of initiation and membership with new members required to go through initiations in order to know the higher-order beliefs.

7. Extreme boundaries between the group and the “outside world” to the extent that adherents are required to sever ties with non-adherent family members and stay within the group most of the time.

8. Teaching that adherents who leave the group automatically thereby become outcasts with all fraternal ties with members of the group severed and enter a state of spiritual destruction.

9. High demand on adherents’ time and resources such that they have little or no “free time” for self-enrichment (to say nothing of entertainment), relaxation or amusement.

10. Details of life controlled by the group’s leaders in order to demonstrate the leaders’ authority.

By these criteria I suspect that I have been involved in religious organizations with cultic characteristics in the past. The college I attended displayed some of them some of the time (depending on who was president which changed often). The first university where I taught displayed some of the characteristics. I remember a faculty meeting where the founder-president (after whom the school was named) called on individual faculty members by name to come forward to the microphone and confess “disloyalty” to him. I would not say, however, that the religious form of life of my childhood and youth was or is a cult or overall has cultic characteristics. There are specific organizations within it that do. My recommendation to people caught in such abusive religious environments is to leave as quickly as possible.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2015/05/criteria-for-recognizing-a-religious-sect-as-a-cult/
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Elizabeth Coleman17 June 2015 at 06:34
New book available on this group: "Cult to Christ - The Church With No Name and the Legacy of the Living Witness Doctrine". Available at Amazon (ebook and paperback). Reviews also available at www.culttochristbook.com Published by Adeline Press, April 2015
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Ulisse Di Bartolomei4 July 2015 at 04:50
Autobiographic tale of my twenty years in the Korean
unifying movement of the self-styled reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Unification
Church, very active in Japan, in United States and in Europe. A recognition in
the language denoted of plagiarism and self plagiarism, that characterize the
interpersonal transaction in the mystical micro-cults. Strategies “no profit”
to recycle a remarkable huge amount of money, deriving by philanthropic
fundraising, in normal activities “full profit”. The secrets of the fundraising
and sales “door to door”. Entirely transposed by my time in the more
articulate, picturesque mystical enterprise of the history: the Moon’s sect or...
the cleverest fraud of the history! An economic empire built on the fundraising,
making the whole world believing of feeding nagger kids and not feeding even one
of them... An amusing narration, that unfortunately it pertains to one of the
worse evil of our time: the speculation on the money!

http://www.amazon.it/Little-God-Syndrome-happily-Frontiers-ebook/dp/B00WH6DQOW/
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Anonymous19 July 2015 at 08:49
I am not a church goer and I grew up catholic. However, I have first hand experience with this religion because most of my aunts, uncles and cousins on my mom's side of the family were two by two's. I was well aware of the fact that they did not have an official name. I spent many farm gatherings and family gatherings with this side of the family. Yes, they were very different from me - I wore shorts, jewelry, make up, and permed hair. My cousins wore long hair, skirts, no make up, no jewelry. They didn't watch TV or listen to current music and I did. However, nobody harassed me about it and nobody tried to convert me. We talked about the differences in our faiths a little bit but it was just that - a discussion. These were some of the nicest, most peaceful people I have ever met - truly. I spent a weekend alone at my aunt and uncles house once. I remember feeling totally cared for, loved, and safe. The house was quiet because of no TV, so I remember the sounds of conversation, piano playing, and the smell of baking. Again, the whole time nobody judged me or tried to convert me. Nobody cut off ties with my mother when she left the faith. Please, don't just lump people together to make it easier to understand. This was not a cult - it's just a faith that deviates from main stream christianity. Please stop implying that the obviously horrific abuse of a child / children was somehow a part of their doctrine. This is an atrocity that happens across all religions, unfortunately. True peace comes from understanding. True peace comes from acknowledging the complexity of the world we live in.
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Anonymous8 November 2015 at 19:33
I grew up in Western Sydney, I believe my grandmother to be an elder in the 'truth'. As an adult now, I would like meet another elder or someone else I could meet in Sydney- if there is someone that could point me in the right track could you please leave a email/number (I would then be happy to give the name of my grandmother ) Thanks
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Anonymous26 December 2015 at 16:53
My story is similar to the one above...I live in Ontario, Canada. I cannot find out any information online about the Ontario Two by Two's which is odd, because my father's family is/was 80% part of that cult. My father and one of his brother's were not. But, my paternal grandmother and 7 of her 9 children were and a few of my cousins are as well. My grandma was in her 100th year when she died in 1991. I have no idea who the workers were or where she got involved in it but probably in the 1920's. I would think she was in it for all of my father's childhood, but nobody talks about it. All of the women wore below the knee plain old dresses every day of their life, wore their hair in buns, only a wedding ring for jewellery, no makeup, no tv or radio. A few of my cousins are still this way to this day. It is an odd thing to grow up knowing that grandma was deeply religious but she never spoke of it other then saying a blessing at meals. She was a faithful god fearing bible reading woman but my grandpa had nothing to do with it. As a child if I was at their home for the weekend and the meeting was at her house, I was asked to stay outside. But I did see and hear odd things that did not mean 'church' to me. Grandma had an organ but nobody played it for meeting. Everyone was sad and downtrodden looking. Everyone looked old, tiptoed and whispered. Everyone sang off key, at a horrid pitch. Everyone mumbled, there was no sermon or order to the 'service'. Even if I had been in the room I would not have learned a thing. I have my grandma's Hymnal to this day, I think the 1951 version of Hymns Old and New. I was raised in a United Church and this meeting was silly to me. My sister and I were outsiders and it was all a big mystery. I went to my grandma's funeral in 1991 and it was the weirdest experience...the two or three workers doing her service spoke in a language that not one of us in my immediate family understood...I hesitate to say in tongues but it was nonsense. Not one word was said about my grandmother, not one. It was like being on another planet. It was bizarre. She was a good grandma, very quiet, but she loved to bake and taught me how to. A woman of few words but now I know why. In my 30's I became a 'Born Again' Christian and left that after 10 years, realizing it was a man led cult and a way to control members, especially women. I remember asking a pastor of the church if he had ever heard of anything like my grandmother's religion and he was the first to name it for me. At a family reunion that year I asked my cousin what her beliefs were...I was stonewalled with her curt reply 'we follow the whole bible' and she glared at me so I would not ask anything else. Every Christmas with my family as a child growing up was so bizarre...they did celebrate Christmas but it was so somber. There was always lots of food, but no conversation, no laughter, no fun, no music, no games. Everyone stood waiting for someone else to talk and nobody did. Very very bizarre indeed! Even though my father did not follow that religion he was very stern, strict, mean and liked to verbally and emotionally abuse my mother and us girls...but his siblings weren't like that as parents and they were in the religion. My father went the complete opposite way. He is a hypocrite, a liar and an adulterer and married 3 times. So, I am just wondering if anyone knows who came to Ontario way back when and started this movement in my family. I know that they all went, and probably still go, to Picton, Ontario for these yearly secret 'conventions' but even though I live down in that area, there is never any information about it! It's all still a BIG SECRET!
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Anonymous28 December 2015 at 15:22
I need to directly address an issue with the 'head worker' in the state of Missouri. It has to do with one of his young male 'workers' being sexually suggestive and inappropriate with a very young relative of mine. This man needs to be held accountable. I am willing to get the authorities involves. Does anyone have a name and address of the 'head worker' in the state of Missouri.
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Eden Black27 March 2016 at 14:01
I was brought up in that religion, from the time I was born, till I left it far in the dust of my heels around sixteen years old, after my adoptive parents had died. My adoptive parents, and two out of four of my foster families were members of that group. It does crack me up a little bit when people ask that question, 'Is it a cult?', because it's a darn good question. To me, it is both an actual religion, and a cult, depending on which way one looks at it. One of the cult watch sites lists it as determined by the govt. as not being such. The fact that it's listed at all on those sights should be some indication, though they are probably in a grey area. I didn't witness a lot of that kind of abuse within that church when I was growing up, but that doesn't mean it didn't ever happen. Their propensity to grab their own children and haul them out of the tents at convention and beat them as regular course was creepy enough, not to mention the threat of hellfire all the time. Other than that, most of them would probably be rather fun people. I just couldn't live with dismal threats hanging over me like that, so I escaped myself. Never looked back.
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Ed5 August 2016 at 00:18
I was brought up in this way also, head worker covered up child abusers and let them continually stay in friends home with kids. It is a disgusting way to live and they come across as nice sincere people, most are just fakes cause when it comes down to it they show their true colours
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Ed5 August 2016 at 00:22
I competly agree with leanne, it seem you don't leave easy! I am getting help at the minute and phycology, hard to shake off those old beliefs, also due to the rigid upbringing I am a nervous wreck in public, don't know how to act
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John6 August 2016 at 08:04

I truly pray that all of you get relief from getting this all out of you and gain the confidence you deserve to have today and the rest of your lives. And if you can't find the answers why you were in these situations in the first place, then give it up and claim peace-find peace somehow and the answers will come later,John
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Ed14 August 2016 at 11:45
Hi john, good piece of advice-easier said than done however! Did you belong in this cult too?
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None25 October 2016 at 13:23
I'm so sorry all of this has happened to you all.

However, we must be careful to paint all people in this religion as the same.

My family on my father's side are in this religion and as an outsider I was probably as close as you can get to them.

Two of my cousins are workers...and I spent 3 wks every summer going to meeting and convention with my cousins.

I have never heard of any wrong doing in my area (Ontario,Canada).

My family are the nicest people I've ever met and if they don't agree with your lifestyle they keep it to themselves and loved me regardless of being an outsider. Even my cousins who have left believe it is the one true path.

My grandfather made sure that our family was godly and good. We never had a worker that abused their position or trust.

There will always be evil in every religion but we cannot paint all these people as a cult because it simply isn't true everywhere.

One of the facts about this lifestyle is that the people decide for themselves what a life for God looks like and do not allow one person or doctoring govern their beliefs.

It's based on family and community and living modestly and happy for God. Although I don't believe in what my family does I do not demonize them in a sweeping generalization.

Thank you for reading.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:51
A Nameless, Insular Religious Sect Is Being Rocked by a Massive Sexual Abuse Scandal

Known to outsiders as the “Two by Twos,” a little-known community is reckoning with a far-reaching scandal over sexual abuse, accountability, and power.

By Anna Merlan VICE October 12, 2023

The dead man was found in his hotel room, slumped over in a chair. It took six months more before the letter began circulating, accusing him of harboring a deeply disturbing secret when he died.

Dean Bruer died in Government Camp, Oregon on June 21, 2022, in a Best Western motel, embedded in a copse of towering pine trees just off the highway. Several websites covering Bruer’s death have attributed his death to a heart attack; his family did not publicly specify his cause of death in his obituary.

“We have come to the tragic conclusion that Dean Bruer had another side to his life that none of us, except victims, ever witnessed or suspected,” the letter, dated March 20, 2023, read. It was written, according to several people with intimate knowledge of the community, by Doyle Smith, who’d taken over Bruer’s role.

“It has come to the surface in recent months, and more so in recent weeks, that Dean was a sexual predator,” Smith’s letter continued. “We never respect or defend such totally inappropriate behavior among us. There is a very united consensus among us that the only thing to do is to be transparent with all of you for obvious reasons, though this is very difficult. We are very sorry for the hurt this will bring to the hearts of many. Thankfully, he is no longer in a position to hurt anyone.” (Italics his.)

Smith added, “His actions include rape and abuse of underage victims. He totally abused his authority as an overseer in order to control, manipulate and threaten his victims. We are strongly recommending our staff look at the Ministry Safe Program and possibly other venues that help understand, recognize, and prevent such problems.”

Smith is, as Bruer was, a member of an insular and nameless Christian sect often known to outsiders as the Two by Twos. (Smith did not respond to a request for comment from VICE News. His letter has been reprinted on at least four different websites set up for current and ex-members of the sect.)

The name is drawn from the practice that its homeless, itinerant preachers—known as “workers”—follow, traveling in pairs and sleeping in the houses of congregants. The church has existed for over 100 years, although many of its members believe its lineage stretches back directly to Jesus Christ; members of the community often say they follow “the Truth” or “the Word,” or simply refer to themselves or one another as “professing.” Cherie Kropp, an expert on the church’s history, estimates that in 2022 membership was about 75,000 worldwide, a decline of about 50 percent from its peak in the early 1980s. There are members all over the world, mostly concentrated in English-speaking countries, including the U.S., Canada and Australia. Some former believers describe themselves as having been in “a cult,” while others do not.

Workers and overseers are meant to be celibate, and are viewed as profound spiritual authorities, seen as intermediaries between ordinary believers and God. Members of the church believe in what’s called “exclusivity:” the idea that the church is the only true one, and that workers and overseers, who direct them, are the only way to salvation. Prayer meetings happen in people’s homes and, occasionally, at large conventions. Overseers manage swaths of territory that, in the United States, often comprise multiple states. There are no good records on the number of overseers worldwide, but former members say there are fewer than 10 senior overseers in the U.S. When he died, Bruer was the overseer for Oregon, controlling the finances for workers in that state and where they were sent to preach.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:52
For an overseer to be accused of sexual misconduct—or even sexual activity, given that workers are meant to be celibate—was already a serious scandal. As Smith’s letter began circulating through the community, though, the accusations spread too, rippling outward as in a pond that has been suddenly and violently disturbed. People began coming forward to say that Bruer was not the only one, and that they, too, had been subject to sexual abuse by workers, overseers, and elders in the community. Many said that they had been sexually abused as children, talking for the first time of being subjected to misconduct in their own homes by workers who’d been allowed to stay with their families, or at conventions where they were surrounded by people who were supposed to protect them.

The Bruer letter, as it is known in the church, spurred a massive sexual abuse scandal and an equally profound reckoning, driven largely by women, many of whom are survivors themselves.

The Bruer letter, as it is known in the church, spurred a massive sexual abuse scandal and an equally profound reckoning, driven largely by women, many of whom are survivors themselves. Dozens more workers and overseers have been accused of past sexual abuse towards adults or children, with some of the accusations going back decades. Calls for the alleged abusers—as well as those who failed to stop them—to step down have grown louder and louder. In some territories, the accused workers have “left the work,” as the terminology goes; in others, leadership has ignored the scandal, or outright declared that nothing will change. In one instance, an overseer told his territory in a letter that he would only step aside when called to do so by God.

The power held by workers and overseers has led some advocates to say that addressing the deep-rooted sexual abuse problem in the church will require nothing less than changing the doctrine of the church itself. They argue that workers and overseers must be removed from their central roles in the faith, stripping them of the intense spiritual and social power that seems to have contributed to the culture of fear and silence around their abuses.

Both current members and people who have left the church have played a role in advocating for the rights of survivors and for transparency about what’s going on, and are said to be seeking justice through both criminal and civil court processes, according to people familiar with the situation. They’ve also helped believers literally find the words for what happened to them, in a faith where many things go unsaid.

But survivors also face a simple logistical issue in seeking justice: The religion isn’t registered as an official entity, has no formal structure, and—on paper, anyway—no leadership to speak of. Lawyers are said to have declined to take on survivors’ civil lawsuits, and it remains exceedingly rare for the alleged abusers, or those who protected them, to be criminally charged, though there are exceptions.

As it stands, some survivors and advocates are working on a far more basic task: creating a paper trail to try to figure out where abusers worked, when, and who might have known about their misconduct. And those still in the faith are examining the prospect of radically reimagining what the religion could look like, to make it safer for children growing up within it.

“It’s about time that all of this comes out in the open,” one survivor of childhood sexual abuse, T.S., told VICE News. (She asked that we refer to her by her initials.)

“There are so many secrets in this religion,” she added. “Too many.”

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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:54
Selkie Hope grew up in the church, in a very literal sense. Their father was the fourth or fifth generation of believers in the family, and when Hope was a teenager, their overseer asked the family to move from Oklahoma to Missouri and take over what’s known as a “convention grounds”—a large property, often farmland, where the faithful periodically gather for days-long meetings to listen to workers preach, something known as “having fellowship.” Hope remembers a flock of people descending on the grounds just before their annual convention to meticulously prep and clean.

At around age three, Hope says, they were sexually abused by the son of their parents’ closest friends. “I didn’t have the words to understand what had happened,” they have written, “and when I told my parent, they told me it was just a disgusting dream and not to talk about it again.” (For years, in fact, they thought they’d been closer to age 5 when they were abused, until quite recently, when piecing together a timeline with their parents.) At age 12, they have written, after being forced to stay with the same man for an evening while their parents were at an event, the abuse happened again.

Hope left the church in their early 20s after getting married; they reasoned that it would be more acceptable for them to stop attending church if their spouse wouldn’t let them go. Otherwise, they say, “I was afraid that I would get excommunicated by my family.”

In the aftermath of the Dean Bruer letter, Hope became involved in advocating for the rights of sexual abuse survivors in the church; with several other people, they founded Voices for the Truth, a non-profit offering advocacy, education, and resources for former and current members of the church. After years of a somewhat distant relationship with their family, that’s all changed recently, they said.

“Since this news broke, I have probably spent 10 hours a week on the phone with my parents, talking to them about how to talk to their overseer and how to press for changes.”

Thus far, prominent workers and overseers within the sect have not responded to media reports about the widening abuse scandal. A journalist for the Daily Dot, whose family belongs to the church, wrote a deeply reported piece about the situation; several overseers within the church did not respond to her request for comment.

Similarly, several workers and overseers named as abusers in internal letters circulating within the religion did not respond to requests for comment from VICE News. Nor did people who have admitted to knowing about widespread child sexual abuse within the church, and who put what they knew in writing in messages they sent out to their congregations.

Those letters have ranged from apologetic to defiant. Merlin Affleck, an overseer in Canada, wrote an unusually frank and raw letter to his flock in May of this year, apologizing for not knowing how to talk about sexual abuse.

“In hindsight I realize more than ever that I was in over my head and floundering as I was trying to understand and get up to speed with CSA,” Affleck wrote, using an acronym for child sexual abuse. “I do want to apologize to victims amongst us for my lack of understanding and the additional pain that this has caused them. I truly am sorry.”

In the letter, Affleck also announced the rollout of an updated “Child Safe Policy,” purportedly designed to keep children safer from sexual abuse within the church and help survivors. It pledged “better communication” and a commitment to keep conventions safe from child abuse, but notably did not lay out a legal framework for how child sexual abuse might be reported to law enforcement. Sources within the church say that going to the police has often been tacitly or overtly discouraged.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:55
“I hope we all can work together to find a way through these issues in a more united way,” Affleck added. “We are aware that our enemy’s most effective tool is wedge-creating divisiveness.”

Despite the nominal lack of structure in the church, there are three men who insiders say have a special degree of power: Ray Hoffman, Dale Shultz, and Barry Barkley. Hoffman is the informal leader of the eastern half of the United States, having taken over for Barkley, according to people well-informed about the church’s structure, while Shultz controls the Western half of the U.S. and Canada. (All did not respond to repeated requests for comment from VICE News.)

“We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, as we have been in the past.”

A victim advocate group published a timeline in July, laying out what they allege were the decisions made by all three men over the years in response to various allegations of abuse within the territories they control. In a town hall meeting in June, though, Hoffman specifically denied having downplayed abuse or moved alleged perpetrators, telling the room, “If people can prove that I knowingly moved a perpetrator to another field I will happily step down, I will happily step down, I will go to jail, I’m not afraid of jail. I don’t think it would be wise to step down off the suggestion of one person.”

Letters the men have sent to their congregants have also been posted online, typically soon after they’re sent.

“The Master is purging His family and we know He wants us to care for the victims,” Hoffman wrote in a June letter, which was posted on one of several websites for current and ex-members of the church. “We want to be willing for this purging and remain on the Vine so the fruit of His efforts could come forth to make us more ready for our Bridegroom’s return. We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, as we have been in the past.”

Despite pleas for unity from some overseers, divisiveness certainly exists, in spades; the situation within the church right now can best be summarized as “chaos,” said Abbi Prussack.

Prussack and her husband Mike grew up in the church, the children of families who’d belonged for generations. At 21 and 19, respectively, they married. It didn’t take long before they realized that neither of them truly felt connected to the church’s teachings, or faith in general.

“We don’t remember who even said it,” Abbi told VICE News—only that one day, one person turned to the other and said, in essence, ‘When you pray, do you actually get a response, for real?’”

Now 35 and 34, with three children, the Prussacks and another couple, Kyle and Kari Hanks, run a Facebook group for former members to connect. It’s one of several such groups. The group was lighthearted until the scandal broke; then it became a space for information and disclosure, with even current members joining to get the information they felt church leadership was not giving to them. Abbi eventually helped to co-found Voices for the Truth, the non-profit advocacy group.

Other groups have also been very active in pushing for alleged perpetrators to be removed from positions of power, if they are workers or overseers, or asked not to attend meetings, if they’re ordinary members of the religion accused of abuse. One major voice is Advocates for the Truth, founded by three women. One is Cynthia Liles, a private investigator and a former member of the religion who has investigated alleged abuse within major institutions including the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church. Her cofounders are Sheri Autrey and Lauren Rohs, both survivors of sexual abuse within the religion who’ve written publicly about their stories. (Members of Advocates for the Truth declined to comment on the record about their work when reached by VICE News.)
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:56
In emails from Liles that have been posted on the ex-member message boards, she excoriated church leadership for failing to take action against alleged abusers, reminding them they had both a legal and moral obligation to do so.

“Society expects institutions to keep their communities safe—especially the children,” she wrote in one such letter. “You may say, ‘Oh, he's an old man and he's in a wheelchair,’ or ‘he's not in meetings with children.’ To the victims, that shows you are standing with the alleged perpetrator and not with them. In addition, I have worked on cases where perpetrators were still abusing children well into their 80's. Pedophilia is not something that goes away with old age.”

A church with such widespread sexual abuse echoes for generations, survivors say. “People don’t know what boundaries are,” said T.S., the childhood-abuse survivor. “They don’t know how to have a relationship where they aren’t minimized or negated. They’re just prey. They have it written all over them.”

“A lot of us felt for a long time that something was wrong,” says Selkie Hope, the Voice for the Truth co-founder and member. “And maybe we even experienced that ourselves. But there’s such a focus on if something bad happens it’s your fault because you don’t have the right spirit. All of us internalized it.”

But even with an enormous and multifaceted outcry, the issues in forcing structural change in the church are obvious.

“Every overseers’ area is dealing with this differently,” Abbi Prussack said. “They actually had an overseer meeting, which is unusual, and had a child sexual abuse advocate speak to them, who was from outside the church. That was a new concept.”

“There are a lot of overseers right now who are being asked to step down, and nobody can make them.”

But as people connected to the church understand it, Prussack said, the result of the overseers’ meeting was that they agreed “there wasn’t going to be a unified policy” in how they responded to the abuse allegations.

“There are a lot of overseers right now who are being asked to step down,” she added, “and nobody can make them.”

It’s also difficult to track any history, including things as basic as where workers have been and when, making abusive ones hard to trace. Lists are released periodically that say who a worker’s “companion,” or the other worker they’ll be traveling with, is. These are always of the same gender, with one person usually being younger and the other older.

Historically, members have been advised to burn the lists after receiving an updated one, Abbi Prussack says. “So there’s no centralized information anywhere. I’ve been trying to compile lists of where people have been, pictures so people can put faces to names and it’s so hard to fill in those gaps because those lists are gone. There’s no accountability. We can’t prove that so-and-so was in Alabama this year. And we don’t know who stayed where night by night.”

The Prussacks say they now have a decent number of lists, and have developed an understanding of troubling patterns—for instance, when someone works in one state, and then pops up soon after in another, or even in another country entirely.

“Someone who’s been moved several times, that’s a red flag,” Abbi said. When she and her husband watched Spotlight, the film about the Boston Globe uncovering the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal in part by tracking where pedophile priests were sent, they both recognized that they were tracking similar alleged patterns.

In the United States, there have also been a handful of criminal cases against workers and overseers. A website, Workers Sect, has a list of criminal charges brought against people it claims were workers and overseers between 1997 and 2016.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 11:59
While some survivors are grappling with how to move forward, other people who grew up in the church are trying to answer even more basic questions about their own histories—ones that, to date, they say the church authority figures have not helped with.

One such person is T.S., the survivor who spoke to VICE News. When she arrived in the United States as a young child, she was in a state of terror. She was born and raised in the 1970s on Pohnpei, part of the island nation of Micronesia. As was common in the region at the time, her mother had gone abroad to work, and she was left with her grandparents. A white family from the United States arrived; they were part of the church, there on a sort of missionary-cum-sightseeing trip. Their guide was a man named John Mastin, a worker based in Pohnpei for many years.

The family decided that they wanted to adopt a boy and a girl from the area, T.S. told VICE News. When she was just three years old, she was sent to the United States to live with them, with Mastin and at “his suggestion and facilitation,” she says. It’s a situation she doesn’t feel her mother was fully informed about, as she wasn’t residing on Pohnpei at the time; an aunt and uncle signed her adoption papers. Some of her cousins were also eventually sent to the U.S., a situation which she thinks was sold to their parents as a way to allow their children to get the benefit of an American education, rather than a permanent placement; some of the cousins, she said, were “bounced around from family to family.”

When T.S. arrived at her new family’s doorstep, after weeks of being in Mastin’s care, “I just remember being completely terrified of men and my new dad,” she said. “The story my family always tells is that I would run and hide and cry. I was terrified of men.” She remembers hiding underneath a ping pong table, cowering in fear, and of her new adoptive father holding her forcibly in his lap to try to cure her fear of men, which only made it worse.

Today, T.S. is clear that while she has no memory of it, she believes she was sexually abused by Mastin when she was left in his care, and that some of her cousins were abused by him as well. (When reached by phone, Mastin hung up as soon as I identified myself as a journalist. Over the course of a week, he did not respond to a detailed phone message or to text messages my editor and I sent seeking comment on the allegations outlined in this story.)

“Although my little toddler brain protected me from actually remembering what has happened to me,” she said, “with my body’s visceral reactions and the way that sexual abuse presents as you grow older, I have no doubt in my mind that I was abused sexually as well.”

This year, T.S.’s suspicions given more weight by a letter sent to church members by a group of three overseers, informing them that Mastin had admitted to sexually abusing a child during his time on Pohnpei.

“We have recently received other similar allegations from victims and their families which indicates a troubling pattern,” the letter added.

For T.S, it was a new outrage: The letter also said that the overseers were “in touch with some who have connections on Pohnpei and offering our support to those involved.” That did not include her, or her family, T.S. said: “Never once have I or any of my family on the island side been contacted.”

The situation strengthened her belief that the church is fundamentally sick, she said, that people need to “amputate themselves from this rotten core.”

“I feel as if people will need to walk away from this structure completely and cut all ties with it in order for it to die,” she said. “Create your own.”

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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 12:01
Nothing happening in the church is exactly new. Accusations of abuse have been surfacing for years. For just as long, there’s been a deep logistical and spiritual struggle over how to respond. One of the earliest people in the United States to speak out was a woman named Rebecca Ginestar, who in 1996 released a self-published book detailing what she alleged was a history of spiritual abuse and incest during her childhood in the church.

Ginestar alleged that her primary abuser was her father, and that she’d tried many times throughout her childhood to disclose his abuse, first by going to a worker who her family knew best. The worker, she alleged in her book, responded, “This could destroy ‘the truth’ as you know it. So, we have to be careful that this information does not get into the wrong hands.’” (Ginestar died in 2013; a surviving family member acknowledged an initial request for comment from VICE News but did not respond to subsequent messages.)

Years before the Bruer letter, believers in Australia were also rocked by a similar sexual abuse scandal. In 2019, 60 Minutes Australia ran an aggressive expose which claimed that senior members of the religion in the country were ignoring child sexual abuse, shunning those who spoke out about being victimized, and accused the religion of exercising “cult-like control” over its members. Members of the church in Australia have found one another through TikTok, where they frequently give updates on the latest overseers to step down, or refuse to do so.

Other cases hint at how long these abuses have been going on. In 2016, a former worker in Ireland was convicted of sexually abusing a boy whose parents’ home he’d stayed at in the 1970s. In 2013, a longtime Michigan overseer named Jerome Frandle was convicted of failing to report abuse and sentenced to several days in jail and a $733 fine.

In a neat bit of foreshadowing, during a court hearing in 2012, Frandle’s defense attorney Thomas Lessing argued that Frandle wasn’t in a position of power, given the sect’s namelessness and decentralization.

“There is no unified structure,” Lessing said. “There is no unified chain of command. There, in fact, is nothing.” The prosecution, he added, “wanted to show [Frandle] had some level of authority or some level of supervisory ability in this ‘organization,’ but they can’t even identify the name of the organization that he somehow has authority for.”

Another worker, Bruce Waddell, was convicted in 2010 of molesting a seven-year-old girl while staying with her family; outside the courthouse, he told a reporter from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that he’d previously offended against other children, and that the matter had been handled without the involvement of police.

“There’s been other victims but that’s been looked after,” Waddell said, according to a report by journalist Betty Ann Adam. “We looked after the others before,” he said, adding, “Everybody forgave me. The ones that I did, the parents forgave me. We believe in repentance and forgiveness.”

Adam also reported that Waddell specifically told him parents of the other children didn’t want to go to the police:

“They didn’t want to go to the law of the land,” he told her. “They wanted to leave it in God’s hands.”

Workers traveling in pairs and other rules and conventions of the church are the process of years of evolution, according to Cherie Kropp. Some of them have a clear scriptural basis, while others do not.

“In the beginning,” she told VICE News, “their only goal was to make converts to Christ.”

Kropp is an author and the foremost living historian of the history of the church; she grew up in it herself as a third-generation believer, and left in 1990. Her leaving was the end of a long and extraordinary process, in which she set out to learn as much as she could about the tradition in which she was raised.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 12:02
At the time, Kropp was the mother of two young children, living in Oklahoma, where her then-husband was working. She had plenty of time and curiosity, and she’d started to have questions about the church, specifically its roles for women; like others who grew up within it, she’d been taught that she needed to have long hair and forego makeup. She’d also begun to be bothered by the idea that her friends outside the church wouldn’t go to heaven.

“They were just so godly,” she told VICE News. “It wasn’t right to me.” (Kropp is still a devout Christian, and carefully refers to the church as a “church,” not as a religion, which delineates clearly that she departed a specific organizational structure, not her belief in Jesus. She spoke to VICE News solely about church history, not about the current abuse allegations.)

Kropp had heard third-hand about a 1982 book, now long out of print, titled The Secret Sect by Doug and Helen Parker. It was, at the time, the only book about the history of the religion, and Kropp was desperate to get her hands on it. But in those days, that was far from an easy task, and it took a turn of fate for her to access it: Her in-laws got a mailer from a ministry in Spokane, which contained an ad for the book. They wadded it up and threw it away, but her then-husband fished it out of the trash and handed it to Kropp.

“He was the first historian,” Kropp says of Doug Parker. “I am the second one. They don’t believe in putting their beliefs in writing. They’re proud they don’t have literature. They only have a hymn book and then various little lists here and there, workers and speakers and convention days, that kind of thing. They don’t publish literature about their beliefs or anything, and they’re proud of it.”

What Kropp read in the book astonished her. The religion wasn’t part of a lineage stretching back to Jesus, but had been founded at the turn of the 20th century by a man named William Irvine, who’d previously been part of an evangelical movement called Faith Mission.

“I was just dumbfounded,” Kropp said.

She decided that she had to fact-check the book. “I was going to prove or disprove what he said before I decided what I was going to do with my life,” she said. She contacted the Faith Mission and got a history of Irvine’s time there. She placed long-distance calls, at a time when they cost 25 cents a minute. She contacted newspapers to get certified copies of articles from their archives. What she found, with the exception of a handful of typos and minor details like dates, is that “everything was true and accurate.”

For Kropp, this had far-reaching implications. She stopped attending meetings, and so did her-then husband; her current husband is also a former member of the church. As part of that, she rejected the doctrine of “exclusivity”—the idea that the church was the only true one, and that workers and overseers were the only way to salvation.

In 2022, Kropp published a book, Preserving the Truth, about her scholarship; with the Dean Bruer scandal, she said, she’s been selling multiple copies every day. Relatives and friends who’d seen her as an enemy of the church have begun reaching out again, something she’s found astonishing.

“I never dreamed it would happen,” she said. “My prayer is that people would have a closer walk with God, that this book would enable them to find a closer relationship with God. I don't try to tell them how to do that. They have to work through it on their own and they’re doing that right and left.”

“There’s a core of people that will not talk about it or think about it,” said Bruce Murdoch, “and still pretend that everything’s okay.”
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 12:03
Murdoch, 70, is a current and lifelong member of the church. He’s also the only publicly-named member of a group of people who run Wings for Truth, a long-running website which publishes educational materials as well as information about the sect’s issues with child sexual assault, including leaked emails from workers and overseers.

“It’s not a sea change yet, but that’s what we’re hoping for.”

“I would call it a seismic event,” Murdoch said, referring to the Bruer letter. “It’s not a sea change yet, but that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Murdoch has been active in denouncing abuse in the church for the past 15 years; he first recalls hearing someone disclose a story about child abuse online in the 1990s, which affected him deeply, and brought other people “out of the woodwork,” he said, to share their own stories. By the mid 2000s, he said, it became clear “there’s a serious problem here.”

Yet Murdoch has also remained a member of the church. “I haven’t remained in spite of the problems,” he said recently. “I’ve remained because of the problems. I know the church. If anybody is going to be of any help it would be someone inside, someone who understands.”

The scandal in the religion has been so massive that it’s spurred a bit of a tech boom. Earlier this year, Shane Garner and Devon Wijesinghe created Connected and Concerned Friends, a private social network for current and former members to talk about both the current scandal and larger questions about scripture and belief. Meanwhile, other websites, Wings for Truth, are seeing a flood of new traffic.

For many abuse survivors, the events surrounding the Bruer letter have led to a profound sense of betrayal, and a spiritual crisis. This, too, is not precisely new.

“I feel I have been deceived all my life by my parents and the workers,” wrote Rebecca Ginestar, the woman who disclosed her alleged abuse in 1996.

“I am not sure if all the friends know or not, but I refuse to live a lie or be in a system that continues to let the lie continue to thrive,” Ginestar wrote in her book, describing her decision to leave the religion entirely. “One must believe in Him—not in a way or system. It is God’s approval I desire and not the approval of the workers or the friends. God is the one I will stand before on Judgment Day—those in the Truth will not be judging me.”

Former workers have also felt betrayed by the abuse scandal. Jeanie McElroy is a former worker who’s now involved with Voices for the Truth; she says she believes she experienced child sexual abuse at the hands of a relative, and struggles to recall significant portions of her childhood. At 20, she says, she was assaulted again, this time by someone she’d been on a date with.

“I brought him back to my house and I was consenting to have sex,” she says. “But I did not consent to what happened. I was raped in my own bed, in my own house.”

At the time, McElroy says, “I was waiting to go into the work, and had no business dating anybody, let alone having sex with anybody. So I was never able to name it as rape.” (In one medical appointment, she disclosed the assault, when asked about it on a checklist of screening questions. The practitioner “didn’t know what do with me,” she says. She didn’t speak about it again for 20 years.)

McEloy was a worker for 11 years, beginning just before she turned 21. For her entire 20s, she lived a homeless and itinerant lifestyle expected of her, her only real stability a spare room at a sibling’s house where she could store keepsakes and spare clothes. When her father died during her sixth year in the work, she received an inheritance. Because workers aren’t supposed to have bank accounts, she bought herself a few essentials—a laptop, a cell phone, and a camera—and then put significant portions back into the work, putting $10,000 towards a hymn book project in Japan.
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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 12:04
Like other workers, McElroy forewent romantic and sexual relationships during her time in the work; the fact that overseers did not —even when not accused of outright abuse—strikes her as rank hypocrisy.

“To hear about the overseers having decades-long affairs and having babies they didn’t take responsibility for, that pisses us off,” she said, speaking for herself and other former workers. “They’re having their cake and eating it too. Sex is so shamed unless you’re married.”

McElroy also absorbed messages within the church about the role of overseers and workers, especially men, who have inherently more power than women workers, she says. “The workers and ministry are so revered and put on a pedestal,” she says. “You don’t say no to them. You do what they want. They’re the voice of God.” For the most part, she says, “you do what they want and you don’t question it and you don’t tell anybody about it.”

Many other young female workers that McElroy befriended yearned for true connection, she says: love, sex, relationships. That desire for intimacy—both physical and emotional—eventually drove McElroy out of the work. She had fallen in love, an experience that was difficult and confusing, due to the teachings she’d grown up in.

“I think that, with the touch hunger and lack of closeness or intimacy in the ministry, when we have feelings for someone, we feel even more isolated and alone than ever before,” McElroy said. “And when things aren't going well in general in the ministry—misogyny, patriarchy, powerlessness, not having a voice—the pros of leaving outweigh the pros of staying, even considering the stigma and shunning that happens after leaving.”

McElroy began working through her own experiences—both the sexual abuse she believes she experienced as a child, the rape as an adult, and the religious trauma—with the use of alternative healing modalities like quantum healing and “energy work,” which she now also offers to others. Her involvement in Voices for the Truth, she says, has provided another way to help survivors. But she struggles to visualize what change within the church would actually look like. Concrete, structural change, she says, would mean “changing the entire doctrine.”

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Perry Bulwer23 November 2023 at 12:05
While many like McElroy have left, others have, of course, stayed, and are fighting for their vision of the faith. Some families who own convention grounds refused to hold their conventions this year, people familiar with the church say, after being told they would have to invite alleged sexual abusers to participate.

“There are a lot of people in the church who are talking now,” says Abbi Prussack, questioning things like exclusivity or “talking about losing faith in the institution. There are big topics being talked about, which is massive.”

At the conventions this past August, where groups of several hundreds of the faithful gathered together, there were moments of clear pain and grief, references to the tumult going on just out of view. One man, speaking at a convention in Washington, appeared to grow deeply emotional while speaking to the assembled crowd.

“The last few months,” he told the room, haltingly, “I have been returning to the same few meditations.” He’d been thinking, as he put it, “about the malignancy that we have found in the body, and how I’m part of the body.”

His voice broke slightly as he spoke. “I need to examine myself,” he added, after a pause. “To know what I can do better.”

Other leadership seemed to strike a note of defiance, and a warning about the profound struggle still ahead.

“We have just finished a most wonderful convention season,” an overseer in Alberta wrote to his faithful, after it had concluded. “Our Lord has been so good to us. Perhaps some would have felt there was a ‘crisis’ in the kingdom but that is not happening. This is God’s kingdom and everything is very much under His control.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7zpvm/an-nameless-insular-religious-sect-is-being-rocked-by-a-massive-sexual-abuse-scandal
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Perry Bulwer1 February 2024 at 14:23
Robert Corfield, ex-minister of secretive sect, admits to child sex abuse

By George Wright, BBC News 28 January 28, 2024

Robert Corfield, a man who abused a boy in Canada in a secretive Christian Church in the 1980s, has spoken publicly about what happened for the first time.

He was confronted by the BBC as part of a wider look into claims of child sexual abuse spanning decades within the Church, known as The Truth.

His name is one of more than 700 given by people to a hotline set up to report sexual abuse within the Church.

The sect says it addresses all abuse allegations.

The Church, which has no official name but is often referred to as The Truth or The Way, is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, with the majority in North America.

The potential scale of the abuse has been captured through a hotline - set-up last year by two women who say they were also sexually abused by a Church leader when they were children. People have phoned in claiming they too were abused, with testimonies stretching back decades through to present day.

The highly secretive and insular nature of the Church has helped abuse to thrive, say former and current insiders who spoke to the BBC. It has many unwritten rules, including that followers must marry within the group and keep mixing with outsiders to a minimum.

The Church was founded in Ireland by a Scottish evangelist in 1897 and is built around ministers spreading New Testament teachings through word-of-mouth.

One of its hallmarks is that ministers give up their possessions and must be taken in by Church members as they travel around, spreading the gospel. This makes children living in the homes they visit vulnerable to abuse, the insiders said.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting

Former Church member Michael Havet, 54, told the BBC he was abused by Robert Corfield in the 1980s, from the age of 12.

"People called me 'Bob's little companion' - I just felt dirty and still do," says Mr Havet, speaking from his home in Ottawa.

After abusing him, Mr Havet says Mr Corfield would force him to kneel beside him and pray.

"I had to work hard to get past that and find my prayer life again," he says.

When confronted about the child abuse allegations by the BBC, Mr Corfield admitted that they had taken place for about six years in the 1980s.

"I have to acknowledge that's true," he said.

Mr Corfield was a minister - known within the sect as a "worker" - in Saskatchewan, Canada, at the time of the abuse.

This is the first time he has publicly admitted to child abuse, though he has previously been confronted by church members and wrote two private letters to Mr Havet in 2004 and 2005 which asked for forgiveness and said he was seeing a therapist. In one letter, Mr Corfield said he was "making a list of victims".

"We don't want to miss anyone who has been a victim of my actions," he wrote.

However, when asked about this by the BBC, Mr Corfield said that there were no other victims "in the same sense that Michael was", and that he had given two or three other teenagers massages.

Abuser given 'fresh start'

Mr Havet is among a dozen people who have told the BBC that widespread abuse has been ignored or covered up in The Truth for decades - with some of the accused remaining in powerful positions for years.

The way his own case was dealt with by the Church is a prime example, believes Mr Havet.

He reported his abuse in 1993 to Dale Shultz, Saskatchewan's most senior church leader - known as an "overseer". Overseers are the most senior members of the church and there is one for each US state and Canadian province where there is an active following.

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Perry Bulwer1 February 2024 at 14:26
But Mr Shultz didn't go to the police - and, says Mr Havet, violently assaulted him a few weeks later because he thought he had told others of the abuse claims.

"He grabbed my shoulders yelling at me, slamming my head against a concrete pillar," says Mr Havet, "splitting it open and causing it to bleed."

Mr Havet says Mr Shultz then "encouraged" him to leave the church - while his childhood abuser, Robert Corfield, was just moved to be a minister across the border, in the US state of Montana.

Mr Corfield told the BBC that he believed it was Mr Shultz's decision to send him to Montana, where he remained in post for 25 years.

"It was suggested it would give me a fresh beginning and probably also put space between me and the victim," he said.

Mr Corfield was removed as minister last year after being confronted about Michael's abuse by another congregation member, according to internal Church emails seen by the BBC. One email also suggested "it is possible there may be additional victims".

The ex-minister told the BBC that he "voluntarily stepped down when the accusations of Michael were presented" against him, and that he had "not been informed of any allegations beyond that."

When contacted by the BBC, Dale Shultz said via email that "much of the information that you have received concerning me is distorted and inaccurate". However he declined to go into any further detail.

A global crisis

Mr Havet is one of more than 1,000 current and former members of the sect to have contacted a hotline set up by campaign group, Advocates for The Truth.

The group was founded last year by Americans Cynthia Liles, Lauren Rohs and Sheri Autrey.

They say they have been given the names of more than 700 alleged perpetrators in 21 countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia and Russia. They plan to build cases against those on the list and take them to the police.

All the women used to belong to The Truth and Lauren Rohs and Sheri Autrey say they were abused by the same man.

That man was Ms Rohs' father, a senior minister called Steve Rohs.

Lauren Rohs traced Ms Autrey after reading her anonymous online account of childhood sexual abuse, in 2019.

In the post, Ms Autrey described how her abuser would sing Maneater by 80s pop duo Hall & Oates to her when she was in his bedroom at night.

Ms Rohs knew immediately that the man being described as the perpetrator was her own father, as it was the same song she remembers him singing to her as a child.

"I sat there stunned," says the 35 year-old. "It disoriented me beyond belief."

She says that her father subjected her to years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse from as early as she can remember.

Meanwhile, Ms Autrey says Steve Rohs stayed at her family home in Tulare County, California, for two months in 1982 - when she was turning 14 - and molested her daily.

He would sing Maneater because "a part of his manipulation was that I was this wild seductress", the 54-year-old says.

There is a 20-year age gap between the two women. By the time his daughter was born, Mr Rohs had given up his role as a worker and started a family in San Diego, California. They later moved to Washington state, Idaho and Colorado.

Lauren Rohs says her father gave various reasons for their constant moving, including that "God needs us in a new place".

The BBC put all the allegations to Mr Rohs in emails and social media messages, but he did not respond.

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Perry Bulwer1 February 2024 at 14:27
Abuse culture persists

Ms Rohs says during her time in the Church in the 1990s and 2000s, workers were like "demigods" and never questioned, and that callers to the abuse hotline confirm that this culture persists today.

Like Mr Havet, Ms Autrey says she spoke out about her abuser - and he was protected.

In 1986, she confided in her mother about being abused by Steve Rohs.

"I felt scared, dirty, ashamed, embarrassed, and guilty," says Ms Autrey, who was 17 at the time and believed she would be in "big trouble".

But her mother believed her right away and reported the man to the California state overseer, who has since died.

In a letter dated 11 May 1986, written by Mr Rohs and seen by the BBC, he admits to the overseer that he and the teenager "did kiss and touch each other intimately" and that he had "begged for forgiveness" ever since.

Mr Rohs was later brought to Ms Autrey's home by workers where he verbally apologised to her.

"I responded that he was not sorry for what he had done or he would have apologised long before," Ms Autrey recalls.

Despite admitting to child abuse, Mr Rohs remained a respected and influential member of the Church. His daughter says he was even promoted in 1994 to being a church elder - a person of seniority who holds meetings in their own home.

The BBC understands he now lives in Minnesota with Ms Rohs' mother - their daughter is estranged from them both. He works as an insurance agent and was an active member of The Truth until April last year, after his daughter and Ms Autrey brought their allegations to the state's overseer and he was removed from meetings.

The floodgates open

The catalyst for the hotline was the death of Oregon's overseer, Dean Bruer, in 2022.

He was one of The Truth's most respected leaders and had worked for the group for 46 years, across six US states.

An internal letter was written by his successor which stated Mr Bruer had a history of abuse including "rape and abuse of underage victims".

It is not clear what the motivation behind writing the letter was but it leaked and soon found its way onto Facebook and TikTok.

Then more people started coming forward to tell their own stories of abuse.

"I think we thought the hotline was solely for Dean Bruer victims but what the hotline did was just open the floodgates," Ms Rohs says.

The friends say they now want the kind of justice they didn't manage to get for themselves.

"When I found Sheri it was a really rather rare and massive healing," says Ms Rohs.

"It has been distressing as survivors to go back and hear the amount of filth and evil," Ms Autrey says.

"Ours was bad enough but to see other people in such terrible situations - it's beyond angering. It's been ugly but also very rewarding."

Ms Autrey stepped down from the Advocates in December.

Because The Truth has no official leader, the BBC instead put the allegations to more than 20 overseers in North America, via email.

The only one to respond was Rob Newman, the overseer for California.

"We actively address all abuse allegations involving participants in our fellowship," he wrote in an email, before Mr Corfield's confession.

"Our paramount concern is that victims receive the professional help that they need. We take all allegations of abuse seriously, strongly recommend mandated reporter training to all, and encourage everyone to report issues to the proper legal authorities."

Ms Autrey believes change will not happen before any culpable overseers are jailed.

"It's an extremely well-oiled machine for criminals," she says.

"It's a perfected system that has gone on for 12 decades."

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66449988.amp
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Perry Bulwer24 February 2024 at 15:14
FBI launches probe into church investigated by BBC

By George Wright BBC News February 21, 2024

The FBI has launched a probe into a secretive Christian church that was the focus of a recent BBC investigation.

The church has no official name but is often referred to as The Truth or the Two by Twos.

The sect has recently been rocked by a sexual abuse scandal, with the names of hundreds of alleged perpetrators given to a hotline set up for survivors.

An ex-minister who abused a boy in the 1980s told the BBC he had "no reason" to be concerned about the FBI probe.

Last month's BBC investigation looked into claims of child sexual abuse spanning decades within the church.

One ex-minister, Robert Corfield, admitted when confronted that he sexually abused a boy, Michael Havet, in Canada in the 1980s.

Mr Corfield said he wasn't aware of an FBI investigation.

"I'm just leaving it all in God's hands and willing to accept whatever he allows to happen, so I'm not concerned about it," he said on Wednesday.

His name is one of more than 700 given by people to a hotline set up by a group called Advocates for The Truth (AFTT) to report sexual abuse within the church.

In a statement, the FBI said that it was "seeking the public's help in identifying victims of abuse that has occurred within a religious group".

It said the abuse "dates back to the 1980s".

The agency said that the group "traditionally does not have a name" but is widely referred to as 2x2, The Way, The Truth, and The Church With No Name.

The investigation has been welcomed by AFTT. The group was founded last year by Americans Cynthia Liles, Lauren Rohs and Sheri Autrey.

All the women used to belong to The Truth and Ms Rohs and Ms Autrey say they were abused by the same man.

"The FBI investigation brings validation and potential justice to survivors that have been silenced by their community for generations. A community that should have been wrapped around survivors with unconditional love, safety and communal care," AFTT said in a statement.

"For many, reporting abuse will be the first steps in their healing journey."

Ms Autrey, who stepped down from AFTT in December, told the BBC that she hopes for "full exposure and accountability and the opportunity for justice for survivors".

"I believe the response from the organisation itself will be the exact same as it always has been, where they say the right words but continue with no correct and tangible actions.

"An exact replication of what we've seen since it's been exposed in the last 11 months, and what has been tried to be exposed for the last 38 years in my case and for decades by countless other survivors."

Mr Havet, who was abused by Mr Corfield for six years in the 1980s, said "the rug has been burned where they have been hiding everything underneath".

He added that the care and support he is receiving now is "so much different" to when he first spoke out in the 1990s.

"It's 2024, the FBI is knocking on doors," he said.

The church's leadership has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.

The group is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, with the majority in North America. It has a notable following in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

It was founded in Ireland by William Irvine, a Scottish evangelist, in 1897 and is built around ministers spreading New Testament teachings through word-of-mouth.

One of its hallmarks is that ministers give up their possessions and must be taken in by church members as they travel around, spreading the gospel. This makes children living in the homes they visit vulnerable to abuse, insiders say.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68361054
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Perry Bulwer23 March 2024 at 15:20
Historical sexual abuse charges filed against B.C. minister belonging to church with no name

Complainant says she is speaking out about what happened in 1989 to protect others

by Karin Larsen · CBC News · March 08, 2024

A Vancouver Island woman is speaking out about the alleged sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager while a member of an insular and secretive Christian sect that has no official name, but is most commonly called the Two-by-Twos, or 2x2s.

Lyndell Montgomery was 14 years old in 1989 when the alleged abuse happened. She claims her alleged abuser was 2x2s minister, Lee-Ann McChesney.

McChesney, 60, was arrested in January and charged with one count of sexual abuse and one count of sexual exploitation after an investigation by the Delta Police Sexual Offence Section and Vulnerable Sector Unit.

According to court documents, the charges stem from incidents in 1989 in or around the B.C. communities of Terrace, Delta and Surrey.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Now 49, Montgomery says she wants to go public with her story to protect others in the church. She's asked that her name not be put under a publication ban by the court, as is usually the case with victims of alleged sexual violence.

"My story is one of thousands within this organization," she said in an interview. "I want to protect other kids that are still in that high control environment. I want to bring publicity to the fact that I am not the only [one]."

The 2x2s organization is being rocked by a wave of child sexual assault allegations making headlines in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.

According to the co-founder of a 2x2 victim hotline in the U.S. called Advocates For The Truth, 1,500 unconfirmed reports of child sexual abuse and other offences have been submitted in one year of operation.

"The response to the hotline has been overwhelming," said Cynthia Liles, who is also a private investigator specializing in child sex abuse cases against institutions of trust. "It's been a fire hose — just a deluge of reports coming in."

On Feb. 20, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it was investigating the 2x2s in the United States, and issued an appeal for victims to come forward.

"The group has often been referred to by others outside of the group as '2x2,' 'The Way,' 'The Truth,' and 'The Church With No Name,' among others," reads the FBI alert.

"If you … believe your child or other children may have been victimized by individuals affiliated with 2x2, the FBI requests you complete a short online questionnaire."
Who are the 2x2s?

The roots of the 2x2s trace back to 19th-century founder William Irvine, an evangelist Scotsman. Followers brought the faith to Canada in the early 1900s.

2x2s do not own places of worship, publish a leadership structure or keep public records.

The sect is largely a home-based fellowship, but Sunday gospel meetings — like one CBC attended at a Port Coquitlam, B.C., funeral chapel — are held at public venues.

Ministers, called "workers," are supposed to be free of worldly possessions and rely on church members, called "friends," for support.

Workers are dispatched to communities in pairs — two-by-two — to preach the faith while living in the homes of congregants, moving frequently. They are expected to be celibate.

Workers in top leadership positions are called "overseers."

Estimates put the number of 2x2 followers in the world today at 75,000. Liles says the majority live in Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
Adopted into the faith

Montgomery says her membership in the 2x2 sect began when she was adopted at six weeks old by a family of devout first- and second-generation followers.

Growing up, there was violence in the family home, she says. After one particularly terrible blowup in 1989, she was sent to live with McChesney, who as a worker, held a position of authority and trust.

"My parents had implicit ... continued below
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Perry Bulwer23 March 2024 at 15:21
... trust in the organization, in the workers, in all of it. They truly believed it was the one true way," said Montgomery.

Soon after the alleged abuse, Montgomery cut ties with her family and the 2x2s. In the intervening 35 years, she resisted overtures from church members to come back into the fold, wanting to keep her trauma firmly in the past.

But last year, a story in her local newspaper changed everything.

It was about the conviction of 2x2s worker Aaron Farough, who was found guilty on two counts of child pornography and sentenced to 175 days in prison. The offences took place while Farough was living in the family homes of 2x2 members on northern Vancouver Island.

"He was on the front page of the Comox Valley Record, and as soon as I started reading it, I was like, oh my God," said Montgomery.

"I thought that I was in a silo, that no one ever in a million years would believe that anything happened to me … and certainly not by a female minister-slash-worker."

CBC reached out to Merlin Affleck, the man identified by current and former church members as the 2x2 leader or "overseer" in British Columbia. Affleck declined to speak on camera or answer written questions about McChesney's charges, her status in the church and the FBI investigation.

In an email, Affleck said steps have been taken to protect children, including development of a child safe policy and a minister's code of conduct.

"In the last few years we've implemented many positive measures to insure the safety of children," he wrote. "But positive things don't usually make for interesting news, so I will respectfully decline your request for an interview."

CBC also asked a 2x2 worker leading the gospel meeting in Port Coquitlam last weekend for an interview. She declined.
Public reckoning

To some in the faith and many who have left it, 2x2 leadership needs to answer for the public reckoning that is now taking place.

Bruce Murdoch is one of them. The lifelong and current 2x2 member has been pushing the issue for over a decade as co-founder of a website that posts about child sexual abuse within the church.

"One of the things that the church does is it denies that it's even an organization, even though it's quite well organized ... So the denial of the fact that we are even an organization has really prevented proper management," Murdoch said, speaking from his home in Cranbrook, B.C.

"There are hundreds and hundreds of allegations that have not gone to the legal authorities, and for many, many years, the leadership of the church would not go to the authorities on purpose," he said.

As someone who studies alternative and controversial religions, Steve Kent says a lack of public accountability is common in groups with antagonistic attitudes to the outside world.

"The outside secular world is evil, fallen, even Satanic, and consequently they almost never go to outside authorities to report incidents of abuse," said Kent, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta.

"What often happens is these groups have either internal investigative procedures that are very, very poor, or they get their abusers to repent and say they had a conversation with God and God has forgiven them."

CBC reached out to the FBI and RCMP to ask if the agencies were co-ordinating across borders on 2x2 allegations.

B.C. RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said he could not confirm or deny any investigation before charges are laid.

"We would encourage any survivor of sexual abuse regardless of when the offence occurred, to contact their local police to report it," he said.

In an email, the FBI said in order to preserve the integrity and capabilities of its investigation, no details would be shared.

McChesney is next scheduled to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on March 14.

see the links, photos and videos embedded in this article at:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sex-abuse-charges-church-with-no-name-1.7121218
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Perry Bulwer22 April 2024 at 14:13
FBI investigates reports of historical child sexual abuse within sect also operating in New Zealand

by Amy Williams, RNZ 19 April 19, 2024

A victim advocate says police are investigating multiple reports of historical child sexual abuse within a secretive house-church that has operated in New Zealand for over a century and is being investigated by the FBI.

The religious group meets in homes and has no official name but is commonly known as Two by Twos to those who have left, and The Truth to those who belong.

The FBI is investigating the sect in America, where more than 700 alleged offenders have been reported to a hotline, there have also been reports of abuse in the UK and Australia.

It has taken a high-profile FBI investigation overseas and multiple reports of child abuse in other countries for New Zealand victims to come forward.

Jillian Hishon grew up in the sect in Australia, but left the religious group when she married someone who was not part of it.

She now runs a hotline set up for Australasian victims of the sect known as The Truth, after evidence of child abuse emerged in America last year, and has been fielding calls from New Zealanders.

"To date, they are all historical child sexual abuse, so they've happened years ago. So these people who have abused, some are still in the church, so some of the abusers are still in the church, they're still attending meetings, some of them, some have been removed, others have already passed away."

Hishon said of the 140 perpetrators identified on the hotline, 20 percent were from New Zealand.

She said people have kept a lid on their trauma for years.

"It's been swept under the rug, you know, you think you're the only person and next thing you find out, oh no, there's actually probably someone in my meeting that was abused, they've just been told by the ministers to just put a lid on it and be quiet, and 'oh we'll deal with it', and nothing ever gets done."

A current member of the Christian sect who was born into it spoke to RNZ but did not wish to be identified.

They said there were between 50 and 60 leaders, known as Workers within the sect, who travel in pairs and stay in houses of sect members, known as Friends, where meetings were held.

"They still stay in homes because it's an itinerant ministry. That is one thing I think needs to change, that they don't stay in the homes of families with children," they said.

"The culture of don't talk about bad things, don't make trouble... for the most part historically you didn't go to police, you didn't go to media. I think the culture is you don't talk about it. It's damaging."

Hishon said the nature of the meetings in homes created an unfortunate environment for abuse.

"You could have two men come and stay in the home where there's, you know, four young children and because we trust these people in the church, there could be plenty of time for misadventure."

The member who spoke to RNZ said they understand there were at least half a dozen historical child sexual abuse reports under investigation by police in New Zealand, of people linked to the sect - some of whom were still actively involved.

They said the sect's lack of a name was going to make it hard for the police to find a pattern and link the reports of abuse.

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Perry Bulwer22 April 2024 at 14:15
RNZ understands police have received complaints relating to alleged child abuse by people within the sect but police have not confirmed this.

Religious expert, professor emeritus of history at Massey University, Peter Lineham, said the secretive sect has been active in New Zealand for 120 years.

He has been researching the sect since the 1970s, and said the esteem awarded to the leaders who travelled house-to-house, called the Workers, created a power imbalance.

"Potentially, this is a very vulnerable group of people because in effect the very high respect held towards the Workers or the Two by Twos meant that the ordinary people really had no other point of reference that they could compare notes about what might be happening."

Lineham said the sect appears to follow Christian beliefs but had a rigourous separation from society and refusal to identify as a group - which made it challenging for those wanting to report abuse.

"If there are issues within them, it's very difficult to come to terms with those issues because this person may deny that they are a follower of anything when challenged."

Around 20 people who had left the Two by Twos had spoken to him over the years and all carried shame and guilt and spoke about their dislike for certain leaders, he said.

"What I have seen is [an] extraordinary sort of shame about the group, the feeling that in some way or other this group was in their heads, they couldn't get it out [out of their head], they felt guilty for leaving, they found it very hard to make the break, and that's the classic behaviour of people who have been in a very closed sectarian group."

Hishon said she knew of three people linked to the sect who had been forced to leave after reports of child abuse.

But there were others accused who remained in the sect, she said.

"We're talking about the safety of children, and the safety of victims already. Like you could be sitting in a meeting in somebody's home and the person sitting across from you mightn't be your perpetrator but you know that they're an alleged perpetrator."

She said it was hard for people to speak out.

"It's almost a brainwashing of what they're preaching to make you think like that's the only place to be kind of thing until you actually get out of the church ... for somebody like myself with a Christian faith to realise that God is so much bigger than just this little church, this little faith group, and that maybe what I've been taught for the first 39 years of my life, was not exactly how it is."

Response from the church

New Zealand spokesperson Wayne Dean said he was aware that police were investigating at least one former minister for alleged historical sexual abuse.

The church encouraged any victims of historical sexual abuse to go to the police, he said.

Any alleged offender was stood down from attending church meetings pending investigation, he said.

"I am aware of 14 cases of members that have been asked not to attend meetings," he said.

"We take every report seriously. Even when it is only considered as inappropriate behaviour. As are some of the cases being dealt with at present."

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Perry Bulwer22 April 2024 at 14:16
Workers have a written Code of Conduct which they signed and were expected to adhere to in all situations, including when they were in members' homes, he said.

Dean said all workers had to undertake formal and refresher training to keep children safe and perpetrators were banned from meetings arranged by the ministry.

The fellowship fully cooperates with police investigations and reporting of child abuse was encouraged, he said.

"We have done risk management plans and put procedures in place to mitigate the risk of further abuse happening," he said.

"We acknowledge that these matters were not always appropriately addressed in the past, and we are truly sorry for any immeasurable long-term damage to victims. We have learnt from these experiences, and are constantly reviewing our current practices to keep children safe in our fellowship."

The church intends to have an expert external organisation to review its policies and procedures and provide independent advice and recommendations, he said.

Currently the church would have an estimated 2500 members across New Zealand, he said.

In two letters posted on a website for the sect's members last year, its Australian and New Zealand leaders, called Overseers, acknowledged cases of child sexual abuse within the group overseas and said anyone who had been affected by "sexual abuse in our fellowship including workers, reporting to appropriate authorities is required by law and we are available to speak to any people with concerns".

They said they had a zero tolerance to harming children and set up an advisory group to develop a standard policy and approach for child abuse prevention and survivor support.

"We have communicated our zero tolerance with respect to the harming of children, young people, or anyone within our fellowship and have begun actions to support this stance. The impact of child sexual abuse is devastating and far reaching. Our thoughts are with each one of you who have been affected."

The FBI declined to comment on whether it had alerted police in New Zealand to its investigation of the 2x2s sect.

Its Omaha Field Office said in February this year that it was seeking the public's help in identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse and/or criminal behaviour that has occurred within a religious group that traditionally has not had a name.

"The group has often been referred to by others outside of the group as "2x2," "The Way," "The Truth," and "The Church With No Name," among others," the FBI said.

"While it is natural for parents to want to gain a better understanding of the potential exploitation of their child, further questioning of the child may lead to inaccurate statements and increased emotional trauma."

The FBI asked people with information to fill out a short questionnaire.

see the links and photos embedded in this article at:

https://amp.rnz.co.nz/article/3492b16d-c2c9-4e5f-9c96-42a379c78d50
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Perry Bulwer29 April 2024 at 14:18
'The Truth' 2x2 religious sect confirms police investigation

Amy Williams, RNZ April 26, 2024

Former members of a secretive sect under investigation by the FBI for historical child sexual abuse warn it is a highly controlling and insular group with many unwritten rules.

The religious group has about 2500 members and 60 ministers in New Zealand, meets in homes and has no official name but is commonly known as Two by Twos or The Truth.

Its spokesperson has confirmed police here are investigating at least one former minister for historical abuse and it is aware of 14 cases of allegations against members.

The sect is not registered as a charity, it has no buildings and members are encouraged to tick 'Christian non-denominational' on the census.

Elliot* recently left the church because of the way historical child abuse allegations were handled.

"In your article was more information than we'd ever been given as a church. I was concerned about the lack of accountability.

"There hasn't been a public spoken apology to the church from the workers, the ministers, to say these things have been handled really incorrectly in the past that has caused harm and we're sorry for the harm it's caused."

Elliot joined as a teenager and said the rules are subtle - you're not saved if you don't attend the sect's meetings in homes and hired halls, marrying an outsider is frowned upon, females have a dress code, TVs are not allowed and using the internet is actively discouraged."

Sarah* grew up in the sect, her parents were born into it too, but she left the church when she moved cities to attend university.

"I always felt very restricted by the very strict rules. There's a phrase they use which is 'be in the world but not of the world' so you're not meant to have school friends. I felt like I was living in these two really different worlds and I couldn't marry them up."

The sect's ministers travel in pairs within an area or region, staying in members' homes.

The church spokeperson Wayne Dean confirmed these ministers were police vetted and trained in keeping children safe, members were encouraged to report any abuse to police and any alleged offender is stood down from attending meetings pending investigation.

Sarah said that is not enough - she said the trust given to these ministers, also called Workers, creates a power imbalance.

"There's a culture of understanding that you don't go to the police to sort out any internal issues. If there had been any problematic behaviour before then the police wouldn't have probably been involved," she said.

"I was left alone with Workers my whole life when they were staying in my house, in their bedrooms. Nothing ever happened to me but I can absolutely see how it can happen. They are the most senior people."

She is concerned the secretive nature of the sect would make reporting any abuse difficult.

"I've seen another resurgence of people leaving, from what I understand promises were made that things were going to change and they haven't seen that come to be," Sarah said.

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Perry Bulwer29 April 2024 at 14:19
Another former insider said their family has been in the church for generations, but they left shortly after coming out as gay.

They were in contact with family still in the sect but are ignored by others.

"I feel like I have been shunned in a way. I'd see people I knew from growing up in the religion and they would just ignore me. To them I don't exist any more, these are people that I have known my whole life."

Religious studies expert and Massey University professor emeritus of history Peter Lineham said former insiders he had talked to told him the sect is in crisis.

"What they seem to be implying is that there's been quite a big exodus of members over recent years. I think there's been much more public talk about the risks and dangers of secterian groups and a vulnerability of people within those groups."

The church keeps a low profile and Lineham said its response to RNZ, confirming a police investigation, was a "striking development".

"The 2x2s have kept such a low profile for so many years that in fact most people have never heard of them. With this sudden exposure I think it maybe has created a bit of a crisis."
The abuse scandal overseas

The lid was lifted on the scale of historical child sexual abuse within the sect after the leader of its church in the US state of Oregon, Dean Bruer, died in 2022.

An internal letter by his successor stating that Bruer was a "sexual predator" whose actions included "rape and abuse of underage victims" was leaked on social media, then shared to a website set up for victims of the abuse within the group.

Two women set up a hotline just over a year ago, and the floodgates opened - their February update said more than 1500 victims had come forward from around the world.

The sect, founded in Ireland in 1897, is believed to have 100,000 members worldwide, most in North America.

One of the former insiders RNZ spoke to for this story said they had spent time in South East Asia with their family, as missionaries.

Another said the ministers would travel overseas to attend conventions, and foreign ministers would also travel to New Zealand to speak at the annual gatherings.

The FBI declined to comment on whether it had alerted police in New Zealand to its investigation of the 2x2s sect, launched in February.

Its Omaha Field Office said it was seeking the public's help in identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse and/or criminal behaviour that had occurred within a religious group that traditionally has not had a name.

"The group has often been referred to by others outside of the group as "2x2," "The Way," "The Truth," and "The Church With No Name," among others," the FBI said.

"While it is natural for parents to want to gain a better understanding of the potential exploitation of their child, further questioning of the child may lead to inaccurate statements and increased emotional trauma."

The FBI asked people with information to fill out a short questionnaire.

*Former insiders talked to RNZ about the group's secretive culture on condition of anonymity - these are not their names.

see links embedded in this article at:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515215/the-truth-2x2-religious-sect-confirms-police-investigation
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Perry Bulwer28 May 2024 at 13:03
Survivors of secretive Two by Two sect waiting to access National Redress Scheme

By Tobi Loftus, ABC News Australia May 21, 2024

Survivors of a fundamentalist Christian sect at the centre of an international child sexual abuse investigation say they are stuck in limbo waiting for the group to sign up to a national compensation scheme for victims.

The sect does not have an official name but is referred to by believers as the Truth or the Way, or by non-believers as the Two by Twos, or the Church with No Name.

Laura McConnell-Conti grew up in the sect in regional New South Wales and left in 1999 when she was 19.

For years she has been actively campaigning for the group to become a part of the federal government's National Redress Scheme, set up in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"I experienced grooming and abuse inside the group, and a lot of other abuses, violence, and family violence," she said.

Believers follow a strict interpretation of the Bible and meet in people's homes for Bible study, with the group's ministers, known as workers, moving between different cities and countries where followers are based.

In Australia, a hotline set up for victims of sexual abuse has received reports from more than 100 victims, alleging abuse from about 150 perpetrators.

The sect is now under a global investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States for historical cases of child sexual abuse.

The ABC can reveal the sect is also set to host special meetings in at least seven state schools across Queensland.

The meetings will be held outside school hours, but it has raised concerns among survivors about the possibility of having alleged perpetrators on school grounds.
Closure needed for victims

Ms McConnell-Conti and several other survivors to whom the ABC has spoken refer to the group as a cult because of what they say was emotional, spiritual, and physical control they experienced while a part of it.

She said she was 12 when she started to experience grooming and "inappropriate sexualised behaviour".

Two of the perpetrators, who have since died, were ministers, known as workers.

"For me, it's been very hard to get any kind of closure as I couldn't take them to court," she said.

"So, I made a submission to the [redress scheme about five years ago] as it was a way for me to get some kind of closure, to get an apology.

As part of the National Redress Scheme, participating groups provide compensation, or redress, to victims.

"For me, it's been a five-ish year journey to try to get [the Truth] to recognise and accept that they were a religion, that they are a formal church, and to get them to even talk to me, or even recognise abuse was happening in the group," Ms McConnell-Conti said.

The sect, which has about 8,000 followers in Australia, had intended to join the National Redress Scheme under the name The Non-denominational Christians (The Truth).

This week, Ms McConnell-Conti received confirmation the sect's application to join the scheme was progressing but with no timeframe on when it would be finalised.

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Perry Bulwer28 May 2024 at 13:04
The sect's Australian leaders Malcolm Clapham, Graeme Dalton, Trevor Joll, Alan Mitchell, and Steve Thorpe said they commenced the process of applying to the scheme in September 2022.

"Our current status is we intend to participate and have signed an agreement," they said.

"We have been assured this is being processed. However, a significant number of other organisations are also seeking participation, and the scheme's application processing timeframes are outside our control.

The Department of Social Services, which oversees the scheme, would not comment specifically about Two by Two's application, but a spokesperson said non-government institutions must meet several legislative requirements to join.

These include groups being able to demonstrate they can pay redress, provide a meaningful direct personal response, and have a structure that means they can enter into a legally binding agreement with the scheme.

Ms McConnell-Conti said she was concerned it was the sect's ability to meet these requirements that was holding up the approvals process.

She said she was aware of at least four other survivors of the sect who had made applications to the redress scheme.
Meetings in schools

Over May and June, sect members are gathering across Queensland, Victoria, and other states for annual special meetings.

The sect will hold several of those meetings at state schools across Queensland.

The special meetings, where followers gather for bible study and lectures, have either taken place or will take place in schools and community halls in towns including Longreach, Chinchilla, Gatton, Rockhampton, Nambour, Mount Warren Park, and Toowoomba.

Meetings are due to take place in state school facilities including Longreach State School, Rockhampton State High School, and Nanango State High School.

Jillian Hishon runs The Brave Truth hotline for survivors of sexual abuse in the sect.

She said she was concerned about the possibility of alleged perpetrators attending these meetings at state schools.

"In Queensland, we have perpetrators that I have reported to the ministers here in Queensland that haven't been removed from the church," Ms Hishon said.

"These are alleged perpetrators that have police reports logged on them.

"They're not going to be there in school times, but [the Education Department is] allowing a group that is under current FBI investigation to attend their grounds. It is up to them, but it is not ideal."

A spokesperson for Queensland's Department of Education said there was "no higher priority … than the safety and wellbeing of students".

They said it was an "established and successful" practice for school facilities to be hired out outside of school hours "with appropriate controls in place".

"A principal will consider applications for community use agreements made by organisations and individuals," the spokesperson said.

The sect's leaders said child safety was "paramount" at all special meetings including at public schools.

"We have conducted thorough risk assessments and put measures in place including vetting attendees, assigning specific workers to address any child safety issues, and encouraging parents to keep children in sight," they said.

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Perry Bulwer28 May 2024 at 13:05
Perpetrators at conventions

Alongside special meetings, the sect runs what it calls conventions.

These are longer multi-day events where followers stay in dormitories and are often held at rural properties across Australia owned by followers.

They have been attended by figures linked to historic child sexual abuse in the past, including Dean Bruer.

Mr Bruer was an overseer, or senior leader, of the sect in the US state of Oregon.

Widespread allegations of child sexual abuse committed by him came to light after his death in 2022 and led to the establishment of the group Advocates for The Truth in the US.

Documents seen by the ABC reveal Mr Bruer attended conventions as a guest in Toowoomba and the Fraser Coast, as well as sites in New South Wales in 2007, 2016, and 2017.

Ms Hishon said Mr Bruer's attendance at Australian events was "concerning".

"I don't have any reports on any abuse that Dean Bruer allegedly committed when he was in Australia," she said.

The sect's Australian leaders said they were "shocked and appalled" to learn of the allegations against Mr Bruer.

"No allegations have been made to the fellowship about Dean Bruer here in Australia, and we were unaware of any allegations against him internationally when he visited here in 2007 and 2016 for a period of up to 10 weeks on each occasion," they said.

They said they vetted convention attendees, including international visitors, had designated child-safe contacts, and had "clear procedures" for incidents now to ensure safety at conventions.

"We have specific safety measures for sleeping quarters, we allocate jobs with safety at the heart of our considerations, have clear signage, and closely manage attendee interactions," they said.

"We have clearly communicated our zero-tolerance policy for harm against anyone in our fellowship.

"As part of our commitment to continual improvement, we have reviewed and improved our plans for this year, to learn from our experiences last year. We have involved key stakeholders in this process."

The FBI launched its investigation into the sect earlier this year and Australian survivors, including Ms McConnell-Conti, have made submissions.

A spokesperson for the FBI told the ABC the bureau encouraged reporting from anyone who thought they might be a victim.

They said this information could be shared with their international partners.

"The FBI, in coordination with our Legal Attaché Offices around the world, routinely shares information and intelligence with our international law enforcement partners in an effort to identify and mitigate a variety of threats," the spokesperson said.

"This international collaboration is always done with the consent of the host country and in cooperation with the Department of Justice and the US Department of State."

to see the links and photos embedded in this article go to:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-22/two-by-two-sect-survivors-waiting-for-compensation/103868134
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Perry Bulwer11 June 2024 at 11:47
Religious sect investigated by FBI, NZ Police apologises to child sexual abuse victims

by Amy Williams, RNZ New Zealand May 29, 2024

A woman who was sexually abused by a minister of a secretive sect as a child says the religious group's written apology is welcome but has been a long time coming.

The FBI is working with international law enforcement partners to investigate abuse within the group known as the 'Two by Twos' or 'The Truth', and police in New Zealand are investigating at least one former minister for historical abuse.

The sect has no official name or church building, is not registered as a charity and its itinerant ministers travel in same-sex pairs, staying in members' homes and receiving gifts of money for living costs.

This week, the sect's Australasian leaders have launched a website with information about its response to historical child sexual abuse and a written apology to victims.

Rebecca* (not her real name) was raised in the Two by Twos and her parents welcomed the volunteer ministers to stay in their home, for weeks at a time.

She was 12 years old when a minister groped her when she was home alone - an act she now recognises as sexual abuse.

"It was a shock and then as time went by, I kind of buried it. But as I got older ... anything to do with that part of my body I couldn't bear a stranger touching."

Rebecca told her mother the minister had touched her but it was never spoken of again in her family.

She said the minister, who has since died, moved to another town and had a reputation for putting his hands where they were not wanted.

"Instead of actually saying 'look, you can't be doing this anymore', it was like 'oh we'll just send you away for a bit'. But that's not really the way to deal with it. That's not okay."

Rebecca has filled out a questionnaire the FBI has set up to allow people to disclose any abuse within the sect.

Former insiders have described the control the closed Christian group has over its members, with many unwritten rules such as not having a TV in their homes and a dress code for women who are discouraged from wearing make up and jewellery.

The overseers step in

Last year, the sect's Australasian overseers wrote two letters to members acknowledging instances of abuse overseas, saying the group had a zero tolerance of harm towards children and encouraging victims to report abuse to the police.

The overseers said they would set up an anonymous advisory group to develop child-safe policies and lead the group's response to historical child sexual abuse.

This week, the sect launched a website for sharing information about its response and the six overseers penned an apology to victims of abuse in Australasia, acknowledging the pain and suffering experienced by victims and their families of child sexual abuse within the church.

The website does not carry any name for the sect but refers to the group as "our fellowship" or "our church".

"Across Australia and New Zealand, we acknowledge the sad truth that some people among us, including ministers of the gospel, elders and friends, have perpetrated acts of child sexual abuse. While some of these wrongdoers are now deceased, the repercussions of their actions persist."

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Perry Bulwer11 June 2024 at 11:48
The overseers encouraged any victims to speak to the overseers or other leaders in the fellowship.

"There are no excuses for this offending committed within our fellowship. We deeply regret all instances of abuse and any time when more could have been done to hear concerns or help victims. We firmly declare that any form of abuse is utterly unacceptable and inexcusable.

"We humbly acknowledge that no apology can erase any harm you bear. We recognise the enduring impact this trauma may have on your lives, acknowledge your pain and believe your experience."

Rebecca said she appreciated the apology, which she said was the first time victims in New Zealand have been acknowledged.

But she said the website for sharing information about historical abuse did not include facts already given to RNZ, including that one minister is being investigated by police and 14 members have been stood down due to abuse allegations.

"It was well written. There's not a lot that they can do for past things. I just hoped it's talked about directly. The trouble is communication, they haven't communicated enough," she said.

"Some people are a bit blasé about it because they don't know and they don't understand that there's somebody sitting right next to you that's hurting."

She said there would be many victims of the minister who abused her but she did not want to name him, posthumously.

In an email responding to RNZ, the sect's overseer Wayne Dean said it did not consider including the number of people stood down over allegations on the website.

He said the advisory group of members would not engage directly with the broader fellowship and would remain confidential to protect survivors in that group.

"Member confidentiality is important for the protection of survivors within the group, and to enable the group to focus on this important work in an impartial manner without external pressure or distraction."

Dean said registering as a charity was not something the group has considered at this stage.

Rebecca had a message for abusers and those who had kept them hidden.

"If you are a perpetrator, just remember that you have ruined someone's life forever and you are not sinning, you are committing a criminal offence against the law," she said.

"It's not acceptable among us, and much less those that preach the gospel, and if you have an incident in your family that you have covered over, you're a perpetrator as well."

She said all members of the sect had a responsibility to report any abuse, historical or current.

"If you have thrown it in the bin, you need to dig it out. You are responsible and don't bury your head in the sand. There are many, many victims of child sex abuse, and it's something that concerns everyone," Rebecca said.

"Mothers understand and should have been a voice in sorting this out, especially mothers who are victims themselves."

'Actions aren't matching the words'

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Perry Bulwer11 June 2024 at 11:49
Another member of the sect said the information on the website looked good but still did not provide a process for dealing with historical abuse.

"The actions aren't matching the words. They are looking like they are saying all the right things but they are not fixing some of the fundamental problems."

The member said it was astounding that an advisory group set up to govern its response to historical child sexual abuse remained anonymous.

The sect's website states the advisory group will advise the ministry, focusing on child safety and survivor support, drawing on expert advice.

"All members of the advisory group are part of our fellowship and consist of survivors, those who have supported survivors, workers, elders, elder's wives and friends," the website states.

"All have current working with children checks or children's worker safety checks and police clearances. All have completed recognised training on prevention of child sexual abuse and advisory group training."

The sect member said the advisory group was not independent or unbiased because it was made up of people who belong to the group.

"They are still trying to have complete control but look like they are doing the right things," the member said.

"It's unethical to have a group of people investigating abuse in the church who are all members of the church and members of the ministry."

A former member of the sect said the apology was "well-crafted and heartfelt" but also had concerns about the anonymous advisory group.

"There is still no transparency or clear action that would make a difference to victims. It's the equivalent of 'thoughts and prayers' which is just a meaningless rhetoric without specific actions for victims," the former insider said.

"Having an anonymous advisory group is appalling. Anonymity means there is no accountability. What is the qualification of these people other than perhaps being an elder's wife?

"Who is representing members who have left? This also means it is a biased view."

Victim advocate Jillian Hishon runs a hotline for abuse survivors in the sect, The Brave Truth Australia and New Zealand.

She was also concerned about the anonymity of the advisory group.

"They're asking people to fill out a contact form on the website to go to we don't know who. The people who are advising the Workers [ministers] are people who are in the church and I'm not sure that's particularly ethical, to have current members advising what to do because they're in quite a mess."

"They don't have a name and it's not legally binding because there's no name. There's no name on the website."

Another former member said an apology on a website was not enough - he wanted the overseer Dean to front up and speak to media.

* Not her real name

to see the links embedded in this article go to:

https://amp.rnz.co.nz/article/9c068300-c122-4a66-bee4-339d6e1a875f
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Perry Bulwer20 June 2024 at 14:31
Secretive Christian sect ignored sexual abuse for decades, congregants allege

by Lauren Lantry and Kyra Phillips, ABC News June 14, 2024

"IMPACT" looks at the 2x2 church and abuse claims spanning generations.

In a secretive Christian sect unknown to most Americans, a reckoning is underway. Allegations of abuse that have been insular for so long are now coming to light.

Sheri Autrey was 14 when she says she was abused by a 28-year-old man who was a minister in her church. She says her abuse happened every night for two months.

"He'd be touching me everywhere, kissing me," Autrey, now 55, told ABC News. "And it was scary. It was scary because I knew if we got caught, I would be in trouble. I was the one doing something wrong."

Autrey grew up in a secretive sect of Christianity known by outsiders as the 2x2 church. Within the church, members refer to it as "The Truth" or "The Way" or even call it the church that has no name. What makes this religion so unique is that the ministers, known as workers, live with the congregants, moving from inone member home to another, sometimes living out of a single suitcase.

Autrey's story isn't unique within her former religion. ABC News has been conducting an investigation for over a year into this organization, and has spoken to dozens of alleged survivors, from at least 34 states in the nation. The alleged abuse within the church spans generations, with some victims accusing the same perpetrator decades apart. One alleged victim said she was abused by a worker when she was 7 years old in 1955.

"The ministers stay in homes, they groom the family," Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney who represents child sexual abuse victims, including one ex-2x2 member, told ABC News. "The parents seem to have this enormous amount of trust, which is misplaced, in the religious person. And the parents are blind. Religion can be blind. Religion is great if it's used properly. But if it's not used properly, it's a disaster, it's evil."

The claims were so widespread that the FBI announced in February that it started an investigation into the church.

"The FBI focuses, in general, on bringing cases from local to global," Eugene Kowel, Special Agent in Charge of the Omaha Field Office which is leading the investigation, told ABC News in a rare, exclusive interview. "I'm trying to build an enterprise case. So, in general, the FBI doesn't stop at just an initial arrest. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads to ensure children are protected and to ensure anyone who can be held accountable is being held accountable by the criminal justice system."

While the FBI declined to give ABC News specifics into the ongoing investigation, Cynthia Liles, a private investigator who has been looking into the church and also runs an advocacy group, said over 900 alleged perpetrators have been named. She says she provided that information to the FBI.

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Perry Bulwer20 June 2024 at 14:33
Even former ministers of the church told ABC News that the abuse became pervasive.

When asked if she felt that the church accepted abuse, former worker Sara Knauss responded, "I wouldn't say accepted it, but pretended it didn't exist," Knauss said.

Rather than calling the authorities, alleged abusers kept working, but in different states, according to former members.

"The typical response by the preachers when they're notified is for them to move the perpetrator to another area," Cherie Kropp-Ehrig, author of "Preserving the Truth," told ABC News. "And not to warn the people in the new area."

The church has a global presence and while it operates differently in countries like Australia, the 2x2 church in the U.S. doesn't have one official leader; it has a group of leaders known as overseers. ABC News reached out to over 20 former and current overseers in the United States. All of them denied knowing about the widespread abuse. But one overseer acknowledged that workers were moved in the past, rather than being removed from the ministry and reported to authorities.

"The 'shuffling' of abusers from state to state, from country to country, is common," Garabedian said.

People within the church knew about Autrey's abuse. Her parents wrote their overseer, Eldon Tenniswood, about her alleged abuser, Steve Rohs.

In 1986, Tenniswood wrote Rohs in a letter obtained by ABC News, "Remember, Steven, at that time you were 28 years old and she was 14 years old, which would make what you did a felony."

Rohs admitted to the abuse, writing on May 11, 1986, in a response to Tenniswood's letter, "We did… kiss and touch each other intimately. This did not happen with anyone else… I did not intend to cover this up, but I did not know how to handle it other than to leave the area and beg God to forgive me. I was old enough to know better, but still weak in the flesh."

ABC News has spoken to two other alleged victims of Rohs, who say their abuse happened decades after Autrey's.

To see Kyra Phillips' attempts to question Rohs and the full report into the Church, stream the "IMPACT x Nightline" episode "Secrets of the 2x2 Church" on Hulu beginning June 13.

While Autrey grew up in California, she now lives in Texas with her husband Dean. With her dogs, cattle, and cowboy boots, she enjoys living a little more off the grid.

"What would you say to your 14-year-old self right now?" ABC News asked Autrey.

"You're amazing," Autrey said. "You're precious. You did not deserve this. And you will have a good life. This will not define you. I will overcome."

ABC News' Caroline Kucera and Tara Guaimano contributed to this report.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/secretive-christian-sect-sexual-abuse-decades-congregants-allege/story?id=111059778
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Perry Bulwer23 June 2024 at 11:41
FBI investigating 2x2 religious sect operating in Bay Area following alleged child sex abuse

By Stephanie Sierra, ABC7 News June 13, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The FBI is investigating a religious sect that's facing widespread allegations of child sex abuse. They're called the Two by Twos (2x2) or The Church with No Name - and there's a following here in the Bay Area.

72 miles south of San Francisco, in a remote isolated location of San Martin, a special meeting took place where a group of people preached their version of the gospel.

What is the 2X2 religious sect?

It's a non-denominational Christian religious sect that's been around since the late 1800s. It was founded by Scottish evangelist William Irvine. Historical records suggest it wasn't until the early 1900s, the ministry set roots in the Bay Area.

"It's a very persuasive type of religion," said former member Michael Day.

"How would you describe this organization?" ABC's Stephanie Sierra asked.

"They use fear and manipulation, they manipulate people and the fear of the Lord to control people," said LaNette Burrage Flanigan, another former member. "They tell you, we are the only true way."

The Two by Twos are often referred to today as "The Truth" by its followers. According to the ministry's doctrine, this is the only way to find true salvation.

"Do you think they're being truthful?" Sierra asked.

"No, they're not," said Flanigan, a former member who says some members of her family were victims of child sex abuse. "I'm just broken. I could cry right now, it makes me sick."

"His type was small framed brunette girls," said another former member Sheri Autrey, who identifies as a survivor of child sex abuse.

In February, the FBI announced it was investigating the ministry and seeking victim information following allegations of child sexual abuse reported across the U.S.

Victim advocacy organizations report allegations across the world.

"If they didn't talk to God's true people, his chosen people, they're going to hell," Autrey said she was told by members of the ministry. "It was brainwashing from such an early age."

"What specifically do they do?" Sierra asked.

"They make you scared, they make it a scary place to leave," said Flanigan.
"The Way"

The church generally operates inside the private homes of members where worship services are held on Wednesdays and Sundays.

"They go two by two, that's where we get the name," said Cherie Kropp, a former member and author of a historical biography on the religious sect.

Kropp explains the hierarchy - "Overseers" are at the top, considered to be church leadership. Below them are the "Ministers" or "Workers" who travel in pairs of two men and two women as they evangelize and preach to members.

Below them, are "Elders" and "Friends" that make up the members of the congregation.

"The preachers were to be celibate," Kropp said.

These ministers often live in members' homes for a period of time before moving to the next. According to the scripture, it's considered an honor to host them.

LaNette and Lauralee

"I actually do remember workers if they stayed with us, they would stay in our room," said LaNette Burrage Flanigan, a former member who lives in Union City.

She says her cousin Lauralee Brown, was sexually abused by another member at the age of 9 until she was 13.

Stephanie: "Were the parents aware of this?"

LaNette: "No."

Stephanie: "Was there an effort to report this abuse?"

LaNette: "No, no."

Stephanie: "Why do you think that is?"

LaNette: "I think that they wanted to keep it a secret...Because I think that they believe, if you tarnish their perfect way - the perfect will - that would look bad on them."

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Perry Bulwer23 June 2024 at 11:43
Her cousin, Lauralee, says it's been a nightmare ever since.

"This is my little foot and slipper," showing a photographer of her alleged perpetrator.

"This was in the middle of the three years he was molesting me." She said the photo was captured the night of his engagement to another woman.

"He would immediately go back to sexually interacting with me," Lauralee said. "He would tell my father I need to go get more wood for the fire and would make sure I would go with him."

"How many times would it happen?" Sierra asked.

"It would happen about two times a week, or more," said Lauralee. "All around the truth meetings."

Lauralee says for three years she didn't understand what was happening to her, until her sixth-grade sex ed class. She was 13.

"I left the class and went outside," said Lauralee. "And it was the first time I realized what was happening to me."

She says her parents were told at that time, but didn't believe her.

"I couldn't do school, I was out. I don't know how I got through that year," Lauralee said.

Lauralee says she tried reporting it four years later.

"At 17, I told them again as if they never heard."

LaNette says it's a crooked culture that's been passed through generations.

"There was some abuse of my mom," she said. "Her father, he touched her inappropriately."

Sheri Autrey

Another former member who grew up in Visalia, south of Fresno, says her father was also a victim of abuse. Years later, Sheri Autrey says she experienced it herself.

"My abuse started with a minister," Autrey said.

At the age of 13, she says a 28-year-old "worker" by the name of Steve Rohs molested her throughout the duration of his two-month visit to her home.

"It happened on a nightly basis," Autrey said. "It was regular."

"If you questioned him, tried to report it, what would happen?" Sierra asked.

"You would get gaslit profusely and accused of having a bad spirit, or the devils getting into you... how dare you question God?" Autrey said.

In 1986, Autrey wrote a high school research paper claiming that Rohs repeatedly told her not to tell her parents.

She says he promised her, "If you ever get pregnant, then I'll marry you. He said what he was doing to me was right. Everyone in the church and public thought he was nice."

That same year, Rohs sent an apology letter to church leadership, where he stated they didn't have sex, but admitted to kissing and touching Autrey intimately. He wrote, "I did not intend to cover this up, but I did not know how to handle it other than to leave the area and beg God to forgive me."

Rohs denied promising to marry Autrey -- adding in the email, "This did not happen with anyone else."

Fast forward from 1986 to April of 2023, an email was sent to members about Rohs stating "another allegation was made from outside the state of Minnesota."
Questions about accountability

The ABC7 News I-Team tried contacting Rohs to get further response, but never heard back. ABC's Kyra Phillips tracked him down in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here's what he had to say.

"It was not a secret amongst leadership that he had molested me," said Autrey.

Autrey says six years later, Rohs was out of the ministry, but still leading meetings in his own home. She says she was horrified.

Rohs never faced criminal charges in this case, and likely never will.

According to the Tulare County District Attorney's Office, "Prosecutors have meticulously reviewed reports and victim accounts in this case and have determined that any potential crime falls outside of California's Statute of Limitations."

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Perry Bulwer23 June 2024 at 11:45
We spoke with legal expert and veteran criminal defense attorney Seth Chazin, who specializes in sex crime cases.

"Is this true?" ABC7's Stephanie Sierra asked.

"Yes. Unfortunately, the charges can't be filed in this case due to the running of the statute of limitations," said Chazin.

"Just to be clear, do either of these cases have any criminal recourse?" Sierra asked.

"No, charges were not filed prior to the alleged victims 40th birthday," Chazin said.
The Statue of Limitations

According to a well-known anti-sexual violence organization, "RAINN", only seven states have eliminated the statute of limitations for all felony sex crimes. California is not one of them. In part, because certain felony sex offenses like rape, still has a statute of limitations.

"We understand state lawmakers have attempted to change this," Sierra said.

"AB 2295 is simply saying there will be no statute of limitations for any child sexual assault," Chazin said.

The bill is still moving through the state legislature. For now, the only law on the books is one that allows alleged victims who file a claim within five years or by age 40 to seek civil damages for childhood sexual assaults that occurred before 2024.

And both Sheri Autrey and Lauralee Brown say there was a sense of fear that prevented them from reporting their alleged abuse at the time.

"It was such symbolization of all the power and control. Do not tarnish the image of the organization," Autrey said.

"I don't know how I went through that year," Lauralee said.
2x2 worker responds

Decades later, it's unclear who exactly to hold accountable, but we tried to reach current local leadership representing the Bay Area congregation for further comment. We never heard back.

That's until we located Gary Paul, a veteran worker who's not tied to the Bay Area, but based in Washington state, North Idaho, and Alaska. He says he was not involved in Autrey's or Lauralee's cases, but we spoke with him about the broader allegations facing the ministry. He recently visited the South Bay for what's called, a "special meeting."

These meetings only happen on rare, scheduled occasions. But they're difficult to track down as the schedules aren't posted publicly -- and several were reportedly shut down following pressure from the federal investigation.

After preaching Sunday service in San Martin, Paul agreed to speak with us virtually the following week.

Stephanie: "I've talked with numerous former members who say they have been sexually abused by ministers while they were staying in their home. They say the abuse was going on for years. What's your response after hearing that?"

Gary: "Well, I never saw it. And knowing the church leadership, I find that very difficult to believe."

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Perry Bulwer23 June 2024 at 11:47
According to "Advocates for the Truth," an organization dedicated to helping survivors across the world, there have been reports on more than 900 alleged perpetrators (as of June 10, 2024) that have been identified by a hotline worldwide. The nonprofit says there are more than 1,500 alleged victims that have reached out for help since its inception in March last year. Autrey is the former president and co-founder of this organization.

Stephanie: "The FBI is now investigating your church. How do you feel about that?"

Gary: "I don't think it's necessary. But , they're doing it. So that's fine. I don't think they'll find anything they don't expect."

Stephanie: "And you don't think it's necessary why?"

Gary: "Because I don't think that there's a cult of people trying to hide things... the leadership is not super secret in trying to hide things. I don't know what they're after."

Stephanie: "There are hundreds of alleged victims that have come out, indicating they were abused at one point or another. Many of whom have come out publicly to share their stories. Because the allegations were made, don't you think it's important an investigation is done to fully vet what happened?"

Gary: "I suppose it would be."

After 57 years in the ministry, Paul says he never dealt with a child sexual assault case, nor received formal training on how to respond to such allegations until after the federal investigation began.

Stephanie: "Just to be clear, is that training just voluntary or required now?"

Gary: "Voluntary."

Stephanie: "Don't you think it should be required?"

Gary: "I think it should be voluntary. We don't commonly talk about problems that are exposed."

Stephanie: "Would you consider this ministry to be secretive?"

Gary: "No, we're definitely not."

But some of those who grew up in it disagree.

Michael Day

Ex-member Michael Day says he experienced that firsthand.

"Is there a culture within this religious sect that encourages sweeping things under the rug?" Sierra asked.

"Uncomfortable topics, yes," Day said.

Day grew up in the religious sect with his cousin, John Vandenberg, a Hayward native.

Before Vandenberg died this year, some leaders within the ministry say he faced serious allegations of sexual abuse.

"It made me very, very sad," Day said. "He was on a missionary trip to the western Pacific, when he was coming back, the overseer told him that he couldn't be a worker anymore. So, he was kicked out."

Day says he was shocked. Vandenberg was like a brother to him.

"I've heard inappropriate touching of girls in the Philippines and in Mexico... but it's just hearsay," said Day.

An email from a regional leader in the sect's ministry reported Vandenberg was the subject of "several credible allegations of unacceptable sexual behavior, including a complaint of inappropriate touching of a minor, which was reported to the authorities."

"I feel really bad. Especially if they feel violated," said Day.

Day says he had 35 ministers or workers stay at his home growing up.

"One of them who John knew, and who stayed in our home, later came out as a convicted child molester," Day said. "And he had been in our home, we couldn't believe it."
"The Rules"

In the years that followed, Day says he grew out of the faith and was displeased with the hypocrisy.

"I would hear there are no rules.... We have no rules. God's going to lay his faith in you and you will know to do what's right," Day said before shaking his head.

"Yeah, there's rules, there's rules galore."

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Perry Bulwer23 June 2024 at 11:48
Former members say the ministry frowned upon makeup, jewelry, other than a wedding ring, cutting your hair, adorning yourself, and expected women to wear conservative clothes, particularly dresses.

Stephanie: "What happens if you wear pants?"

LaNette: "Oh, you would be looked at like, what are you wearing? Why are you wearing that? They would shun you."

We asked Gary Paul about that, but he denied any rules about makeup.

Stephanie: "What about wearing pants to Sunday service?"

Gary: "I don't feel that's very womanly...There are times when it's really not becoming or womanly to wear pants."

Not womanly to wear pants, nor go to college, according to Lauralee Brown. She says she wanted to be an attorney, but was told by the ministry, "That's too worldly, we don't think you should do that."

A religion with a strong set of rules, that preaches they are destined to find "The Truth" or the "One True Way", but questions linger as to who's really being honest.

"We were told that 'The Way' is perfect, but the people are not," said LaNette.

But some former members argue "The Way" is far from perfect, raising concerns about ministers having access to young children by moving from home to home.

"There's no accountability when you go and try and talk to them, they refuse to try and talk to you about it. They just ignore you. They just deny it," said LaNette.

We asked Gary Paul about that.

Stephanie: "Some former members believe there should be rules in place prohibiting ministers from staying in people's homes, arguing that will help protect innocent children from potentially being exposed to predatory behavior. Do you agree with that?"

Gary: "No. Nowhere in the scripture supports that. And in the multitude of years that I've been in it, it's never been a problem."

Stephanie: "How do you know it hasn't been a problem?"

Gary: "Well, it's never been a problem that I'm aware of. Obviously, it could have been, but I wasn't aware of it and I never saw it."

Stephanie: "Just because you weren't aware of it... Don't you see value in protecting future generations, given what has been publicly revealed?"

Gary: "I don't think that it would. I think it would affect the quality of our ministry and the standard of the ministry that that has been established from New Testament days. We've always stayed in the homes of God's people... staying in a home makes you very vulnerable... it's true that the children in the family home are vulnerable also, but that's the way that this the fellowship has been established."

Stephanie: "From your perspective, what will it take to see real change from all of this?"

Gary: "Well... I don't like the word change. Because there's a lot of things about the fellowship that cannot change... You can't do that."

Members of the ministry conflict with former members, yet both are on missions to seek "The Truth". The question is, will it bring justice?
Report to the FBI

The FBI Omaha Field Office is seeking the public's help identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse and/or criminal behavior that has occurred within this religious group.

If you have any information about this ongoing investigation or believe your child or other children may have been victimized by people affiliated with 2x2, the FBI requests you fill out this questionnaire.

To report directly to the hotline, call 402-493-8688.

ABC7 worked in conjunction with ABC News & Nightline on this investigation. You can watch the full IMPACT by Nightline episode, "Secrets of the 2 by 2 Church" streaming now on Hulu.

to see the links and photos embedded in this article go to:

https://abc7news.com/post/fbi-investigating-two-by-twos-2x2-religious-sect-san-francisco-bay-area/14945615/
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Perry Bulwer21 August 2024 at 10:42
FBI investigating fundamentalist Christian sect, after widespread allegations of childhood sexual abuse

"The gaslighting and the guilt is what has created such a perfect breeding ground for the pedophilia that goes on," a former member said to the 7 Investigates team.

by Morgan Romero, KTVB7 August 8, 2024

BOISE, Idaho — A fundamentalist Christian sect has mostly stayed under the radar for the past century. But it has emerged from the shadows recently, revealing a disturbing and shocking secret.

The FBI is investigating the group – as it faces widespread allegations of sexual abuse. The sect has fewer than 100,000 members worldwide, and about 700 in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon.

It isn’t set up as a non-profit, and doesn’t have one main leader or an official name. Outsiders call it "The Church With No Name" or “Two by Two” (2x2), insiders call it “The Way” or “The Truth”. But former members said its leaders work to conceal the real truth. So, they spoke to 7 Investigates, to expose it.

For the last 80 years, followers of a little-known Christian sect have met in a field in Parma for an annual regional convention.

Members of what the FBI calls the “2x2” church also meet weekly in homes, schools and other public places all over the world, including Idaho and Oregon.

For more than a century, the international organization’s teachings and activities were largely unknown to the outside world.

"Deanne," a former member, said, "it’s just so secretive. And I don't know why it has to be so secretive. Nobody wants to talk about it."

But former members are talking to 7 Investigates, coming forward with widespread allegations of child sex abuse.

"It has to be exposed," former member and child sex abuse survivor Sheri Autrey said.

To date, a private investigator Cynthia Liles, who founded a hotline with Autrey and another woman, Lauren Rohs, for alleged abuse victims tells KTVB she has received allegations against 980 different perpetrators connected to the sect - stemming back to the 1960’s. She said at least 15 possible perpetrators have lived or worked in eastern Oregon and Idaho, while six members from the area have been convicted for sex crimes. Survivors and advocates believe the number of reported allegations is just a fraction of the actual abuse that's gone on over the years.

In February the FBI Omaha Field Office announced it was investigating the allegations, trying to identify victims of abuse and people who know about criminal behavior within the group.

"It is rampant and it's systemic," Autrey added.

The FBI got involved a year and a half after Oregon and Idaho's “overseer”, Dean Bruer – one of the highest figures in the sect – passed away. Church leadership penned a letter to members months after his death, stating multiple alleged victims told them Bruer had raped and sexually abused them.

But the allegations didn't stop there.

"The accusations, the perpetrators started just rolling out, people just started coming forward," said "Deanne".

People came forward on social media and to the survivor hotline 'Advocates for the Truth', where they accused hundreds of other leaders and members of abuse, not just Bruer.

"The gaslighting and the guilt is what has created such a perfect breeding ground for the pedophilia that goes on," Autrey said. "When I brought mine up to the organization back in the 1980's, I was silenced and shamed."

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Perry Bulwer21 August 2024 at 10:43
Survivors and advocates claim that it’s gone on in Idaho and Oregon, and around the world, for decades. They said church leaders concealed the abuse, and silenced victims.

"I am shocked that since it is so prevalent and deeply corrupt that it was hidden for this long. People didn’t come forward. But fear is a powerful motivator, and we’re trained from infancy to conform," "Deanne" told 7 Investigates.

Jeanie McElroy, who now lives in Middleton, spent 11 years preaching the gospel as a minister - or "worker."

"It's such a repressive power control environment," she said.

As a worker in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon, she had to give up her belongings and become homeless, traveling around and preaching the gospel while sleeping in members' houses.

"People would come to us and say they had experienced sexual abuse, domestic violence. I would see all these things come to the ministry."

McElroy added that she herself was sexually abused from infancy until she was seven in California. McElroy said her abuser was a family member and elder within the organization.

At the time it was happening, she denied it. But after another family member shared that the same man was abusing them, McElroy's dad went to the ministers in the area. The ministers said they would handle it, according to McElroy.

But she learned the only punishment he faced was that he was no longer allowed to host gatherings in his home. McElroy recalled he was still able to take part in church activities and spend time around young children.

She said her alleged perpetrator was not charged with a crime, but she understands why her parents did not go to the police.

"The other person in my family was young, a lot of trauma, you don't want to talk about it."

McElroy didn't remember her abuse until about six years ago.

"It is not uncommon for people who experienced childhood sexual assault to repress memory and not remember what happened," she told KTVB. "I started having flashbacks of sexual abuse I experienced as a child... How childhood sexual assault has been dealt with in this belief system is not ok. There’s no accountability," McElroy said.

"Deanne" grew up in the Pacific Northwest, including Idaho and Washington, in the sect. But it was the lack of accountability that led her, and most of her family, to leave a few months ago.

Their decision to depart came decades after several relatives revealed they were sexually abused.

"My mom, my uncle brutally raped by a minister as a kid. The stories I’ve heard would curl your toes - horrible. My brother-in-law's parents, both of them. And none of those have been reported because their perpetrators are dead now and it was decades ago."

"Deanne" wanted to remain anonymous, stating, "Even now, I'm scared to talk about it."

"Until you're willing to go out there and get the information for yourself, you're not going to see it," "Deanne" said.

Romero asked, "And what information specifically?"

"How much sexual abuse is happening. How much immorality and lying. We've caught ministers in straight up lies. How much unwillingness to change, to put some protections into place against some of this abuse that's happened. It was covered up in the past, and the ministers just move them to another area," "Deanne" responded.

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Perry Bulwer21 August 2024 at 10:44
McElroy said she felt powerless, even as a "worker" - because she is a woman.

"I didn't have a voice to say anything. I could say something, but then I would get in trouble. It cultivates an environment of silence."

While former members say the sect uses scripture to keep people silent, they're now using their voices to speak truth to power.

"To admit there are problems in the church would be to undermine everything that's been taught," McElroy said. "I hope victim-survivors are believed, heard and supported."

"Generationally, this has been happening, and it has been swept under the rug," Autrey added.

"I hope people start to think critically," "Deanne" said when asked what she hopes happens now that all of the alleged abuse is coming to light. "We're trained to not think critically, to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and don't listen to this voice inside of you because human man is evil."

"If I can protect one person from abuse, that would be enough for me," "Deanne" added.

Romero reached out to the regional overseer, asking to talk about the allegations of abuse and cover-ups. Doyle Smith said in a statement:

"We actively address all abuse allegations involving participants in our fellowship. Our paramount concern is that victims receive the professional help that they need. Funds are established for that specific purpose. We take all allegations of abuse seriously, strongly recommend mandated reporter training and programs like “Ministry Safe” and encourage everyone to report issues to the proper legal authorities as soon as possible.

This is our only statement as this time."

The statute of limitations - and their alleged abuser's death - prevented many abuse survivors in the U.S. from getting justice. However, in Idaho, the state can bring a charge of "sexual abuse of a child" and "lewd conduct with a child" at any time, no matter how long after it happened. That law changed in 2006 and the previous statute of limitations applies to abuse that occured before that time.

If you have been victimized, or have any information about abuse within the 2x2's, the FBI asks that you fill out this online questionnaire.

The FBI provided a statement regarding the "the Truth" or "2x2" church:

"The FBI encourages reporting from anyone who thinks that they may be a victim, or from anyone who may have information on this investigation. We also encourage victims outside of the United States to contact the FBI. In coordination with our Legal Attaché Offices around the world, we routinely share information and intelligence with our international law enforcement partners in an effort to identify and mitigate threats. Anyone with information on the investigation can provide it through the link."

Survivors can also call the Advocates for the Truth or victim-survivor led Voices for the Truth hotlines for support or to report allegations.

Advocates for the Truth: 1-855-477-2388

Voices for the Truth: 928-756-8654

Voices for the Truth is a nonprofit working in partnership with the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN).

to see the photos, video, and links embedded in this article go to:

https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/investigations/7-investigates/fbi-investigating-fundamentalist-christian-sect-allegations-of-childhood-sexual-abuse/277-2c773ca9-b107-45f0-a883-2fffe53e3963
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Perry Bulwer7 September 2024 at 15:45
Former member of Two by Twos sect arrested for alleged historical sex offending

by Amy Williams, RNZ New Zealand August 31, 2024

A Northland man has been arrested as part of an investigation into alleged historical sex offending that spanned three decades when he was part of a secretive sect that meets in people's homes.

The religious group known as the Two by Twos, or The Truth, is under investigation by the FBI for historical child sexual abuse. Former members warn it is a highly controlling and insular group, with many unwritten rules.

The Christian sect has about 2500 members and 60 ministers in New Zealand, is not registered as a charity and has no official name nor church buildings.

Ealier this year, its spokesperson confirmed police here were investigating at least one former minister for historical abuse and it was aware of 14 cases of allegations against members.

Police have this month laid numerous charges against a man who was part of the sect.

At this stage, 17 charges of indecent assault have been laid against the man relating to alleged offending against four victims between the 1960s and 1980s.

The 79-year-old man has interim name suppression and is due to reappear before Kaikohe District Court next week.

The sect's overseer Wayne Dean said they encouraged abuse to be reported.

"Whilst it would be inappropriate for us to comment on any specific case that may be before the courts or in the hands of the police, I can confirm that we as a group encourage and support the reporting of abuse to the authorities, and respect all action taken by the authorities in response to criminal behaviour," he said.

"Our heartfelt message to all survivors/victims is one of support and encouragement. We recognise they have experienced pain and suffering through no fault of their own. We acknowledge the courage of those who have shared their experience, and are mindful also of those whose voices are still silent, unable to speak of the trauma endured."

In May, the sect's Australasian leaders launched a website with information about its response to historical child sexual abuse and a written apology to victims.

The website does not carry any name for the sect but refers to the group as "our fellowship" or "our church".

Victim advocate Jillian Hishon runs a hotline - The Brave Truth Australia and New Zealand - for abuse survivors in the sect.

"Given the fact that there's been an arrest I think it will be really encouraging for victims to see this moving forward," she said.

"It's really hard for victims to make those reports [to police] but seeing something move forward ... is a really good thing."

Hishon said the hotline had received calls from at least 15 New Zealand people alleging they are victims since the FBI announced it was investigating the global sect.

"Oftentimes for a victim to report to us, they just want to be able to tell their story and be listened to."

In February, the FBI confirmed it had launched a global investigation into the sect known as the Two by Twos, or The Truth.

"Because the FBI Omaha field office is seeking the public's help in identifying potential victims, I can confirm an investigation," the spokesperson said.

"In order to preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation, I cannot share any details of the ongoing process. We encourage anyone with information to provide it through its website."

The FBI said it encouraged reporting from anyone who thought they may have been a victim.

to see the links and photos embedded in this article go to:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/526679/former-member-of-two-by-twos-sect-arrested-for-alleged-historical-sex-offending
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Perry Bulwer30 September 2024 at 15:21
FBI probe into ‘Two by Twos’ cult leads to Northland man William Easton’s guilty plea for child abuse

By Shannon Pitman, New Zealand Herald September 24, 2024

A Northland man’s sexual offending against children dating back 60 years finally caught up with him after the FBI started investigating the Two by Twos, a religious cult he was a member of.

The investigation began earlier this year and generated a flood of reports to a hotline from 1500 victims around the world. Of the 140 perpetrators identified, 20% were reportedly from New Zealand.

Today one of them, a 79-year-old Northland man, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four boys between 1964-1986.

William Stephen Easton’s victims were aged between 7-16 years old at the time and the offending occurred in multiple locations, including Dannevirke, Whanganui, Timaru and around the mid-North.

Easton was a member of the sect, also referred to as “The Truth”, which was founded in Ireland in 1897. It is believed to have 100,000 members worldwide with 2500 in New Zealand.

The group generally avoids publicity and rarely engages in outreach to the broader public. Its services are not advertised and recruitment is done through personal relationships rather than mass evangelism.

The group has faced criticism for being secretive, with some former members describing it as controlling or cult-like with similarities likened to Gloriavale.

Throughout the 60s and 70s, the religious organisation held conventions around the country attracting hundreds of members and international ministers, including Dean Bruer.

Bruer died in 2022 and, upon his death, hundreds of victims came forward sparking an international investigation launched by the FBI in February this year which led to Easton’s arrest.

The Kerikeri man first appeared in the Kaikohe District Court in August facing 17 charges. A further 38 were laid during his second appearance.

His lawyer Doug Blaikie indicated early in the proceedings the case would be resolved.

Today, Easton pleaded guilty to 55 charges, including indecent assault and sexual violation, in front of Judge John McDonald.

He was remanded in custody after being out on bail and will be sentenced in December.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/fbi-probe-into-two-by-twos-cult-leads-to-northland-man-william-eastons-guilty-plea-for-child-abuse/5VMNG3IRPJFZDGXP6DTJGAI4MM/
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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:38
How the 2×2 sect silenced Central Valley sexual abuse survivors and their fight for justice across the globe

by Gisselle Medina, Fresno Land September 24, 2024

A global initiative, with roots in the Central Valley, aims to secure justice for hundreds of sexual assault survivors whose abuse was ignored for decades by a nameless religious sect.

The FBI is currently investigating child sexual abuse within a secretive religious sect that operates globally and is, “urging anyone with information about the sect or knowledge of abuse or criminal behavior to come forward by completing a brief online questionnaire.”

Sheri Autrey, a survivor who was part of the Visalia congregation in the 1980s, is now aiding the FBI in their investigation. She has also hired a PR team to secure media coverage, leading to an investigation by Nightline and ABC in the Bay Area, which later became a Hulu documentary on the sect.

Hundreds of reports have surfaced worldwide since 2023, from New Zealand and Australia to Canada and the United States, including the San Joaquin Valley. The exact number of reports remains unknown.

The nameless church, commonly referred to as “The Truth,” “Two by Twos (2x2s),” and “Christian Conventions,” operates without official registration, guided by hymns, Bible verses, and unwritten rules.

Its decision-making hierarchy is unclear, and membership statistics are not officially documented by the sect. The Truth is estimated to have fewer than 75,000 current members worldwide, with roughly more than 50 members in the Central Valley, according to Cynthia Liles, a private investigator specializing in child sexual abuse and assault cases. Liles is currently investigating the group as part of her advocacy work with survivors.

The estimate is based on an unofficial count of convention participants in 2022, shared with Liles by a member.

In 2023, Liles, along with Autrey and Lauren Rohs—both survivors of Lauren Rohs’ father, Steven Esteban Rohs—co-founded Advocates for the Truth (AFTT). Together, they work to identify survivors and perpetrators, provide support, and pursue justice, while also assisting the FBI’s investigation.

Before the investigation was announced in February, many sect perpetrators avoided legal charges due to statutes of limitation, leaving survivors without justice. In California, survivors can file criminal charges for child sexual abuse until they turn 40 or within five years of discovering the abuse.

At least 982 perpetrators have been reported to AFTT, and over 2,000 survivors have reported their abuse as of the most recent count in August, according to the group.

Lauren Rohs said survivors frequently experienced abuse from the same perpetrators. These perpetrators often move around and change locations within the community, making it difficult —and frequently impossible— to track reports.

“These people in power, which are by and large doing a vast majority of the abuse, are white men who have leadership roles,” said Lauren Rohs. “These are men of God.”

Liles said maintaining a record is crucial, even if the abuse falls outside the statute of limitations, as it may still aid future cases.

Survivors have reported a recurring pattern of abuse, cover-ups, denials, and victim-blaming by church leaders. This group, consisting of strictly male ministers, almost universally failed to report abuses to authorities for decades.

Survivors say the sect aggressively pressured survivors’ families to stay silent and forgive their abusers, often to protect the church’s reputation.

Many of those involved in this work, like Autrey and Lauren Rohs, are survivors who seek justice for others, even though they know they may never see it for themselves.

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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:40
Survivors have sharply criticized the hypocrisy of church leaders, saying they prioritize the institution’s reputation over the safety of children. They cite examples like Scott Rauscher, an “overseer” — one who manages regions—- in Montana and Wyoming. Rauscher once sent an email in response to abuse allegations that urged survivors to remain silent. The email was later published and republished online and sparked intense debate on online message boards and social media pages dedicated to survivors. The email quoted more than 20 Bible verses about the virtue of silence.

Yet, the same man who urged silence resigned on Feb. 21 following revelations that he had viewed “soft porn” posts on Facebook—a scandal for which he profusely apologized. Rauscher did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment.

Some overseers have recognized their part in silencing members who have come forward. In April 2023, Darryl Doland, the overseer of Washington, North Idaho, and Alaska, emailed members apologizing “for the times I have ‘tuned out’ the muted cry of a wounded, frightened person and left their plea for help unheeded.” That email also was republished online earlier this year.

In the same email, Doland explicitly states that members of the overseer’s staff and elders will undergo training courses on child sexual abuse to learn how best to support survivors. Doland writes that any violations involving a current minor will be reported to authorities immediately, in compliance with the law.

In a statement shared with Fresnoland, Doland echoed the points he made in his emails.“Briefly, we actively address all abuse allegations involving participants in our fellowship. Our utmost concern is that victims receive the professional help that they need. We take all allegations of abuse seriously, strongly recommend mandated reporter training to all, and encourage everyone to report issues to the proper legal authorities as soon as possible. This is my only statement at this time.”

How the sect abused survivors

When Autrey turned 14 in October 1982, a 28-year-old sect worker named Steven Rohs asked to move into Autrey’s family home in Visalia. In The Truth, it’s standard practice for workers (ministers) to live in member’s homes. For two months, Autrey and Steven Rohs would visit each other’s bedrooms every night.

“My molestation was very much a seduction,” said Autrey. “It was never scary or forceful. He was 6’6, a minor league baseball pitcher, charismatic and good-looking. And here I am, this tiny, scrawny 90-pound child who hadn’t even thought about starting puberty yet. All the girls would always talk about him at the annual convention. He was the heartthrob, and here he was, paying attention to me.”

Autrey said that she and Steven Rohs discussed marriage and their future relationship, but he insisted they keep it from her parents because she was too young. Autrey believed him but was constantly terrified that if they were caught, she would be the one in trouble. He was highly respected, and the workers were seen as infallible.

The abuse continued until December 1982, when he moved out, but even after leaving, Autrey said he frequently called her house, believing it was to check if she had told her parents, before her family relocated to Bend, Oregon. Autrey felt like the jilted girlfriend, especially when he announced his marriage to an 18-year-old and invited Autrey’s family to the wedding. They married in November 1983.

The news was unbearable for Autrey, who became so distressed that, at the age of 17 in 1986, she felt compelled to tell her parents about the abuse she had endured at the hands of Steven Rohs.

Her parents arranged counseling, where Autrey realized a crime had been committed against her. Autrey asked her parents to look for other survivors but they never did.

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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:42
In August 1986, Autrey and her mom visited the District Attorney’s office in Tulare County. When they explained what pressing charges and going to court would involve, Autrey declined because she felt uncomfortable detailing her abuse and unprepared to tell her story publicly. At the end of the year, Autrey, who was 17, moved out and left the sect.

Between 1987 and 1988, two workers brought Steven Rohs to Autrey’s house to apologize. Autrey confronted him, saying he wasn’t truly sorry but only regretful for getting caught. Autrey’s parents shook Steven Rohs’ hand and thanked him for apologizing. Fresnoland reached out to Autrey’s mother for comment, but she declined. Autrey’s father passed away in 2022.

“Looking back now, it’s like, why in the world would you bring a fucking pedophile into a survivor’s home, which is supposed to be a sanctuary from the world?” said Autrey. “That’s where you’re supposed to be protected. That’s your forte. I ‘F-bombed’ him, and it was liberating—it felt good.”

Autrey said that in The Truth’s eyes, Steven Rohs had been forgiven. In the early ‘90s, he was promoted to elder, a prestigious title that allowed members to host meetings in their homes, despite Steven Rohs admission in writing to the overseer in 1986.

Steven Rohs did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment. During an investigation by Nightline and ABC, the I-Team located Rohs at his Farmer’s Insurance office in Minnesota, where he declined to comment. The insurance office is now permanently closed.

Autrey said her abuse was documented by her counselor in 2012. The counselor sent written reports detailing Autrey’s abuse to law enforcement in Kern County and Idaho, where Steven Rohs was living with his wife and children at the time. But those reports were filed after the statute of limitations.

Despite this, Autrey said her goal was to ensure Steven Rohs’s name was recorded as an abuser, so that if anyone else came forward, his abuse would be documented. With no charges brought against him, Steven Rohs faced no legal consequences and continued his life with his family in the Midwest.

Survivors say that lack of accountability only adds to the growing list of ways in which Steven Rohs and other alleged perpetrators are being protected—not just by the religious sect, but also by a system that continues to fail survivors.

Autrey said that, at least in her case, those protections included church leaders failing to turn over letters that could have been considered evidence against Steven Rohs in the 1980s.

For 37 years, letters from Autrey’s parents, Eldon Tenniswood, the California overseer at the time, and Steven Rohs concerning Autrey’s abuse gathered dust in a file cabinet belonging to Tenniswood at a convention house in Buttonwillow.

The correspondence began with Autrey’s parents who wrote a letter in April 1986 to Tenniswood asking for guidance on the situation.

One month later, Tenniswood wrote a letter to Steven Rohs, telling him what he learned and asked him what he was going to do about the situation. Five days later, Steven Rohs wrote back to Tenniswood that he and Autrey “did kiss and touch each other intimately,” and that “this did not happen with anyone else.”

“I did not intend to cover this up, but I did not know how to handle it other than to leave the area and beg God to forgive me,” Steven Rohs wrote in the letter on May 11, 1986. “I was old enough to know better, but still weak in the flesh.”

In April 2023, Rob Newman, the current California overseer, handed the originals over to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, which later contacted Autrey and provided her with the original incident report documenting the submission. This is around the time that Autrey discovered the existence of the letters.

Fresnoland confirmed with the sheriff’s office the authenticity of the report, the transfer of the original letters to Autrey, and the contents of the letters.

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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:44
Autrey has taken matters into her own hands. She hired a PR team to get media coverage for her and other survivors’ stories and created Facebook pages like Exposing Abuse: 2x2s for people to have a collective space to talk about their experiences.

“I want to get as many people connected,” said Autrey. “I’ll use my voice, obviously, but my thing is, let’s get a lot of these survivors who have been silently screaming for so long and give them an opportunity.”

The sect’s beginnings and beliefs

The Truth is an evangelical Christian group founded by William Irvine around 1897. At the time, Irvine was involved with the Faith Mission, an evangelistic movement in Scotland, when he began preaching a new doctrine inspired by Matthew 10 in the Bible.

The Truth takes many beliefs from the Faith Mission: ministry conducted in pairs, a rejection of material possessions, and the formation of communities that avoid church buildings, formal names, and paid clergy.

In The Truth, members hold meetings in their homes twice a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, using “Hymns Old & New” and the King James Bible for worship.

Sandy Egge, a former member of The Truth in Fresno, hosted union meetings at her home, serving the Fresno, Clovis, and Kerman areas. These gatherings took place on the first Sunday of each month from 1977 to 1981, during Egge’s teenage years.

The meeting would include around 30 members who read hymns, shared insights from their readings that week, and drank grape juice representing “the blood that was shed from Jesus so that our sins could be washed away,” along with bread to represent the body of Christ. In many protestant Christian churches, this is standard communion liturgy.

During the years Egge was there, she estimated there were about 50 members combined from those communities.

Cherie Kropp-Ehrig, born in California and raised within the sect in Mississippi, spent her life questioning its origins and rules. Her curiosity drove her to conduct extensive research, which she shared through multiple websites and in her book “Preserving the Truth.”

Kropp-Ehrig said that The Truth upholds two authorities: the New Testament and the workers, whom they regard as modern-day apostles with authority equal to that of the Bible. Members were taught that The Truth is the one and only authentic church that Jesus started when he was on Earth.

“It was put into us, when we were born and raised, that this is God’s only true way,” said Kropp-Ehrig in an interview with Fresnoland. “All other ways are false. All other churches and preachers are false and that people in them are going to hell. We were brainwashed with that. That’s why we stayed in.”

In this ‘one true way,’ members must follow various unwritten rules that are not from the Bible: Women are expected to wear their hair long and up, while men should keep theirs short and without facial hair. Jewelry such as necklaces and earrings are prohibited, but watches and wedding bands are allowed. Recreational activities like dancing, television, mixed-sex swimming, and participation in sports are limited or not allowed, with variations by area.

Egge wore Gunne Sax dresses, clear slippers resembling Barbie doll shoes, and styled her hair like Charlie’s Angels-era Farrah Fawcett. She said she felt like she didn’t fit in and was unsure whether to be proud or ashamed because her classmates would constantly ask why she wore a dress all the time.

“We were very much not like the other kids in the way we dress,” said Egge.

During her junior and senior years, when her father got her a car, she began to lead a double life. She would pull over on the way to school to change into jeans and put on makeup, then reverse the process before going home.

LaNette Burrage Flanigan was born into the sect in Southern California. She briefly attended meetings in Visalia between the ages of 12 and 14 after the family moved north in 1979.

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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:45
When Flanigan was 6-years-old, her mother experienced a mental breakdown, which Flanigan said was caused by the pressures of the sect and no one helped her. Her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but refused medications, leading Flanigan’s father to file for divorce.

Flanigan said that members mistreated her father by blaming him for the divorce, failed to offer support, and avoided any interaction with him. Flanigan and her father felt unwelcome and left the sect.

At 19, Flanigan rejoined the sect in Southern California. Three years later, Flanigan learned that the origin stories she’s been told growing up in the sect were false. In the years that followed, Flanigan’s cousin, Lauralee Brown, disclosed that she had been sexually assaulted by a sect member and had received no support from other members. Flanigan left The Truth, and joined a new Christian church.

“The Truth will speak negatively of victims when they expose perpetrators of the abuse,” said Flanigan. “They see it as tainting their perfect way. They really demonize or don’t believe the victims, because a lot of the perpetrators are workers, elders or people in good standing.”

How members began to come forward

Efforts to seek justice for survivors began shortly after the death of a prominent sect leader in Oregon.

Dean Bruer, an overseer for Oregon and South Idaho, died at a Best Western Motel on June 21, 2022, in Government Camp, Oregon. Bruer, one of The Truth’s most respected leaders, had worked for the group for 46 years across six U.S. states. On March 20, 2023, his successor, Doyle Smith, wrote a letter, which was later published and republished online, stating that Bruer had a history of abuse, including “rape and abuse of underage victims.”

The following week, Smith wrote another letter explaining that he wasn’t aware of Bruer’s abuse until a survivor came forward three months after Bruer’s death. This prompted Smith to search Bruer’s computer, where he found an email exchange between Bruer and an adult victim.

In a statement shared with Fresnoland, Smith said that “we do take all allegations seriously, follow careful legal protocol reporting, and have help in place/available for the help of survivors. We made a concerted effort to report to our entire community the very unfortunate details about Dean B.”

Three days after the initial letter, a 24-hour hotline (1 (855) 477-2388) to support Bruer’s survivors was created by Autrey, Lauren Rohs and Liles. In 10 weeks, the hotline reported over 400 alleged perpetrators in The Truth. AFTT was then incorporated into a 501c(3) organization in May 2023.

“It’s naive to think a system that fails to hold accountable those who exploit its power structure can address issues in a society with little accountability for perpetrators,” said Lauren Rohs. “Even if survivors think, ‘I’m in a normal society now,’ they’ve often already lost family, been ostracized, and excommunicated. Our community struggles to articulate or use the right language to speak about their abuse.”

AFTT serves as a survivor-focused support system tailored to meet the needs of each survivor, including legal aid, trauma-informed services, and crisis support funding.

AFTT is also developing an accountability database that will list alleged perpetrators in a format similar to the posts on their Facebook page. The posts, titled ‘Alleged Perpetrator Disclosure,’ list the perpetrator’s name, their title, the types of allegations from members, their current status, and information on how survivors can report.

How a survivor has navigated life after abuse

Brown, who seeks justice for other survivors despite not finding it for herself, said she was abused by Donald Charles Ross III—a child of prominent sect members—over four years in 1977, between ages 9 and 13.

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Perry Bulwer19 October 2024 at 11:46
Although the statute of limitations bars Brown from pursuing a legal case, she believes it’s important to share her story publicly. Ross did not respond to Fresnoland’s request for comment.

Brown described the abuse that Ross inflicted on her when he was 28. She said Ross would join Brown and her family on 45-minute car rides from Sonora to Cold Springs in California every Wednesday to attend religious meetings. He would also join for car rides to Modesto for occasional gospel meetings. During these rides, Ross would have Brown lie on his lap, using either a down coat or a picnic blanket depending on the season, to cover her and force Brown to orally copulate him.

“Whenever he was around, I was sexually engaged with him,” said Brown. “He was my lifeline and the oxygen in the room. He was not mean or a threat. He became the love of my life, my father, my mother, my playmate, and everything to me. I lost my childhood from the time I was 9, because even when he left, I lost it. I mentally and emotionally shut down. I left school for a year and was basically catatonic, sleeping around the clock and not caring if I ever lived or died.”

When Ross stopped visiting Brown’s house as she turned 13 in 1980 and got married, Brown broke down, sifted through her parents’ albums, and removed every picture of them together to create her own photo album.

Brown still owns the album, filled with photos of them together, his gifted combs, and drawings he made for her.

“I was a 9-year-old mistress in my head,” said Brown. “I thought we were having a love affair, it was a little girl’s dream come true. I didn’t know it was a bad thing, and it took years of therapy to realize that, ‘Oh, you didn’t love me? Oh, I wasn’t the other woman?’ Even though I was just a kid, that’s how I spun it in my mind.”

After Brown left the sect at 19, she filed a felony report with Tuolumne County in 1987. However, due to the 10-year statute of limitations, the investigator could only take her statement and recommend that she seek help from the victim-witness department. Brown is one of thousands of survivors who have been sexually abused by perpetrators from the sect who have not been legally charged or arrested. Fresnoland confirmed with Tuolumne County the authenticity of the report and its contents.

Through the victim witness department, Brown became eligible for a fund that was placed in an account, which she used throughout her life for therapy sessions. She describes going through EMDR therapy, spent years with a few therapists trying to process and understand what happened to her.

At 56, Brown says that she can still hear the sound of Ross’ zipper being pulled down, feel the tight corduroys against her face, and vividly remembers the painful blisters inside her mouth that would last for about 12 hours.

After the surge of survivors came forward, Brown worked with AFTT to release a Facebook post about her perpetrator, along with a redacted felony report. The posts garnered hundreds of comments, and Brown has been sifting through them, searching for other survivors.

“My whole goal is to protect future victims and encourage existing victims to come forward,” said Brown. “It’s always been a he-said, she-said situation, which is why I’ve never spoken out publicly before. Now, suddenly, I have a platform and a peoplehood of others who are also saying, ‘I was hurt by this organization,’ that I was attached to since birth as well.”

to see the links and photos embedded in this article go to:

https://fresnoland.org/2024/09/24/how-the-2x2-sect-silenced-central-valley-sexual-abuse-survivors-and-their-fight-for-justice-across-the-globe/
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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 13:52
Minister with Valley connection who served time for child pornography returns to church

by Raynee Novak, Comox Valley Record October 4, 2024

After spending less than 175 days in jail for two charges related to child pornography while he worked in the Comox Valley, Aaron Farough has been released back to his church.

Aaron Richard Eldon Farough, originally from Fort St. John, and a worker for the 2x2 church, pled guilty in Jan. of 2023 to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of accessing child pornography.

The 2x2 church is a religious sect that hides its practices. They have no buildings of worship and instead hold meetings with other members, referred to as “friends” in the homes of the parishioners. The ministers are called “workers” and travel in twos, hence the 2x2 name, living with their parishioners in various communities. They keep no written records, instructing their parishioners to burn letters after they have been read. The church is also known as “The Truth,” and is under investigation worldwide for child sexual abuse, currently and historically. They hold weekly bible study meetings on Sundays.

According to court files, in February of 2019, while staying with a host family in Comox, Farough used the family's Wi-Fi service to access child pornography using a smartphone and the app, Kik. When Comox Valley RCMP approached the host family, they were able to identify a blanket and bedroom belonging to Farough. Some images found through the Kik app also included Farough exposing himself.

According to court documents, Farough was found to have viewed 12 video files containing child pornography and 32 images of child pornography. He was found to have distributed 28 child pornography files and received 14 child pornography files. Two years later, when police arrested Farough, he was found to still have 12 images of child pornography on his cell phone.

The psychologist who prepared the forensic psychiatric report on Farough for sentencing stated that Farough presented a low risk of re-offending as long as he was to continue in his relationship with his wife. It was noted that if he were to return to a life where he had to engage in celibacy, such as a role as a worker for the 2x2 church (a requirement of workers in the church) he would be at higher risk of re-offending.

It was noted in his sentencing report that Farough had sought out treatment with a psychologist in Alberta before his trial. Since then, psychologist Zac Rhodenizer has had an investigation into his conduct with minors opened and subsequently lost his license to practice for some time. He returned to practice in July of 2022. The investigation into Rhodenizer stated that he was inappropriate with two minor girls who he counselled in a school setting in 2017.

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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 13:53
When Farough was initially under investigation for the child pornography charges, he addressed his congregation and admitted to his wrongdoings. The sentencing report from the B.C. Provincial Court documents state that Farough’s disclosure resulted in him “losing his position and status within the church,” but he suffered no other losses.

While the sentencing report refers to Farough losing his place in the church, through documents and pictures of conventions kept by the 2x2, his name was listed as attending both meetings and conventions in the year he was being investigated, including those held in Duncan and Powell River, B.C.

Recently, an email was forwarded by local worker Brady Anderson, to other church members in Farough’s current home of Cowley, Alberta and nearby community of Pincher Creek; the 2x2s or “The Truth” was shared where Farough spoke of how he “became a living example of how quickly I lost everything I had had in just one moment.”

According to an email from Farough, he is attending meetings that are being held in the home of Ken and Dorothy Lewis of Pincher Creek. Visitors are allowed at the meetings and though the couple is to inform everyone in the meetings of Farough’s convictions and sentence, sources in the area say that is not being done. They are now considering letting Farough attend gospel meetings and Wednesday Bible studies.

Farough has addressed others in his church, to apologize for his actions, to ask for understanding that he was being “sinful and rebellious” but that ultimately the acts that he was caught in were “costly” to himself.

In Farough’s email to his fellow 2x2 members, he asked for his church’s forgiveness and the ability to attend meetings again. The 2x2s who originally rejected him after his charges have now taken him back into their congregation.

In his email, Farough explains that he “(has) no restrictions on who I am around or where I go in my community.” The statement is in opposition to conditions laid out in his January 2023 sentencing report. According to that report, Farough is to have no position of authority or position of trust over those under 16 for five years, he is to have no communication with those who present or appear to be under 18 and he is on the sex offender registry for 20 years.

He states in his letter that he has been “established in a little home, with a caring wife and an amazing fellowship of friends to meet with.”

This is the first part of a three-part series into the 2x2 church and its practices. See parts 2 and 3 below. The second part will focus on the church and its history and the final part will be an interview with a former member and survivor.

to see the links embedded in this article go to:

https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/local-news/minister-with-valley-connection-who-served-time-for-child-pornography-returns-to-church-7565121
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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 13:58
Comox Valley connections to 2x2's beginnings, beliefs and connections to abuse

by Raynee Novak, Comox Valley Record October 15, 2024

Despite a former 2x2 church worker being convicted and jailed on child pornography charges, the connections of the church continue to run deep in the Comox Valley.

The “Church with No Name,” “The Truth,” “The Way,” or “Two by Twos” (2x2), is an evangelical Christian group that was founded by William Irvine in 1897. At the time, Irvine was involved with the Faith Mission, an evangelistic movement in Scotland, when he began preaching a new doctrine inspired by Matthew 10 in the Bible. He moved his work to spread the word to Ireland.

According to the history of the sect, Irvine began preaching a new order in which the hierarchy that had developed within the church would have no place. This teaching became controversial within the church and led to his expulsion by church overseers around 1914.

Overseers are in charge of a geographical area within countries where 2x2s operate. They are in charge of the brother and sister workers who move from home to home as if they were ministers. The overseers are also in charge of the funds collected from host families. The current overseer of British Columbia and the Comox Valley is Merlin Affleck. He has been the overseer of the region since 2018.

Lyndell Montgomery of the Comox Valley, was adopted at six weeks old and put into the church immediately. Her family were devout second and third generation devotees to the 2x2s. Her parents held weekly meetings in their home and had workers stay with them on occasion. She left the church when she was 14, after alleged sexual abuse at the hands of a sister worker. After the alleged incident, Montgomery wanted nothing to do with the 2x2s.

“I can tell you that it runs under the same format that it's run under for a century,” says Montgomery. “It's harder to keep that super tight control, as technology develops and people have access to it. I grew up without radio, newspaper, TV - nothing from the secular world.”

On April 6, 2023, a meeting was held in Kelowna B.C. by Affleck regarding CSA and sexual assault (SA) within the 2x2s. The notes from the meeting mention allegations against a former overseer, Walter Birkenshaw. The notes also mention sister worker Lee-Ann McChesney, who is currently going through the B.C. court system for charges of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. Birkenshaw is presently in Alberta and continues to attend meetings.

The 2x2s take many beliefs from the Faith Mission; their ministry is conducted in pairs, rejecting material possessions, and forming communities that avoid church buildings, formal names and paid clergy. Ministers are called brother workers or sister workers and are to engage in celibacy. Workers are regarded as modern-day apostles with authority equal to the Bible.

“I can tell you that the way it's set up is entirely about hierarchical control, where you and I, as members of this church, have that much of a voice and we can't get to heaven,” adds Montgomery. “It doesn't exist for us unless we go through the workers. So the way that has been set up really puts them [workers] in a position of ultimate authority over you.”.

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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 14:00
The qualifications for all workers are the same. Before entering work, they give away all their possessions except what fits into a suitcase, including their money, homes and vehicles. They become unhoused and rely on host homes for their housing. They travel in same-sex pairs, stay in 2x2 households, and hold gospel missions to attract converts. Workers also visit the sick, care for the members in their fields, and help prepare for their annual conventions. They enter the work for life but can leave if they choose, often to get married and move up to Elder roles.

Due to allegations of CSA towards members of the 2x2, overseers and workers are closing the ranks on things such as the large conventions. Friends used to be able to phone in to hear the gospel if they were unable to make the journey to a convention. Now however, only approved phone numbers can get through as the 2x2’s do not want outsiders gaining information about them.

Members deny having a church name. Doctrine of the church teaches that salvation is reached by attending the group's home meetings, accepting the preaching of its itinerant, unsalaried ministry workers, and "professing.”

Once a person professes their belief in God as they relate to the 2x2s, they are baptized into the religion.

The 2x2s teach that salvation is not achieved through faith alone, but only through a combination of faith and "works." Works are considered acts of self-denial such as women only wearing modest skirts and long hair in a bun or attending all meetings regardless of how far away they are. The church does not do any outreach programs or encourage its members to participate in charities.

The 2x2s do not acknowledge an official headquarters or official publications. They do not publish any doctrinal statements, insisting that such tenets may only be shared orally by its workers. Printed invitations and advertisements for its open gospel meetings are the only written materials that those outside the church are likely to encounter.

As of 2021, B.C. workers are presented with a written document to sign before they begin their work inside host families' homes. The document states “Children (under the age of 19) are a vital part of our fellowship. All Workers are responsible for promoting their safety, protection and well-being of children while conducting themselves appropriately in every situation.”

“There is a worker's code of conduct that was created. I have no idea if it is being enforced or if any workers have signed it,” notes Montgomery.

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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 14:01
In a letter obtained by a member of a 2x2 survivor support group on Facebook, a deep denial is the rhetoric of those still in the 2x2’s regarding the allegations of CSA being brought against the church despite the over 995 accusations across the globe, stemming from at least 39 countries.

“We currently are being assailed by a barrage of confusion and evil. The confused and/or evil ones would magnify the existing Child Sexual Abuse problem to immense proportions to satisfy the agenda of the enemy. The data they have solicited and purport to possess is greatly exaggerated. It is also collected and interpreted in a manner that is very questionable at best and fraudulent at worst.”

The unknown writer of the letter, who simply refers to himself as a brother member of the church, dismisses mental health workers and states that no one is above God's law and instruction. He continues to disregard those who have reported historic SA and deny them as part of the 2x2 church. If one speaks out about abuse they have suffered at the hands of a worker, they are no longer part of the 2x2s or “God’s family.”

“The statistics provided by “mental health professionals” have absolutely no application to members of God’s family. These stats/data have been based entirely on individuals who are not a part of God’s family.”

Members of the 2x2 church meet weekly in homes, schools and other public places all over the world, including the Comox Valley.

In Feb. 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced (FBI) it was investigating the 2x2s in the United States, and issued an appeal for victims to come forward. Currently, there are more than r 995 allegations against workers and overseers within the 2x2 sect, many of which are historical cases, reaching as far back as 40 years but there are cases as recent as 2023 that are related to possession of child pornography.

The Comox Valley Record will take a deeper look into Montgomery’s account of CSA against a former sister worker who worked in the Comox Valley. This is the second part of a three-part series on the 2x2 church. For the first part of the series and an extended version of this story, visit Comox Valley Record.

The abuse is a global problem and cases are continuously reported in various media outlets around Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

If you have experienced sexual abuse or are currently in crisis, please visit these resources:
https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/sexual-abuse-or-assault-rape

If you are a former 2x2 member who is looking for support visit:
https://www.advocatesforthetruth.com/

If you have an instance of abuse to report regarding the 2x2 church visit:
https://forms.fbi.gov/2x2

to see the links embedded in this article go to:

https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/local-news/comox-valley-connections-to-2x2s-beginnings-beliefs-and-connections-to-abuse-7577273
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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 14:05
B.C. woman speaks out as religious sect minister faces sex charges

Comox Valley resident Lyndell Montgomery was 14 when alleged abuse happened in 1989, 2x2 church under scrutiny

by Raynee Novak, Comox Valley Record October 22, 2024

A woman from the Comox Valley is sharing her story of alleged child sexual abuse she endured as a teen while part of a secretive Christian sect.

Lyndell Montgomery was a member and was 14 years old in 1989 when the alleged abuse took place while she was a member of the Two-by-Twos, or 2x2s.

She claims her alleged abuser was 2x2s minister or “sister worker,” Lee-Ann McChesney. The alleged abuse happened when McChesney took Montgomery from her family home in the Comox Valley to Terrace where McChesney’s family resides.

In May of 2023, Montgomery made a victim statement to the RCMP that led to an investigation against McChesney and her time as a 2x2 worker.

McChesney, 60, was arrested in January and charged with one count of sexual abuse and one count of sexual exploitation after an investigation by the Delta Police Sexual Offence Section and Vulnerable Sector Unit.

She has since appeared in Surrey provincial court six times for the two charges against her. Montgomery’s case against McChesney is set for trial in September 2025.

All allegations in the story are yet to be proven in court.

In addition, there are allegations of abuse against at least three other sister workers within Canada. Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States is also looking into reported allegations worldwide.

According to private investigator Cynthia Liles of Salem, Oregon, who has been tracking allegations since the FBI put out their call for victim-survivors to come forward, there are more than 995 people within the 2x2s who have allegations against them worldwide, many with multiple allegations. A lot of the alleged abusers are still active in the church, attending meetings and conventions and around children.

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Perry Bulwer24 October 2024 at 14:06
Montgomery decided to come forward after reading an article in the Comox Valley Record in January 2023 about a worker in the 2x2 who was found guilty of crimes relating to child pornography. She wanted to speak out about the abuse she had suffered and hoped to help those who might also have suffered similar abuse within the 2x2 sect.

“I'm choosing to use my voice and my name and put myself out there. This story is so much bigger than me,” she says.

Montgomery left the 2x2 sect once she suffered the alleged abuse from McChesney. At 14, she walked away from the organization and her family as they were still a part of the 2x2s. Montgomery’s father was an Elder in the sect.

“My entire family is still in. My adopted brother, he was never in, he was like whoa, you're all f****d. He never participated.”

While the 2x2s consider themselves to be the 'one true church' and follow the teachings of Matthew in the King James Bible, Montgomery says they are a cult.

“It's taking the playbook from other large organizations that have had success in maintaining membership and illegal activity and control - 100 per cent. So I can tell you that the way it's set up is entirely about hierarchical control.”

Montgomery decided against a publication ban for her case. Part of the reasoning was to help get the word out about the 2x2 sect and the rampant cases of allegations of child sexual abuse.

“People aren't standing on the side of supporting victims and holding this ministry accountable for its past crimes. To be able to move it forward into something that, at its heart a lot of the members want it to be - then (they) are complicit,” she notes. “It's not a binary situation and I don't like living in a binary kind of mindset. So if you can be in or out, those are the only options from the ministers. I'm going to say from this perspective, (they're) either working to dismantle it or (they're) fortifying it.”

Montgomery also hopes that telling her story will help others be allies to victims. She points out those who want to help in the direction of local organizations that need volunteers, such as sexual abuse crisis lines and abuse survivors resources, rather than approaching the victim directly.

to see the links embedded in this article go to:

https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/local-news/bc-woman-speaks-out-as-religious-sect-minister-faces-sex-charges-7602952
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Perry Bulwer5 December 2024 at 14:39
A Thousand Wishes

How could life post cult have been different?

by Laura McConnell Conti, Substack November 18, 2024

What do I wish that I knew when I left the Truth 2x2 Cult?*

I wish that people in ‘the world’ had said ‘I believe you and I’ll always be here’ when I disclosed that I had been in a cult and had experienced abuse. Often they were embarrassed, maybe didn’t know what to say. Often they giggled nervously and never discussed it again with me. I wish they’d had the vocabulary to ask me questions, to support me.

I wish I’d had affordable housing, so that I wasn’t living in poverty in the years after I left.

I wish I’d had access to social security benefits earlier, in my mid teens, so that I could have left earlier, had access to support from the age of 16.

I wish I’d had access to high quality, affordable counselling and cult deprograming services, from councillors who knew who the Truth 2x2s were. I wouldn’t have had to flounder around for 15 years, trying to find support. I wish I hadn’t had to repeatedly explain to social workers what ‘a cult’ was and the nuances of the cult I came from. I wish they could have at least googled it.

I wish there was trauma informed legal support for me when I started contemplating reporting grooming and CSA. I wish there had been police officers trained to support cult survivors, who understood the layers of trauma involved in being from a cult, how its not only CSA and grooming we experienced.

I wish there was easily available, high quality peer support and family violence support – especially when I was 16 to 19 years old. When I was first identifying that my home was abusive, I wish I’d had people to talk to to help me understand that. Instead, I was silenced by medical professionals, teachers, school counsellors.

I wish I’d had high quality career mentoring and sponsorship. I didn’t come from a community or family who could help me build a career, and the decisions I needed to make were exhausting. I wish I had people in professions willing to sponsor me and help me learn how to navigate a corporate career ‘in the world’.

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Perry Bulwer5 December 2024 at 14:40
I wish I had ongoing affordable (or funded) medical care. Dentists, GPs, pain specialists. I wish medical professionals had helped me identify earlier (or maybe identified themselves) that I had CPTSD and chronic pain as a result of my cult upbringing. I wish they hadn’t dismissed me with phrases like ‘all the women in your community are depressed, there isnt anything I can do about it’.

I wish GPs had taken the time to understand me as in individual, not just dismissed me as ‘another girl from that religious family’ – and misnamed / misidentified me as my cousin.

I wish people had told me that it was ok to be suicidal sometimes, to feel that there was nothing to live for and no hope. I wish I hadn’t been shamed for feeling that – I wish I’d been taught earlier that is ok to live with that feeling, to know it will come sometimes and you need to learn to live beside that. Its ok to feel hopelessness.

I wish I’d had space and money and time to learn who I was. I didn’t have an identity of my own, I wasn’t allowed one. I was another McConnell/Kemp girl – another one in a long line of them. I wasn’t allowed to be a human being with my own interests, hobbies, friends, personality. I wish I hadn’t had to work so hard, fight so hard in the first two decades, to escape poverty. I wish I’d had space to explore my sexuality, gender, strengths and weaknesses. I wish it hadn’t been so consumed by poverty and survival.

I wish I’d had support to build solid and healthy relationships – to know how to identify controlling, manipulative and toxic people. I wish I’d walked away earlier from relationships (family, intimate, friendships) that were not healthy. I didn’t know you could do that, I didn’t know I had choices to walk away.

If I only had one wish (clearly I’d be screwed, because I’ve got a thousand) I would ask, maybe I’d even stoop low enough to plead: Believe us. Believe us. Say you believe us.

*Thank you to the people who emailed, DM’d, zoomed and called me to help build this list of things that we ‘wish we knew and had’ when leaving the cult. Please leave your own wishlist in then comments, your own thousand wishes for people leaving cults.

https://lauramcconnell.substack.com/p/a-thousand-wishes
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Perry Bulwer10 December 2024 at 15:48
Member of secretive Christian sect sentenced to 120 years in prison

Raymond Zwiefelhofer was convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material.

By Lauren Lantry, ABC News December 6, 2024

An ABC News yearlong investigation into the 2x2 Church, a Christian sect so secretive most people have never heard of it, has uncovered allegations of widespread child sexual abuse and subsequent coverups.

During the investigation, ABC News spoke with dozens of alleged victims of child sexual abuse across more than 30 states.

As part of the ongoing investigation by law enforcement, Raymond Zwiefelhofer was convicted of 10 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material and was sentenced to 120 years in prison last month.

“In total, there were 87 files that were determined to be child sexual abuse material or sometimes known as child pornography,” Catherine Fu, a Maricopa Deputy County Attorney, told ABC News. “The 10 charged files were a combination of photos and videos, and they were all depicting children under the age of 15 engaged in either exploitive exhibition or sexual conduct.”

Zwiefelhofer, 61, maintains his innocence.

He was a tech CEO in Arizona, but he was also a member of the 2x2 Church, according to ex-members ABC News spoke to. He was an elder in the community on and off for decades.

“I'm not guilty. Again, I like to get that – make that clear,” Zwiefelhofer said during his sentencing hearing. “I would love to know how the jury found that I knowingly did this.”

ABC News reached out to Zwiefelhofer’s attorney multiple times for comment and did not hear back.

“An elder leads a group of members in their home through church services,” Cynthia Liles, a private investigator, told ABC News. “I would say there are almost always children present in the home meetings.”

Nationwide, it is illegal to possess child sexual abuse material. The minimum sentencing in Arizona is 10 years for one count. Zwiefelhofer was sentenced to 12 years for each count. “The 2x2 Church has a significant problem with child sexual abuse,” Liles said. “It’s systemic.”

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Perry Bulwer10 December 2024 at 15:49
Liles has been looking into allegations of abuse within the insular community for years, and says she works regularly with the FBI.

“I have notified the FBI of over a thousand accounts of child sex abuse and sex assault within the 2x2 Church community,” Liles told ABC News.

What makes the 2x2 Church so unique is the way it operates. Ministers of the church, known as workers, live with members in their homes, usually for a few days at a time.

Many former members ABC spoke with say some of the church leadership knew about abuse allegations, but did not report it to the proper authorities. Instead, the leadership would often move alleged abusers to different states.

While there is no singular head of the church, ABC News did reach out to overseers – the dozen or so men in charge of the community. While ABC News did not hear back from the overseer of Arizona who oversaw Zwiefelhofer, the former and current overseers with whom ABC News did speak all denied that widespread sexual abuse has been taking place within the 2x2 community.

The FBI announced their investigation into the 2x2 Church in February, encouraging anyone who thinks that they might be a victim to come forward with information.

In a rare and exclusive interview in June, ABC News sat down with the FBI.

“Let’s say you arrest one person, two people. Is that it?” ABC News’ Kyra Phillips asked.

“The FBI focuses, in general, on bringing cases from local to global,” Gene Kowel, the Special Agent in Charge of the investigation, said. “The FBI doesn't stop at just an initial arrest. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

“Raymond Zwiefelhofer is one of most likely thousands,” Liles said. “We're getting reports of child sex abuse and sex assault committed by the highest level in leadership down to the regular members.”

“Hopefully there will be more arrests and convictions coming,” Liles said.

to see the links, photos and video embedded in this article go to:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/member-secretive-christian-sect-sentenced-120-years-prison/story
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Perry Bulwer16 December 2024 at 15:04
How I Survived An Ultra-Secretive Christian Sect

For decades, members of the so-called 2x2s experienced abuse at the hands of those in power. Now, they’re telling their stories—and I’m telling mine, too.

By Brianna Bell, Chatelaine November 15, 2024

I HAD MY FIRST PANIC ATTACK inside a massive white tent while surrounded by hundreds of members of a church with no name. A bead of sweat dripped down my back. I was 17, and my red flip phone was hidden in the pocket of the shawl that covered my bare shoulders. The preacher droned on about salvation and deliverance from damnation. My father sat beside me in a full suit, seemingly unaffected by the summer humidity. On the other side of me, my grandmother nodded her head, meeting my eyes briefly and willing me to soak up the preacher’s words. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat, like a hummingbird fighting to get free. “I am not good enough,” I thought. If I didn’t follow the church’s teachings, I was destined to spend eternity in hell.

A breeze rustled the tent slightly, and I noticed a gap in the fabric—just large enough for a small person to squeeze through. My chest felt tight and my vision blurred. I lunged toward the gap and quickly crawled through the hole, nudging my hips until I was freed from the stifling tent. I didn’t look back, afraid I’d catch a shadow of disappointment on my father’s or grandmother’s face.

My family has been part of an ultra-secretive Christian sect for nearly a century. Every year, my grandmother would attend the sect’s annual community gathering, a four-day-long event in rural Ontario. The gathering, called “convention,” is a way for members to meet with each other and listen to speakers. Conventions across the globe are hosted by approved families who offer up their property for members to set up their sea of tents and trailers. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of members of the insular group attend.

After my escape from the church tent that day in 2007, I explored the grounds, following a trail deep into a forest. It was only the third time I’d attended convention with my father and his family, whom I desperately wanted to please, even if I could not get on board with their religion. (My parents separated when my mother was pregnant with me.) It didn’t matter that I believed in God and attended my own church at home with my mother in Brampton, Ont.—in order to be saved, I would have to join this church.

On the forest trail, I felt safe under the canopy of trees, far from the droning voices preaching their narrow path to salvation. What I didn’t know then was that conventions like these were a breeding ground for the sexual abuse of children. A hiking trail was one of the most dangerous places for a young person to be. In fact, many adults who were sexually abused as children in the church reported that it had happened as they wandered these trails at convention.

I walked through the grounds that day unharmed. But for decades, the 2x2s—as ex-members call the unnamed sect—have used religion as a shield for abuse, power and control. Leaders and members have remained unaccountable for years, avoiding public scrutiny despite the fact that the 2x2 church is active around the globe.

But now, a cohort of both current and ex-members have gathered online to demand change. A reckoning is underway: Survivors have come forward with their stories, speaking publicly about their abusers. Their testimonies have captured the attention of the FBI, which in February 2024 launched an investigation into the rampant abuse perpetrated by 2x2 leaders. Historically, women have largely been the victims of this patriarchal sect. But now, they’re standing up and saying enough is enough.

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Perry Bulwer16 December 2024 at 15:05
THE TWO-BY-TWO SECT, OR THE 2X2S, 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. The sect’s name, coined by ex-members, refers to the belief that their celibate ministers, called “workers,” should travel to members’ homes in same-sex pairings. (Both men and women are allowed to become workers.) These workers are allegedly not paid, but they are housed, fed and clothed by church members, called “friends,” typically sleeping in a different house every few nights.

By the turn of the century, Irvine’s teachings had already spread outside of Ireland; by 1904, they had reached Canada. Today, many 2x2s are unaware of the early history of the church and refuse to acknowledge that there was a founder—my own grandparents convinced me that their church is descended directly from Jesus and his apostles.

It’s taboo for 2x2s to own a television or pricey electronics, listen to secular music, dance or drink alcohol. Women have long hair that is worn in braids or a bun. They wear long dresses or skirts and avoid makeup or jewellery (though a wedding band is acceptable). They do not celebrate Christmas or Easter, do not believe in wearing crosses or any other type of Christian symbolism and meet in homes rather than in a church building. The 2x2s separate themselves from all other Christian denominations and claim that their beliefs are the only way to salvation.

I never fit into a tidy box with the 2x2s. My mother, who is Catholic, raised me on her own. She was my father’s second wife. My paternal grandparents had been part of the sect since early childhood; my grandfather’s side may even have been a part of the first generation in Ireland. My father has “professed”—publicly committed to God and the group—on and off for most of his life. He was not part of the sect when he was with my mom or for much of my early childhood.

I recently learned that my father’s mother once called my mom “Hagar.” An enslaved concubine, Hagar was given to the Hebrew patriarch, Abraham, by his wife, Sarah, when she couldn’t produce an heir. Sarah was so jealous of Hagar that Abraham eventually sent the woman and her son into the desert. If my mom was Hagar, then I was Hagar’s illegitimate child—and that was how I felt as a child. I’d occasionally try to get into my grandparents’ good graces, attending events they invited me to in order to please them.

I’ve never been an active member, but I have remained familiar with the 2x2s’ goings-on. In June 2023, a relative texted me about a private Facebook group for ex-members that had exploded with a flurry of activity: New sexual assault allegations were leading to a mass exodus from the church. Kari Hanks and Abbi Prussack, two of the four main administrators of the Ex-2x2 Support Group, say they’ve received more than 1,000 reports of alleged abuse against more than 500 individual perpetrators, many of whom were in positions of power.

“Most survivors didn’t volunteer the location of their abuse, but at least 18 said that their abuse happened at conventions,” says Hanks. In addition to convention grounds, alleged abuse would also often occur inside the homes of members.

For Lyndell Montgomery, a former member who says she was abused by a 2x2 worker during her teen years, finding the Facebook group felt like the start of a revolution. “There was a feeling of validation that came over me,” she says. “It was like imagining a colour I’d never seen.”

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Perry Bulwer16 December 2024 at 15:07
MONTGOMERY WAS ADOPTED AS AN INFANT into a 2x2 family in 1974. They were what she calls a typical white-picket-fence family: Her father was an elder—a chosen leader within the church—in the Vancouver area. The family hosted Sunday morning gatherings, called “meetings,” inside their home. By all appearances, her relatives were upstanding members of society. But Montgomery’s home life was suffocating and violent. “[My childhood was] so repressive in every single way...it felt like every element that brought me joy was squashed,” says Montgomery, now 50. “Every section of [my] life was monitored, controlled, criticized, critiqued and then punished.”

In 1989, when Montgomery was 14, the situation with her family reached a boiling point, and the RCMP and social services became involved. In her recollection of the situation, local authorities, including two police officers and a social worker, made her family negotiate a peer-to-peer living situation rather than involving a foster family. “I ended up being put in a vehicle with [a] Lee-Ann McChesney and taken to her parents’ house,” says Montgomery. McChesney held a position of authority in the church and likely would have been perceived as a positive role model. But Montgomery says that McChesney, who was 24 at the time, sexually abused and exploited her. (Montgomery’s allegations have not yet been proven in court.)

More than 30 years later, after reading about another 2x2 member’s experience of sexual abuse in the local newspaper, Montgomery came forward about her own abuse. This January, McChesney was arrested on one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation. She pleaded not guilty in May, and a trial by jury will commence in September 2025. (McChesney’s lawyers did not respond to Chatelaine’s request for comment.)

In the aftermath, Montgomery requested that the courts not put her name under a publication ban. “I felt like, ‘Finally, I’m not afraid of any of these people. I’m not afraid of the experience of going through this court process,’” she says. “What I need more than anything else—for my healing—is to hear myself speak up, because over and over and over again, as a child in the 2x2s, our voices were silenced.”

Emma was also raised by devout 2x2 parents in a small town near Calgary. (Emma is a pseudonym used to protect her privacy and safety.) Both of Emma’s parents were former workers who’d chosen to leave their positions (which required them to be celibate) and start a family together.

“My entire life, as far back as I can remember, involved everything with the 2x2s. Everybody I knew was part of it,” says Emma, 25. She attended school dressed in 2x2 fashion: “long skirts, long hair, very plain.” Her parents were strict about social gatherings, disallowing Emma to play sports or attend group get-togethers with other kids her age. School life was incredibly isolating, but so was church life. Emma’s parents were older than her peers’ parents, and they were more conservative and strict than other 2x2 families.

Instead, Emma formed friendships with adults who visited her home. One older 2x2 man, who began attending Sunday morning gatherings in Emma’s home in the 2000s, inserted himself into her family life. “He would get invited to our house for dinner all the time,” she says. “He had access to me multiple times a week.”

Emma was 10, she says, when the man started sexually abusing her on convention grounds in rural Alberta. “He used almost every opportunity he had access to me to abuse me for the following two and a half years,” she says. She didn’t share the abuse with her family until her alleged abuser died.

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Perry Bulwer16 December 2024 at 15:08
When Emma was a young teen, she spiralled into addiction, left home and ceased contact with her family. “I almost died a few times,” she says, until she was offered the opportunity to work at a mine in Northern Canada. “I had a reality check, detoxed in the middle of nowhere and then completely turned my life around,” she says. It has been more than 10 years since Emma left home, and she is now married and has her own young family.

Heather Davison, who has written about her experience with the church, is a former third-generation 2x2 member in British Columbia. Her maternal grandfather was one of the first workers to emigrate to Canada from Ireland. She has a lot of good memories from her childhood. “My parents weren’t abusive or overly rigid when it came to church rules,” she says. But when she was four, she says, she was sexually assaulted at the home of a 2x2 member.

Davison was in and out of the church, returning multiple times throughout her adult life. (Leaving a high-control religion means risking the loss of many relationships, and it often takes multiple attempts to make a final break, according to many of the ex-members I spoke to for this piece.) After her first divorce and remarriage, Davison craved her faith community and decided to return to the 2x2 sect, but she was barred from speaking during meetings because of her divorce. “That was devastating to me,” says Davison, now 68. She says that being silenced by the church community as an adult, especially after being silenced by the very people who perpetrated her childhood abuse, had a detrimental effect. “There is so much suppression, and there’s so much depression,” she says, “and we’re not allowed to be who we’re supposed to be.”

I’VE BEEN REPORTING ON THE 2x2S’ sexual abuse scandal for more than a year. During that time, I struggled with the fact that I was publicly sharing the stories of others while privately wrestling with my own experience. When I was four years old and visiting my father, I was molested. So when I discovered the Facebook group filled with stories like mine, it felt like coming home.

“I didn’t have a [good] reputation because I did everything wrong, and now there’s a sense of validation in myself,” Davison says through tears. It’s a sentiment I shared after each of my calls with survivors: Finally, we’re being heard.

In February 2024, the FBI announced that it was investigating the 2x2s and requested that victims come forward. When reached for comment about a Canadian investigation, a spokesperson for the RCMP told Chatelaine they could not make any statements until charges in a case are laid. Multiple alleged members of the 2x2s, however, have recently been charged. Because there is no formal structure or documentation within the church, it’s difficult to connect people who have been charged with crimes to the church, though many online forums have highlighted their connection. (Prominent 2x2 members from both Ontario and B.C. did not respond to requests for comment.)

Validation often comes up in conversations I have with survivors and ex-members of the 2x2s. Many of the survivors I have interviewed have felt alone for so long, and the virtual and communal sharing of stories online has broken open the floodgates for further sharing.

“What did I feel?” Montgomery asks. She’s on a ferry, on her way to visit a friend, and people nearby can hear her. But she tells me she’s not ashamed to speak anymore. “I felt validated. I felt empowered. I felt sick. I felt all the feels. Mostly, I felt this aliveness that I hadn’t had access to in years.”

to see the photos embedded in this article go to:

https://chatelaine.com/longforms/2x2s-abuse/
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Religion and Child Abuse News

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