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Lindy Jacomb was a naive 20-year-old member of the Exclusive Brethren, living at home with her family, when spiritual curiosity got the better of her.<\/p>\n
So she wrote to her church\u2019s global leader, the \u201cMan of God\u201d, Bruce Hales, and other elders, asking why she should stay in a sect whose teachings she\u2019d begun to doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim of this letter is to summarise my questions and issues about the EB, [Exclusive Brethren],\u201d Jacomb wrote to Hales in 2008. \u201cIt is an appeal for increased understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why are we \u201cso extreme\u201d in shunning others, she asked, so that even excommunicated family members are treated as if they\u2019ve died? Why do we insist we are the \u201cone divinely accredited\u201d church? Why is Hales considered infallible? Why must we only work for Brethren-owned companies? Why can\u2019t we have pets<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n Jacomb got no answers, so left the church and was later excommunicated. Under orders from Hales, her parents cut off all contact with her. Her five siblings became strangers and she lost her job. Her friends spurned her and she was barred from going to church.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like jumping out of a plane into a pitch-black hole,\u201d Jacomb says 18 years later. \u201cYou\u2019re going into a terrifying and different world \u2026 a world you\u2019ve been taught since birth to fear and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n Six years later, Jacomb\u2019s brother, Braden Simmons, emailed her with qualms of his own, but his messages were surveilled by his Brethren boss. Hales later preached to his global flock that Simmons should kill himself with poison, and the church \u2013 now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, or PBCC \u2013 excommunicated Simmons too.<\/p>\n On Friday, Bruce Hales will appear before a joint standing committee of parliament and insist that his is a mainstream religion.<\/p>\n The committee will quiz him about the Brethren\u2019s secretive involvement in the last federal election campaign and its members\u2019 activism on polling booths as well as alleged payments made to neo-Nazi affiliates and far-right figures<\/a> to disrupt the prime minister\u2019s events.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll be asked if he egged the campaign on with a statement<\/a> to his flock that \u201cAustralia needed to be happy again, smiling again\u201d \u2013 a statement followed by webinars conducted by his sons and played on repeat to activate the faithful, then later translated into a slogan on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Hales will, judging by his submission published on Wednesday<\/a>, deny all this when he appears before the committee.<\/p>\n He will not swear on the Bible \u2013 Brethren never do \u2013 but he will insist that his flock acted of their own free will, and that, like in a normal church, he as leader cannot be held accountable for the self-motivated actions of his parishioners.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI had no involvement in any members volunteering for any political party and was not aware this occurred until reporting appeared in the newspapers,\u201d Hales told the committee in his submission.<\/p>\n Church insiders speaking out for the first time, as well as those who have left Hales\u2019 religion and felt the lash of its punishments, disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no way that level of organisation can happen within the PBCC on any topic without it being organised by Bruce and the boys,\u201d wrote one insider, insisting on anonymity to protect their safety and that of their family. \u201cIf anyone attempted this \u2026 they would be shut down immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident,\u201d wrote a group of 12 shunned members, including Simmons, in a letter to the committee this week, \u201cthat the genesis of the observed activities lay in a personal decision of Mr Bruce Hales. However, because of the unique doctrinal framework of the PBCC, any regulator seeking to construct an evidence-based response \u2026 faces unique challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n Salted throughout Hales\u2019 published ministry to his flock are references to authority, obedience and the danger of independent thought.<\/p>\n \u201cIndependence has no place \u2013 you can\u2019t talk about independence because it\u2019s not allowed for \u2026 get rid of it in your youth,\u201d Hales preached in Leeds in 2011. \u201cThe idea of absolute authority is vested in the [Brethren] assembly \u2026 we have to submit to it so that no one, no one is greater than the assembly,\u201d he said in 2004.<\/p>\n The Brethren assembly, he preaches, is all-encompassing: \u201cThe house of God would involve our whole lives … you can\u2019t take one part of your life, and say, \u2018That\u2019s something different from what I am in the assembly\u2019,\u201d he said in 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overriding thing I would say is that you\u2019ve got a system for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacomb says these doctrines are pummelled into Brethren members from birth. After she was ejected, Jacomb became for a time a Baptist pastor. She now runs a charity called Olive Leaf Network that helps people escaping high-demand organisations \u2013 what were formerly known as cults<\/a>. She also helps people still trapped inside it because they fear the human cost of leaving.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not about mainstream Christianity,\u201d Jacomb says. \u201cThis group does not fit that category. Yes, people have a right to practise their religion, but they also should have the freedom to leave their religion if they want and not suffer harm, physical, mental, psychological, spiritual in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n She says the PBCC restricts where its members live, their education, travel, social connections, sexual life (all marriages are approved by Hales), and employment. It sucks huge financial resources, under pressure of social isolation, out of its members and their businesses to fund its \u201cecosystem\u201d of global \u201ccharities\u201d<\/a> and investment funds.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cThey might look like lovely white-collar businessmen who are upstanding citizens and living in quiet suburban homes, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t serious levels of coercive control going on,\u201d Jacomb said. \u201cIt\u2019s very challenging to wake society up that this can be a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all enforced by the threat of shunning, and losing everyone you love.<\/p>\n Jacomb says the church\u2019s spokesman, Lloyd Grimshaw, belled the cat on shunning when he gave evidence<\/a> at the committee in August. Asked if church members voted, Grimshaw said they had not traditionally but that \u201cit was never a test of fellowship\u201d. His words suggest other matters are.<\/p>\n A test of fellowship, said Jacomb, was \u201can action taken that means you would be excommunicated because it was not aligned with the church\u2019s doctrine\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked about this, Grimshaw told this masthead that, \u201cwhere an individual chooses to live outside the principles of our faith, they may, as a last resort, be \u2018withdrawn from\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cComparable practices exist in many faiths, including excommunication in the Catholic Church. Singling out one church for practices shared by many is not fair reporting. We ask that our members be treated with the same respect afforded to any other faith community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Jacomb\u2019s excommunication made her persona-non-grata including with her own family. So when she started emailing her brother Braden Simmons in 2014, and his Brethren boss read those emails and informed the church elders, Simmons too was punished for breaching the \u201cdoctrine of separation\u201d.<\/p>\n The following year, Hales took to the pulpit<\/a>. Simmons\u2019 contact with \u201copposers\u201d \u2013 his sister \u2013 was \u201crotten poison,\u201d he preached.<\/p>\n \u201cHe might as well get a shot of … arsenic. How do you get arsenic into you?\u201d Hales asked his flock. \u201cHe\u2019d be better to take arsenic, or go and get some rat poison or something, take a bottle of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat would be better, to finish yourself off that way [rather] than having to do with the opponents of the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n After Hales\u2019 comments were printed and distributed globally to the 56,000-strong Brethren flock, Simmons says, \u201cPeople treated me with kid gloves. I think they worried I was a mass murderer, that if they spoke to me I might cut their head off \u2026 You\u2019re left with this enormous, quite bizarre stigma.\u201d<\/p>\n Simmons insisted on meeting Hales face to face. When he did, he found the spiritual leader had nothing useful to say to him. In conversations with his friends, Simmons strongly criticised Hales.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me 48 hours to get shunned.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n On Friday, the electoral matters committee will ask hard questions of Hales \u2013 unprecedented for a man who for decades has answered only the inquiries of his own acolytes. He tried to get out of the grilling but failed.<\/p>\n At stake is not just his church\u2019s reputation, but millions of dollars in tax exemptions.<\/p>\n Charities in Australia are prohibited from campaigning for political parties, and Hales\u2019 church runs a dozen charities with hundreds of millions<\/a> in assets. Research in the UK<\/a> reveals the Brethren use these riches almost entirely for their own benefit. A finding that the church was involved in electioneering could seriously imperil these generous concessions.<\/p>\n A number of right-wing groups have leapt to Hales\u2019 defence. Holding him to account is a threat to religious freedom, they say.<\/p>\n Related Article Turning Point USA, the controversial US right-wing organisation, called on the Trump government to lobby Australia<\/a> over Hales\u2019 questioning, with pastor Lucas Miles worried that, \u201cIf this approach succeeds against one church, it becomes a precedent of intimidation for all\u201d.<\/p>\n The Coalition members of the committee have labelled Hales\u2019 grilling a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d<\/a>. The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Michael Stead, and his organisation, Freedom for Faith, say the Brethren is a simple \u201cmainstream Christian denomination,\u201d whose members \u201chave as much right as any other Australian to participate in the electoral process\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cReligious leaders (are not) automatically responsible for the political choices, associations or conduct\u201d of their members, Freedom for Faith told members of the committee in an email. (Neither they nor the Coalition responded to recent questions about Hales\u2019 long history of antisemitic comments<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Experts who know the Brethren better say these defences are wrong-headed. Reverend Tim Costello, a senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity and former president of the Baptist Union of Australia, said Hales\u2019 church \u201cregard the rest of us Christians as so unfaithful that they will not worship, fellowship or even eat or drink with us.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren break up families \u2026 this is not freedom of conscience or freedom of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n International expert on religious sects Steve Hassan said freedom of religion also meant the freedom to leave without reprisal. Groups with harsh practices such as the Brethren, he said, had become adept at \u201chiding in plain sight\u201d.<\/p>\n The alleged stunts organised by the Brethren with neo-Nazi associates were \u201cstraight out of the MAGA playbook,\u201d Hassan said, and part of a growing trend of \u201cauthoritarian cults pushing extremist agendas and mixing with the far-right\u201d.<\/p>\n Extremism expert Josh Roose has called for the Brethren\u2019s alleged use of neo-Nazi associates to tail and heckle politicians<\/a> on the campaign trail to be investigated, and teal donor Climate 200 has referred the church to the charity regulator for investigation.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n In comments to The Australian this week, Hales said, \u201cThe truth will prevail\u201d. A group of 12 former church members, including Simmons, hope so.<\/p>\n Related Article Two signatories to the letter have already given evidence to the electoral matters committee. Ben Woodbury agreed everyone should have the right to support a political party, but, \u201cthe level of coercion behind it \u2026 isn\u2019t accounted for\u201d. Cassie Davies said, \u201cthis was not typical individual political participation; it was structured and directed\u201d.<\/p>\n In their letter this week, the group wrote there was no chance Hales\u2019 sons and their acolytes brought thousands of Brethren members together to campaign without his assent. This was a church endeavour, they say, and the fate of one young Brethren man proves it.<\/p>\n The man, who this masthead has chosen not to name to protect his privacy, was in Australia from the United Kingdom last year and was involved on the Brethren campaign trail. Shocked at what he was hearing, he secretly recorded a co-ordinating meeting, then leaked the audio to former church members. The recording found its way to this masthead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The man was immediately put on a flight back to England, where his local priests passed an assembly judgment to have him kicked out of his family home and separated from his parents. He told this masthead at the time<\/a> this was \u201cbecause of the audio I recorded\u201d. Church elders called him a \u201ctraitor\u201d.<\/p>\n Eighteen months later, the ex-members say in their letter, the young man is still living in a small caravan in his parents\u2019 backyard. He has limited contact with them or anyone else.<\/p>\n The former members ask if this man\u2019s transgression was election-related and the election had nothing to do with the church, why is he being punished under church religious law?<\/p>\n \u201cThe PBCC continues to hold him in that position today,\u201d the ex-members wrote, \u201ceven as it proclaims no involvement in the activities he revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about this, the church spokesman provided no answer.<\/p>\n![\"Lindy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/f40df7005d5b9824d24a768503ece18aca3d7cc7.jpeg\")
Lindy Jacomb, who left and then was excommunicated from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in 2008. She believes it\u2019s a coercive, high-demand organisation.<\/p>\n![\"Lindy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6eaf0af77317e51363ef1aba502f836c37dd62d5.jpeg\")
Lindy Jacomb (then Simmons) as a member of the Brethren.<\/p>\n![\"Exclusive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791998176_278_53605f92ed68ee0412d2542235c28d9d81d035dba944f58b355ae143a205f873.gif\")
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Jacomb and her brother Braden Simmons, with Jacomb\u2019s first child. Simmons was shunned by the church for emailing his sister. This picture was taken after he was out of the Brethren.<\/p>\n![\"When](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/f4785eae89ccbffc2d96c4d061882fa0deb606a7.jpeg\")
When members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church try to access Lindy Jacomb\u2019s Olive Leaf Network website they are blocked by Streamline3, the bespoke Brethren device surveillance software.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0f6b5d4ca1dd40b835ca18c22faac8bddb03940424105f5a3ee2d3825e1db064.jpeg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Exclusive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d59ee77a5c3a5919e88a12a3f80adb1639919421cadb6f8410d8eb674cf352e9.gif\")
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