Behind the Exclusive Brethren
Encyclopedia
Behind the Exclusive Brethren: Politics Persuasion and Persecution is a non-fiction
book by journalist
and author Michael Bachelard about the group Exclusive Brethren
, focusing on the sect in Australia
. It was published in 2008 by Scribe Publications Pty Ltd. Bachelard first became interested in the organisation while a journalist
for The Age
, after finding out that prior to the 2007 Australian federal election the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to John Howard
. He spent two years researching the group, focusing on its history, influence in Australia, and ties to the Liberal Party of Australia
and to Howard. The book gives a historical background of the group's origins 200 years ago in Ireland
under John Nelson Darby
. Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally. The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including some of its more controversial methodology including excommunication
of former members from their family still within the group. Daniel Hales, brother of the organisation's worldwide leader Bruce Hales, described the book as part of a trend of what he said were lies told about his group by critics and disaffected former members.
The book was a best-seller in Australia, and in November 2008 it hit number 8 on a list of top ten best-selling books in the country in political and social science books according to data from Nielsen BookScan
. The book received positive reception in books reviews and media coverage. The Sunday Age called it a "sober" and "well-argued" expose. The Sydney Morning Herald
, called the book an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia". GayNZ.com
characterised Behind the Exclusive Brethren as a "comprehensive reference work on the sect". Media/Culture Reviews noted, "The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."
for The Age
newspaper. He began investigating the organisation in his capacity as a newspaper journalist. Bachelard's first book The Great Land Grab discussed the Wik
and Mabo cases, and was first published in 1997. Bachelard became an investigative journalist
with The Age in 2006, and wrote about conditions in the workplace. In April 2008, he became a senior reporter for The Sunday Age. Bachelard received Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Best News Report in 2008, for his reporting on WorkChoices
. After discovering that prior to the 2007 election the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to John Howard
, Bachelard became interested in writing a book about the group. He researched the organisation's history, and focused on the version of the group in Australia; analyzing its ties to the Liberal Party of Australia
and to Howard. He spent over two years researching the organisation.
n branch of the Exclusive Brethren
that was formed approximately 200 years ago by John Nelson Darby of Ireland
. The introduction emphasizes the point that intense investigation should not be seen as vilification of the organisation. He writes that since the organisation's beginnings in Ireland in 1827, it has maintained that the world external to the group is evil, and has kept a "doctrine of separation" from non-members. Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally. The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including its approaches to business and finance, as well as its methodology with respect to charity, Sunday services, and preparing the dead for burial. Bachelard asserts that the group had "elements of cultishness", but had recently reduced its standards of stringency.
According to the book, wives are deemed second-class citizens within the organisation, and cannot hold positions higher than administrative jobs at companies owned by the group. The book describes the story of the treatment of Alison Alderton, an 85-year-old woman who was excommunicated
from the organisation. For twenty years, Alderton did not see four of her six children after she had been excommunicated by the organisation. During the 1980s, Alderton and her husband Bob had served within the organisation as senior figures at the group's location in Bathurst, New South Wales
. The author quotes former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson
, who had said that methods used by the organisation to excommunicate family members were "abusive ... psychologically it's very damaging to the child".
The author publicises a letter in the book that was written by the organisation in 2004 to Brendan Nelson, the former minister for education in Australia. According to the letter, a survey of membership within the organisation found that individuals were in the "middle to upper levels of the socio-economic group", over the last few decades. Bachelard writes, "Any funding system which delivers poverty-level funding to a group that boasts of its average wealth, needs to be reviewed." Behind the Exclusive Brethren describes how the organisation paid a private detective in New Zealand
to put forth information claiming that the husband of politician Helen Clark
was homosexual. The book details methods of social control used by the organisation, including the usage of exclusion from the group as a threat used to police members.
The book reveals that members of the organisation had attempted to donate funds to the 2007 reelection campaign of Prime Minister of Australia
John Howard
in a way in which information about the financing would not have been available to the general public. Individuals describing themselves as a "private group" had met with a senior figure within the Liberal Party of Australia
in a hotel in Sydney, Australia, and offered him a significant amount of money by way of an anonymous donation. The book's source recounted the events: "They said 'We are a private group'. I asked them if they voted. It was a testing question. They said they didn't. It was a very short discussion." The organisation's members are instructed that government is controlled by God, and they are told not to vote in elections. "We're in the business of ideas and so are the Exclusive Brethren. I regard many of the party's views and those of the Exclusive Brethren as inconsistent. What the [Liberal] Party stands for should not be confused in the mind of the electorate by the acceptance of donations from fringe groups. In my view, if you accept this money, you're arguably accepting some of their opinions," said the book's source, explaining that he had turned down the offer of funds from the organisation.
.
of the top 10 political and social science best-sellers in Australia. The author was a featured presenter on the topic of his book, at the 2009 Sydney Writers' Festival
.
The Daily Telegraph
noted that the book investigates, "One of the world's most mysterious religious sects, little is known of the origins, intentions and beliefs of the Brethren, seen as increasingly powerful in Australian politics." Writing in The Sunday Age, Lucy Sussex described the book as "one of the most sober and well-argued exposes I have ever read." Shelley McInnis reviewed the book for The Age
, and commented, "Michael Bachelard is brave to investigate the Exclusive Brethren sect". McInnis elaborated, "The Exclusive Brethren is a conservative Christian sect with a scrappy, pit-bull attitude towards the outside world, and Michael Bachelard is courageous for investigating it. The award-winning Sunday Age journalist has received a number of legal threats from the sect since he began reporting on it for The Age". McInnis described the author's work as that of "a scrupulous reporter".
Bruce Elder reviewed the book for The Sydney Morning Herald
, and described it as an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia". Elder concluded, "This is a very fair assessment of the modus operandi of an influential Christian sect." Craig Young reviewed the book for GayNZ.com
, and called Behind the Exclusive Brethren a "comprehensive reference work on the sect", and a "most incisive book". In her review of the book for Media/Culture Reviews, Sandra Hogan wrote, "Bachelard has done his research very thoroughly. He has interviewed both sides of the story: people who left the Exclusive Brethren or were expelled from them and also, as much as possible, the current leaders of the group. He has witnessed Brethren documentation, and has spoken to politicians from major and minor parties as well as to lawyers and judges. The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
book by journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and author Michael Bachelard about the group Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
, focusing on the sect in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It was published in 2008 by Scribe Publications Pty Ltd. Bachelard first became interested in the organisation while a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, after finding out that prior to the 2007 Australian federal election the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
. He spent two years researching the group, focusing on its history, influence in Australia, and ties to the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
and to Howard. The book gives a historical background of the group's origins 200 years ago in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
under John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
. Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally. The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including some of its more controversial methodology including excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
of former members from their family still within the group. Daniel Hales, brother of the organisation's worldwide leader Bruce Hales, described the book as part of a trend of what he said were lies told about his group by critics and disaffected former members.
The book was a best-seller in Australia, and in November 2008 it hit number 8 on a list of top ten best-selling books in the country in political and social science books according to data from Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by the Nielsen Company. BookScan compiles point of sale data for book sales.-History:...
. The book received positive reception in books reviews and media coverage. The Sunday Age called it a "sober" and "well-argued" expose. The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
, called the book an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia". GayNZ.com
GayNZ.com
GayNZ.com is the leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community news website for New Zealand.It posts daily local and international news stories, monitors fundamentalist Christian politics in New Zealand and associated anti-gay pressure groups, reports on political developments related...
characterised Behind the Exclusive Brethren as a "comprehensive reference work on the sect". Media/Culture Reviews noted, "The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."
Author
At the time of the book's publication, Bachelard was a journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper. He began investigating the organisation in his capacity as a newspaper journalist. Bachelard's first book The Great Land Grab discussed the Wik
Wik Peoples v Queensland
Wik Peoples v The State of Queensland is a decision of the High Court of Australia delivered on 23 December 1996 on whether statutory leases extinguish native title rights. The court found that the statutory pastoral leases under consideration by the court did not bestow rights of exclusive...
and Mabo cases, and was first published in 1997. Bachelard became an investigative journalist
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
with The Age in 2006, and wrote about conditions in the workplace. In April 2008, he became a senior reporter for The Sunday Age. Bachelard received Melbourne Press Club Quill Award for Best News Report in 2008, for his reporting on WorkChoices
WorkChoices
The Workplace Relations Act 1996, as amended by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, popularly known as Work Choices, was a Legislative Act of the Australian Parliament that came into effect in March 2006 which involved many controversial amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the...
. After discovering that prior to the 2007 election the Exclusive Brethren organisation in Australia had close access to John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, Bachelard became interested in writing a book about the group. He researched the organisation's history, and focused on the version of the group in Australia; analyzing its ties to the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
and to Howard. He spent over two years researching the organisation.
Contents
Bachelard discusses the AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n branch of the Exclusive Brethren
Exclusive Brethren
The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
that was formed approximately 200 years ago by John Nelson Darby of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The introduction emphasizes the point that intense investigation should not be seen as vilification of the organisation. He writes that since the organisation's beginnings in Ireland in 1827, it has maintained that the world external to the group is evil, and has kept a "doctrine of separation" from non-members. Since 2002, Bruce Hales served as the international leader and "Elect Vessel" of the organisation, which has 15,000 members in Australia and 43,000 total globally. The author describes the beliefs and practices and doctrine of the organisation, including its approaches to business and finance, as well as its methodology with respect to charity, Sunday services, and preparing the dead for burial. Bachelard asserts that the group had "elements of cultishness", but had recently reduced its standards of stringency.
According to the book, wives are deemed second-class citizens within the organisation, and cannot hold positions higher than administrative jobs at companies owned by the group. The book describes the story of the treatment of Alison Alderton, an 85-year-old woman who was excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
from the organisation. For twenty years, Alderton did not see four of her six children after she had been excommunicated by the organisation. During the 1980s, Alderton and her husband Bob had served within the organisation as senior figures at the group's location in Bathurst, New South Wales
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
. The author quotes former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson
Alastair Nicholson
Alastair Bothwick Nicholson AO RFD QC was the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia from 1988 until 2004.Nicholson was born in 1938 in Melbourne returning with his mother Jean to Papua New Guinea , where his parents owned a rubber and coconut plantation...
, who had said that methods used by the organisation to excommunicate family members were "abusive ... psychologically it's very damaging to the child".
The author publicises a letter in the book that was written by the organisation in 2004 to Brendan Nelson, the former minister for education in Australia. According to the letter, a survey of membership within the organisation found that individuals were in the "middle to upper levels of the socio-economic group", over the last few decades. Bachelard writes, "Any funding system which delivers poverty-level funding to a group that boasts of its average wealth, needs to be reviewed." Behind the Exclusive Brethren describes how the organisation paid a private detective in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
to put forth information claiming that the husband of politician Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
was homosexual. The book details methods of social control used by the organisation, including the usage of exclusion from the group as a threat used to police members.
The book reveals that members of the organisation had attempted to donate funds to the 2007 reelection campaign of Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
in a way in which information about the financing would not have been available to the general public. Individuals describing themselves as a "private group" had met with a senior figure within the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
in a hotel in Sydney, Australia, and offered him a significant amount of money by way of an anonymous donation. The book's source recounted the events: "They said 'We are a private group'. I asked them if they voted. It was a testing question. They said they didn't. It was a very short discussion." The organisation's members are instructed that government is controlled by God, and they are told not to vote in elections. "We're in the business of ideas and so are the Exclusive Brethren. I regard many of the party's views and those of the Exclusive Brethren as inconsistent. What the [Liberal] Party stands for should not be confused in the mind of the electorate by the acceptance of donations from fringe groups. In my view, if you accept this money, you're arguably accepting some of their opinions," said the book's source, explaining that he had turned down the offer of funds from the organisation.
Response by organisation
Daniel Hales, brother of the organisation's worldwide leader Bruce Hales, described the book as part of a trend of what he said were lies told about his group by critics and disaffected former members. He said such criticism showed it is "open season to kill us". "We're happy to live our lives in anonymity, just quietly in our neighbourhoods in our low-key way. We're quite happy to have our beliefs questioned, ethically debated, and points of religion looked at. That's not a problem. We don't mind being criticised. We don't even mind being despised because of it. But once it starts to be charged that we're acting criminally, we're acting illegally, we're acting immorally, we're acting against society, then we felt that we really had to put our point of view. We felt that it wasn't fair to our members," said Daniel Hales to The West AustralianThe West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
.
Reception
In November 2008, the book hit number 8 on a list compiled by Nielsen BookScanNielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by the Nielsen Company. BookScan compiles point of sale data for book sales.-History:...
of the top 10 political and social science best-sellers in Australia. The author was a featured presenter on the topic of his book, at the 2009 Sydney Writers' Festival
Sydney Writers' Festival
The Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Chip Rolley.-History:...
.
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
noted that the book investigates, "One of the world's most mysterious religious sects, little is known of the origins, intentions and beliefs of the Brethren, seen as increasingly powerful in Australian politics." Writing in The Sunday Age, Lucy Sussex described the book as "one of the most sober and well-argued exposes I have ever read." Shelley McInnis reviewed the book for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, and commented, "Michael Bachelard is brave to investigate the Exclusive Brethren sect". McInnis elaborated, "The Exclusive Brethren is a conservative Christian sect with a scrappy, pit-bull attitude towards the outside world, and Michael Bachelard is courageous for investigating it. The award-winning Sunday Age journalist has received a number of legal threats from the sect since he began reporting on it for The Age". McInnis described the author's work as that of "a scrupulous reporter".
Bruce Elder reviewed the book for The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
, and described it as an "exhaustive study of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia". Elder concluded, "This is a very fair assessment of the modus operandi of an influential Christian sect." Craig Young reviewed the book for GayNZ.com
GayNZ.com
GayNZ.com is the leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community news website for New Zealand.It posts daily local and international news stories, monitors fundamentalist Christian politics in New Zealand and associated anti-gay pressure groups, reports on political developments related...
, and called Behind the Exclusive Brethren a "comprehensive reference work on the sect", and a "most incisive book". In her review of the book for Media/Culture Reviews, Sandra Hogan wrote, "Bachelard has done his research very thoroughly. He has interviewed both sides of the story: people who left the Exclusive Brethren or were expelled from them and also, as much as possible, the current leaders of the group. He has witnessed Brethren documentation, and has spoken to politicians from major and minor parties as well as to lawyers and judges. The expose is written in a calm, clear style and the chapters relating to the broken families are deeply moving and respectful."
See also
- Exclusive BrethrenExclusive BrethrenThe Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848....
- Plymouth BrethrenPlymouth BrethrenThe Plymouth Brethren is a conservative, Evangelical Christian movement, whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s. Although the group is notable for not taking any official "church name" to itself, and not having an official clergy or liturgy, the title "The Brethren," is...
- Open BrethrenOpen BrethrenThe Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren or "Plymouth Brethren", are a group of Protestant Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement...
- Raven-Taylor-Hales BrethrenRaven-Taylor-Hales BrethrenThe Raven–Taylor–Hales Brethren are a protestant sect, and a branch of the Exclusive Brethren. These Brethren hold an uncompromising 'separatist' doctrine and their practice has steadily evolved differently from other Brethren groups and also from mainstream Christianity.Most Australian and New...
- William Kelly (Bible scholar)
- EvangelicalismEvangelicalismEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
- Needed Truth BrethrenNeeded Truth BrethrenNeeded Truth Brethren, as they are sometimes known, call themselves, “The Churches of God in the Fellowship of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ". This is their official legal title, however other Christians might classify them as a very conservative form of Brethrenism, connexional in nature;...
External links
- Behind the Exclusive Brethren, at official website of publisher
- Behind The Exclusive Brethren, product description at Readings.com.au
- LateNightLive: Behind the Exclusive Brethren, interview with author, on ABC Radio National