Ngaire Thomas
Encyclopedia
Ngaire Thomas is a New Zealand
author who wrote the book Behind Closed Doors about her life in a conservative Christian
sect
, the Exclusive
branch of the Plymouth Brethren
. It details the abuse she suffered within the church and her eventual excommunication
. The second edition was edited to avoid legal action threatened by the Brethren.
This led directly to another event:
She married Dennis Thomas at the age of 18. She had four children but having had a stroke
at the age of 28, she started to take the combined oral contraceptive pill on the advice of her doctor. After 5 years her inability to produce a further child was questioned by the church elders. When her use of contraceptives was discovered the family were 'shut up' — shunned. During the shutting up, Thomas and her husband were banned from having sex. When asked after a week if they had broken this rule — after first lying — Dennis admitted that they had. They were then 'withdrawn' — a further stage of shunning. Thomas has termed this 'psychological abuse'.
By 1974, Ngaire was deemed not "sufficiently repentant" and "contentious and rebellious". The family was excommunicated.
Thomas is now a Quaker.
discovered the book and now publishes it.
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...
author who wrote the book Behind Closed Doors about her life in a conservative Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
, the Exclusive
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....
branch of the Plymouth Brethren
Plymouth Brethren
The 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...
. It details the abuse she suffered within the church and her eventual 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...
. The second edition was edited to avoid legal action threatened by the Brethren.
Life
Thomas was born into the Exclusive Brethren. At the age of 15 Thomas was approached by elders:"they came to me because they’d heard that there was something between me and my cousin and when they asked me if I had committed fornicationFornicationFornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The...
, I said oh yes, I suppose so, because I knew I had kissed and cuddled my cousin down in the bushes down behind his house and nobody had explained to me what they were talking about. And I could tell by their very concerned faces that this just wasn’t a good answer. And of course I was put in my room on my own for several days and just sort [of] fed through the door until it was my turn to go up in front of the Church of about probably 500 or 600 people. And nobody bothered to come and ask me if I knew what they were talking about."
"I was given the microphone and told to say I was sorry for not crying out [fighting the cousin's advances]. I stood up in front of about five or six hundred people ... The sea of stern and solemn faces was just a blur in front of me as I apologised for something I didn't do. When I had said I was sorry and had been graciously forgiven by the Brethren, I sat down in my seat and cried with humiliation and shame."
This led directly to another event:
"Although it was a very traumatic experience, something good came out of it. At fifteen, although still rather ignorant of some things, I was old enough to know that if it was wrong for my cousin to hug and kiss me, then what my father was doing to me was very, very wrong indeed ... I threatened my father that I would 'cry out' and cause a public scandal ... if he did not stop his inappropriate behaviour ... The abuse ended there and then; he was careful never to touch me again."
She married Dennis Thomas at the age of 18. She had four children but having had a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
at the age of 28, she started to take the combined oral contraceptive pill on the advice of her doctor. After 5 years her inability to produce a further child was questioned by the church elders. When her use of contraceptives was discovered the family were 'shut up' — shunned. During the shutting up, Thomas and her husband were banned from having sex. When asked after a week if they had broken this rule — after first lying — Dennis admitted that they had. They were then 'withdrawn' — a further stage of shunning. Thomas has termed this 'psychological abuse'.
By 1974, Ngaire was deemed not "sufficiently repentant" and "contentious and rebellious". The family was excommunicated.
Thomas is now a Quaker.
Behind Closed Doors
Thomas started writing the book in 1999, about her experiences in the Exclusive Brethren. It was self-published and sold 1000 copies without advertising. Subsequently, Random HouseRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
discovered the book and now publishes it.