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Protecting People From Cults

4 June 2025 Hits:459

The Victorian State Government has taken a significant step by launching a Parliamentary Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups. This inquiry, responding to several media reports over the past few years, is a crucial move that aims to illuminate manipulative and abusive cult practices that have profoundly harmed individuals.

Why?

In 2023, Season 4 of the Listnr podcast, “The Secrets We Keep,” highlighted “Australia’s oldest and hardest line Pentecostal Church, the Geelong Revival Centre.” Late last year, the Nine Entertainment Group, publishers of The Age newspaper (among others), picked up the story. I found it both fascinating and alarming as investigative reporter Richard Baker revealed tales of religious manipulation, harsh punishments, extreme teachings, and sexual abuse.

These reports have prompted the state government to take action, and I’m pleased they have. However, it highlights the church’s urgent need for self-regulation. For many years, I have wondered why the church, in general, does such a poor job of recognising destructive behaviour within its ranks and addressing it. Why do we wait for the government to intervene, only to often complain that the state is meddling in the church’s affairs and limiting its freedom?

Example One

Two glaring examples spring to mind. Firstly, the decades of child sexual abuse by clergy and religious leaders. Paedophile priests were moved from parish to parish, and abusive pastors were often allowed to continue in ministry because their churches were so successful. Frank Houston and the CLC movement come to mind. Finally, the government stepped in when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in November 2012.

The church’s inability to self-regulate is shameful. We must question: Why was the abuse concealed for such an extended period? Why was it accepted instead of being revealed and reported?

Example Two

For years, pastors—including myself—promoted reparative therapy for gay individuals. Groups like Exodus International publicised stories of men and women who were gay but had transitioned to being straight. So, when someone came out to us, we sent them to Exodus to get rid of their “unwanted same-sex feelings.”

However, there was a problem— it didn’t work, and the Exodus testimonies were found to be untrue. In the early 2000s, a young man I had sent to Exodus approached me after a service and shared the impact that the ministry had on his life. He was depressed and suicidal, and his sexuality remained unchanged. He’d devoted ten years of his life to reparative therapy, which yielded no results. His story prompted me to reflect and ask questions. I discovered that his experience mirrored that of everyone else involved with the ministry.

In 2012, Exodus president Alan Chambers renounced conversion therapy, asserting that it was ineffective and harmful. The subsequent year, Chambers dissolved the organisation and expressed regret for the pain and suffering their programs had caused. Although Exodus is no longer operational, some smaller ministries remain in existence. This is why governments have intervened and outlawed this damaging practice.

I look forward to the day when a more mature church, having learnt from past mistakes, will self-regulate, recognise harm, and act to minimise it. This hope for a better future should inspire us all to work towards it.

What?

The inquiry into cults and fringe groups in Victoria examines how they recruit and control individuals. It is currently open and is expected to report back by 30 September 2026. You can submit your response here. I will be submitting on behalf of Bayside Church.

The inquiry does not aim to judge anyone’s beliefs; rather, it focuses on protecting individuals from harm. It seeks to determine whether current laws are sufficient to address groups that use manipulation or control in ways that can cause significant harm to individuals.

Distinction

An important distinction made in the Inquiry notes is that patterns of behaviour, rather than a group’s ideology, distinguish cults from other groups. A destructive cult may hold beliefs similar to those of a church, but it engages in harmful behaviours such as:

• Isolating members from their friends and family—a practice known as shunning.
• Demanding total obedience and punishing members for perceived disobedience while employing guilt or fear to manipulate their thoughts, such as requiring permission to date or marry.
• Suppressing individuality.
• Abusive behaviours including financial, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as other forms of coercive control.

High Demand

The inquiry will also focus on high-demand religious groups, which significantly influence congregants’ choices regarding “education, employment and opportunities, relationships, resources and lifestyle.” While these groups may not be classified as cults, they do require a substantial level of commitment from their members. Previous research has characterised high-demand groups as “absolutist and nontolerant” of other beliefs, upholding strong leadership hierarchies and fostering unquestioning obedience.

We have observed the systematic dismantling of several high-profile and high-demand churches in recent years across the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. I believe we will see more of this in the future.

Concerns

Some are concerned that any subsequent legislation arising from the inquiry may cross the line into state interference in church affairs. I will mention this in my submission, and if you’re worried about it, I encourage you to raise it as well.

Melbourne-based author and researcher Sarah Bacalle has penned an insightful article for ABC Religion and Ethics, affirming the inquiry while also raising some concerns. She writes, “The Victorian inquiry is an important step, but the committee has an extraordinarily complex task ahead of them in untangling where the threads of accepted theological belief and practice end, and where “high demand” religion and coercion begin. Nevertheless, the recognition itself by wider society that religious contexts can inflict damage feels deeply significant and validating, partly because of the depth and complexity of trauma that can emerge in such settings. This is a form of trauma whose processes are often hidden within in-groups and are not widely understood by those outside them.”

I am deeply concerned for those who find themselves caught up in cults and high-demand religious groups. I have personally been involved in such churches. The expectations placed on staff and members were enormous, leading to exhaustion, burnout, and, in one case, a complete nervous breakdown.

The church should be a place where souls can find rest in God’s grace and community with His people. We ought to use our gifts cheerfully, not out of compulsion. Godly leaders will reflect God’s nature and help people to “lie down in green pastures…beside quiet waters” where their souls can be refreshed.

Please pray that the committee is guided by wisdom in this inquiry. Submissions can be made online until 31 July 2025.

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