Christian Taliban in Oz?

The recent Four Corners episode/documentary/expose on the Exclusive Brethen within Australia showed ex-members of the controlling sect telling their own stories of expulsion from the sect for not complying with their over zealous superior men.

This sect controls its members and rules out their watching any television, technology, radio and books and keeps their members separate from all outside.

Is it not ironic that they have their own website?

From the history of the sect led by power hungry and money hungry men there were reports by these victims of not only illegal activity but also the flagrant disobedience of Family Court rulings in relation to custody and access.

WARREN MCALPIN, EX-MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: "We are a higher court" is what they believe, and they refuse to obey the courts and refuse to obey the orders that were set down that I should have access.

They are not allowed to vote but they still try and influence political parties by some underhanded methods.

One responder to the Four Corners open forum regarded them as dangerous and compared them to a Christian Taliban enforcing their extreme views and rules upon its members.

They have their own exclusive schools and most members of the sects are employed by fellow members so if one decides to escape this sect be prepared to lose your job, lose your family, lose your friends and be shunned by them.

However, it was surprising that of the ex-members interviewed they retain a strong faith in God and have not abandoned Him when they have been abandoned themselves by those who purported to be God's people.

How is that people can get sucked into these types of sects? How gullible are they?

SELWYN WALLACE, EX-MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: These people claim to represent Christianity in its purest form, but you look at the history stretching back 30 or 40 years, and it's just carnage - broken families, broken lives. Children that don't know their parents. Brothers and sisters that haven't seen each other for 20, 30 years, and it's all over the world. And that's one reason why I'm speaking today. The carnage must stop. And if we don't speak out, the wheels of pain will just keep turning.

"I have never come across a more deceitful explanation of involvement in the political system than I have seen with the Exclusive Brethren," Senator Milne said.