Dear Dick
articles about wide ranging psychological issues
from "The Local Bulletin" (Brisbane Australia)
by Dick Rigby
©all articles are copyright 2006

April 2007
Religious sects have been around for ever.  I am sure that there are many sects who don’t get noticed because they don’t cause any trouble.  The ones who seem to attract the most adverse publicity are those who require their followers to break their family ties.
I heard a radio program on the ABC the other day describing the activities of The Exclusive Bretheren.  The program described how members were encouraged not interact with non members.
Ralph was a client of mine who had been a member of a religious sect for about 8 years.  He chose to leave the sect because he had had enough of their narrow mindedness, bigotry and economic control over his life.  His wife chose to remain in the sect.  They had no option but to separate.  The Family Court granted custody of their two daughters to the wife.  The husband had normal access orders granted.
When he went to pick his daughters up, they were gone. On each subsequent occasion he came to collect his daughters they were missing.  What was going on was quite sinister.  The sect believed that all people outside the sect were evil and were doomed to go to Hell.  Only sect members were bound for Paradise.
His daughters were being told that there father was evil and that he would be going to Hell.  When the access time came, sect members would hide his children away to prevent access. The distress that this caused Ralph and his two daughters was enormous.
The radio program pointed out that we live in very complex times.  Some people turn to fundamentalists religions to provide certainty in an uncertain world.  But the price of certainty can be bigotry and isolation.
The distress that this closed door policy can have on families can be quite devastating.  One very good friend of mine had a son who joined a sect.   At 26 he married a sect member.  My friend didn’t find out about her son’s wedding until two months later.  She was very upset.
We here in Australia seem to be following the lead of the USA in the growth of powerful, and closed sects.  I think that it is a very dangerous road to follow.
I am proud to be part of a tolerant nation and I do not want to see the growth of organized bigotry that trades on the fear of “the outsider”.