‘It’s played on my mind’ NZ women allege abuse withinsect under investigation by FBI Warning: Story content distressing

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Author: *Denotes names that have been changed to protect source’s identity.
• Publication title: New Zealand Herald, The (Auckland, New Zealand)

The abuse happened on multiple occasions. The man has since died but the trauma is still with her

“It’s played on my mind as an adult,” she said. “The man that did this to me, he was one of the most trusted people.”

Melissa still belongs to the deeply conservative Christian group, often referred to as the Two by Twos. But she says she now has reservations — partly because of the church’s teachings, but mostly due to what she considers to be inadequate handling of a crisis of child sexual abuse.

The Herald is not publishing further details of Melissa’s story as she fears she would be asked to leave the church if she is identified.

The church admits it has failed to adequately deal with these issues in the past. But it says it takes every report seriously and has overhauled its procedures to keep children safe and address past abuse.

The deeply insular, fundamentalist Christian sect has no official name, buildings or property but it’s believed to have more than 100,000 members around the world.

Members often call it “The Truth” — based on a belief it holds the only true way to heaven — or “the Friends and the Workers”. Outsiders tend to call it “the Two by Twos”, referring to workers who travel in pairs, staying in a region for months at a time to preach to the faithful.

Workers are meant to be celibate and give up money and property of their own, their lives completely funded by member donations. They are billeted in the homes of local church families and are moved around between regions and even countries as the sect’s overseers see fit.

In February, the FBI began investigating the Two by Twos in the United States, after several widely publicised cases of child sexual abuse by some of the sect’s most powerful leaders. Advocates for the Truth, a hotline founded in 2023 by former members who were abused as children, has received allegations against more than 700 members — many outside the United States.

As stories began flooding in from Australia, ex-members there set up an Australasian hotline, The Brave Truth Australia and New Zealand. Co-founder and victims’ advocate Jillian Hishon says she’s received about 140 allegations against abusers, and around 20 per cent of those names are from New Zealand. Some were named by multiple victims.

The Herald has spoken to current and former members of the sect, all on condition of anonymity. Those still attending worry they would be asked to leave the church for speaking to media, while ex-members are concerned for family and friends still in the fold.

But they gave the Herald insights into the church’s structure, beliefs, hierarchy — and the extent of sexual wrongdoing that they say has been hidden for too long.

The sect has had a significant presence in New Zealand since it was founded in Ireland in 1897, and now says it has around 2500 members here.

Members meet together in homes for Bible studies and in rented halls, often with workers preaching on a topic prescribed by the country’s overseer. At annual conventions members from a region gather for several days to hear workers preach.

Sources told the Herald of a strongly hierarchical, deeply controlling culture with numerous unwritten rules — with some ex-members calling it a...