Behind the Exclusive Brethren

[mbachelard]

Hi all, I'm Michael Bachelard.
I'm the author of Behind the Exclusive Brethren and a journalist at The Sunday Age who is interested in cults, and in issues of religion and society, including the rise of (semi) organised atheism.
Personally speaking, I've been an atheist since childhood.
Greetings.

[atheist_angel]

Hello Mr. Bachelard,

Welcome to the AFA Forums.

[Praxis]

Hi Mr Bachelard - welcome to the forum :)

Will the Sunday Age (or the magazine?) do an article/interview or something on the convention, do you think?

I haven't ready your book but will mark it down as one to read. I loathe the EB, even without knowing all that much about them (sorry if that's a bit irrational but I figure I know enough to know my instinctive dislike of them is correct).

Cheers.

[mbachelard]

Thank you all for the welcome.
Praxis, I think there's every chance, though I don't have the final say about what we cover.

[davo]

Hiya Michael, I am sure I watched you discuss this on the ABC at some stage, with a panel of speakers .. I can't remember the show, but was extremely interesting, and I loved your approach to the topic with the mostly religious panel.

I have meant to grab a copy of this, and this reminds me too.

Hope you enjoy the forum!

[mbachelard]

I think the ABC thing might have been from the Sydney Writers' Festival earlier this year ...?
Yeah, I was on stage with two bishops (or, I should say, one ex Bishop, Richard Holloway, and one current one, Tom Frame).
I've got to say, though, that Holloway was a bit of a born-again atheist, and gave the religious types a gently, but firm, going over. I couldn't disagree with much that he said.
In fact, I really enjoyed his book, "Between the Monster and the Saint". The irreligious (as opposed to the areligious) on this site might find him a little mild, but I thought his description of the self-flagellatory aspects of some forms of religious doctrine were hilariously true.

[Chrys Stevenson]

Hi Michael, delighted to see you here. I'm Kristy (aka Chrys Stevenson). I'm co-editing the Australian atheism book with Warren Bonett, and also writing a chapter.

By the way, one of our AFA forum members (and a new member of our Sunshine Coast atheists group), Ford, is a former member of the Brethren.

[mbachelard]

By the way, one of our AFA forum members (and a new member of our Sunshine Coast atheists group), Ford, is a former member of the Brethren.

Ex Brethren seem to go one of two ways ... born-again or atheist. Thanks for the welcome!

[Praxis]

Ex Brethren seem to go one of two ways ... born-again or atheist. Thanks for the welcome!
Or born-again atheist! (seeing as every human is born atheist ;) )

[Chrys Stevenson]

You wouldn't like to write an expose on Hillsong, Mercy Ministries and the Shine/Strength programmes next, would you?

My friend, Sean the Blogonaut, has been instrumental in bringing Mercy's many sins to light and we have news this week that they are closing in Australia and Houston is distancing himself from them at the rate of knots.

There's also good reason to believe that Mercy will simply regroup under another name.

My friends at the Australian Secular Lobby have wads of evidence that Shine is a religious trojan horse in the public school system, but their numerous appeals to Education Queensland fall on the deaf ears of the pro-Christian education minister.

Hillsong has been involved in so many shady deals you could write a book just about that and not even include Mercy and Shine.

Warren and I are also in touch with Tanya Levin, author of "People in Glass Houses".

It would be great for an author of your calibre to take this up.

[mbachelard]

You wouldn't like to write an expose on Hillsong, Mercy Ministries and the Shine/Strength programmes next, would you?
.

My colleague Ruth Pollard's done some excellent work on this for the Sydney Morning Herald. They are great subjects, and probably well worth a book, but Hillsong and the Qld education ministry are a long way from Melbourne and, without the agreement of my employer to research these sorts of stories, and write about them for the newspaper, it's hard to imagine getting time or resources to do it justice. It's a sad reality that writing books in Australia doesn't pay the mortgage!