What would you do if your upbringing inside a fundamentalist Christian community left you scarred and confused — and estranged from family members still inside the sect?
For Tim Twinam, a software developer living in Williston, Vermont, the answer was: Launch a website dedicated to re-connecting lost members driven apart from family and friends by the religion’s “doctrine of separation.”
Twinam was raised inside The Exclusive Brethren in 1960s England. He couldn’t eat or socialize with anyone outside the sect, and TV, radio and university education were strictly forbidden. Internet is also banned.
Today he is the webmaster of Peebs.net, an online community made up of former members of The Exclusive Brethren, which is the subject of this week’s Seven Days cover story.
Twinam, and his wife Sallie (pictured), have devoted the last four years to exposing the secrets of the reclusive Brethren and creating a network of “helpers” to assist those who want to leave the religion but don’t know how.
Now the Brethren are suing the Twinams in Vermont federal court for copyright infringement, claiming Peebs.net downloaded Brethren-owned sermons and letters that are property of the Brethren.
Lawyers for the sect say they’re just protecting their legal property. The Twinams say it’s a lawsuit meant to silence their criticism by bleeding them dry financially.
Two attempts to settle the suit have failed and a third attempt is slated for later this month. Meantime, the Twinams told their story in the hope it would raise awareness about a relatively unknown religion with 43,000 worldwide followers, one they say wields outsize influence in the worlds of business and politics.
We’ve linked to the story here to allow readers to comment.
Photo by Andy Duback.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2009.
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As the only person in my family to have been thrown out of the Peebs I found reading the threads on Peebs net a great comfort in my loneliness. I missed my family hugely and although I made new friends, no-one that hasn’t been there can possibly understand such a background. After over 20 years more family members have escaped but I still use my pseudonym so those still trapped are not persecuted. Keep going Tim and Sallie, your work is literally life saving!
I would like to say that Tim & Sallie Twinam have been instrumental in helping save people’s lives. I personally know of one man who was about to take his life, is an exbrethren, didnt know anything about the peebs.net website, decided to google the words ‘exclusive brethren’, up came the peebs.net website, and he visited that site, and says that it suddenly gave him hope, that there were many other people across the world who shared the same pain as he did. Suffice to say he is a lot better and enjoying life. He says that the peebs.net website was a lifesaver for him. I also use a pseudonym due to the fact I write on the peebs.net website with strong comments relating to the cruel, ruthless and destructive actions of the exclusive brethren.
I have been contributing to one of the most viewed threads on peebs.net as “Spoof Reading” – over 180,000 views so far where I take a satirical poke at the leaders of the Exclusive Brethren; it provides some light relief to both myself and contributors and viewers alike as to the very real suffering this evil cult has and continues to do in damaging lives.The attempt by Bruce Hales and his cohorts to shut this site down will only cause further pain to ex members who believe me have suffered more than enough at the hands of these dead set evil EB.Enough is enough and this cult are headed down the track already gone by Jim Jones, David Koresh to name just two lots who in their words..”are the only right position!!”This site must remain open at all costs.I use the pseudonm for fear for my family member still locked in this awful cult who would be picked on because of me.
My husband was in the Exclusive Brethren and I have seen first hand how he has been treated by it’s members.When he said he wanted to leave because he didn’t agree with new teaching, he was subjected to nightly brainwashing sessions as he tried to sleep, until neighbours called the police, who came to the house and issued warnings that it had to stop and that they would be watching the house.The Exclusive Brethren and all their many Trusts are registered as charities, yet it appears that no outsider is able to get into the meetings – I know because I have tried. They claim that they are the only ones that God speaks to today, and yet they refuse to share what God has revealed to them. Even suing someone they say has copied these “messages from God” to share with others. How and why can they receive Charity Status and all the accommaning tax relief, when they disallow all outsiders, and even refuse to eat with them?My husband’s family say that my husband is dead. None of them attended our wedding, and have never informed us of family events including births, marrages and deaths. Education is restricted, within their own schools, for which they receive Government help, but ask them to name even one of their number, educated within their system who has a degree? They say they allow it, but where is the evidence?Peebs.net is a lifeline to families like us who have beeen cut off from their real families. Tim and Sal are HEROES for all their hard work and what they have endured to keep peebs.net active. Surely the Exclusive Brethren’s action here is infringing our Human Rights to communicate with likeminded people, who have now become friends, replacing our EB families. They say they don’t want to shut down the site, but they have already shut down the two previous sites, and it appears that any deal with Tim and Sal will involve them closing the site. The Exclusive Brethren havecut us off from our families and now they are seeking to cut us off from our friends.Please help our site survive, we need it and all Tim and Sal have done is give selflessly to support ex-EBs and those who want to leave the Exclusive Brethren.
The Exclusive Brethren appear to forget this is a democracy with the constitutionally entrenched rights of free speech and association-albeit in cyberspace,as they try to curtail both by fear and intimidation,anybody who dares to exercise those freedoms.In fact,although they would stoutly deny it ,any casual observer would see little or no difference between the doctrines and coersive intimidation tactics of the Exclusive Brethren and those of David Koresh[Waco] or Jim Jones[Jonestown mass suicide]as they in a strange paradox use their virtually bottomless coffers to use the democratically developed legal system to enforce what some have described as their version of fundamentalist Muslim sharia law on those who would dare to speak out in protest
As an exEB,I can attest to the previous comments as being accurate. The main line ecumenical groups must realize that the Exclusive Brethren have wandered far from their roots as an Anglican-Episcopalian sect, and over the past 60 years have evolved into a cult of personality adept at exerting mind control, emotional persecution, sexism, intimidation and censorship while at the same time its leaders have enjoyed limitless personal power and financial gain. They have said, “Do not oppose us.” The Exclusive Brethren “system” is much more compared to a political dictatorship than a church. The Twinams have picked up the torch from brave souls before who have worked to educate, enlighten and enable people who want to learn more about this group, people who need to heal from the wounds of having been in this group, and people who need the support to leave this group. May the presiding judge find the insight and wisdom to rule justly in this landmark case.
And where would a UK Charitable Trust whose objects on the charities database in the UK can be viewed by going to http://tinyurl.com/mg4qec and who on the same page state that their charity benefits the ‘General public/Mankind’ find what must be by now, hundreds of thousands of dollars over 3 years pursuing this case?Maybe the Exclusive Brethren’s only living MINISTER OF THE LORD IN THE RECOVERY, BRUCE DAVID HALES of Australia (and whose name appears on the above Charity website), should be ‘encouraged’ to disclose how much input HE has in this case. As most know members can hardly sneeze without his permission.Of course The Exclusive Brethren want to close Peebs.Net down. They did it to Dick’s site and to Daniel’s site. They have sent threatening legal letters to some of the members of Peebs.Net, telling them to stop posting to the site and to delete all their previous posts, or ELSE. I am not an exEB but I am the wife of an exMember. I have seen UP CLOSE the destruction to families that the Exclusive Brethren Hierarchy have caused over the past 30 plus years. There MUST be continued support for those who wish to leave and somehow the EB walls that divide families MUST be broken down so that family members can reunite.
To answer Peter Wilson’s comment, I have read the items in question, and from the content may I assure you that no self respecting religious group would want to see that material in wide circulation. Tim Twinam is merely a conduit for information gathered up from people all over the world who have been severely hurt by the members of the Exclusive Brethren, and the hurt continues from many years ago, caused by the breaking up of families, an act of treachery, aided and abetted by the Exclusive Brethren leadership. The organization is corrupt in the extreme, and many published articles, books and radio and TV interviews given by the Exclusive Brethren only serve to show that they are elusive, sneaky and not what they preach. It’s more a business than a place of worship.Trying to shut up communicators like Twinam is not going to work. There are others ready and willing to step up to the plate and continue the quest for truth, and the healing of many broken hearts. Exclusive Brethren may say that the contributors to http://www.peebs.net are malcontents, disgruntled people who should not be heard. I am an ex EB, and can say that I have love and care for those trapped inside Exclusive Brethren, they are people that I was once privledged to call my brothers and sisters in Christ. That has not changed, but they need to know that there is support for them, genuine care and concern. Shutting information sites down wont change that, and I sincerely trust that the Judge in the court case takes into consideration the magnitude of the decision before him, and allows the maintenance of free speech in the United States of America.
Why would an organization like this try and shut down the website if they are proud of what they are doing and have nothing to hide? And if it really is about copyright, wouldn’t they want their ministry to reach a wider audience, for the betterment of society? Something very dodgy here, and good on the ‘little people’ for standing up to the bullies.
I just wanted to add my support to all the information that Tim has given you. What you have been informed of is just the tip of the iceberg. The so called leading priests leading this cult have now got to a state of chronic neurosis over this whole affair. They have been living under the influence of a string of megalomaniac leaders who are losing control. They will fight tooth and nail to try and keep there actions secret from the world. This includes not caring for families and isolating family members to the extent where they deny fathers access to their children. Older brothers and sisters are denied social interaction. If you are a family member who has been excluded, you are regarded as being dead. Many ex members, male and female alike often suffer severe physiological damage which takes years to recover and often they never seem to be able to do so.I hope there will be more ex peebs who will have the courage to share their stories on this blog. I also pray that the judge residing over this case will become aware of the devastation that the exclusive brethren have caused.