An Exclusive Brethren school in Bendigo (Australia) with just 53 students has received $1.2 million in federal funding in order to build a new library.

Despite evidence of abusive acts by cults, the Senate rejected Nick Xenophon’s request for an inquiry into Scientology when both major parties voted against it. We’ve been down this road before. Through much of 2006 and 2007, the Greens tried to get a Senate inquiry into the Exclusive Brethren, and the major parties vetoed it.

This means that, in Australia, cults are thriving under the protection of politicians, the police and the courts.

The Australian Government is handing more than $70 million to schools run by the Exclusive Brethren, a religious sect Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described as an “extremist cult” that breaks up families.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said these sums were outrageous and the funding system had to be urgently replaced.

Two Tasmanian members of the reclusive religious sect, the Exclusive Brethren, have publicly apologised for ads published in the lead- up to the last state election.

The apology, published today in Tasmania’s three daily newspapers, followed a conciliation suggested by the state’s anti-discrimination tribunal following a complaint by Martine Delaney.

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd famously labelled the Exclusive Brethren (EB) a “cult” while in Opposition.

But it seems that, in Government, he is more generous to the Christian sect.

Figures obtained by The Greens in Senate Estimates reveal that funding to schools run by the controversial Christian sect have increased by 50 per cent under the Rudd Government.

Timothy Twinam of Williston says he just wants to tell the truth about what’s really going on inside the Exclusive Brethren, a well-heeled, reclusive evangelical Christian group with 43,000 members around the world.

The Exclusive Brethren says Twinam is a malcontent, a former church member who stole confidential documents to display them on www.Peebs.net, a Web site Twinam admits he created to encourage people to abandon the organization.

A father of eight has told a court that the Exclusive Brethren sect “brainwashed” and “pressured” his young son to turn against him.

The Exclusive Brethren, a secretive Christian sect that seeks a life for its followers separate to that of the general community, prevents followers from socialising or even eating with non-members.

The Exclusive Brethren is an evil, corrupt cult that tried to silence former members who escaped its clutches, a judge heard today.

Three young Indian sisters, who say they are on the run from the controversial religious group, told Justice Tony North they feared for their lives because they were seeking to expose its criminal activities.

Kevin Rudd appears to have made peace with the Exclusive Brethren, whom he publicly derided as an “extremist cult” in his run to The Lodge, by allowing for secret talks between church and government representatives.

Many of the Exclusive Brethren movement’s teachings and practices are abusive to such an extent that this movement can rightly be labeled as an abusive church, and possibly even as a cult of Christianity.

Cult expert the Rev David Millikan said the original intention of the law was being undermined.

“If the purpose of the law is to protect religion from excessive and pernicious comments, then fair enough,” he told the Herald Sun.

“But if it means that journalists and experts have got to be careful when they’re doing nothing more than reporting matters of fact, then the law is allowed to become an ass.”

The Exclusive Brethren sect has attempted to prevent a sick 85-year-old former member from revealing her terrible life story by saying that if she remained silent she could be reunited before she dies with the children she was separated from 28 years ago.

Alison Alderton’s family was torn apart at the order of the sect’s world leader in 1980, and she has barely had contact with her children, who are “in fellowship”, since.

The Exclusive Brethren — a cult of Christianity — has accused Australian Greens leader Bob Brown of vilifying its church and members.

Senator Brown yesterday urged the Upper House to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the activities of the Exclusive Brethren sect, saying it had prevented thousands of young Australians proceeding to tertiary education.

Three sisters from India who live in New Zealand are reportedly seeking a judicial order in Australia’s High Court to address the alleged involvement of the Exclusive Brethren in a variety of crimes, including immigration fraud in New Zealand.

But the religious group today said there was no basis to the allegations, which have not yet been detailed publicly.

Big Brother evictee David Tchappat wants to release a book about his experiences growing up in the Exclusive Brethren sect.

A contestant has begun to open up about his life with the Exclusive Brethren sect during the filming of Big Brother. He has described a life of no television – and countless rules.