Who are the Brethren and what do they believe in?

Bernard Doherty, Charles Sturt University

In recent days, investigative journalists have accused members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church of mobilising far-right influencers to harass and heckle Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as well as Labor and Greens candidates, during the 2025 federal election campaign.

Media reports have also linked Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Liberal Party President Tony Abbott to the Brethren’s public-facing charity during an event this weekend.

The church has denied any involvement with harassing politicians. It maintains only individual members campaigned during the election.

I started researching the Brethren about 20 years ago due, in part, to my interest in the way the group intersects with modern-day Australian society.

While the sect has some very conservative views that many Australians would disagree with – and has been somewhat politically involved in recent years – its political impact has been limited, in my opinion.

Who are the Brethren?

The Brethren have their origins in the 1820s in Ireland and England. They were primarily evangelical Protestant Christians who grew frustrated with mainline denominations and wanted to meet on a very basic premise of sharing the Lord’s Supper together.

The sect gets a name, Plymouth Brethren, because one of the early leaders, the Irishman John Nelson Darby, went to the town of Plymouth in England and began meeting at a private chapel with others who had seceded from the Church of England.

In 1848, the Brethren split into what’s known as the “Open Brethren”, a large group that is quite active internationally today, and the “Exclusive Brethren”, who are far more stringent about who belongs in the assembly and how they relate to the outside world.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is the largest of the Exclusive Brethren sects. It has around 50,000 followers worldwide, the largest number of which are in Australia (about 15,000).

The Brethren are a very conservative Christian church. One older member described it like this to me: the difference between us and other Protestants is that in the 1950s, all churches held certain beliefs and values. We haven’t changed. Other churches have.

As a historian of religion, I’ve looked at the challenges the Brethren face living in a changing, increasingly more progressive Australia. They’ve gone to great lengths to adapt to the community in ways that don’t compromise their beliefs.

What do they believe in?

The main principle that underpins the Brethren sect is its belief in a doctrine called “separation from evil”. In the group’s statement of belief, it’s described like this:

In order to know union with Christ and unity with God, we separate from evil in this world and hold aloof from every form of wickedness in our daily walk […] The doctrine of separation does not mean we isolate ourselves from the world. Instead, it encourages us to move closer to God, by distancing ourselves from the beliefs and practices that are contrary to biblical principles.

This basically means they limit their contact with “worldly” people to avoid being morally corrupted. We might call this a form of separation holiness.

This is very complex in practice because they’re not like the Amish, who live separate from mainstream American society.

But over the years, the Brethren have developed a whole series of rules and conventions within their community to maintain “separation”.

For instance, they won’t share meals with outsiders. I’ve been into the homes of Brethren and they’ve fed me, but they haven’t shared table fellowship with me – they didn’t eat a meal at the same time.

They still do business with the outside world, and in fact, are very active in certain industries. And they have a very impressive and sophisticated school system where they educate their children.

Yet, they also minimise their use of technology. For instance, they don’t watch free-to-air television, they don’t listen to the radio, and they use the internet in a very limited and careful way. The aim is to protect themselves from potentially morally compromising influences.

The Brethren also have a very rigid lifestyle that includes regular Bible meetings and preachings and sharing the Lord’s Supper together on Sunday mornings at 6am.

It’s a very cohesive community that is caring of its members. However, the group has traditional gender norms that dictate the roles of women and what jobs they can take. The moral behaviour expected of members is very high. And how they police their boundaries can be stricter and more punitive than other Christian groups.

Those who leave the Brethren have a very difficult and painful experience because they are essentially shunned, cut off from their families.

But I don’t consider the term “cult” to be helpful as a way of understanding the group. The Brethren could be classified, from a sociological perspective, as an “introversionist sect”, though essentially they are just another conservative, evangelical Protestant denomination.

What about their political activity?

What’s made the Brethren particularly controversial has been their political activity.

The Brethren don’t vote on the grounds of a conscientious objection, but they believe in being a “witness to government”. According to my research, this means they meet with politicians, like other church communities, and lobby them on legislation or other things that might negatively impact them.

Brethren members also make donations and volunteer for political parties, such as handing out flyers at polling booths. This is generally for Liberal or National party candidates, especially conservative ones. They are em phatic in public statements this is all done on an individual basis, not on behalf of the church.

Historically, they’ve been most interested in issues related to the running of small businesses, but they’ve also campaigned on what they perceive as moral issues, such as opposing marriage equality.

They also have a charity organisation called the Rapid Relief Team, which supports various community events, such as Abbott and Taylor’s Pollie Pedal bike ride. Their involvement in these events raises concerns among some who question whether it’s appropriate.

And there have been the allegations that Brethren members have deliberately disrupted Labor and Greens campaigns by harassing candidates, trolling them online and engaging in other sorts of anti-social behaviour. There are questions around whether these activities are orchestrated.

In my view, the concerns about their political influence are overstated. They do support conservative candidates like some other social groups, but the idea there’s a secret cabal trying to subvert Australian politics is an exaggeration. They’ve had very little impact from a policy perspective.

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