In tiny Neche, North Dakota, a ‘cult’ rules
Plymouth Brethren has long called Neche, North Dakota, home. But global scrutiny has cast a spotlight on the church and its powerful position in a small rural town on the border with Canada.
InForum/August 10, 2024
By C.S. Hagen
Neche, North Dakota — In 1979, Rob McLean’s life felt full of promise. He was 22 years old, engaged, and eager to start a business. Before he began the rest of his life, however, he had to make a pilgrimage from his New Zealand home to tiny Neche, North Dakota.
McLean was born into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, a little-known religious sect — one he calls a cult. He was making the 8,000-mile trip to Neche (rhymes with itchy) because it was a holy site for the Brethren, headquarters and home to its “universal leader” at the time, James H. Symington. The trip was “just one of the things we had to do. And I didn’t want to,” McLean said.
Tucked away in McLean’s suitcase were several white envelopes filled with cash, which he guessed contained about $600 New Zealand dollars — tribute bound for Symington. McLean was fearful of a face-to-face meeting with Symington, which came sooner than he expected. Symington — the “elect vessel,” the “man of God,” and a Neche pig farmer — happened to be on the same flight in an economy seat.
“I wandered down the aisle and gave them to his wife, who thanked me, and I got out of there. I was scared of the guy because he had so much power,” said McLean. To him, Symington was more important than Jesus because he had a direct conduit to God.
“He was a scary person, just because of his presence, and also because he had the power to excommunicate anyone he wanted,” he said. “During his reign a lot of families and marriages got broken up and a lot of Brethren fathers and husbands got excommunicated. I likened him to Leonid Brezhnev, the communist in Russia.”
McLean returned to his seat and continued his holy expedition to Neche and meetings filled with believers from around the world, all bringing similar white envelopes. The indoctrination went on from morning to night, over bottomless glasses of Johnny Walker Red Label Scotch whisky – according to McLean: “the cult drink of choice at the time.”
Neche — a town of 344 on North Dakota’s border with Canada — was improbably the seat of power for the Plymouth Brethren for nearly 17 years, from 1970 until 1987, and remains a historic site for the group, which has about 54,000 members worldwide. The organization has hidden in plain sight, rarely attracting attention until recently, when some of its operations were investigated and raided by tax agents in the United Kingdom and Australia.
Interviews that Forum News Service conducted with 25 people, including Brethren members and 13 former members from Neche and elsewhere, found that they consider the Plymouth Brethren not only a cult, but a “religious mafia” that rules by fear. According to former members, despite its worldwide charitable activities, the Brethren has left a legacy of broken families, abuse and a growing financial ecosystem that is being investigated across the world.
Despite multiple efforts, Forum News Service was denied face-to-face interviews with Brethren leaders or entry to its Neche meeting hall. A Brethren representative did respond to emailed questions.
The Plymouth Brethren rejects former members’ claims it is a cult and says the organization is “guided by the truth of Holy Scriptures,” a spokesperson told Forum News Service.
“It is disappointing and can be quite difficult to hear when we are referred to like this (as a cult), we have families we care for, schools to go to and businesses to run just like everyone. In an increasingly secular world, we recognise that observance of faith is misunderstood and those with little experience or religious values are often afraid of the unknown,” the Brethren spokesperson told Forum News Service.
“While we [recognize] there will be misconceptions, to be referred by such terms as ‘cult’ or ‘sect’ is really intolerant and can be quite upsetting for the individuals and families in our church,” the spokesperson said.
The word cult has been used in English for more than a century, and is defined as: “A socially deviant group that uses undue influence to create obedience and dependency,” according to Stephen Kent, a retired university professor from Alberta, Canada, who is considered an expert in alternative religions.
Simplified, a cult is a “group that exerts excessive control over members,” said Kent, who stopped short of labeling the Brethren as a cult, but added that the Brethren meet all the aspects of the definition of a cult.
“It is the case that groups that exercise excessive control over their members and have unusual beliefs are going to get called cults. It's been an accepted term in the English language for 150 years or so,” Kent said.
The Brethren traces its roots to the 1800s and to Plymouth, UK. Once called the Exclusive Brethren, it is a conservative, male dominated religion , which tightly controls and monitors members' behavior. Practicing one of the strictest forms of Christianity, they believe the Bible is the supreme authority for church doctrine, and that they must keep themselves separate from the outside world and non-members.
Former members say most Brethren are born into the religion, and they’re told from childhood that they are special. And while the Brethren claim they have no clergy hierarchy, they have historically followed the directions of consecutive universal leaders whose word is law.
Breaking the rules can lead to harsh punishment, including being ostracized by family members. Anyone found to be varying from rules can face excommunication, which some say also means eternal damnation.
While the Brethren reject claims they are a cult, the group’s practices fit many categories outlined by another leading expert on the subject, Steven Hassan, [See Cult Education Institute disclaimer concerning Steven Hassan] in the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. Hassan developed the model to describe cults’ methods to recruit and maintain control over people.
Current Brethren practices, according to former members and the sect’s own statements, check off several boxes listed under Hassan’s BITE Model , including areas of behavior, information, thought and emotional control.
The ‘chosen people’
How the Brethren arrived in Neche isn’t known, although there are newspaper stories as early as 1895 that mention Brethren members near the town. The Christian group began in the 1820s after growing dissatisfied with the Anglican Church in England. Wanting to focus on a person’s direct relationship with God, its members began meeting for what they call Lord’s Supper, or communion, and formed their first permanent meetings in 1829.
By the middle of the 19th century, members began immigrating to the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, according to the group’s website. They’ve always been discreet, choosing to remain outside the mainstream, and rarely recruit new members, according to former members.
“I was one of God’s chosen people and so I was better than anyone else,” said Richard Marsh, a former Brethren member who said he’s living in hiding from the Brethren in Canada.
The Brethren has managed to stay out of the public spotlight despite scandals and splits, including the Aberdeen incident, a sex scandal in 1970 involving former “universal leader” James Taylor Jr., who was accused of sexual assault. Taylor served as leader until his death in 1970, when leadership was turned over to James H. Symington.
Symington was worth more than $10 million when he died in 1987, the equivalent of $27,646,919 in 2024, according to his will, which was obtained by Forum News Service. During a tax investigation of the former universal leader in the 1970s, which did not result in any charges, he hid his cash in jars in the fruit cellar, according to a descendant.
Some “universal leaders” like Symington, who ruled from 1970 until 1987, were considered tyrants who split families apart, several former members said. The former Brethren leader is dead, but he left a long-lasting legacy as well as many Symington family members — all related — in Neche, and who own 265 properties across the county, according to Pembina County government records.
Recently, the Brethren has chosen to slowly emerge from the shadows. In 2019, the charitable arm of the Brethren called the Rapid Relief Team, or RRT, was featured in news articles after serving lunches to federal employees during a government shutdown.
Raid, investigation raise concern
Neche — whose population is approximately half Brethren, half non-Brethren — may be in a remote rural North Dakota town, but is not isolated from the group’s problems that have recently made headlines across the world.
Brethren-linked companies make up a global organization with finances tied to Australia, where an ongoing investigation began in March this year after SWAT-like agents from the Australian Tax Office raided Sydney-based Universal Business Team, or UBT, which is a company that offers services to about 3,000 Brethren-linked businesses. Shortly afterward, UBT’s Australian accounting firm, UBTA, announced to clients that it had closed.
Spokespeople for the Brethren told Forum News Service that “UBT is in full cooperation with all requests for information from the ATO and has not been advised of any principal changes that will be required of the entity” and that UBT North America is not affected by the ATO investigation.
Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, the Brethren — along with other faith-based institutions — have been under scrutiny for two years by a Royal Commission of Inquiry investigation. The commission, which is similar to a Senate hearing in the U.S., is exploring how people in care were abused by institutions meant to protect them.
Since the current universal leader, Bruce D. Hales, replaced his father in the position in 2002, the organization has acquired great wealth : A total of about $65 billion, according to Damian Hastie, a researcher with Open & Candid – an organization focused on investigating corruption in government contracts.
It is an age of prosperity for the Brethren. Reporting by Forum News Service and others indicates that decades of those white envelope donations have built an internal financial ecosystem that, according to former members, controls nearly all aspects of members’ lives. The Brethren also won more than $4 billion in competitive government PPE contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘I was told my dad is the devil’
When non-Brethren Neche residents are asked about the Brethren, an awkward silence usually follows. Then, they start by saying the group’s members are good neighbors.
Years ago, children in Neche called the Brethren “bings,” because families had so many children. “Bing, bing, bing,” said Neche resident Pam Gizinski, motioning to the different heights of multiple children.
Once a holy site attracting pilgrims, the town is quieter than it used to be. When Gizinski first moved to Neche in 1985, Brethren children would preach at a street corner along Main Street. “Worldly” children would respond by blaring rock ‘n roll music from boom boxes while on riding bikes, she said.
While the international crowds in Neche are lacking today, the town hums with the sounds of renovation, large trucks and construction. The old school is closed, but offices like Bordertown Retail Systems in Neche are being remodeled to make room for more space, said Ian Symington, sales manager and a member of the Plymouth Brethren.
Across the world in New Zealand, Craig Hoyle knows Neche as a historically important Brethren town. Hoyle is a former member of the Brethren who left in 2009. He told Forum News Service and Australian news outlet Fairfax Media that he was prescribed chemical castration medication when priests and the current universal leader Bruce D. Hales learned he was gay.
“Huge numbers of Brethren were going through Neche at that point. Quite an impact on a North Dakota town,” said Hoyle, who spoke to Forum News Service through Google Chat.
At CVR Industries USA, Inc., a family-owned trailer remodeling company in Neche, Kristi Sharp, administrative manager, said many of her customers are Brethren members.
“I don’t have a problem and I don’t believe in their beliefs. They’re very willing to help us out. Always friendly, positive. They have been good for the town,” Sharp said.
Carl Symington, a farmer and a member of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in Pembina, North Dakota, came out of his house — glass of whiskey on ice in hand — when Forum News Service arrived at the Brethren’s Pembina Meeting Room on June 25.
At first, he hesitated to answer questions, but eventually agreed. When asked about the importance of Neche as a historically sacred site, he replied that the town wasn’t important.
“We don’t place a lot of value on locations here because we’re looking for a heavenly city. We live our lives here and some people call us the Exclusive Brethren, but we believe in being separate from the world so we can maintain the values our forefathers taught us,” Carl Symington said.
Stuart Symington wears many hats: mayor, fire chief and president of CVR Industries USA, Inc. He took his family out of the Brethren in 2001 because “We felt that we were looking for something different,” he said.
He works hard to stay impartial as mayor of Neche.
“It’s got its challenges, definitely. In the main, the Brethren help out a lot. There are some Brethren in the fire department, and during floods they definitely do their part to help us,” he said.
“On the other side of things I know there are people who are bitter against them and that’s hard to deal with because at times they look at me like I’m giving them a break or whatever, but I’m simply just trying to do the right thing for the town,” Stuart Symington said. “Everyone as a citizen should be treated equally and I don’t try to let my past affect my job as mayor.”
Much of the town’s success is due to Brethren members, Stuart Symington said. With about half the population belonging to the Brethren, members control most of the businesses in the town, he said.
“Per capita this is one of the most industrious towns in North Dakota. A fair bit of it would be the Brethren, they often stick together, they work together and it helps produce that industriousness, right?” Stuart Symington said.
Today, massive $800,000 houses, called “McMansions” by local residents, are being constructed by the Brethren alongside houses that are little more than $20,000, according to data from Pembina County Assessor Zelda Hartje.
Gizinski lives across the street from two of the newly-constructed homes and has mixed feelings about the Brethren.
“They’re very nice people and they keep to themselves. When we had the big flood in ’97, they made all the food and laid sandbags,” said Gizinski.
Gizinski said she’s annoyed that Brethren members have their own grocery and liquor store called Campus & Co. nearby, where she isn’t allowed to shop. Instead, Neche residents must travel to Cavalier, Pembina or Grand Forks, North Dakota, about 100 miles away, for groceries.
“The thing that bothers me is they have that shop here. It’s not right,” Gizinski said.
Gizinski and other non-Brethren residents in Neche are upset about a recent $5 million dike proposal that the town’s mayor said the Brethren supports. Others don’t like the possibility their property taxes might rise with the recent additions of the large homes.
Another Neche resident scratched his head when asked about the Plymouth Brethren, saying he knew them only as Symingtons, and kept his distance.
Damian Symington, the mayor’s son, was a child when the family left the Brethren.
“I was born in it. When I was little I would get picked on by some of the Brethren kids because of who I was and because we left,” Damian said.
“I was told my dad was the devil, so I went home and told my mom that my dad was the devil,” said Damian, chuckling. “Now I understand that it was all just the hurt that they would have felt for someone willing to leave their church.”
But not everyone in Neche believes the Brethren are that harmless, or their presence in the town is not a concern.
Once, shortly after Gizinski moved to Neche, a little Brethren girl came up to her and told her she was going to hell because she was wearing shorts. Gizinski laughed as she recalled the memory, but grew more serious when she talked about Brethren who want to leave.
“They put the fear in them and they’re afraid to leave,” Gizinski said. “That makes me wonder, what are they trying to hide?”
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