"Filled With Madness": Inside the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Ministry Where Bruce Hales Calls His Critics Insane

Image of Bruce Hales taking a meeting in Westfield

Last week's recorded Zoom meeting leaked, along with the ministry from that meeting, '1033.' In it, Bruce Hales spends a Sunday morning calling his critics mad. He might want to check the mirror before he finishes the sentence.

Because when you set what Hales says against what Hales does, the man diagnosing everyone else with madness runs a surveillance operation, preaches poverty while sitting on tens of billions, and coaches a room full of members on handing their money to him. So let's call it what it is!

The World Built the Hospitals He Says Don't Exist

Hales tells the room the world "can't do it, it hasn't got the facilities" to care for people. Only the Brethren's own houses, he says, have that kind of provision.

BDH-”And saints that are coming to us, very great privilege for us to care for them, have them in our houses. The world can’t do it, it hasn’t got the facilities. The world doesn’t have that kind of provision, whereas the saints have houses that, where God’s people can come and be cared for.”

Strange to relate, when the brethren turned up for the ‘meetings of a Universal Character in Sydney (yes, Sydney of the $70 million Hales property portfolio) they were allocated to stay in…HOTELS!

His own charity proves him wrong on the spot. The Rapid Relief Team's own beneficiary list includes Ronald McDonald House, which has run family accommodation attached to children's hospitals for fifty years, along with homeless shelters and hospital appeals that exist precisely because the outside world builds and runs exactly the facilities Hales claims don't exist. RRT doesn't create these places. It shows up at facilities other people built, hands out meals, and photographs it. The world runs the hospitals, the shelters and the family rooms. Turning up to someone else's hospital with a sausage sizzle is a lovely thing to do. It is not the same as building the hospital.

RRT bag at Ronald Mcdonald House NZ

And here's the part that really finishes it off. Not one member of this church could staff the places they're praising themselves for visiting. University is off limits. So no Brethren doctors, no Brethren nurses, no Brethren surgeons, no Brethren paramedics, no Brethren social workers. When a member's child ends up in the children's ward, the person saving that child's life went to a worldly university, got a worldly degree, and works in a worldly hospital that the worldly government built. They just have to hope the rest of us kept studying. The world apparently hasn't got the facilities, but it's got every single professional this church relies on the moment something goes wrong. Whatever the Brethren are offering instead, it comes with conditions the rest of us don't put on a hospital bed. Who gets looked after, and who gets cut off, is decided upstairs.

And before we move on, there’s another kind of “worldly” care facility that the brethren are heavily, heavily dependant on. Rehab. Dry-out clinics. So much so, that they have apparently negotiated bulk discounts, and, we assume, those membership cards that give you a 5th dry-out for free if you visit 4 times in the same year.

If you are a recovering alcoholic, there is one place on the planet that you should never, ever go anywhere near.
The brethren’s homes. And we aren’t blaming the brethren on this issue, Bruce Hales has cultivated this environment himself!

Calling It Madness Is Easier Than Answering It

Talk turns to the devil's failed attacks on Christ, and Hales pivots straight to people leaving his own church. Anyone who challenges it and anyone who "rails against the people of God" is mad, he says, plainly, more than once. Not confused, not mistaken, mad. A form of madness. And he's glad some are giving it up.

BDH-“That’s what it is; when persons get up against the testimony and rail against the people of God, it’s madness, they’re mad, it’s a form of madness. It’s very fine when some of them decide to give it up. We’ve had that recently. Some of the most maddest of people are giving it up; they may even get back in fellowship. Would that all the mad people give up their madness and embrace sanity. But God is acting. It’s very, I think it’s very remarkable. Brethren wouldn’t know about it, but I do.”

(Let’s just clarify here for the lucky listeners who have never been a part of the PBCC. When Bruce says “the people of God” he is referring to the global billionaires Country Club crime syndicate formerly called “Exclusive Brethren. He is not talking about Christians).

Here's who he's calling mad. RNZ reported the church hired private investigators Thompson and Clark to build files on at least 20 ex-members, parking vehicles outside their homes and running dawn raids under court orders that let lawyers seize their phones and computers without warning.

Richard Marsh is a former member of the church. ABC's Four Corners found that PBCC investigators illegally pulled the full call log from his wife's phone. They also tailed her so closely that she called police 16 times to report being stalked.

And everyone already knows the rat poison ministry. The 2015 sermon where Hales was told about Braden Simmons, a 25-year-old Auckland member in mental torment who was in contact with "Opposers", the opposers being his own family, who had already left. Hales' answer was that Simmons would be better off taking arsenic or a bottle of rat poison than keeping up contact with them. The Times ran it in September 2015 under the headline "Defectors may as well commit suicide, says leader of sect." A church spokesman said it shouldn't be taken literally.

Image of The Times article reporting on the Rat Poison ministry of Bruce D Hales

The response to the reporting says the rest. Journalist Steve Cannane, who covered the church's handling of abuse, was sued personally. Others who have reported on this church describe the same treatment - legal threats, pressure on their employers, and money offered to people who might otherwise talk.

So who's mad here? The people who left and told the truth, or the man who has them followed, pulls their phone records, recommends arsenic from the platform, and buys or the sues his way out of every story that follows? Nothing says spiritual authority like retainers with private investigation firm or a SWAT raid by the ATO on your church HQ.  Hales sits in a room and calls the critics unwell, and every documented act of paranoia in this whole saga sits on his side of the table.

The Comeback Story He Made Up

One line gives the whole game away. Hales tells the room that "some of the most maddest of people are giving it up," that they may even get back into fellowship - then adds, "Brethren wouldn't know about it, but I do."

We do too. We know who he's talking about. And they aren’t coming back. They asked one question - what it would even take to return - and no one from the church so much as answered them. That's it. That's the entire "movement" Hales is selling to the room. He takes a single unanswered question and inflates it into a repentant sinner crawling home to sanity, because the story he needs his people to hear is that critics break and return. Here's what actually happened. Someone asked a question, no one bothered to answer them, and they never came back. But that version doesn't preach, so Hales gives them a better one on the spot, in front of witnesses, knowing none of them can check it. This is the man who supposedly hears from heaven directly, and he can't get the details right on something that happened in his own church. Wonderful communication line he's got there.

"Maintain Charitable Status" - Because It's Under Threat Right Now

Hales tells the room to pray for "the maintenance of charitable status." He doesn't explain why a man with a direct line to the Almighty suddenly needs prayer cover for his tax paperwork. We can help him out: their charitable status is under active fire in Australia right now.

BDH- And it’s a charitable institution that owns the site. So we want to pray for the maintenance of charitable status. Although our beloved brother was looking past it at one point, I remember him saying to me, he said, “Look, we might have to finish up paying rates on Ermington. I really admired that, I thought that was wonderful.

Independent MP Andrew Gee has stood up in Parliament and called for the Brethren's charitable status to be stripped over their conduct in the 2025 federal election - the same election where Brethren members poured at least $655,000 into Advance Australia and, according to Gee and multiple outlets, followed candidates between polling stations, crowded out rival volunteers, and told voters "Labor wants to kill babies." Charity-sector figures and commentators have called for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to investigate and, if partisan campaigning is proven, to revoke that status outright. A charity is supposed to trade tax breaks for public benefit, not political operations.

That's the "maintenance" Hales wants prayer for. Not the poor, not the sick, not the families his church has torn apart but the tax status. And then he does something strange. He recalls his own father being willing to lose it, saying they might finish up paying rates on Ermington, and calls that attitude wonderful. He admires it. He tells the room he admires it. Then he asks them all to pray it never happens. His father was apparently big enough to accept the church paying its own way like everybody else. Bruce Hales would rather it stayed on the house.

Excommunication, Tossed Off Like a Footnote

A few minutes later the talk turns to the meeting room itself, and to the brethren who funded it. Hales mentions Frank Heaney, a man the church "put out wrongly," then "restored." Excommunication and reinstatement, admitted in a single breath, with not one word about what those years did to the family caught in between.

BDH-The one most foremost in his generosity was Mr. Frank Heaney and his wife, they just poured money into it. Well, that’s a good, good act to follow. That’s what I’ve come to, that’s what I’ve done, that’s what I’m doing, following Mr. Frank Heaney. Everybody remember Frank Heaney? He had a special link, I think, with Recovery. We put him out wrongly, but we restored him and put it right with him. Yes, well, his wife was a Gadsden

Then it gets worse. Stephen Hales raises a young brother that Heaney had looked after for years - looked after him, he says, right up until the young man "got withdrawn from." Bruce doesn't recognise the case. He can't place him at all. Stephen has to tell him the young man is dead "been taken now." And Bruce's answer to that is: "The young brother? Yes, well, that's good."

S.C.H. Mr. Heaney looked after a young brother very well here until he got withdrawn from. The young brother attested to F.R.H.’s service to him was wonderful.

B.D.H. That’s good. I can’t think of the case right off.

S.C.H. Been taken now.

B.D.H. The young brother? Yes, well, that’s good. We’re still alive. We know we’ll be taken at some stage. We’re hoping for the rapture. Got to get this hall built before the rapture. Want to have a few Lord’s days in it. Can’t take the hall with us. That’s true, but …we can’t take our money with us either.

Good! A young man was cut off by this church, died, and the leader who couldn't remember him a moment earlier calls it good. Then he moves straight on to the rapture, to how they need to get the hall built before it comes, to how you can't take the hall with you. A young man is dead, and inside two sentences we're back to the building fund.

And that casual "put out wrongly" hides something ugly. Anyone who's listened to the survivors knows what a withdrawal actually does to a person- the same survivors this church tells its members not to watch, not to read, not to listen to. The pattern comes up again and again: someone starts asking questions, or steps out of line, and the church's Doctrine of Separation kicks in, members in good standing are required to cut off the one who's been withdrawn from. RNZ reported on a couple estranged from eight of their nine children and 25 grandchildren after a single remark to their adult daughter set it in motion. Families are ordered to shun their own; a withdrawn member living in the same house is kept apart from the rest of the household, not eating with them, not sharing in family life. People lose their children, their grandchildren, and the businesses they spent their lives building, and the church calls it discipline. That's what's sitting underneath Hales' cheerful little word.

Image of RNZ news article referenced above

Earlier in the same meeting they'd already spelled out the rule that keeps it running. Daniel Hales raises an old saying: accept the government, and it becomes discipline that works in your favour - and then no one can bring up the matter of penalty. Bruce confirms it.

B.D.H. Let the righteous smite me, it is kindness; excellent oil which my head shall not refuse. So we should be thankful for the smiting, but then the healing, that, that, it really accompanies the smiting.

D.W.H. Been impressed, a couple of times over recent months you’ve quoted that saying of Mr. Symington, that if we accept the government, it becomes discipline and works in our favour. But he often added, and no one can bring up the matter of penalty. That confirm it?

B.D.H. Yes. Would help us in our relations with one another, so that we don’t carry forward thoughts against the saints. It’s not that we’re excluded from having a judgment if we’re equal for it, what we want to make sure is that we’ve got a right judgment, it’s not governed by native or natural inclinations.

Translated out of Brethren-speak: "government" here doesn't mean the actual government, it means the authority of the church over you. "Smiting" means what they do to you when you step out of line, which Bruce has just described as a kindness you should be thankful for. And "no one can bring up the matter of penalty" means that once you submit, you've given up any right to ask whether it was fair, what you actually did, or when it ends. Take it, thank them for it, and never mention it again. That's the deal, and it explains why nobody in that room asked a single question about the young man who died.

"Not One Ill-Gotten Dollar" - His Words, Not Ours

And this is where it comes out. Still on the hall, still on what you can and can't take with you, Hales tells the room you can't carry your money into the next life: "not one red cent, not one ill-gotten dollar can you take with you."

BDH- We know we’ll be taken at some stage. We’re hoping for the rapture. Got to get this hall built before the rapture. Want to have a few Lord’s days in it. Can’t take the hall with us. That’s true, but …we can’t take our money with us either. Anybody got money, should remember that, you can’t take it with you, not one red cent, not one ill-gotten dollar can you take with you.

Ill-gotten. His word. Sit with that, because we've shown the receipts for exactly how this fortune was got. Reporting by RNZ, Stuff and The Post laid out the money-go-round: Brethren businesses funnel "donations" into a fund that routes the paperwork back through Universal Business Team to cut the tax, while members are pressured to buy their groceries, fuel, insurance and supplies from a captive list of approved suppliers who kick cash back to the church. A UBT seminar reportedly coached members to "create a crisis" to generate profit. Brethren-linked companies scooped up more than £2 billion in Covid-era PPE contracts, some after a founder went straight to a government minister. The Australian Tax Office has raided UBT. This is the wealth Hales just called ill-gotten from his own platform. We didn't put that word in his mouth. He reached for it himself, in front of a room full of witnesses, and then moved straight on to the next verse like nothing had happened. Freudian slip of the century, and not one person in that room blinked. That's how far gone this is. A man admits the money is dirty, and a room full of grown adults just nods along and waits for the next scripture. And they still can't work out why the rest of us keep saying it. If it walks like a cult, talks like a cult and sues like a cult - it's a cult.

The Rich Sermon Is a Fundraising Pitch

And having just told the room the money is ill-gotten, he immediately sets about getting more of it. Hales walks them through Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler and lands on a distinction: there's "rich," and there's "very rich," and the difference is how much you give away. He warns against wanting money. He quotes Paul. And then he turns on his own son, "Go on, Dean. Have you given it up yet?" and makes Dean Hales confess, in front of everyone, that no, he hasn't given it all up, he's "still making it."

BDH- I think our beloved brother said that was the difference between very rich and rich. Rich was because he gave half away, so he didn’t become very rich. That’s a good thing to keep before us. Any of you rich people, rich people around here, or anybody desiring to be rich, that’s not the thing to go in for. Paul gives us a word on that, doesn’t he? Those that desire to be rich. 1 Timothy 6. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Well, Zacchaeus was only rich. He kept on giving half away, then he made another half and gave that away. So if you want to keep making your halves, well, all the best. Some stage you’ve got to give it up. Go on, Dean. Have you given it up yet? Not yet. You haven’t given it up yet, have you?

D.A.H. Not entirely, no.

B.D.H. Still making it.

D.A.H. Small amount.

There's nothing humble about this. Dean is being used, and everyone watching knows it. When Bruce leans on his own son over money in front of the whole room, the message to every other man there is simple: if he'll put Dean on the spot, none of you are safe either. And it works. You keep the members giving - giving toward the new hall, which is not a modest little building. Parramatta Council's planning panel approved a $134 million development application from this church for a two-storey complex on a 3.8-hectare industrial site at Rydalmere, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It seats around 1,750 on an ordinary Sunday and up to 3,500 for national and global events, with 620 car spaces and bays for 48 coaches. That's the 'new city room' Bruce spends another whole chunk of this same meeting patting himself on the back over, replacing the ageing hall at Ermington they've used since the early 1970s. Preach against money, corner your boy, and let the congregation feel the pressure to open their wallets. Remarkable how often the Holy Spirit lands on the subject of the building fund.

Image taken from https://www.pbccrydalmere.info/ as discussed above

And when Dean says "small amount," that's a remarkable thing for this particular man to say with a straight face. Dean Hales is the global chief executive of the hand tools manufacturer Ox Tools. A company he owned was a part-owner of 2San, a business that reported revenue of over $700 million, and part of a Brethren network that won more than $30 million in government COVID-test contracts, one of them a single $26 million deal with the Department of Health. In 2022 his wife was listed as the buyer of a $7.5 million house in Epping, a suburb record, sitting on a 4116-square-metre estate. His brothers did better still. Gareth and Charles supplied more than $1 billion worth of PPE contracts to the UK through their company Unispace, then sold it to a Hong Kong investment firm for a reported $300 million, while keeping the contract stream, which was moved across to a separate company they had set up. Gareth paid $9.5 million cash for a Dural weekender with a tennis court, heated pool and driving range. That's the family Dean's "small amount" belongs to. So when one of the boss's sons calls his fortune a "small amount" he's "still making," the congregation gets exactly the message it was meant to get: if a man that rich can give it up, what's your excuse? Spare a thought for Dean, scraping by on the tools and the test kits and the four-thousand-square-metre lawn.

Image from news article published by The New Daily https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2023/01/29/exclusive-brethren-ppe-government

And the numbers make the sermon obscene. Leaked notes from the church's own 2023 Strive Seminar put Brethren accumulated wealth at around $48 billion, with member companies turning roughly $6.3 billion in profit in a single year. The man lecturing ordinary families about the danger of holding onto money is sitting at the very top of that pile. When he talks about giving "half away," it costs him nothing.

And let’s be clear here, it costs him nothing because it’s just talk, nothing more. There is not the least shed of evidence that Bruce Hales has ever given away half of his fortune. Or a quarter… or a 16th… or a thirty second. The “half your fortune rule” is not for the Hales’, its for everyone else.
And who exactly should you be giving away your “half-fortune” to? Well, to Bruce Hales of course…

 When the family three rows back hears it, they're the ones who actually pay. Camels and needles, and somehow it's always the bloke on the shop floor being measured for the eye.

The Man in the Mirror

The Rapid Relief Team is suing this podcast right now. Cheryl Bawtinheimer told Forum News Service the church answers abuse allegations by hiring big law firms to intimidate the people raising them; her lawyer, First Amendment attorney Marc Randazza, called it a textbook case of a rich plaintiff using a rich firm to crush a critic. Surveillance, poison from the pulpit, bribes, lawsuits- it's all one long habit, and this transcript catches the man behind it doing it himself, in his own voice, on a Sunday morning.

He calls the people who left him mad. But read his own ministry back to him. He inflates a story his congregation can't check. He calls out his son for making money, while running annual Strive seminars urging the brethren to make more money. He praises “giving half your money away” while accumulating more personal wealth than he could spend in 1000 years, then saying ‘we can’t take it with us.’   He can't remember a young man his church cut off, gets told the young man is dead, calls it good, and is back on the building fund two sentences later. He calls his own fortune ill-gotten, then asks the brethren for more. He prays to keep a charitable status that his own foolish political adventures have threatened, having just praised his father for being willing to lose it. He claims the world has no care  facilities while his charity hands out meals inside facilities the world built and staffed. And sitting underneath all of it is the rule his own brother spelled out and he signed off on- accept the government, and no one brings up the matter of penalty. Don't ask what happened to the ones who were cut off. Don't ask where the money came from. Don't ask, don't look, don't count the cost. That's how a man buries this much under one carpet and keeps a global personality cult helping him do it. Line it all up, and the madness isn't out here with the survivors and the reporters. It's the man at the front of the room, still talking, still supremely self-confident, still willfully blind to the writing on the wall that spells the end of the Hales dynasty.

GoFundMe currently going on to fight back against the PBCC and RRT tactics.