Lawyer Matthew Lawson made the comment while acting for the Hastings Gospel Trust in a Hastings District Council Resource Consent Hearing last Friday.

The application involves demolishing a house on a 758sqm Reynolds Road property (pictured) and replacing it with a chapel and carpark.

Besides Lawson, three of the four residents opposing the application appeared at the Hearing.

Residents' concerns

The residents opposing the consent application were concerned about noise and traffic impacts on Reynolds Road.

They are concerned about losing a residential property during a housing crisis and the impact an "exclusive organisation" would have on the street's "tight-knit community".

Brethren plans

The proposed hall would be used twice a week. There would be a 6am communion service on Sundays and a prayer meeting on Monday evenings before 8pm.

A maximum of 45 people are likely to attend.

The plans include surrounding the property with a 1.8m high fence to reduce noise.

Good neighbours

Lawson said the application did not breach the Hastings District Plan. Nor does it "give rise to any matters of groundbreaking Resource Management significance".

He also said Christian churches are "an integral part of our communities and the ability to practise their religion is an inalienable right" under the New Zealand Bill of Rights.

Six letters from people who lived near other similar Brethren chapels were provided to the Hearing as evidence. All six confirmed the Brethren are excellent neighbours.

Fearing the unknown

Lawson suggested those opposing the Brethren proposal could be classified as having "perception fears and fears of the unknown".

At worst, their opposition could be described as "Nimbyism and/or religious intolerance", he said. To this he also added: "I do not wish to ascribe such a description to the matters raised by submissions."

He also raised concerns about opponents' use of the term "community".

Their use of "community" concentrates on a select small group, he said.

In reality, the community is broader than Reynolds Road. Their opposition is an example of "Nimbyism by stealth".

Not in our street

One resident took exception to the Nimbyism label.

The street is a Kiwi ideal where everyone looks out for one another and the Brethren presence would change this, he said.

The group "defines itself as an exclusive organisation not known to intermingle with others" - the opposite to the way "this neighbourhood community acts today," .

The Brethren's want "to use our street and neighbourhood for their purposes, creating noise and traffic while adding no value" to the street community, he opined.

Another resident noted most local Brethren chapels were largely on bigger roads, not disturbing sleeping neighbours at 6am on Sundays.

She presented a NZ Census table showing Brethren members make up just 0.15 per cent the population. She asked why the group needs another chapel and why it couldn't be located on a larger arterial road.

Submissions about the proposal are ongoing.

Source

• Stuff

I grew up in the Exclusive Brethren - a reclusive sect that tightly controls members' lives and forbids social contact with non-members.

The Brethren were firmly anti-gay, and my first awareness of the rainbow community was in the context of the Brethren campaigning against the Civil Union Bill in 2004.

When I came out as gay to Brethren leaders in Invercargill as a teenager, they embarked on an attempt to change my sexuality. I was told to "pray away the gay", and to fight against my sexual identity.

At the recommendation of the sect's world leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales, I was referred to a Brethren doctor with a view to changing my sexuality.

This doctor prescribed a year's supply of cyprostat - a hormonal suppressant that shuts down the body's natural production of testosterone, more commonly prescribed for sex offenders or cancer patients.

His logic was that if my sexuality couldn't be immediately changed, then it could be suppressed altogether as a temporary fix.

It took some time for me to question what I was being told.

It's incredibly difficult to stand up against religious leaders who represent the power structure you've been born and raised within.

We were explicitly forbidden from questioning the instructions of Brethren leaders, so as a teenager it was unthinkable that I would do anything other than follow their orders.

At the age of 19, I finally stood up to the Exclusive Brethren and told them I wanted to live my life as an openly gay man.

They told me I was mentally unwell. I sought a second opinion from a local GP, who reassured me I was not mentally unwell and that my emotions were a normal and rational response to an extreme situation.

The neutral and professional guidance I received from this GP stood in stark contrast to the treatment I received at the hands of the Brethren doctor.

I was subsequently excommunicated by the Exclusive Brethren in 2009.

My parents threw me out of their home, and I was abruptly cut off by every person I knew. I lost my job, my home, my friends, and my family. This was a direct result of refusing to try and change or hide my sexuality.

Fortunately, I found broad support in Aotearoa's wider society.

Many people stepped forward to replace those I'd lost, and I've built a rich and rewarding new life.

I've gained a degree, travelled the world, and now work as a journalist - all things that would have been forbidden had I remained in the Exclusive Brethren.

Many others have made contact with me since I was excommunicated to share similar experiences.

Rainbow Kiwis continue to suffer within conservative groups like the Exclusive Brethren (since rebranded as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church).

The Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill currently before Parliament would send a strong message that these people need to be supported rather than judged or condemned. Anyone questioning their sexuality or gender identity should be able to explore those aspects of themselves in safety. It's cruel for anyone to be put in a position where expression of identity can lead to isolation or punishment.

Many of those responsible for such harmful practices do not believe they are doing anything wrong. They believe they are fulfilling the wishes of a higher divine power, and would deny that they are engaging in conversion therapy. Instead, they couch their language in terms of "helping" members of their community.

But there is a big difference between such religious "help", and the professional guidance offered by doctors and counsellors. Continue reading

• Craig Hoyle is a news director for the Sunday Star-Times.

Eleven days later, two lawyers, a private investigator and a forensic expert showed up at Simmons' Mangere Bridge home just before dawn.

They had a court order to search every electronic device in his home.

The order was made ‘without notice' - meaning Simmons had no clue what was coming.

An independent, court-appointed solicitor was on hand to explain to Simmons that his former boss Peter Bishop, understood to be one of the church's top elders in New Zealand, and employer Rock Solid Holdings were making a series of serious claims against him in a civil action before the Auckland High Court Read more

The prayer agenda, a confidential document, is distributed world-wide.

The actual words in the prayer agenda are for the "right Government which maintains Christian principles" to win the New Zealand election on September 23.

Contrary to the implication in Stuff's headline, the prayer request makes no mention of Bill English. Read More

In a prayer agenda, the Exclusive Brethren church told its 45,000 worldwide members it had received a "favourable settlement" in a dispute over schools' fees.

"Outcome - NZ IRD matter - a favourable settlement was arrived at for school fees and fee relief. The attitude of NZ IRD should be applauded."

IRD group tax counsel Graham Tubb was bemused by the prayer agenda. "It's great to hear that people are praying for us - I don't think it happens all that often."

The sect runs its own private Westmount Schools, which have received $14.5 million from the Ministry of Education in the past five years.

An investigation into the church has found dozens of trusts that are controlled by church members lawfully receive tax deductions on donations, without registering on the Charities Register.

A spokesman for the church said it wasn't obliged to register.

The New Zealand charitable trusts, which own 191 churches and halls around New Zealand, run the Brethren's Westmount schools, and even a Brethren travel agent, are understood to be controlled by members loyal to the worldwide leader, Sydney-based accountant Bruce Hales.

It's understood New Zealand Brethren members pay large amounts of donations direct to Hales, who flies by private jet, and is known as the Elect Vessel.

In 2015, Hales said a mentally unstable New Zealand Brethren member who was in contact with excommunicated members - known as "opposers" - should 'drink rat poison".

A church spokesman said the remarks made by Hales at a church meeting had been taken out of context and applied with a literal interpretation.

"He is using a common, everyday, metaphor used to describe the effect on a person coming into contact with another person whose beliefs and values are different from their own and potentially damaging."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: i.ytimg.com