Media Statement: ABC Four Corners
Last night Australia’s Four Corners aired a story on the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church which included content that was inaccurate, biased, and sensationalist.
“While obviously the church disputes the perspectives which were put forward, that’s not the only issue,” said church spokesperson, Lloyd Grimshaw.
“Every church around the world has people who have left and who reflect badly on their experience, and the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is no different.
“What is unique to us is the level of outright bias towards our church compared to others in Australia.
“Our church meets no definition of cult. We don’t recruit people and while every religion has norms and traditions, this can’t be fairly characterised as control. And yet the ABC characterised it that way and included virtually nothing of our response.
“The ABC let someone claim that women in our church are ‘essentially a baby maker and a housewife’ but didn’t actually interview any women in our church in response.
“The ABC took a trip to Miami, then re-hashed stories largely on the public record from a handful of people who left us and who were unhappy.
“Say what you will about Michael Bachelard from The Age, at least he doesn’t leave taxpayers with the bill for his ongoing crusade.”
The Church also noted the very biased position taken by Labor MP Jerome Laxale, who is chairing the standing committee on elections.
“Mr Laxale said that the participation of people from our religion in elections is an assault on democracy, and that they were there to buy the election.
“Imagine if someone said something like that about Muslims, Jews or Catholics.
“We are genuinely concerned about whether he will impartially chair the forthcoming Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.
“He is setting it up as a witch hunt.”
The Church’s detailed statement in response to the questions from Four Corners were largely ignored in the story but can be viewed here.
The statement published immediately after the programme aired can be found here.
For more information about our church, see here.
