The art of 'Spinning a Yarn'

​The first podcast by the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church entitled 'A not-so Exclusive podcast' launched in the last week. It featured Brethren spokesman Lloyd Grimshaw as the host, and the first guests were Gareth, Dean, Greg and Charles Hales, the four brothers are the sons of church leader Bruce Hales. They are collectively referred to by those inside the brethren as "The Hales Boys" or the "The King's Sons".

As I watched the podcast, I experienced boredom, shock and anger. Boredom at the general content, four middle aged men talking about their childhood and the goal to pay off their mortgage by the time they reached the age of 40. Shock at the sheer blatant hypocrisy of their stories, when compared to many brethren families, who follow what now appear to be 'non-existent' rules, which forbid them to do some of the things discussed. Anger at the continued semantics in their answers, particularly when discussing the 2025 Australian Election and the denial of any involvement from the 'church'.

It was striking that throughout that the focus was on business and money. There was admittance that they had put their families second or third, we can only surmise which was first, business or money. There was a whole section of how they felt they have been mispresented in the public domain; it came across as abject self-pity. It was clear that the Hales boys lack in the self-awareness department. The other stand out was that for four sons of a 'church' leader, there was a surprising absence of any reference to 'God' or 'Jesus', in fact the overwhelming sense that they purveyed was that religious beliefs were pretty low in their priorities.

It was interesting to note how Dean Hales classed those in fellowship as "Our People" and how they consistently talked about not supporting or working with a political "party", it should be noted that $700,000 in donations went to Advance Australia, Advance is not a political party.

At the end of the podcast, I posted on social media for any insiders to confidentially share their views. Over the last week I have been contacted by multiple insiders. I want to share some of the information they provided which would appear to strongly contradict the Hales Boys yarns.

The insiders in Australia that I have spoken to have a very different recollection of the run up to the Australian election. They remember Signal chat groups, Zoom calls, a video from the leaders being shared across the brethren members businesses, phone campaigning, travelling to other areas, and oddly they say that Dean Hales was imploring business owners to let their brethren employees have time off from work to campaign for the Liberals. Dean reportedly saying, "I guarantee you, that if the Libs get in, you will more than make up for any lost profit from this campaign".  They were told of the need to hustle and to create a Blue Surge (referencing, a Donald Trump documentary, The Art of the Surge). The normal requirement of attendance to 'Church' meetings was dropped, in favour of members campaigning and hitting the phones. We were told that on Election night, there were massive teams, all out plastering every polling booth in every marginal seat, with round the clock security teams ensuring no one vandalised the signs. Election day was manic, people who were up before dawn, driving hours, polling all day and then observing the counts. 

It would suggest that all this happened in the usual Plymouth Brethren style, with no organisation, no leaders, no formal processes, no rules and all without the support of the 'church'. They were simply people that shared the same view and happened to be doing things at the same time, in the same place. I mean, who has not stumbled on to a chartered flight, to another state, to campaign with people you know, that happen to be in the same 'church', without any prior knowledge of it being organised! 

At times one must question, does the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church exist? According to Grimshaw and the Hales boys, it has no rules, it owns no businesses, it didn't get involved in the election and each brethren locality is autonomous and according to their interview with The Daily Telegraph, there is no formal process for electing a leader.  The brethren are just a group of 55,000 individuals that have similar views and break bread with each other. I sometimes wonder do they ever look back at their answers provided to the media.

I have said before that the continued denial of any structure, hierarchy or rules would mean that the PBCC is nothing more than a brand or a label. It is simply a collective noun for those in fellowship. Therefore, somewhat perversely, it gives credence that the actual power, the hierarchy and the rules must come from "Bruce D Hales Pty Ltd", also known as UBT, and managed by an executive board known as the Global Advisory Panel, led by Chairman Bruce D Hales. They prefer to call it an 'Ecosystem', it is simply a commercial organisation. Plymouth Brethren Christian Church? Well, that is just a label that suggests they are a mainstream Christian church, grants religious protection and provides millions in charitable benefits.

My view at the end was that the not-so exclusive podcast was simply an exercise in 'Spinning Yarns' to deflect from the negative publicity around the Ecosystem and the so called 'Plymouth Brethren Christian Church'.