BOOK REVIEW

July 4, 2023 Thomas’ book is

compelling. Her style is non-judgemental; she
Closed Door Behind of
describes her
Bigay, Geron B. experiences while acknowledging the Exclusive
Brethren’s right
Title: Behind Closed Doors to follow a religious path in which they find
Author: Heather Kavan meaning.
The book begins with Ngaire’s childhood. She is
different from
Synopsis: the other children with her long dresses and
strict upbringing.
Behind Closed Doors is an inside look at what She loves school because it is the only place
goes on behind that she can be her
the doors of the Exclusive Brethren. The book real self. Worldly things are forbidden: there are
answers the no radios
question of what it is like to be a member of a (because Satan rules the airwaves) or non-
select group who Brethren books. Life
believe they are chosen to maintain the only revolves around the Bible, and when Ngaire
pure path of brings friends home
Christianity. The author, Ngaire Thomas, was from school her mother preaches to them
born into the about the end times in
church in the 1940s and left in the 1970s. Revelation. Other Christians are also deemed
It is probably just coincidence that this book suspect, and Ngaire
was launched at recalls getting the strap when caught secretly
roughly the same time that sociologist Bryan attending Bible in
Wilson died. School classes.
Wilson published the definitive study on the A Salem-like undercurrent of holy surveillance
Exclusive Brethren pervades the
in 1967, and was an expert witness in their scenes, and this undercurrent surfaces in
court cases. Wilson’s Chapter 10, when
conclusions were based on information the Ngaire is pressured into falsely admitting that
religion provided she has
about itself; he dismissed ex-members’ “committed fornication” with her cousin (she
accounts as suspect has no idea what “fornication” means). Her case
atrocity stories and warned courts not to give is taken to the Auckland
credence to their assembly, and after a hearing in which she is
testimony.i Today, after outbreaks of violence in found guilty, she is
other religions forced to confess, sobbing, before 500-600
have repeatedly demonstrated that ex- solemn faces. But the
members accounts are story has a strange twist – which I won’t spoil
often more accurate than academic ones,ii we for the reader.
may be more In the next chapter, Ngaire meets her future
welcoming of their insights. husband, Denis.
As one such ex-member account, Ngaire They marry in the 1960s during the church’s
 BOOK REVIEW

notorious “no Ngaire goes to

compromise” era in which the rules are University. Readers, especially those familiar
tightened. Members are with Fowler’s
not allowed to eat and drink with outsiders, and stages of faith, will be interested in following
can not be part Ngaire’s shifts in
of another association, such as a library. Even faith throughout, as she ultimately finds the
beloved pets are kingdom of heaven
deemed to be idols, and are destroyed, given within.
away or just It is difficult not to like the author with her
disappear. There are rules for Ngaire too: she unpretentious
must limit her forgiving style. To be sure, there are some
conversation to 10% of her husband’s (which weaknesses in the
proves difficult as book. The structure is a little unpolished (some
he is generally silent). later sections
Of value is Ngaire’s account of the bouts of would be better as appendices), and there is a
“confession small printing error
madness” that swept through the church at this on the inside cover. Also while the author
time. The priests answers many
take on the role of religious police, examining questions, she invites even more. Why, for
people’s lives like example, is the most
forensic investigators, dragging up rumours serious abuse limited to only a few passing
from decades past. sentences?
Members are forced to confess to sins real and Nevertheless the book provides a valuable and
imagined, and absorbing
encouraged to drink whiskey to prove they have window into a religion that is for most of us
nothing to hide. inaccessible. As
Those who confess pay heavily. They are “shut religious autobiographies go, Behind Closed
up” (in effect Doors may not have
placed under house arrest) or “withdrawn the theological complexities of St Augustine’s
from” Confessions, or
(excommunicated), and lose access to loved the mystical insights of Teresa of Avila’s Life,
ones. Almost but there is something almost archetypal about
inevitably, Ngaire (who has now had four one woman’s courage to
children) and her speak her own truth.
family are withdrawn from.
The family’s adjustment is massive. They are
unused to their
new freedom and do not know how to act in
normal society. The
two eldest sons end up in prison. (The boys love
the prison
discipline, and when they earn a reduced
sentence they choose to
stay instead.) Denis dies of liver cancer, and