Way of life
44 rules.
And counting. Here is what members live under.
One doctrine, the Doctrine of Separation, decides who members can eat with, marry, live beside, and work for12. It reaches from the dinner table to the driveway to a woman’s haircut. Every card below carries its citation; where the church documents a rule itself, its own page is the source. This list only grows as the record does.
Food & drink
Eating with non-members is banned.
The church's own wording: members “choose to eat meals only with those with whom they would also share the Lord's Supper.” No restaurants with colleagues, no school-lunch tables, no dinner at a neighbour's.
Food & drink
No social drinking with outsiders.
By the church's own description, members “choose not to drink socially with those outside the Church.”
Food & drink
Restaurants are off-limits.
Named on a court-document list of places members are told not to attend, reported by ABC Four Corners. Ex-members describe narrow business-travel exceptions.
Food & drink
Forced to share a business table? Avoid eating at the same moment.
Ex-members report that when work makes a shared table unavoidable, members avoid literally eating at the same time as outsiders.
Ex-member reported
Home
Apartments and townhouses are banned.
Detached houses only.
Home
No shared walls, drains, or driveways with outsiders.
Home
Live within a set radius of your meeting room.
Ex-members report that members outside the radius were expected to sell their homes and move, and attribute the policy to Bruce D. Hales.
Ex-member reported
Home
No pets.
The church's page frames it as preference (“Brethren don't generally keep pets”); ex-members report enforcement extending to removal of existing pets.
Technology & media
Television is banned.
“an instrument of hell” — Bruce D. Hales, on television
The church's own page softens the rule to “generally avoided.”
Technology & media
Radio is banned.
Ex-members report published Hales ministry calls the radio a “pipeline of filth.”
Technology & media
Internet only through church-controlled filtering.
Streamline3, sold by the church's own UBT, flags restricted searches in real time. One ex-member recalled it blocking a Wikipedia page on whales.
Technology & media
No prerecorded music.
Ex-member reported
Technology & media
Computers and phones must be bought through UBT.
Ex-members report devices, once banned outright, are now sold to members through the church's own UBT at a markup.
Ex-member reported
Entertainment
Cinemas are banned.
On the court-document do-not-attend list reported by ABC Four Corners.
Entertainment
Attending sporting events is banned.
On the court-document do-not-attend list.
Entertainment
Hotels are avoided.
On the court-document do-not-attend list; ex-members describe narrow business-travel exceptions.
Entertainment
Zoos are on the do-not-attend list.
Entertainment
No dirt bikes, go-karts, or amusement parks.
Ex-member reported
Education & work
University is banned.
The church's own education page: on-campus study is “not compatible with our lifestyle.” Further study happens by correspondence.
Education & work
Children attend the church's own schools.
OneSchool Global: 120-plus campuses where community volunteers vet every teaching resource.
Education & work
No biology, music, or visual arts at senior level.
Education & work
Professional bodies are banned.
Doctors, pharmacists, and lawyers had to give up practising.
Education & work
Trade unions are banned.
Education & work
Members work inside the church's own business network.
Member-owned businesses coordinated by UBT. Ex-members report working for non-Brethren businesses is not permitted, with rare exceptions.
Education & work
Members must buy and study the leader's printed ministry.
Ex-members report the “white books” (Bruce D. Hales) are purchased at the member's own cost, with questions answered on them at meetings.
Ex-member reported
Clothing & appearance
Women wear headscarves at services.
By the church's own description.
Clothing & appearance
A “token” hair item the rest of the time.
By the church's own description.
Clothing & appearance
Women wear skirts, never trousers.
Clothing & appearance
Women do not cut their hair.
“an affront to God” — on a woman cutting her hair
Clothing & appearance
Men cannot wear shorts.
“the Lord takes no pleasure in the legs of a man” — ministry teaching, per New Statesman
Clothing & appearance
Men must be clean-shaven.
Clothing & appearance
Men wear short hair, parted at the side.
Ex-members report the side part is taught as symbolizing separation from the world.
Ex-member reported
Marriage & family
Marriage outside the church is forbidden.
The Doctrine of Separation excludes marriage to an outsider.
Marriage & family
Marriage requires formal approval, ending in Sydney.
Ex-members describe a compliance checklist (preaching attendance, ministry reading, a priest-approved budget, a compliant house), regional review, and final approval from Sydney.
Ex-member reported
Marriage & family
Same-sex relationships are not tolerated.
“conversion therapy is imposed” — NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry
Marriage & family
Dating is forbidden.
Ex-members report couples instead “start talking,” then apply for approval to marry.
Ex-member reported
Marriage & family
Women sit separately from men at services.
Ex-members report distinct participation rules for women in church settings.
Ex-member reported
Money
Weekly cash collections at the most important service.
Ex-members report collections taken at the Sunday Lord's Supper, tying peak religious observance to peak giving.
Ex-member reported
Authority
The leader's word cannot be challenged.
Members treat Bruce D. Hales's word as the voice of God; Nicky Hager's investigation found “no major decisions are made without Hales's approval or direction.”
Authority
Women hold no authority in the church.
Ex-members report women are required to submit to men and have no decision-making role; the church's public framing points to women choosing the hymns.
Ex-member reported
Discipline & leaving
Leave, and your family stops speaking to you.
Those who leave or are expelled (“withdrawn from”) are cut off by the spouses, parents, and children who stay.
Discipline & leaving
“Shut up”: confined at home while priests decide your fate.
Church discipline documented in court reporting and the UK Charity Commission's Preston Down Trust decision.
Discipline & leaving
Shunning applies even inside the same house.
The NZ Royal Commission documented members instructed to shun their own relatives under the same roof.
Civic life
Members do not vote.
The money still moves: Brethren-funded political campaigns are documented in four countries.
Cards marked ex-member reported rest on verified ex-member reports on file (identities verified by the editor, held off-repo); the public evidence that would settle each one is listed on /what-we-need. If you lived under a rule that isn’t here, or can document one that is, get in touch.
The rule that holds the others up.
None of the rules above needs a police force. Leave, or be “withdrawn from,” and the family you leave behind stops eating with you, speaking to you, living with you3. The NZ Royal Commission documented members instructed to shun their own relatives, sometimes inside the same house4. The UK Charity Commission found “considerable evidence of significant detriment or harm” in these practices5.
That is the enforcement mechanism. Survivors tell their own stories at /stories.
