Former Greens Leader Bob Brown has called on the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to send back donations to the Liberals from members of the Exclusive Brethren sect.
‘This trenchantly homophobic cult’s elders warned me in my Parliament House rooms in June 2006 that I should read Romans I in which St Paul advises that homosexual men ‘are deserving of death’. They came with advice that I and my partner Paul Thomas were destined for ‘a lake of fire’.
The four elders’ particular aim was the Greens’ advocacy of same-sex marriage which the Howard government, supported by Labor in 2004, had banned. Elder Richard Garrett told me that the sect was shocked that the Greens were supporting same-sex marriage because it ‘will destroy society … we repel it because it’s against God’s word. People get themselves so perverted and they just can’t think morally’.
Brown said that he thought it likely that Mr Turnbull, who says he has ‘no criticisms or complaints about that organisation’, has not studied the sect which declares that life should be guided by a hatred of the world. ‘Mr Turnbull should have a closer look and any donations from the sect should be returned with a ‘no thanks’ note,’ Brown said.
Bob Brown, The Bob Brown Foundation
