Leaked recordings reveal secretive church pushing physical punishment of children (2024)

A pastor in a secretive and extreme Pentecostal church has advocated corporal punishment of children as a way to prevent school shootings and gender dysphoria.

The leaked recording of the pastor advocating a “rod of correction” policy emerged as Victoria’s child safety watchdog expressed concern about practices at the Geelong Revival Centre.

Liana Buchanan, principal commissioner for children and young people, said the experiences and allegations recently revealed by former Geelong Revival Centre members were “extremely concerning”, and described some “unacceptable institutional responses”.

“Children deserve to be safe and protected by the organisations they participate in,” Buchanan said. “Our recently tabled annual report notes that some religious organisations continue to struggle with identifying and managing risks to children. That risk is certainly amplified where there is a culture of silence and adults and children are afraid to speak out.

“We know that ‘closed institutions’ carry more risks of child abuse than other types of institutions. These institutions need to be aware of these heightened risks and have legal responsibilities to take action to keep children safe, prevent child abuse and respond to allegations of child abuse.”

The latest annual report from the Commission for Young People and Children, tabled in state parliament last month, included data indicating a higher proportion of sexual offence allegations in religious bodies than any other sector.

Buchanan encouraged people with experience or knowledge of abuse within the centre’s network of churches to contact her agency, which has statutory powers to investigate breaches of child safety laws.

After decades of operating with minimal external scrutiny, the GRC and its affiliate churches across Australia are examined in a new investigative podcast, LiSTNR’s Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder, and reports by this masthead.

This masthead has obtained a recording of a sermon given by a Tasmanian pastor of a GRC-affiliated church in which members are warned that society did not understand the need to physically punish children to ensure obedience.

“As far as the world is concerned, well. They would be very critical of us for preaching and teaching these things,” Tasmanian pastor Neil Griggs says in the recording.

“Let’s not go over the top about this word ‘beating’. It just means to smack. It doesn’t mean to be brutal. ‘Thou shalt beat him with the rod or smack him and shalt deliver his soul from hell.’ Well, isn’t that worth doing? Deliver his soul from hell.

“If we don’t teach children obedience, it won’t be well with them … if we don’t correct them and chasten them, and reprove them, and rebuke them when they need it, it will not be well with them.”

The leaked sermon from Griggs provides an example of how the church leadership persuades adult members that children without discipline could face disastrous outcomes later in life.

“And here we are now, the children. The scourge of social media has twisted them all up. Unrestrained. Unchecked. Spoilt … everything that their heart could desire had wealth lavished upon them, and they’re not happy,” he said.

“And they grow up, and they go and get a gun, and they go into a school and they shoot people. And they’re all upset. No, we’re telling them. Well, you’ve got some problems. Not because you weren’t smacked as a child. Is everybody else’s fault? Maybe. Maybe think about it. Maybe you should be a girl instead of a boy or a boy instead of a girl.”

As part of the investigation, former members have revealed alleged cover-ups of child sexual abuse, the violent physical punishment of children, pressure on church members to forgo medical treatment, homophobic and racist teachings and harsh restrictions placed on the freedoms of women and girls.

There is no suggestion Neil Griggs has been responsible for any abuse or for failing to report child safety issues.

Griggs did not respond to requests for comment. The GRC leadership has also repeatedly declined to answer questions from this masthead.

Dozens more former members have come forward since the release of the podcast to detail harrowing accounts of their alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse while growing up inside a church that controls almost every aspect of its members’ lives.

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In August, 38-year-old GRC member Todd Hubers van Assenraad pleaded guilty to 16 child sexual abuse charges involving nine children aged under 16. The Age is not suggesting his victims were from families associated with the church.

The use of corporal punishment on children is legal in Victoria. However, the use of excessive force is illegal. As is the exposure of children to emotional harm through constant abuse or use of threats to frighten them.

Griggs, in his sermon, encouraged mothers, who the church prefers to stay at home rather than work, to question their children about what they were taught at school each day and to remind them what the Bible says.

“Find out what happened at school today when they’re amongst all those unsaved people, or with all those perhaps well-meaning, unsaved teachers, with all their worldly ideas … parents are the ones who say what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen.”

Despite the pastor’s call for moderate physical punishment, more than a dozen former church members have given accounts of their violent childhood beatings with belts, fists and rods.

A single mother described a male member of the church repeatedly hitting her autistic toddler son, causing what she claimed were life-changing injuries. The woman has sought legal advice over this incident, which allegedly happened a few years ago.

A former pastor at a GRC-linked overseas assembly also detailed his knowledge of deafness in one boy growing up in the church due to repeated blows to his head by his father.

Former members also claimed the church’s empowerment of men led to domestic violence within households and situations where children were physically punished by adults who were not their parents or guardians.

Former church members said the “cult-like” nature of the GRC and the constant “doomsday” predictions had children constantly in fear about the end of their world and the possibility that they and their families could burn in hell if they had fallen out with their pastor.

If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (see lifeline.org.au), Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (see beyondblue.org.au) or 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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