By Amy Williams
An underground sect that the FBI is investigating after it was exposed for historical child sexual abuse has many markers of a high-control group, cult experts say.
A woman who left the group is among the speakers at Decult, Australasia's first cult awareness conference, being held in Christchurch on 19-20 October.
Laura McConnell Conti grew up in the Two by Twos in Australia but left as a young adult and now helps to raise awareness about the group.
A hallmark of the sect is that its ministers are volunteers who travel in pairs and stay in members' homes, relying on gifts or donations to meet their expenses.
The group has its own lingo - preachers are called 'Workers' and members 'Friends'.
"My message is the group is a cult and it cannot be made safe," McConnell Conti said.
"I know that people are trying very hard internally. Most of the ones who try internally then leave because they realise that Workers and elders do not want to change and that they are clinging on to power and money in the group and it's not safe."
She will speak at Decult alongside 40 other international experts, authors, academics, and advocacy leaders who understand and work to combat high-demand groups and cults.
United States cult expert Dr Janja Lalich is the keynote speaker.
McConnell Conti said media coverage of the Two by Twos since the FBI announced in February it was investigating historical child sex offending within the group had helped to lift the lid on its practices.
"It is highly controlling. It has an us and them mentality where if you leave you are in the world and if you are in the world you are not saved. They do not believe that people who leave the group have access to heaven, access to God."
She said the Two by Twos also taught a deep distrust of authorities which had led to alleged sexual abuse going unreported.
The sect's leader earlier confirmed police here were investigating at least one former minister for historical abuse, and the group was aware of 14 cases of allegations against members.
This month, Bill Easton, a former minister of the group, pleaded guilty to a raft of historical child sexual abuse charges over incidents that began in the 1960s.
Sect insiders, whom RNZ has agreed not to name, said Easton's history of sexually abusing young boys was widely known by members and leaders of the group, but he continued to attend meetings until 2023.
One woman, who does not want to be identified to protect family members still in the group, said the Decult conference was an important opportunity for survivors to hear from others with similar experiences.
She said she grew up in the sect and recently left.
"There's control on their time, there's control on their experiences of the world. There are massive issues with control and so it aligns with cult."
She said it was hard to leave the high-control group.
"It's lonely leaving because that's your social circle. It's also lonely leaving because that is not something that everyone goes through.
"People look at survivors as if you must've been crazy to be inside of that group but you don't join something that's got a flag on the front saying 'come and join our cult', right?"
Another Two by Twos sect leaver said he grew up with no radio or television and was told he could not make friends outside the group.
Other groups in the spotlight at the Decult conference include Gloriavale, The Jehovah's Witnesses and Shincheonji.
Liz Gregory, who runs the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust, said the Two by Twos shared a similar doctrine to Gloriavale and employed the same coercive control tactics.
"The entrapment is not necessarily in the four walls of the group, the entrapment is in the mind with the coercively controlling behaviours that get used," she said.
"It's the fear, the guilt and shame, the manipulation, the silencing, the social isolating, the mandating shunning that's a huge indicator of a culty group."
The Two by Twos' former leader for New Zealand earlier told RNZ they sought to live a quiet life and show a good example of Christian living and would never condone abuse.
The group was founded in 1897 in Ireland by a Scottish evangelist, William Irvine, who was ex-communicated in 1914. It has been active in this country since the early 1900s.
