Ryan Carey had no idea that his seemingly normal education in a sleepy periphery about an hour from Melbourne was everything but typical.
His parents were members of a infamous and secretive church of the Pentecostal cult, preaching doomsday prophecies and controlling every picture of its followers’ lives.
His father was the right man of his founder Noel Hollins.
As a child, Carey was great isolated from society, which he was taught was destroyed by evil and controlled by the devil.
Instead of sports and video games, his free was spent carefully to prepare for the end of the world.
He did not know otherwise, after being born in the Renaissance Center Geelong.
Six years of action, Carey, now 46 years old, escaped a life of brainwashing and coercion and was ashamed of his former “brothers and sisters” as a result.
He has recently begun to share his experiences within the “harmful and dangerous” sect and illuminate a light on his “evil” leader.
The pastor who ruled with fear
Hollins led the center of the Geelong Resurrection for 65 years, preaching for a near Armageddon and washing his followers his followers, he was one of God’s apostles and that he was “a true church”.
He approached a lot – literally, staying tall in two meters tall and possessing a thriving baritone voice, and spiritually, rule with a handful of iron.
But instead of simply sharing interpretations into the fringe of Christianity, those who escaped from his clutches over the years say that Hollyns was a monster hungry by the power that destroyed their lives.
As a child, Carey spent a minimum of eight hours a week worshiping inside the uncontrolled headquarters of the church as a cult.
“Everyone for six weeks, we would spend 11 hours directly praying and listening [sermons]without eating. There was a camp two and a half week at the end of the year. “
The followers were forbidden to celebrate Christmas and birthdays were a modest issue if it was scored at all, so there was not much joy to find.
“He preached a lot of hatred and far away,” Carey said. “He hated every other church, every other religion, hated modern society and preached fear for it.”
Unlike modern evangelical churches that focus on love and kindness, Hollins spoke of those virtues “probably five per percent of the time.”
“He preached things that were racist and homophobic. He was a terrible person … They (church members) called him ‘apostle’ and he was their Lord on earth.”
The followers of Hollins became ‘saints’ when they were baptized, giving them the power to speak in the language – verbal gibberish he claimed to allow direct communication with God.
They were promised eternal life while the rest of the world would burn in hell after a nuclear apocalypse orchestrated by Russia.
But to escape, the lobby followers had to be fully subjected. He would have a total and unclear control over every picture of their lives.
In the secrets of the Podcast investigative series we hold: Prayer on the Listnr, by the well -known journalist Richard Baker, the audio of some of the Hollins sermons was secretly recorded.
In them, he spoke of a sacred war playing in “dangerous” outside the world and how his brand of Christianity was contrary to evil.
“And I hope to see ourselves as soldiers,” he told his followers. “You can’t be neutral in the war. If you leave the enemy, the enemy will follow you. “
Hollins adopted – or rejected – marriages and even arranged some unions themselves, as well as overseeing plans to have children.
Among his ultraconservative teachings were the importance of traditional gender roles where women had to submit and obey their husbands completely.
Hollins had a hierarchy that placed it on top, overseeing the men who overseen women who were told to punish their children for any ill -perceived act.
“They control every picture of your life and rip your family,” Carey said.
He checked the financial issues of the followers and introduced large amounts of money into the church coffers.
Where the money went is unclear. Hollins live a modest and weak life, encouraging members to do so as well.
‘He was the law’
If a crime was committed, including children’s sexual abuse, Hollins should be advised – not the police. It was the last law and not the state.
“I wish the government had entered and pull the chain over this guy,” Carey said. “In this (church), it was a state within a state and it was the law.”
In 2022, Shine Amy Ovali’s lawyer abuse specialist told Geelong advertisers that the firm had many questions from former members of the church.
“Their accounts for those who have gone through are shocking,” Ovali said.
“There is evidence of physical and emotional abuse and claims for sexual abuse have also been raised.
“In cases where people are born in groups like this, abuse often starts from a very young age and it becomes what they consider to be a normal way of life. In reality, it is almost far from normal as you can get.”
In January, the prominent member of the Todd Hubers Van Asssenraad Church was sentenced to 22 years in prison for repeated sexual abuse of nine boys between the ages of six and 12.
During the sentence, District Court Judge Gerard Mullaly revealed that one of the victims told his father about abuse.
“After hearing what his son had described, the victim’s father did not convene the police, but instead he stood out and spoke with the head at the time or church pastor, Noel Hollins, and informed him what the victim had said,” he said Mullaly.
“Mr. Hollins also did not contact the police that night or the next day. On the contrary, Mr. Hollins called you and … asked you to come to see it. “
When police were finally contacted by another boy’s mother, they raided the Hubers Van Assenraad’s house and discovered 1,600 images and videos of children’s abuse.
A stolen childhood
Like all other children born in the sect, Carey did not know better. Their way of life seemed normal.
“All your friends are there … You were quite isolated from the outside world. We had no friends outside the cult group. It was our whole world.”
As Carey went to a normal school, he was strolled and expelled from his peers, who served only to strengthen the lobby teachings that Outsidesers were bad.
“Normal school was not fun for a cult child – including myself,” he said.
Carey had a secret desire to join the army when it grew up, but such a pursuit was forbidden. He was allowed to learn a trade.
Hollins had to approve the profession, just as he did all the points of life, from where someone lived who they married and when a family started.
“Brain washing was pretty intensely. We honestly believed that we were the only real church and the world would end. The outside world was bad and the devil was there to take you. “
His education was strict, given Hollins, he repeatedly preached the virtues of not “saving the rod” when it came to discipline children.
“Because Dad was in a leading role, he had a lot of pressure on American children to see and act in a certain way,” Carey recalled.
“I am not saying that my parents were terrible, but they were strict. They had no good education themselves, so they took advice … how to raise children. “
His mother and father had already married and had a child when they fell into the clutches of the church in the 1970s.
While Carey was born in the sect as a result, many adults – like his people – joined with desire, seduced by fear and promise of salvation.
Some were simply looking for a place to support, as they failed to find one in the real world.
“You will not choose it until it is late, until they have taken you.”
Making his escape
In the late 1930s, Carey began to question the teachings of the sect and his place in the church, but the treatment of followers with mental health issues proved to be a proper point.
“It was a woman who had to take psychiatric medicines because she was manic. The pastor put it out of society unless she stopped taking it. This was happening a lot.
“It did it to me. I just couldn’t stand by and look at the damage it was doing to people, families, repeated again and again.”
It was not just the care of mental health that was cut off.
Reports have emerged in recent years of followers with serious health issues, including cancer, being discouraged by the search for medical treatment.
On the contrary, they were required to “pray more” and be healthy from their faith.
“That was common,” Carey said. “Medical care was not specially stopped, but it was seen as a shameful thing, which would give up on the healing of God.
“People were lit that they were responsible for their illnesses. If you were sick, your faith was not that strong. If you went to a doctor, you were weak. It was a nightmare. “
Carey minutes left, all his relations inside the church were separated.
“My relationship with my family is over. I lost all my friends and my support network. I went from all these people being a family. We lived in the pockets of one another in this isolated world. We called the other ‘brother’ and ‘system’. Now, they will have crossed the other side of the road to avoid me.
“For them, I have died.”
But he did not want his two daughters to have the same kind of childhood.
Hollins died in April 2024. The Geelong Renaissance Center continues to work.
Hollins never admitted any mistakes and did not accept all media requests for interviews before his death. Mr. Carey described it as a “classic narcissist”.
“I am happy that he is dead, to be honest with you. And this is an unpleasant thing to feel. As a man, you don’t have to want someone dead, but this guy was so bad. “
Carey now posts regular videos on Tiktok for his experiences inside the church while campaigning to end the “religious obligation” in Australia.
The Geelong Renaissance Center, with two dozen posts throughout Australia and internationally, was led by a “normal brick building”, said Mr. Carey.
“You wouldn’t know by walking before it is one (sect),” he said.
Someone who wanders from the outside can testify to worshipers by singing loudly and applauding their hands to the hymns.
The center of the Geelong Resurrection is not the only church as a cult “hidden in simple appearance,” believes Mr. Carey.
“You will spend one of these buildings in every big city and every big city of the country. They look boring.
“Many of these countries practice coercion, trembling practice, some practice extreme belief in healing, normally has a higher degree of domestic violence, children’s sexual assault is not reported …”
Since the sect’s departure with his wife and two children, Carey has turned his focus to raise awareness of coercive control.
“I don’t want to stop people to follow religion. They all have the right to believe in what they believe. It must have freedom of religion, but religions should not have the freedom to abuse its members. “
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