Welcome to indoctrination, a weekly conversation series about protecting yourself from systems of control.

I'm your host, Rachel Bernstein.

Today we have a special guest.

We have Theo, who was named Honey Faithful at birth. She was born and raised in the fundamentalist

Christian community called Gloria Vale. Some of you may have seen some shows and articles and other

coverage about Gloria Vale. It is a small and isolated, very isolated community

on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand

founded by Neville Cooper,

aka Hopeful Christian,

an evangelist from Australia.

Despite decades of allegations of sexual and physical abuse and worker

exploitation, the cult continues to operate today. Yes, it is still in operation. Theo found herself

questioning the hostile and controlling environment in which she lived,

where a small contingent of men held all the power.

At 18, having been utterly sheltered from the outside world,

and with no knowledge of how society operated,

she decided to leave the community and was dropped at a bus stop and left

to fend for herself. This is her story. She says, eight years on from leaving, I often find myself

thinking back to the teenage girl in Gloria Vail who looked around and wanted to scream for help so often,

the young woman who longed to be heard without judgment and seen as the valuable female she was.

None of those things were possible during her 18 years spent in the rural West Coast cult.

In her book Unveiled, Theo talks about how women and girls face oppression and abuse

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