Responses to Howard Temple’s Guilty Plea (Part 2/3)

Opinion piece: Liz Gregory.

(Thoughts, opinions and views expressed here belong to Liz Gregory and may or may not represent the views of the Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust, former or current members of Gloriavale.).

Part Two:

Read Part One for the background to this post.

On the ground views in Gloriavale

It’s been interesting to hear the different kinds of responses to Howard’s guilty plea. It appears there are a couple of major groups of opinions forming inside Gloriavale

Victim Blaming

Most of the first and second generation are apparently more likely to be rallying around Howard, believing him to have been falsely accused from a group of bitter and angry former members.

So if the community are still blaming victims, we need to ask if this is a safe place to live?

Minimisation

I’ve heard that people in the community have said things like, “Oh so it’s illegal to hug people now”. This is an effort to minimise his actions.

But Police actually dropped the charges that only involved hugs and stroking legs. Howard by his own admission pled guilty to more serious charges than “just hugging”. So whether people think his behaviour was mild or not, (compared to other kinds of offending) is not actually important. What’s important is he did wrong stuff. There are victims who didn’t like it. It’s affected people. It was illegal. And he is guilty. And he admitted it.

What do the younger ones think?

There is a younger cohort in the community who apparently see things differently – and they appear to be less than impressed about Howard’s behaviours. I heard there were some quiet groans and discomfort from the young ones when it was recently suggested the community was requesting permission from Police/Corrections for Howard’s bail conditions to be relaxed for one day so he could attend a recent Gloriavale Celebration Day (he was denied).

These young ones are the group who have lived through the sex abuse scandal that rocked their world. They also have reason to be confused. Because over the past 3-4 years, Howard did do some flag waving for child safety. He gave permission to the Govt agencies to get involved in interviewing community members, and he must have signed off the STOP, START and SASH staff to run programmes inside Gloriavale. He signed off the child safety protection policies, and he gave people permission to speak the Police if they needed to (even if other leaders were not happy with him for this stance). I am sure he was under pressure to do these things, but he clearly gave agreement.

The issue is that Howard could not see his own actions were wholly unacceptable and illegal and that others found them creepy. And it appears he’s surprised that the policies he gave voice to and signed off, have now come back to haunt him. He does not believe he sits in the category of many of the other child predators in Gloriavale. He believes he’s been misunderstood. But leavers say that he was part of the development of the grooming culture, that ultimately led to an explosion of abuse.

Grooming

Grooming was a mechanism employed across so many facets of life in Gloriavale. But it’s believed Howard does not have the reflective capacity to work this out and to see his role in creating and perpetuating this culture.

Hopeful and Howard took on the role to prepare the younger ones for marriage. Ask any married couple about their “pre-marriage counselling” and they will recall the details of the very awkward conversations about sex they had to endure. And not just conversations…

Howard wanted to be the person that the young ladies went to if they had any difficulties during the marriage. The girls were groomed to see Howard as their confidante. And one former member believes that grooming started right back as a young girl when they were serving him cider. He was setting himself up right there to be a “special person” in that young girl’s life.

Cults create Dependency

Another leaver described the system as one where the leaders would create dependency. They said, “You were to look at these men like they had the answers.  You were always looking for their approval. In fact, you were so damaged and groomed by them that you kept the relationship alive and became co-dependent on their approval. Even if you were uncomfortable and got a creepy sense, you were never going to stand up to them.  And you wouldn’t anyway, because you were seeking their approval – so it’s your fault if you’re not happy about it. So you think it’s your fault. You don’t want to report anything because you think it’s your fault.”

Is Howard just the fall guy for Hopeful Christian?

I have heard there is an idea spreading through the community that it’s not fair that Howard is taking the blame for the culture Hopeful set up. It’s an interesting one, because up until three years ago no one inside Gloriavale was brave enough to suggest that Hopeful Christian ever did anything wrong. The community leaders had made it very clear that Hopeful was being persecuted for his faith – and not prosecuted for serious sexual offending. But during the terrible time after 2020 when mass sexual abuse was uncovered at Gloriavale, leavers spoke up, the Employment Court hearings shone a light on the darkness, and then the Royal Commission continued to expose the issue, it was getting more and more difficult for the leaders to deny that Hopeful Christian’s behaviours were abhorrent. They started saying things like, “Perhaps Hopeful was a little unwise, but he was only trying to help people.” They had moved from not guilty, to “a little unwise”.

In 2023 Shephen Stephen Standfast testified in the Pilgrim Employment Case:

“Hopeful was a tool God used. It would appear that there were elements about him that I would call serious failings but I don’t believe that the Church, the community, so many of the good and right things that take place in our life are evil or wrong because he sinned in that area.”

I remember being absolutely shocked that Stephen used the word “sinned” in this context. I had never heard anyone, let alone a leader of Gloriavale, make the admission that Hopeful sinned (after all their doctrine held that Hopeful was perfect…).

Note Stephen used the words “serious failings”. But this also falls short. They were deeply illegal and harmful behaviours that destroyed lives and came from his own corrupt and perverted nature. Has Stephen really understood this? Does he believe this? Police stated in a meeting to Gloriavale residents in 2020 that there was an unbroken chain of abuse stretching right back to the original leader.

So why are we talking about Hopeful Christian? Because it’s a fool who doesn’t make the connection between Hopeful Christian’s actions, the culture he created, the way the other leaders and community members upheld his views, and the mess the community is in today.

The current count includes over 25 males who have been charged with criminal offending in the community. Seven of them involve charges of violence, three involved business fraud, and the rest are linked to sexual offending. Some were found guilty, and have been sent to prison, or given community detention, and some were discharged without conviction. Some went through the Youth Justice system, and some have permanent name suppression.

It’s an enormous number for a small community. If there are that many offenders, can you imagine the number of victims there are? Back in December 2023 the Police stated they were aware of at least 138 potential abuse victims, with over 400 suspected crimes.

A Stuff article sated: “Some of the reported crimes haven’t resulted in charges because the alleged offending happened outside the statute of limitations, or the potential victim didn’t want police to pursue the matter through the courts.”

This is a small community, of only 600 people at its maximum, as so it’s clear that Hopeful didn’t pull it off by himself.

Howard isn’t just a poor bystander who has been caught up in this group. No. Howard Temple was part of the senior leadership of this group for decades. He placed himself under the teachings and doctrines of a sexual pervert. And so he effectively helped to create the culture that is today. He sat back while others were abused. He covered crimes up. He defended Hopeful. He then took advantage of the position of power he rose to. And he needs to be held accountable for his part in that.

Corrupt Groups destroy morality

As one leaver said, “Cults destroy who you are. They replace your morals and you surrender your conscience to them. That’s what humility and obedience looks like. You become morally compromised and you can’t expect them to have right thinking.”

It’s fair to say that Howard fell prey to this. This corrupt group met some of his needs, and eventually in 2025 he is left holding a can of worms that is exploding left, right and centre. But he helped create the can of worms. Why should the victims continue to be blamed for speaking up?

So what did Howard’s actions speak of?

Leavers have let me know that they are pretty certain Howard’s actions spoke of Power, Entitlement, and Ownership. Howard was in a position in that community where he could groom young girls into a “close relationship with him, that he could break all the rules that most of the other man in the community weren’t allow to break, and do this without impunity. Heck most of his indecent behaviour was done in public places, with others watching – giving it an air or normality. He felt entitled to have a “close” relationship with the members of the community – but given the enormous power imbalance, the way the patriarchy operated in Gloriavale, and the example that has been set by the leaders, it was clear a young girl/lady in that society wouldn’t have felt free to verbalise her discomfort. Goodness, even the young ladies’ parents didn’t say anything.

Another leaver wondered how terrible the sense of betrayal must have been for the young ladies who had been abused by other men. How difficult it must have been to experience Howard pulling them in for uncomfortable hugs which they could not refuse.

I’ve heard of occasions where he came up behind girls, patted their bottom or undid their belt or touched their back or waist in some way, and they got a huge fright. He then asked them, “Don’t you like that?” To which they bravely replied, “No”, only to be told, “Well what are you going to do when your husband-to-be wants to touch you?….”

Deep breath. There are only three ways to interpret that. One is that Howard believed his actions had a romantic connotation and was similar in nature to that of a husband and wife. Or it was a reminder to the girl that at marriage the female becomes the property of her husband and has no right to say “No” to him. Or thirdly, he believed he was entitled to touch girls because he effectively owned them.

Consent

And so we come to the issue of consent. Leavers will tell you it’s a word and concept that DOES NOT exist in this culture. Consent means that you get to choose what happens to you. It means someone asks you first, and you give a clear “yes” because you want to, not because you feel forced or scared.  But Gloriavale members had been trained to always obey and not speak up.

One former member shared a story with me of another “creepy” man at the community who used to love the hug and greet sessions at the Sunday Lord’s Day meeting. This particular man really liked this 27 year old mother of four. He would hunt her down and demand a hug. This mum used to try to avoid him as much as possible – at times even heading to the toilets to avoid contact with him. (One day he was waiting outside the bathrooms when she came out). This went on for a couple of years and in the end the man was very upset with this lady that she was not giving him the physical affection he believed he was owed. The man started hounding her husband, asking him to speak to his wife and insist that she give him a cuddle. The husband did not follow his instructions, and in the end this man went to Howard Temple and complained about the woman. Instead of standing up for her, Howard called a meeting between the parties, and at first it appeared he didn’t want to take sides. (He certainly didn’t defend the woman). But later on Howard came to the woman privately and tried to reason with her that what this other man was wanting was okay, and there was nothing wrong with it and would she look at this from the perspective of the man? Howard was putting her under pressure to conform. This women pushed back at him (being a strong-minded woman!) and Howard left it at that. But it was clear that he wanted this lady to capitulate under the pressure of having a leader coming to her. The lady was so shaken that she didn’t break bread (communion) for five months. She had to keep reassuring herself of her motivation for not wanting the hug, and wondered whether she was still going to heaven. She experienced terrible nightmares, it impacted her eating and sleeping and her relationship with husband. It sent her into a panic mode. She wondered, “Why do I not have rights and say over my body. What kind of place is this?” it unsettled her for so long. She said she knew if she just gave up it would have solved the problem. But she asks the question, “How does a child stand up to that?” She said that she could barely stand up to it as a strong-minded 27 year old.  She said it’s an example of subtle pressure that’s applied to people who make them conform and capitulate to what the community has deemed as acceptable behaviours.  She noted there were a few very creepy men and she hated it.

This story perhaps helps put the idea of consent into context. High controlling groups rarely make allowances for consent.

And so we segue to the issue again of Howard. We have an issue where young ladies felt creeped out by his actions – regardless of what motivation Howard might have had.

Did his actions speak of Ownership? Definitely

Entitlement? Definitely

Did they speak of Slavery? There is definitely a case to be made here.

Slavery and Servitude

Howard’s actions shine a light on the concept of slavery inside a coercively controlling group.

Slaveryand servitude are when a person is forced to work or serve someone else, without the ability toleave, refuse, or make their own choices. Slavery happens when someonecontrols another person’s life and labour, often using threats, punishment, or manipulationto keep them trapped.

According to that definition it’s clear Gloriavale has been involved in modern day slavery for many decades. Inside slavish systems boundaries disappear, and you become absorbed into the culture and owned by those in power.

An anonymous current member sent through this reflection:

“Ironically the leaders have now started to feel what they have put so many others through. My hope is that this experience gives them pause to actually cast their mind back and have some empathy to how they have actually treated others, and to look back in love to those they have wronged rather than making it all about themselves and spinning it into how naughty those people are for “attacking” us. Those that live by the law shall perish by the law and Howard is no exception.”

Please continue to read Part 3 where we discuss Howard Temple’s replacement Stephen Standfast…