A secretive religious group, operating in the Inland Northwest and around the world is the subject of a massive FBI investigation.
The group goes by the name ‘2-by-2s’, ‘The Truth’ or ‘The Way.’
Hundreds of sect leaders are accused of sexual abuse and child sexual abuse and, investigators say, covering it up.
We spoke exclusively with Bo Cooke of Spokane who said, “I’ve been part of a church for four generations of my family.”Cooke nearly devoted his live to The Truth, but he is now working with a private investigator and the FBI to unveil the truth behind The Truth.
His upbringing was strict, as he says most families who follow the teachings of the religious movement we will refer to as the Two-by-Twos. They get that name because of how the movement operates.“First and foremost, they believe in a literal description of Matthew 10 where the ministers go out in pairs. That’s the name Two-by-Twos, but they believe in a very strange theology that says in order for you…any human being to get to heaven, you have to hear the gospel preached by one of their ministers,” said Cooke.
Those ministers are called “workers” who Cooke says get no formal training, pledge a life of celibacy and give up personal belongings. They travel within assigned communities, staying in homes of church followers who call themselves “friends”. Above the workers is a small group of senior male “overseers” who have oversight of a specific region. Washington, North Idaho and Alaska are one region.
It was the death of an Oregon overseer that put this secretive religion in the spotlight.
“One of their leaders that was found dead in a hotel room. His name was Dean Breuer, with evidence on his laptop and his iPhone of rape of children and women and other violence.” said Cooke.
“We really opened the hotline for Dean Breuer victims and then it just exploded, and it has not stopped.” said Cynthia Liles, a private investigator.Liles and her team have been investigating this case since fall of 2022. Like Cooke, she grew up in the church but had no idea of the pervasiveness of abuse. She said, “It was really shocking to me. And it was even more shocking to find out that the ministry knew about this stuff. They knew about it and covered it up and it’s pretty horrendous.”
Liles’ Advocates for the Truth hotline has helped identify more than 900 alleged perpetrators. The FBI is also involved. It issued a nationwide alert, asking anyone who was a victim or knows about abuse in the church to reach out.
Bo Cooke is working with both Liles and the FBI in their investigations. He says he was about to enter the ministry at 18 years old when a worker, who he said had been grooming him since he was 13 years old, assaulted him. He was able to get away. Cooke left the church and is now on a mission to help survivors. He says, “Worship how you worship. I’m not attacking the church; I’m saying you need to be responsible for what you’ve done to people like me and much worse… of what you’ve done to young kids, and women and the sister workers that have been abused. It’s prolific and disgusting. They need to be responsible.”
There are issues with holding the church and abusers accountable. The statute of limitations has run out in many cases. Survivors could go after their abusers in civil court; however, this religious group claims it isn’t an actual church, with no technical headquarters, no money.
Complicating matters for survivors… Cooke and Liles say when the group has learned of sexual abuse and child sexual abuse by workers, they refuse to report it to police and may just move an accused worker to another community somewhere else around the world.
As for victims? “Survivors are just tossed aside because they’re a problem.” says Cooke.
Liles adds, “It’s trauma on trauma. If you expose a perp from your church, then you’re shunned, then you’re going to hell, right, because you’re out.”
Darryl Doland who oversees workers in Washington, North Idaho and Alaska has not responded to requests for an interview, but he did send the following text message:
“We actively address all abuse allegations involving participants in our fellowship. Our paramount concern is that victims receive the professional help that they need. We take all allegations of abuse seriously, strongly recommend mandated reporter training to all and encourage everyone to report issues to the proper legal authorities as soon as possible.”
When the church learned of the FBI’s investigation, Doland assembled a group of church members who work in the field of psychology, victim advocacy and Human Resources. He asked them to create guidelines for the church to follow in handling abuse allegations, and care for survivors. Those people worked on those guidelines for about 6 months. The ministry rejected them.
That doesn’t sit well with Liles, “The ministry decided we don’t need guidelines, we have the bible, so basically status quo, what they’ve done for the last 100 years. That’s so disheartening, I mean… this is about safety, right? This is about keeping children safe, and they apparently have no interest in doing that.”
**During the investigation, Robyn Nance attended a Two-by-Twos’ prayer meeting at Spokane Public Library’s “The Hive”. We received this official statement from Spokane Public Library regarding this story: Spokane Public Library’s policy on meeting room use is clear: ‘Use of Library meeting rooms in no way constitutes an endorsement by the Spokane Public Library of a program or point of view expressed. All activities must comply with federal, state, and local law and are subject to the rules and regulations of Spokane Public Library.’ In response to these allegations and reporter observations, we will review our booking processes and remain committed to ensuring all activities align with our policies.
