The truth behind 'The Truth': Secretive religious sect operating in Spokane area under federal investigation (2024)

A secretive religious group, operating in the Inland Northwest and around the world is the subject of a massive FBIinvestigation.

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.

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.

Liles’ Advocates for theTruth 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 andmay 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 guidelinesfor the churchto 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.”