It’s heart-warming to know that just the possibility of an Exclusive Brethren contingent flying around New Zealand in a large chartered jet is news-worthy. After years of “flying beneath the radar” the Exclusive Brethren are being watched increasingly carefully – and rightly so!
Questions are being asked about Tax-Exemption, Property Deals, School Planning and the huge amount of government funding that is assisting the growth of their separatist education model. And then there is the matter of broken families, missing years, psychological damage and the sad impact following decades of abusive teachings.
Many hope that soon the Watching will stop … and the Investigation will begin.
Brethren party believed to be in city
The Southland Times
30 December 2008
By Amy MilneA large contingent of Exclusive Brethren is understood to be visiting Southland.
A private jet, believed to have been ferrying church members from Australia, landed at Invercargill Airport on Sunday.
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Sect beats youth groups to site
Yorkshire Post
23 December 2008
By Alexandra Wood
Scouts and Guides have had hopes of acquiring a new home dashed after East Riding Council decided to sell a Cottingham school to a religious sect.
The youth groups had wanted to use the former Hallgate Junior School for their headquarters, after their base was demolished in 2007 by the council to make way for a new school.
The scouts and guides put in a £1 bid for the smaller building, while the Hallgate Old School Preservation Association (Hospa), put in a joint £1 bid to convert the site into a community centre.
But a closed meeting of East Riding Council’s Cabinet decided to sell the freehold instead to the North Moor Education Trust, an arm of the Exclusive Brethren, an Evangelical Protestant church, who avoid contact with non-community members or “worldlies”.
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A fairly classic case of Exclusive Brethren financial muscle was felt in England’s Yorkshire Moors when the North Moor Education Trust’s bid was approved by East Riding Council. Members of the community are somewhat outraged, not least because some had plans to use the premises for community support services such as for the Scouts or Guides. Now it seems that the old school buildings will be used to indoctrinate another generation of Exclusive Brethren.
Members of nearby Gospel Halls and Chapels will be relieved that the media are learning to distinguish between the Exclusive Brethren and the other, far less harmful Plymouth Brethren off-shoots. (For more information on the differences, check out the Peebs.Net Archives.)
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The Exclusive Brethren’s network of separatist schools continues to grow despite signs of a long-awaited community backlash. As the public begin to realize just how little the Exclusive Brethren truly care about the communities they decide to move into, and just how far they are prepared to go to get what they want, there is normally a reaction.
Kids are kids and school are just schools … in almost every other situation. In the case of the Exclusive Brethren, they are determined to have their own schools for one reason – they do not want their children ‘contaminated’ by the outside world. They view contact with ‘worldlies’ (that’s you and me) to be in breach of their base doctrine of Separation. This pervasive doctrine was taught by the founder of the Exclusive Brethren, John Nelson Darby.
The Exclusive Brethren should not be confused with the Plymouth Brethren – although they share the same roots, the Exclusives have shunned the world and maintained strict separatist walls since the mid 1800′s. A visual review of a typical Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room says it all – high security fences, padlocked gates, no windows and absolutely no ‘All are Welcome’ signs at their entrances.
They do not evangelize or prosetelyze – all growth is from within. This growth is fiercely protected – hence their huge and ambitious shool systems. By careful planning and brilliant manouvering and lobbying, the Exclusive Brethren have so far managed to receive $Hundreds of Millions in tax concessions for both their schools and their fortress-style Meeting Rooms.
Does it not seem extraordinary that the average Tax-Payer is being allowed to finance the continuance of a cult?
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November 7th, 2008
Quite an insight into the psyche of the Exclusive Brethren was made available this week in the quaint English market town of Stow-in-the-Wold. A number of citizens of the small Cotswold town had decided that there was more to the extravagant recent planning applications and sudden ‘outpouring’ of community interest displayed by their contingent of Exclusive Brethren than perhaps met the eye!
They did some research, wrote some emails … did their homework. They then circulated their findings quite openly.
They were against the application to build a comparatively huge new Exclusive Brethren windowless fortress on the outskirts of their town. After viewing the Brethren documents and considering the aspects that were clearly missing from their application, most rational people would probably agree!
But the Exclusive Brethren cried foul …
Religious sect say they are victims of propaganda
Gloucestershire Echo
November 7th, 2008Stow Brethren has hit out against an anonymous circular it claims is drumming up opposition against its bid for a new gospel hall.
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November 1st, 2008
Deep in the beautiful English Cotswolds, a battle is raging. The Exclusive Brethren, now past-masters at camouflage and political subterfuge, earlier this year submitted a comprehensive plan for a new Meeting Room in land situated on the outskirts of Stow-in-the-Wold.
Why the battle? There’s a number of reasons… but first the news article:
Gospel Hall proposal for Stow causes controversy
ThisIsGloucestershire
November 01, 2008Residents have branded a planned Gospel Hall in Stow-on-the-Wold as a ‘closed shop’.
More than 140 people packed into St Edward’s Hall to question Stow Exclusive Brethren’s plan to build a 600-strong meeting place and 81-space car park on a field next to Tesco at the town’s A429 Fosseway northern entrance.
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October 31st, 2008
Current Affairs: Behind the Exclusive Brethren
Media Reviews
by Sandra Hogan
October 31st, 2008
Reviewed by Sandra Hogan
Just before the 2007 Australian election, a woman called Sophie squeezed through the crowd at the Granny Smith festival in John Howard’s electorate to confront him. As Sophie tells the story, she grabbed the Prime Minister’s hand in hers and said, ‘Mr. Howard, I’m Sophie, and I’m an Exclusive Brethren, and I feel utterly and totally betrayed by you. There are thousands of us who have lost our families.’ And he shook his head and said repeatedly, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ Sophie’s story is one of the painful stories of cruel family break-up told in Michael Bachelard’s book Behind the Exclusive Brethren. Under a policy of separation, people who question the principles or practices of the Exclusive Brethren can be expelled from the community and their business and forcibly and permanently separated from their parents, partners or children.
Brethren plans new school in Diamond Valley
The Leader
by William Jackson
Oct 31st, 2008
The controversial Exclusive Brethren church hopes to build a school for about 100 students in the Diamond Valley.
The DV Leader understands a location has already been chosen, but the church has declined to reveal where it is.
The Brethren’s largest Victorian school, in Glenroy, had outgrown its premises, spokesman Doug Burgess said.
“The Diamond Valley area is under consideration, but no planning application has in fact been lodged,” Mr Burgess said.
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New Zealand is politically tumultuous. There is no question in anyones mind as to one of the sources of the ripples of paranoia and suspicion that have dogged the 2008 New Zealand elections. It simply traces back to 2005 when the ‘secret seven’ Exclusive Brethren commenced their undercover role of spending money raised at the world-wide command of Bruce Hales, leader of the Australia-based cult.
The smear tactics and ‘dirty tricks’ that the involvement of the Exclusive Brethren initiated was utterly outrageous. Within 2 years of taking over ‘EB Inc.’, Bruce Hales had declared his intent of making an impact on the world political stage – but the route he chose was a dismal failure.
Everything Bruce Hales touched politically was disastrous. He lost Don Brash his position, he lost the NZ National Party their chance to rule and later he repeated the effect in his home country and constituency by helping John Howard, the sitting Australian Premier, lose his own seat and office. It is rumored he also once met George W. Bush … (the EB have deleted the reference to this meeting from their web site)
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The Exclusive Brethren in 2008 and beyond
Bruce Hales is a different kind of Exclusive Brethren leader than all those before. Not gifted as an orator, not particularly learned, apparently a shy and retiring man who is reportedly scared of media attention and that ‘someone may attack him‘. As a result, sightings are rare and Bruce Hales travels secretly and normally with a contingent of bodyguards. No other Exclusive Brethren leader has ever acted this way.
Even the Exclusive Brethren recognize the differences between Bruce Hales and his predecessors. The varied spokesmen now publicly decry the use of the term ‘Elect Vessel’ and ‘Man of God’ which is both an admission of the lack of quality doctrine and teaching involved in BDH ‘ministry’ but is perhaps also an unusually realistic assessment of his spiritual stature. It has been noticeable that there has been a recent increase in the travel and use of other more gifted teachers within the Exclusive Brethren community.
This should not to be viewed as a sign of weak leadership however! ‘Mr Bruce’ is very much in control and is adulated by most Exclusive Brethren. Expressions like “Mr. Bruce will look after us” or “Mr Bruce is filling our storehouses for the coming famine” are frequently heard and these speak to the new position that Bruce Hales has carved for himself. Playing off the ‘End Times’ forecasts of doom and panic that have been the main doctrinal heritage provided by many EB writers and teachers, Bruce is placing himself in a role of ‘Joseph’, the biblical son of Jacob who became the savior of both his family and Eygpt. One obvious difference of course, is that Joseph didn’t keep most of it for himself …
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