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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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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