October 15th, 2006 (EB News)
- Tax-free charity shake-up - Manawatu Standard, NZ
"Charities that indulge in too much political activity could be stripped of their tax-free status under new Government rules.
From February, the Charities Commission will have the power to deregister an organisation if it is deemed to be acting more with political intent than for a charitable purpose.
Existing charities wanting to keep their tax-exempt status will have to register with the commission by mid-2008. Inland Revenue will retain responsibility for deciding whether donations to organisations are tax-deductible.
The Government is moving to strip the Exclusive Brethren of labour law exemptions on the grounds the exemption was based on the church's abstention from mainstream politics." >>>More - MP doesn't see sect's politics as a problem - New Zealand Herald
by Patrick Gower"National MP Nick Smith has no problem with the Exclusive Brethren's involvement in the election despite their attempt to sue him for $3.2 million when he took the side of a family in one of this country's highest-profile custody disputes.
Dr Smith spoke out about Nelson couple Stan and Julia Field who were excommunicated by the sect and had to fight to regain custody of their three children held by their Exclusive Brethren grandparents for 3 years until 1993.
The Weekend Herald gave the children's side of the story for the first time through the eldest son, Vincent, 25, who lives near his father in Perth.
Vincent said he was angry at the sect's attempts to influence politics here and other countries because of the way their leadership condoned the breaking-up of families.
Vincent told how the sect's leader at the time of the dispute, Sydney accountant John Hales, telephoned his grandfather claiming the Lord's will would see his parents die in a car accident before they took the children back. John Hales has since died and his son, Bruce, has taken over as leader.
Dr Smith, who was pleased to hear Vincent was doing well, said "the Exclusive Brethren sued me for $3.2 million for supporting Vincent's mum and dad" and described the custody dispute as "outrageous".
Dr Smith and an Exclusive Brethren member ended up reaching an out-of-court settlement for the defamation suit." >>>More
October 14th, 2006 (EB News)
- Behind the Brotherhood: The Elect Vessel, Bruce Hales - New Zealand Herald
by Patrick Gower"For Vincent Field, it was the highest honour a boy in the Exclusive Brethren could have - the chance to meet the Elect Vessel, the minister of the Lord in the Recovery, essentially God's man on earth.
So when John Hales graced Vincent's Christchurch congregation, the 10-year-old did exactly what he thought a boy in the Brethren should do.
He waited while other children and followers swirled around the Australian accountant whose face he knew from the pictures up in every Exclusive Brethren church and home. And when he came free, Vincent rushed up and gave him a $20 note.
"He barely even acknowledged me, he just took it and that was that," says Vincent, now 25.
"I still felt real cool though - it was like 'Oh wow, I just gave $20 to Mr Hales'."
Vincent has since left the Exclusive Brethren. Hales has died, the mantle of Elect Vessel passing to his son Bruce, a Sydney office supplies businessman.
These days, Vincent is nonplussed about the donation he once thought of as "bonus points for God".
"It was all a crock of shit of course," he says. "It is not like the guy needed money. The Hales family are rolling in the stuff and they got my twenty bucks tax free and all."
Other former members spoke to the Weekend Herald about how their congregations were asked to vary the size of their donations to leaders "so they didn't look like wages".
Then there are the "mules", those who spoke of ferrying to Australia envelopes of cash earmarked for the Elect Vessel or other leaders.
Yet the influence of Bruce Hales over his estimated 10,000 followers in New Zealand and 40,000 worldwide extends to much more than these systematic donations, or tithes.
Take their neighbourhood meeting room in Mt Eden's Ruapehu St, one of at least half-a-dozen dotted across Auckland city. Good for a meeting of no more than 50 people, it has no signs whatsoever, its boarded-up windows the only testament to its rarely seen congregation.
Trust deeds obtained by the Weekend Herald shows it to be in the hands of a clutch of male Exclusive Brethren members, all of whom can be removed if they are no longer in fellowship with the minister of the Lord in the Recovery - Hales. Other deeds, such as on their $2.6 million headquarters in Mangere and its nearby school property, say the same.
Hales therefore has the power to veto the trustees - and some kind of control - over a vast network of properties. Hales' spectre also looms over the 800 Brethren businesses spread across 40 New Zealand towns and cities.
Like the meeting rooms, the businesses are similarly nondescript. They are often to do with machinery, pumps, or office supplies, but their networking is now said to be more entrenched than basic business and beliefs.
A leaked document - signed last year by Hales and leading Wanganui-based Exclusive Brethren member Allan Davis - indicates that all Exclusive Brethren businesses worldwide are expected to give over their bookkeeping to an organisation called National Office Assist.
The document says this will mean they don't have to rely on "worldly" contractors and operate more efficiently without computers. There will be an email service, telemarketing, employment and training for young Exclusive Brethren and income will go back into things like schooling.
It means Home Office Assist - and therefore Hales and the sect's leadership, say former Brethren - will oversee the financial management information of all Brethren businesses.
All this adds up to what the former Exclusive Brethren call the "Hales system", envelopes of tax-free donations taken to Australia by the Brethren mules, businesses exempt from unionism, a network of 15 schools nationwide that get some taxpayer funding, and a swag of properties that don't pay rates because they are places of worship. And that is just the New Zealand end.
Exclusive Brethren members approached for this article did not want to discuss Hales or the way that their belief in him interacts with property and business.
One, prominent Auckland member, Neville Simmons, says he "won't lower" himself to comment on what he thought of the portrayal of Hales by those outside the sect, and simply laughed when asked to explain the role of the Elect Vessel.
"I really have got no comment on it," Simmons says. "It is a big subject that I really could not do justice to."
The Exclusive Brethren are as closed as their churches when it comes to the media these days, stung by the scrutiny of their secretive foray into politics. Emerging from that scrutiny were allegations this week of covering up sexual abuse.
When approached, some are friendly, some are smug and some are clearly shaken by the media interest, such as the two young men who spotted a Herald photographer taking shots of their new Cambridge church and chased her for 23km, sometimes tailgating her.
All decline to comment, but push hard enough and you might get nodded agreement to the following: that they are normal, law-abiding New Zealanders; that the media don't know them and don't talk to their friends, neighbours and people with whom they do business.
They also indicate that none of the $1.2 million used for campaigning against Labour and the Greens came from the Exclusive Brethren coffers overseas, that it was an entirely separate initiative by member businessmen here.
In Australia, Green Party senator Christine Milne has made claims about a British-registered company called Ratby Distribution Ltd, that she says has been funnelling money around the world for political donations.
Exclusive Brethren here say no such connection has been drawn, despite the number of times the question has been asked.
Yet the public record does not reflect true detachment, given the range of political activities by Exclusive Brethren members - whether putting up National Party elections hoardings, using a schoolboy to push-poll, or meeting with their man Don Brash.
Members even tried to split New Zealand First to help National get a majority during the coalition negotiations.
About all they haven't done is given up their belief of not voting.
And they haven't given up.
Despite eventually being shunned by National leader Dr Brash as a damaging electoral millstone, their distaste for Prime Minister Helen Clark is such that an Exclusive Brethren member hired a private investigator to spy on her, her husband, and Labour ministers and is said to be sitting on information that is "TNT times five million".
In the past two years the international picture has been the same. In Australia there have been the extremes of sect members abusing Green candidates while disguised by animal masks, and other members meeting Prime Minister John Howard.
In Canada they attacked civil union legislation, using postboxes in 7-Eleven convenience stores; in the United States they covertly funded support for the 2004 re-election of president George Bush.
In Sweden this year they have funded an advertising campaign reported to be worth millions of crowns supporting the centre-right Alliance for Sweden.
Their direct political involvement neatly coincided with the appointment of Bruce Hales as Elect Vessel in 2002.
Their previous public involvement in New Zealand politics consisted mainly of attempts over two decades to get exemptions from labour laws on spiritual grounds - granted by the Labour Party in 2000 but now in danger of being taken away because the concession was made on the grounds that there was no political motivation.
Aside from that, they seem to have gone no further than getting an exemption from the Minister of Education that their children need not take part in jazzercise.
The new push started tamely enough with a document titled Suggested Initiatives for Prosperity in New Zealand. It was sent to politicians, including Helen Clark, in 2003 and constitutes some of the earliest evidence worldwide of their political aims.
It was tame enough, with no mention then of opposition to same-sex marriages. It just expressed the desire to return New Zealand to its place in the world of the 1950s, through methods such as creating a "positive national mindset regarding immigration and population", that included increasing the refugee quota because "these people are motivated to work hard and assimilate".
It even seemed a little naive. A simplistic diagram showed how their key elements for growth - others included taxation, superannuation and decentralisation - coupled with legislation and strong leadership, could swirl New Zealand back to the heyday of the 1950s.
But a few lines in the section on defence gave a little away about what was to underpin their political drive. They wanted New Zealand to apologise for opposing the Iraq war and having an anti-American attitude and to rebuild the Armed Forces.
The Exclusive Brethren were emerging as a force of the religious right, and they wanted more than just prosperity for New Zealand.
Why did a sect whose beliefs preclude them from fighting want to support a war? And why, if they couldn't vote, were they about to so desperately try to influence elections?
The Exclusive Brethren believe in "The Rapture" - that those who are Christian and alive at a particular time will be swept into the next life. Those who are not pure will be left behind.
Historically, that has meant their theology led them away from politics. Those who have studied the Exclusive Brethren believe there may have been a change in their eschatology, or beliefs about the end of the world.
Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University, says their leaders have come to believe that the return of Jesus is delayed because George Bush is doing God's will in bringing the Muslims to heel.
"So they have come, in some sense, to believe in a delay of the rapture at this time, and that it is their obligation during this delay to protect the world and their interests," Lineham says.
Marion Maddox, a senior lecturer in religious studies at Victoria University and author of God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics, says the recent push to get former members to return to the group - another Hales initiative - also points to a belief that political intervention, while economically advantageous, also has the effect of helping keep the end of the world at bay so that as many as possible can rejoin.
But those outside the Exclusive Brethren have become some of its most vocal opponents.
Take Vincent Field (see next article). He isn't against the Exclusive Brethren because of their political viewpoints. In fact, he doesn't know exactly what they are. And he isn't against them because of their secretive attempts to influence elections.
He's against them because he believes they have a sinister side, because they break up families just like they broke up his.
He spent 3 years in a custody dispute between his excommunicated parents and his Exclusive Brethren grandparents and decided to speak publicly about the sect for the first time because of his concerns about their involvement in politics.
"Your average Exclusive is a good person," he says. "It is the leaders that condone [the breaking up of families] and it is the leaders that are getting into all this political stuff. It is the leaders I have something against."
Many former Exclusive Brethren recite a similar mantra. Still connected to the sect by family members - parents, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands and children - they don't want to hurt the individuals, or even the Exclusive Brethren itself. It is the leadership they don't like.
Vincent sees an organisation driven by money, anchoring people to it through their family, through their financial security, and through their very core beliefs.
"I don't know what these leaders are up to," he says. "But I can't see any good coming from it."
Vincent and many others are pleased for the outside scrutiny the Exclusive Brethren have brought on themselves through their political foray and hope it will bring about some kind of split or change of regime in the organisation, enabling them to at least see their families again.
Although the scrutiny here has driven the Exclusive Brethren away from calling on Don Brash, their push in Sweden - not an Exclusive Brethren stronghold - shows yet again the strength of their resolve.
Members here would not be drawn on whether their foray into New Zealand politics was a failure and whether the subsequent vilification was worth all the bother.
Yet again, by pushing, it was possible to get a nodded response that the negative reaction to their involvement actually justified it more than ever. Nodded agreement that the Exclusive Brethren think they might have lost a battle, not the war.
Exclusive Brethren members in New Zealand would not respond to the Weekend Herald." >>>More - Behind the Brotherhood: The Elect Vessel, Bruce Hales - PDF version
- Son caught in Exclusive Brethren tug-of-love
- New Zealand Herald - by Patrick Gower"As a boy in the Exclusive Brethren, Vincent Field thought his father was the devil's work.
His parents had been excommunicated by the sect, and Vincent was being held by his Exclusive Brethren grandparents in one of this country's highest-profile custody disputes, which went all the way to Parliament through National MP Nick Smith. - Son caught in Exclusive Brethren tug-of-love - PDF version
- Behind the Brotherhood: Former member in despair - New Zealand Herald
by Patrick Gower
"James Deck helped to bring the Exclusive Brethren to New Zealand's shores and nurtured it among the back country Christians of the late 1800s.
But despite being one of his direct descendants, Miles Deck doesn't want anything to do with the sect as it is today. And he doesn't think his great-great-grandfather James would either.
"I despair for the Exclusive Brethren, I really do," says Miles Deck. "They need to get back to what they really represent."
When James Deck arrived in New Zealand in 1853, he found Christians were happy to abandon the formal leadership and structure of the high churches of England in favour of the more egalitarian Brethren movement that had emerged in Dublin and spread to England amid widespread discontent with the clergy and the one-man leader.
"Which is why Miles - who still believes in Exclusive Brethren principles, despite being excommunicated - cannot understand their present-day devotion to the Elect Vessel, Bruce Hales.
"It used to be about letting the spirit rather than an official minister run the show. They have reverted to exactly what they got away from.
"James G. Deck would be shocked. And so would [early Exclusive Brethren leader] John Nelson Darby and all the other great leaders they profess to associate themselves with."
James Deck, with a long white beard and so-called "mystical temperament", wrote some of the early hymns and verses for the Brethren and was a popular leader of the movement from his base near Nelson, as it slowly divided into the hardline Exclusive and more relaxed Open factions.
A deep thinker, he was not afraid to run his own line, and reports of his open attitude to other Christians prompted a visit from Darby to quell any dissent in 1875.
Miles Deck was excommunicated in 1974 after what he says were "utterly false" accusations.
He had five children, one just a month old, who never saw their grandparents again. He has a brother still in the Exclusive Brethren and since leaving the sect he has seen him just once.
"I was fully with the Exclusive Brethren when I was kicked out, that's why it was so terrible. They have been very unjust to a lot of their members. They have replaced a King in heaven with one on earth and lost their values.
"Now, money and politics have come into it and the saddest thing to me is that the credibility of what was a great movement is being lost. To me that's a tragedy."
Now 70, Miles Deck has kept the Christian faith within his family.
"We lost a part of our life, and that hurt. But in a very thankful way we are glad to not be a part of what's going on in the Exclusive Brethren today. It has turned out to be a kind of deliverance." >>>More - Behind the Brotherhood: In praise of the Brethren way - New Zealand Herald
by Patrick Gower
"Greg Mason is the owner of a pump and valve company in an industrial park near Mangere. He is also said to be the leader, or at the very least one of the leaders, of New Zealand's flock of Exclusive Brethren.
Mason has gone to ground since appearing as part of the "secretive seven" Exclusive Brethren businessmen in their infamous press conference to explain the reasons behind their funding of anti-Labour and Green election advertising.
"Greg Mason is the owner of a pump and valve company in an industrial park near Mangere. He is also said to be the leader, or at the very least one of the leaders, of New Zealand's flock of Exclusive Brethren.
Mason has gone to ground since appearing as part of the "secretive seven" Exclusive Brethren businessmen in their infamous press conference to explain the reasons behind their funding of anti-Labour and Green election advertising.
But a rare insight into the family life of the man was seen before the political storm when a television camera was allowed into his house before the television documentary 'Leaving the Exclusive Brethren'.
It showed Mason, his wife Josie and their four children leading a fairly Kiwi family life in a home that lives by Exclusive Brethren principles, such as no television or computers. The children performed a cover of Robbie Williams' song Angels using drums, a keyboard and microphone, while the husband and wife read on the couch. The parents talked about taking their children out of the mainstream education system for the Exclusive Brethren Westmount school network because of their different beliefs. Josie Mason: "We don't go in for adult fiction books. Novels, we don't really like them reading novels."
University is forbidden under their beliefs. Greg Mason said although it was valuable "we feel that for a Christian they cause a narrowing of the mind and a questioning of God's truths for us".
A young woman, Sophie talked of how she did not miss television because she had never had it: "I don't want to do it because it is a sin."
And a young man, Joel, talked about having friends outside the Exclusive Brethren: "To have friends outside the church goes against my conscience because you sort of feel like you are almost betraying the church."
Josie Mason described a life like that of an ordinary, non-working housewife: preparing meals, getting the kids off to school and helping with homework.
Greg Mason said men and women were equal before God but said they found there was a divinely set order of God, man, woman which Josie Mason agreed was "100 per cent correct".
"I'm happy being third in line," she said. "I don't feel suppressed. I don't feel as if, hey, I can't do anything without my husband waving a big stick. It's a really happy relationship."
Greg Mason also spoke of his pain at having family members leave the Exclusive Brethren.
Mason refused to comment when contacted by the Weekend Herald, saying simply, "The media are not our friends"." >>>More
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The 3-year dispute ended in 1993 when 12-year-old Vincent and his younger siblings were returned to parents Stan and Julia Field.
And today Vincent, 25, is best of mates with his father and as far as he can be from the Exclusive Brethren's beliefs.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Vincent said he was angry about the sect's attempts to influence politics in New Zealand and other countries.
"It pisses me off that they are still kicking people out and breaking up families," he told the Weekend Herald.
"I have experienced first hand what that is like, and it bloody hurts. It is the leaders who condone it, and it is the leaders who are getting into all this political stuff. It is the leaders I have something against."
They had to resort to the Family Court, and the case went on to the High Court, as well as being raised in Parliament by Mr Smith, who criticised the Exclusive Brethren and delays in the family court system.
Vincent said he could remember the night before the children were to be returned to their parents after a final failed appeal by the grandparents to keep them.
His grandfather received a telephone call from the church's leader, the "Elect Vessel" or "Man of God", Australian John Hales.
"Grandpa got off the phone and said: 'Beloved Mr Hales says we don't need to worry because the Lord is going to take care of them and they will have a car accident'." >>>More
October 11th, 2006 (EB News)
- Brethren schools at centre of new claims - NZ TV - One News
"Labour is again attacking National over its relationship with the Exclusive Brethren, this time alleging a cash for policy arrangement over funding for independent schools.
Education Minister Steve Maharey is demanding to know why National decided last April it would increase funding for independent schools if it won the election.
He says it would have resulted in payments to Exclusive Brethren schools being doubled to more than $4 million dollars over three years.
He added that is not a bad return for the support the Brethren gave National at the election." >>>More
October 10th, 2006 (EB News)
- Brethren victims urged to complain - TVNZ, One News, NZ
"Prime Minister Helen Clark says she is concerned about claims of sexual abuse within the Exclusive Brethren Church and is urging victims to go to the police.
A former church member has revealed to One News how the abuse was covered up for several decades.
The Exclusive Brethren Church sets its own rules and deals with those who break them in its own way.
But claims some teenagers and children were sexually abused by other church members has caused alarm at the highest levels .
"It's important that sexual predators are brought to justice," Clark says. "I'm always concerned by claims of sexual abuse and cover-ups of it."
Philippa, a former member of the church, says that abuse was occurring up until nine years ago.
And she is not the only one.
One News has spoken to a former member who says he was abused as a child. He doesn't want to dredge up his past, but does want to confirm that what Philippa told One News, about abuse within the Exclusive Brethren, is true.
Police say they will only investigate claims if a complaint is laid.
Police Minister Annette King says she understands there could be some sensitivities, but nobody in any organisation is above the law.
"And if people have issues they ought to go to the police, I'm urging them to go to the police."
It is not just abuse they may be interested in.
Like the former head of the church in Australia, Philippa says she once carried large sums of money overseas.
"I was handed five or six envelopes just a couple of nights before I left and told these were gifts for various men. I do recall feeling slightly uncomfortable. I didn't carry them in my handbag, I stuffed them in between my clothes," she says." >>>More (includes video)
If you have information regarding sexual abuse or cash smuggling in the Exclusive Brethren, contact your local police, local authorities or alternatively, write to us in complete confidence. We will assist you with contact information for the appropriate authorities.
- Brethren exposed - Courier Mail, Australia
"CONTROVERSIAL religious sect, the Exclusive Brethren, has been exposed as a hypocritical cult which psychologically bullies its followers and brainwashes its children.
While pretending to espouse strict old-fashioned values, in many areas the Brethren have been shown to be wheelers and dealers in the modern world of politics, wealth and power.
The group also has hidden and deep-seated problems with alcohol, to the degree that some of its leaders have been affected by a lifetime of heavy drinking and obviously can hardly think rationally.
"Actually, the early leaders claimed to be nothing but humble servants of God's people – but the later ones seized the opportunity they had of acquiring enormous power and effectively turned the whole organisation into what is today, under any normal definition, a cult.This rare insight into just how the Brethren have strayed so far from the traditional Christian values on which it was first built was provided to The Courier-Mail this week by a former lifelong member, Trevor Hill.
A Bundaberg business owner, Hill said he managed to finally escape the Brethren's clutches with his wife, Lois, their five children and several other immediate family members eight years ago, but only after months of heartache and some careful planning.
ex-EB Trevor Hill
Hill said the Brethren had such a hold over followers and the emotional and physical fallout of leaving was so horrendous that most of its members simply regarded leaving the fold as too hard to even contemplate.
"That's the literal expression used by a former leader . . . he said, 'It's hell out there' – referring to trying to live a life outside their church. Now that's the language of a cult.
Hill also said he was having trouble coming to terms with the increasingly hypocritical direction of the Brethren.
This all seemed to begin with its bans on technology more than 25 years ago – for instance, no members were allowed to have belt pagers.
"People were told that they couldn't continue their jobs if they had a belt beeper. We had a two-way radio in our business and we had to get rid of that . . . we weren't even allowed a radio-controlled roller door. The old telex was banned and this led into the long-standing ban on the fax machine.
The current leader, Bruce Hales, has seen the writing on the wall for Brethren businesses which continued to spurn modern technology and is reported to have set up an organisation called National Office Assist which enables Brethren businesses "controlled" access to modern technology. Of course, the "control" ultimately rests with the hierarchy of the Exclusive Brethren organisation.
He said of the Exclusive Brethren: "I don't know of any organisation anywhere that has the same control they do over its people. It is possible partly because of the smallness of their numbers. You could say the Pope has the same ecclesiastical standing among his followers, but in fact he leads an enormous organisation and there's no way that his degree of authority over his followers comes anywhere near that of the Exclusive Brethren's 'Man of God'.
"For instance, the former leader John Hales said a number of years ago, 'I like the men to wear a white shirt on Sunday'. Within weeks practically every man and boy in the organisation was wearing a white shirt on Sunday . . . such is their absolute subservience.
Hill said the per-capita wealth of the Exclusive Brethren was very high. However, there were several serious implications for those who could not keep up financially.
"One was that if you go broke you get tossed out," he said. "You get excommunicated if you go bankrupt, without hesitation – unless someone comes in and bails you out, you're gone. So the implications of getting it wrong are pretty severe. And when you get tossed out, all the bad things apply . . . like no wife, family etc. It's extremely harsh.
"Yet with all the money they've got, not one cent goes back into the outside world to help others – nothing goes towards sending Bibles to people in Third World countries or anywhere like that. No money is spent on evangelism – there are no missionaries sent out – no aid for the needy of society.
"Except of course, this new 'private' support for political parties of their liking." >>>More
October 9th, 2006 (EB News - Sweden)
Because of the photographs and reasonable english summary, we thought it worth posting yet another example of the Exclusive Brethren attempting to affect politics in another country - this time in Sweden. It appears that the route for the money used was via the Exclusive Brethren in Liverpool, England.This is yet another example of Exclusive Brethren arrogance, political ineptitude and calculated deceit.
Is this really how you want your hard-earned tax dollars/euros/pounds used? The $Millions saved by the pretence that their windowless meeting halls are places of public worship and the $Millions saved in educational subsidies while they educate their young to be a new generation of arrogant, sub-educated and the socially marooned - all amounts to a vast cash surplus that is used in unwanted political influence in other countries!
The Brisbane Court of Appeal recently showed that at last there is hope that the Exclusive Brethren will be brought to heel. Their days of ignoring basic rules of conduct are starting to be foreshortened. At last they are beginning to be seen for what they truly are.
- The Brethren smear in Sweden as well - Scoop, NZ
"First New Zealand, now Sweden? A reader has alerted me to a rather interesting twist in the Swedish election: the Exclusive Brethren (known as "Plymouth Brethren" over there) spent millions of crowns on a series of anonymous advertisments in support of the centre-right Alliance for Sweden:
The Brethren have paid for ads in some of Sweden's biggest newspapers, they have done direct marketing in mailboxes in many parts of Sweden, they have been leafleting and put flyers on cars in many places. Among other things, the flyers say that thousands of Swedes die every year due to mistreatments in hospitals.
Aftonbladet have tracked the company that the Brethren money is channelled through - Nordas LTD - to the backstreets of Knowlsley Industrial Park in Liverpool. One of the founders, Maxwell Kevin Haughton, have been tracked down by Aftonbladet but he refuses to answer to why a British company spends millions on a Swedish election.
Or why they're going to such extreme lengths to hide their involvement...
That's at least five elections the Brethren have involved themselves in, each time using smear tactics combined with fronts and false names to hide their involvement.
Is anyone seeing a pattern here...?" >>>More
EB - Maxwell Kevin Haughton,
Liverpool, UK- The Original article (in Swedish)
October 9th, 2006 (EB News)
- Brethren accused of child sex abuse - NZ TV - One News
"A woman who fled the Exclusive Brethren church says she is aware of multiple cases of child sex abuse which were covered up by the religious sect.
Phillipa, who prefers not to give her family name, says the acts took place over several decades and the victims were mainly teenage boys.
She is now prepared to co-operate with any police investigation.
Philippa was encouraged to live her life by The Bible for 40 years, but the former Exclusive Brethren member says when it came to morality, the sect was anything but an open book.
She says sexual abuse by teenagers with other teenage males and children was dealt with by the church underground.
"If it was covered up back then, it's probably still covered up today," she says.
"In the particular place where I lived there was a huge amount of sodomy amongst the teenage boys etcetera. And that's one of the reasons why I've shifted my family away from that area where we used to live," she says.
Philippa left the Exclusive Brethren with her seven children six years ago. She says the abuse was occurring up until nine years ago.
She did not want to show her face but she does want to speak out, something she says the victims of abuse struggle to do.
"You definitely wouldn't want to tell anybody, 'cause then everybody would know about you and you would be looked upon as the bad person because you spoke out."
And she says she is not talking about isolated incidents.
"I would say there's multiple offenders. If I asked them now they would try and deny it because in there is a huge fear and guilt thing and perhaps a lot of people in there who have got this problem and involved in this sort of thing, would not go outside of the church for help. A lot of these people need help."
She says she knows names of offenders but "hadn't really thought" about going to the police.
"It's hard for me to. I know this doesn't sound good but those things, they were just sort of part of life and things that happened."
Philippa says the victims would now be in their twenties, thirties and forties and all remain in the church.
Her claims have an echo across the Tasman.
Joy Nason a former Exclusive Brethren member told the ABC she has heard people confess to molesting children.
She said those acts were "definitely not" reported to the police.
"No they were forgiven. If the person was sorry, if the person showed enough contrition, the Brethren forgave them."
No New Zealand Exclusive Brethren members contacted by One News were prepared to comment on Philippa's claims.
But she has given One News the names of seven men she says were involved in acts of sexual abuse and is now prepared to co-operate with any police investigation." >>>More (includes video) - Former brethren member tells of sexual abuse in the sect - NZPA, NZ
"TV One reported tonight the woman had given it the names of seven men she says were involved in acts of sexual abuse, and she was prepared to co-operate with any police inquiry.
It said she fled the sect with her seven children six years ago after being a member for 40 years.
"She is talking about sexual abuse," a TV One reporter said.
TV One said Phillipa alleged the church dealt with the sexual abuse "underground".
Phillipa said there were multiple offenders.
"If I went and asked them now they would try and deny it because in there it's a huge guilt and fear thing," she said.
"A lot of people who perhaps have this problem with being involved with that sort of thing would not go outside the church for help."
TV One said Phillipa had told it the victims were now in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and all remained members of the church.
It said no Exclusive Brethren members contacted were prepared to comment on her claims.
"But she has given us the names of seven men she says were involved in acts of sexual abuse and she's now prepared to co-operate with any police investigation." >>>More
October 8th, 2006 (EB News)
- Exclusive Brethren election ads sent to tribunal - ABC News, Australia
"The Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner has ruled a member of the Exclusive Brethren has a case to answer over advertisements circulated during the last state election.
Complainant Martine Delaney says the ads incited hatred against gays, lesbians and transgender people by suggesting same-sex relationships are socially destructive.
A similar complaint against the Liberal Party was dismissed earlier this year.
However, the commissioner has referred the complaint against Exclusive Brethren member Roger Unwin, from Scottsdale, to the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.
Ms Delaney says from there it is likely to head to conciliation, but it may end up in the courts.
"It really means not so much vindication, it simply means that I still have an opportunity to do something about bringing a small degree of respect and responsibility into the political campaigns that have lacked that a little in recent times," she said.
Ms Delaney says she is doubtful the issue will be resolved in conciliation.
"Obviously, from some of the media attention that has been on the Exclusive Brethren, they seem to be fairly strong on their views and not terribly keen on shifting from those views, so it probably doesn't bode well," she said." >>>More - Machiavelli on the money about political funding - Sunday Star Times, NZ
"The condemnation heaped on the Exclusive Brethren Church was inspired not by its members' offer of $1.2 million to help the National Party win the 2005 election, but by their refusal to disclose to the public (until forced to do so) who was paying for the sophisticated and expensive campaign against National's enemies.
The mysterious pamphlets warning against the Greens' policies, and drawing attention to Labour's "failures" in the health sector, undoubtedly made an impact on voters' intentions. The pamphlets' effectiveness would have been much less if there had been printed clearly at the foot of the page: "This pamphlet was produced, paid for, and distributed on behalf of the Exclusive Brethren Church in the interests of securing a National Party-led government."
The knowledge that a group of fundamentalist Christians was convinced that, with Don Brash as prime minister, the Day of Rapture and the march toward Armageddon would be hastened, would probably have elicited more chuckles than votes.
No wonder the Brethren attempted to keep their involvement "concealed from the enemy". >>>More
October 7th, 2006 (EB News)
- Fanatics get public funds - The Courier-Mail, Australia
"A wealthy and exclusive religious cult which has been blamed for destroying families is operating in at least six private schools in Queensland with the help of government funding.
... members of the Greens, which the Brethren have targeted with hugely negative advertising campaigns in recent state elections, have questioned how such a politically motivated group which bans tertiary education can benefit from both state and federal funding for its schools around Australia.
With one Queensland government source privately describing the school grants as "a gravy train", Queensland Greens election spokeswoman Juanita Wheeler has called for a rethink of guidelines which allow Exclusive Brethren schools to gain non-state school accreditation.
The Exclusive Brethren currently operates schools at Norman Park, and in Bundaberg, Nambour, Toowoomba, Warwick and near Maryborough. The group is also understood to be well advanced with plans for a major new school at Tingalpa in Brisbane." >>>More - Brethren secrets surface - The Australian
"A disagreement between a fundamentalist Christian pig farmer and a transsexual soccer star is shaping as a test of the boundaries of political debate. Exclusive Brethren pig farmer Roger Unwin faces a hearing in the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal over advertisements he authorised during this year's state election campaign.
The ads claimed Greens policies seeking rights for transgender people would "ruin our families and society". Hobart transsexual Martine Delaney lodged a complaint with the commission, arguing Unwin's ads breach anti-discrimination laws by inciting hatred against transgender people.
Unless conciliation heads off a courtroom showdown, the hearings will be a rare opportunity to shed some light on the Brethren, who shun involvement with the wider world.
EB's Roger Unwin (right) and Trevor Christian
Unwin's defence to Delaney's claim, obtained by Editor, relies in good part on a defence of free speech. This is curious given the Brethren's reputation for ruthlessly excluding its own dissenters, sometimes at the cost of family break-up. Brethren schools tightly control the use of texts and novels." >>>More
October 3rd, 2006 (EB News)
- Sect accused of running illegal rubbish dump - New Zealand Herald
"Neighbours of a Cambridge sand quarry business have accused the Exclusive Brethren owner of running an illegal rubbish dump and composting operation at the site.
They are also worried the religious sect has built a large church opposite Cambridge High School and may be set to create a large "hub" in town, catering to hundreds of members.
A church trustee, Peter Etchells, said the layout was still being completed but the main auditorium would have air conditioning and lighting that meant it would not need many windows.
Cambridge EB Hall
Exclusive Brethren member and Cambridge businessman Paul Gordon has been instrumental in expanding the Valley Sands business on the Cambridge-Te Awamutu Rd. The father of 14 has also advised the church trust on building the new church complex but said last night his business had no connection to it.
Valley Sands is applying for retrospective consents to run landfill and composting operations, which have illegally existed for some time.
Society secretary Martin Watson said the business had a "long, long history of non-compliance". The society was worried about slope stability, increased smell, airborne pathogens, and damage to water supplies.
"I have done a lot of reading on what the Exclusive Brethren are all about," Mr Watson said, "and I understand why he [Mr Gordon] does the things he does do with basic indifference. It's all to do with the culture of the Exclusive Brethren."
Yesterday a Herald photographer was chased by two members of the church for more than 23km.
After taking pictures from the roadside outside the newly built church, the female photographer was followed by two men driving a Toyota Hi-Lux vehicle.
They chased her to Hamilton, sometimes tailgating her.
But she drove directly to the police station, where the men were confronted and asked for their details. >>>More
October 1st, 2006 (EB News)
- Inside the strict world of the Brethren - One News, NZ
"Sunday reporter Ian Sinclair has met with a former member - an outcast - who lifts the veil on a closed community which he describes as a well-off sect plagued by alcohol abuse, blind faith and secrecy.
"I would call them a very, very rich club awash with alcohol," says Neville McCallum. He says many families are separated and "butchered emotionally".
exEB - Neville McCallum
"When you have an infallible world leader called the Man of God and he drinks plenty, you don't question it," says McCallum who says Taylor (a previous leader of the Exclusive Brethren) would drink to "the point of intoxication".
"The drinking goes on all the time, even children arriving at the Brethren schools intoxicated at just 15 and 16 years of age in the morning." >>>More (video available) - Exclusive brethren - sects, secrets and lies - Herald on Sunday, NZ
"Though their businesses bring them into daily contact with non-Brethrens, Brethren rules forbid socialising with "worldly" outsiders. Even their churches are typically windowless. The main gospel hall in Dargaville resembles a converted factory, with narrow frosted windows on one side only. They observe "separation from evil", which according to the official Exclusive Brethren website also compels them to "shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio and the internet" (newspapers are OK).
Other rules ban public entertainment, novels, eating with outsiders, university, membership of other organisations, shorts or ties for men, mobile phones and PCs (allowed to use them for business but not own them). Women must wear their hair long and down, and headscarves in public. Brethren can't vote but are encouraged "to express a moral viewpoint of legislation" to politicians, and to pray for the guidance of "right Government which is clearly of God".
When the Herald on Sunday approached Dargaville Brethren businessmen to set the record straight about their way of life, most politely dismissed us. They only say, cryptically: "We've nothing to hide and nothing to parade."
Cambridge couple Diana and Adrian [names changed] left the Exclusive Brethren 16 years ago after realising they couldn't live a lie.
Now in their early 40s with four children and a playground business, the couple had been married four years and already had two children when they left. Like most ex-Brethren - they call themselves ex-peebs (short for people of the Exclusive Brethren) - the hardest thing has been losing family from their lives. Says Diana: "To this day my parents are heartbroken, because they can't have anything to do with us. My kids don't know their grandparents as grandparents. I feel sorry for my kids and my parents. I've kept in touch so the kids know them. If our kids were to see my husband's parents in the street, they'd say 'Hello', and 30 seconds later it would be 'I best be on my way'."
The girls were fiercely competitive about their scarves. "You'd get a new dress and you'd have to get the perfect scarf to match it, and the right shape. I had a whole drawer of Richard Allan and Liberty Silk scarves."
Diana was drinking whisky with her family from age 13. "There were real pissheads in there: they drink heaps, it's the only thing you're allowed to do."
Adrian is cynical about the Brethren culture. "They tend to spend their lives trying to get around rules while trying to keep their noses clean."
Once the couple went to the beach with some other young families and took a portable stereo, which got them temporarily banned from church. Remembers Adrian: "Once you were out, you started to question it."
What clinched it for them was realising they "could never say to our children 'we can't have you in the house', like our parents said to us".
The couple maintain a faith in God but don't go to any church. They say people stay in fellowship because of ignorance, fear, family and finances. Most work in Exclusive Brethren businesses, so leaving means losing their job. Denied tertiary education and IT-illiterate, they're ill-equipped for many jobs in the outside world.
Peter LinehamMassey religious history expert Peter Lineham believes the political campaigns are part of a masterplan orchestrated by the powerful, rich Sydney-based world leader Bruce Hales, implemented in NZ by a select group of Brethren businessmen. "Ordinary Exclusive Brethren would still retain a view held deeply for many generations that they have nothing to do with the world, regard it as defiled, so would be disgusted with (the political activism)."
In Dargaville, the businessmen give the impression they're in the dark about the masterplan.
Says one, his smile like a plea: "We don't want to get into a media conflict. We urge you to wait. What's behind it all will come out in time. The truth always does." >>>More - PDF Version of the above article
- Brethren spy comes in from the cold - Herald on Sunday, NZ
"Prime Minister Helen Clark is still being investigated by a former high-ranking police officer who says he is being paid by the Exclusive Brethren.
The Herald on Sunday has been told that former detective sergeant Lew Proctor and others he has employed have followed Clark and investigated her husband Peter Davis. Proctor said he had employed private investigator Wayne Idour, who 10 days ago admitted being hired by the Exclusive Brethren to investigate other high-ranking MPs.
The claim by Proctor that he was hired by the Exclusive Brethren brought a rare outburst from the leader of the church's New Zealand branch, Greg Mason. He said the church was not behind the involvement of private investigators and distanced the body from the actions of individual members.
Proctor said he had hired Idour to carry out inquiries outside Auckland. The funder was revealed as Phil Win, an Auckland businessman who is also a member of the Exclusive Brethren.
NZ EB Leader
Greg Mason
"We were retained by the Brethren to do certain things which we achieved. The majority of those things continue, and the results will be well known by this time next week."
Proctor said information was being sourced from beyond New Zealand, including from a contact who had been in the United States.
He said next week the public would see "the reason why members of a certain party are just little wee bit upset ... about these private investigators who have been let loose on them". >>>More - Brethren 'preparing for Rapture' - Sunday Star Times, NZ
"A religious academic says the Exclusive Brethren's $1 million election campaign for a National-led government was more about bringing on Armageddon than New Zealand's wellbeing.
Maddox, author of God Under Howard: the Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics, believed the Brethren were part of a movement of "pre-millennium dispensationalists" who were preparing for the Rapture and Armageddon, after which Jesus would return to rule the world.
Maddox said Brethren leaders overseas had connected the beliefs and elections and it was a concern the group's motivation for campaigning was "about the timing of the end of the world rather than the way the government is run and everyone's wellbeing". The group wanted Christian governments because it was "setting the scene" for history's climax.
Sect member Neville Simmons said he believed in the Rapture but the group just wanted prosperity for New Zealand. He said Maddox's comments "were an interesting point of view".
The 15 Brethren-run private schools around New Zealand teach religious studies at least once a week. A teacher, who spoke to the Star-Times on condition of anonymity, said the schools were otherwise normal - although there was an unwritten ban on discussing religion or politics with the Brethren leaders. The Westmount campuses now have almost 1000 students attending, including more than 120 at the biggest campus in Kaipara. Under the government's subsidy system for private schools, the Brethren receives just under $1.5m a year in public funding." >>>More