The Exclusive Brethren – a spiral into decay

Two news items from different sides of the world today, highlight the Exclusive Brethren.  An almost throw-away comment in  New Zealand Parliament a few days ago and a commentary in UK’s The Observer.

New Zealand Parliament
Questions And Answers – Thursday, 31 July 2008

Extract

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: The Prime Minister has been assured by the Rt Hon Winston Peters that he has committed no illegality, and the member has yet to demonstrate anything to the reverse.

Sue Bradford: Does the Prime Minister see any similarity between the advertising campaign paid for by leading bloodstock breeder Patrick Hogan, overtly supporting New Zealand First during the 2005 election campaign, and the covert campaign run by the Exclusive Brethren Church in that year, and does she have any concerns about the connection between that campaign and the fact that Mr Winston Peters subsequently became the Minister for Racing?

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: I think it would be absolutely apparent to everybody that there was no covert campaign on behalf of the racing industry in 2005. There was a very overt campaign; it was overtly against the Labour Party at that time, including signs on horses at racetracks. The Exclusive Brethren, however, decided to follow a biblical injunction, and hide their lights well under any large number of bushels.

New Zealand Parliament Questions And Answers – Thursday, 31 July 2008

A cast-iron case for a secular society
The Observer,
by Nick Cohen
Sunday August 3 2008

Extract

So imbued with discriminatory thinking have politicians and judges become that they are shocked when citizens ask for equality before the law. When the hapless Ed Balls was at the Treasury, the Plymouth Brethren told him that they and their more fundamentalist offshoot – the Exclusive Brethren – were the victims of religious prejudice at the hands of that unlikely source of bigotry, the tax authorities.

Both sects believed that God decides when you died. To their members, compliance with the state’s requirement to take out an annuity at 75 forced them to second-guess God by blasphemously betting on the date of their deaths.

The obliging Balls created an alternative pension scheme and then spluttered when pensioners of all faiths and none saw his generous loophole and shifted large sums of money through it. He seemed to think he could legislate for one group without the law applying equally to everyone.

If he did not have the strength of principle to stand up for equality, he ought to have had the wit to realise that the Plymouth Brethren may not have been as devout as they appeared. If you sincerely believe that an omnipotent God controls every aspect of your life, you place your fate in his hands. You do not ask accountants to lobby ministers for tax-efficient changes to pension law.

The Observer – A cast-iron case for a secular society

The UK press is starting to improve both their history and their accuracy regarding the Exclusive Brethren.  Their confusion is understandable of course.  The UK has known of the Plymouth Brethren since inception in the late 1820’s, or rather when they started to gather together in greater numbers during the 1830’s.  The Exclusive Brethren offshoot commenced in the late 1840’s when J.N. Darby was instrumental in forcing a division.

To call the Exclusive Brethren ‘Plymouth’ is a genus/species error that insults the far larger and evangelically successful Plymouth Brethren.  Indeed, many Plymouth Brethren websites carry a ‘We are not Exclusive Brethren’ disclaimer!

Conversely, the Exclusive Brethren welcome such confusion. They have started to re-invent their public vocabulary to add to the intentional ‘fog’ – EB Meeting Rooms are now increasingly called ‘Gospel Halls’ (a label the Plymouth Brethren have always used) – and they appreciate the incorrectly applied labels of ‘evangelical’, ‘fundamental’ and ‘Christian’. The Exclusive Brethren have found that the planning applications for their windowless and barricaded Meeting Rooms are easier to become approved if they piggy-back on the rightly respected heritage of the Plymouth Brethren.

New Zealand and Australian media did not initially realize the UK roots of the the cult that suddenly started gaining so much notoriety among them about 5 years ago.  The catalyst was of course the growing ambition of Bruce D. Hales,  the least spiritual and most poorly-educated leader the Exclusive Brethren have ever known – and they have certainly had some leaders!

Like the biblical story of the wandering children of Israel, the early Darbyites ‘demanded a king’, and as then, their ‘king’ was obvious – the brilliant academic and bible theologian John Nelson Darby.  When Darby died quietly in Bournmouth, a sleepy middle-class UK seaside town in 1882, the now king-less group needed a replacement quickly. They found it in the mystical writings and teachings of F.E. Raven, who was followed upon his death by New York businessman, James Taylor (Senior).  When Taylor died in the 1950’s, a semi-political battle raged for several years before the ‘winner’ was announced.

It was an important turning point for the ‘people who would have a king’. From now on, the struggle would always be ‘which king would win the job’.  “To the victor go the spoils”

The winner in the late 1950’s was James Taylor Junior – the son of the now departed leader.  The descent of the Darbyite / Exclusive Brethren into cultism was dramatic during the following 10 years.  Upon the alcohol-related death of JT Jnr. in 1970, a new leader was instantly in control – J.H. Symington, a pig farmer based in Neche, North Dakota, USA. Symington feared the unauthorized flow of information that technology allowed – in his case, the humble fax machine.  The father and son Taylor team had ‘feared’ people and under their influence, the Exclusive Brethren had became forcibly separate from society.

With the ban on university education and general social interaction forced by the Taylors, Symington ‘plugged the gaps’ by banning anything the farmer didn’t quite understand and anything that could potentially allow interaction with the outside world.  Meanwhile, money flowed in unprecedented amounts from around the globe as mandatory ‘love gifts’. The IRS rightly investigated Symington, but the wily leader had a large and rather smelly farm at his disposal – nothing was ever found.

At Symington’s death in the 1980’s, John S. Hales, an Australian, ensured that he had the requisite endorsements to claim leadership.  John Hales was smart, an astute businessman and a well-read bible scholar. Knowledge of the Bible was quickly becoming less important than encyclopedic knowledge of Exclusive Brethren printed ministry, but Hales blended his skill in fiscal architecture with sufficient doctrinal ministry  to produce a ‘tighter ship’ than had previously existed.

In 20 years, Hales designed a network of inter-related Trusts, produced mechanisms for funding and building EB-owned schools, declared virtually all things electronic ‘evil’ and then the ‘king’ carefully planned a successor.  It was to be his son, Bruce.

Bruce is quite obviously not ‘infected’ with a worldly university education, nor with any particular theological skill or ambition. In fact, Bruce Hales is most certainly the least well-read or scholarly of any Exclusive Brethren leader. Bruce is prone to depression, suffers from severe psoriasis and his printed ministry is … less than inspiring!  Bruce Hales is a furniture salesman and his main skill is in fulfilling a pontiff-like role and fending off potential usurpers using a tactical implementation of exceptional brilliance (his fathers) – ensuring a first and second tier of leadership had no incentive to revolt and every incentive to be loyal.

This was managed by the carefully inter-woven distribution channels that weave world-wide in various low-tech product lines including office furniture, pumps, drainage systems, building and other related industries. The owners of these manufacturing and distribution networks automatically receive leadership positions. Local assembly leadership tends to be provided to those who have proved themselves as successful in related or other Exclusive Brethren businesses. Nothing seems to impress the EB hierarchy more than a successful business!

And thus it is that the Exclusive Brethren ‘triggers’ that get their ‘political’ representation engine rolling have everything to do with money, protecting their heavy investment in their youth (children educated with a carefully filtered syllabus in a cloistered EB school) and their scrabbled and desperate attempts to retain a little respect.

Increasingly, they are being seen for what they are … a cult who have divested themselves of most Christian attributes in favor of protecting their infrastructure. Knowing that they have little that could possibly convince society doctrinally, they use their wealth in the hiring of professional spin-doctors and public relations experts who try to dodge an increasing volume of targeted missiles.

Once upon a time the Exclusive Brethren were indeed Plymouth Brethren – a movement that was designed to simplify Christian living and worship.  Today, the Exclusive Brethren have detailed and complex rules, internal machinations and a papal structure that rivals that of Rome. Worship may be practiced by a few God-fearing members, but it is increasingly obvious that Exclusive Brethren gatherings and meetings are no longer in-depth Bible studies as they claim, but strange verbal ‘dances’ of re-expressed loyalties and political re-affirming, such that have been heard for centuries around countless circles during ancient gatherings of clans and tribal groups.

The Exclusive Brethren leaders know their only hope for survival is to reinforce their defences, ensure loyalty and smack down those that would dare peer over the wall at the world outside.  First contact with a would-be Exclusive Brethren escapee is almost always one of fear and mistrust …

Darby himself would be horrified at what the Darbyites have now become.  Contemporary reports show that Darby harbored regret at the results of his pride-led forcing of the Bethesda Division in 1848.  Fortunately he did not live to see the inevitable spiral into spiritual and moral decay, the suicides, the broken families and of course, the lies.