Mr Benjamin Haslem
Jackson Wells Pty Ltd
PO Box 1743
Neutral Bay NSW 2089

June 30th, 2009

Dear Mr Haslem

We wish to respond to your recent article in the web publication “The Well”, Issue 36, Autumn 2009, entitled “Into the Light: understanding the Exclusive Brethren”.

Whilst the above title implies that your brief is to shine some much-needed light onto the activities of the Exclusive Brethren, we believe that this is the last thing they would want. Until recently, they have always preferred to keep a low profile, with good reason. Instead, it appears that they wish to counteract their negative image from the public scrutiny they have attracted in recent times – purely through their own actions – by engaging your company to create a “positive spin”. Unfortunately, even a company of your stature will have great difficulty in achieving this objective.

We take issue with your assertion that “outrageous and false claims” have been leveled against the Brethren by “mostly tabloid” media outlets and a “handful of disaffected former Church members”. Firstly, we are surprised that you regard serious newspapers such as “The Age” and “The Australian” (your former employer) as tabloid. Secondly, the contemptuous term “handful” is nonsense, and sounds suspiciously like part of a previously reported statement of a Brethren spokesman.

We are a community of people, most of whom have intimate knowledge and personal experience of the Exclusive Brethren doctrine of extreme separation, which has caused many hundreds of families worldwide to be torn apart over the past 50 years. As a result, people have been forced to spend the rest of their lives apart from their families, with all the pain and trauma that that entails. Some have even been driven to suicide, as the following link shows:

The Peebs.Net Memorial Pages

A vivid example of the lengths to which the Exclusive Brethren will go, and the expense they are willing to incur, to keep children away from a parent who is an ex-member and to financially destroy the person, can be seen in Michael Bachelard’s report in the Sunday Age (June 28), as follows:

Ex-Brethren father loses battle for children

This extraordinary judgment was handed down only last week, and demolishes once and for all any claim by the Exclusive Brethren that they are being misrepresented. One of the “outrageous and false claims” you mention was that the Brethren “deliberately and systematically broke up families”. Do you still believe they are innocent of that claim? And is it really just a “family matter”?

To say that the media scrutiny of the Exclusive Brethren was “driven” by Greens Senator Bob Brown is being economical with the truth. In fact the Brethren brought this on themselves during their extraordinary, naïve and dishonest involvement in politics in recent years. Of course Senator Brown started investigating who was behind the then mysterious political advertising campaign which targeted his party and supported John Howard. Can you blame him? However, he was only one of many politicians, journalists and members of the public who were puzzled at what later was to be revealed as part of a widely coordinated and well-funded international effort, which backfired badly and even led to the resignation of a New Zealand Opposition Leader – and may well have contributed to John Howard’s defeat in Bennelong. The political advertisements were not attributed to any group, just various individual names. It did not take long to discover that all were members of the Exclusive Brethren, despite their use of addresses such as post office boxes, unused Brethren buildings and schools.

Although any group is free to engage in political lobbying in a democracy, it was the underhand nature of the Brethren’s political activities – whilst maintaining their traditional refusal to vote – which caught the attention of the media, and the public. But it was more than that. During Senator Brown’s research, he also became aware of their long and appalling record in other areas, especially the effect of their extreme separation doctrine on families, and was concerned enough to call for a Senate Inquiry.

The exposure of the Exclusive Brethren’s political antics led to a groundswell of media and public scrutiny. It was particularly shocking for ex-members of the Brethren to witness this unprecedented negative publicity. Many of them had suffered quietly for years as a result of Brethren actions, but after sometimes decades of silence, they started to talk about their often horrific experiences. This in turn contributed to the decision of the ABC to run two separate Four Corners programs, one enabling the general public to see factual accounts of how lives had been so severely damaged by a religious sect that has always regarded themselves as devout Christians, and the other concentrating on their complex financial networks (see links below).

ABC Group’s Four Corners – ‘Separate Lives’

ABC Group’s Four Corners – ‘Business Express’

Note the raw emotion displayed by Phil Fawkes, for example, and also by Len Joyce when interviewed on the Radio National Background Briefing program in 2006:

ABC Radio – Background Briefing – ‘Elusive Exclusive Brethren’

Transcript to ‘Elusive Exclusive Brethren’

It is interesting that you do not mention in your article the public statement of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, then Opposition Leader, prior to the 2007 election, when he described the Exclusive Brethren as “an extremist cult” whose activities “break up families”. This was the first time that a leader of a major Australian political party had come out and said what so many people know to be the case. This also encouraged some of us to send a detailed submission to the Prime Minister in 2008 covering several major concerns about Exclusive Brethren political, financial and educational activities, and including thirteen personal life stories. Whilst the Government investigation we requested has not yet occurred, and politicians understandably are nervous about being seen to interfere with the freedom of people to practise their religious beliefs, the Prime Minister in his reply pointedly did not resile from his earlier statement.

Since then, of course, the well-written and balanced book by Michael Bachelard, entitled “Behind the Exclusive Brethren”, has been published and read widely, not just in Australia but in many overseas countries. Incidentally, we understand you know Michael personally, having attended school with him in Canberra.

As a result of all this, and the failure to date of various Brethren media spokesmen to defend their shocking record and legacy, it is not surprising to us that the Brethren leadership (the Hales family) has sought your services. However, we would like to make you aware that the Exclusive Brethren have been described as “political poison”. This is not our description, but one made by senior political figures in Australia. We would strongly suggest that you view the two Four Corners programs again to gain a better insight into the activities of your client, and to ensure that you do not cause any further damage to the good name of your company. We would also suggest that you read Michael Bachelard’s book, which we are certain the Brethren would have described to you as full of misinformation. (They said this publicly even before they read it!)

You may also like to ask the Hales brothers or their agents why the Brethren were told publicly in their meetings that they must not read the Bachelard book, and also, in relation to the horrifying chapter on the Alderton family, why Mr David Stewart misled you into thinking his sister Mrs Alderton is in a nursing home and that her mind is wandering. We assure you that in fact Mrs Alderton lives independently in a three-bedroom unit and is in full control of her faculties.

If you are willing to read the Bachelard book and perhaps discuss it with Michael himself, you may then like to talk to the two former Senators (from both sides of politics) who are associates in your company, and this time listen to their misgivings about your client.

If you follow our suggestions, we believe you will become better informed about the Exclusive Brethren, and may well regret some of what you wrote about them in the autumn edition of “The Well”.

We understand that part of your assignment is to regularly monitor the website Peebs.Net, which is an extremely valuable means of world-wide communication amongst ex-members of the Exclusive Brethren and other interested parties, to tell their stories, comment on current events relating to the Brethren, and provide often much-needed emotional support for one another. Another purpose of this website is to be literally a lifeline for those still within the Brethren who desire to leave but who need assistance to do so.

You should be aware that this website has experienced illegal attacks on it in the past, and the owners of the website are currently being pursued relentlessly in a court case in the USA, in an attempt to close it down. The plaintiff is none other than your client, under the name “The Bible and Gospel Trust”. They have successfully closed down two other ex-member websites in the past, and are sparing no expense to do so again. As you could imagine, this would be disastrous for those who use the site as described above.

By the way, we have noted that the alleged apology by Dick Wyman, operator of a former ex-Brethren website forcibly closed by your client, has been removed from the Exclusive Brethren’s own website. We think we know why, but you may wish to explain. In case you have not seen it, it read as follows:

“Pain, Distress and Offense Regretted”

Settlement agreement entered in U.S. District Court.

Richard Wyman Regrets Pain, Distress and Offense to the Brethren

On May 10, 2005, Richard Wyman met with members of the Brethren in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In that meeting, he agreed to stop publishing materials on the Brethren. This includes all publications attacking or derogatory of the Brethren.

Mr. Wyman has acknowledged that several statements posted on this web site were capable of being construed as defamatory. He also acknowledges that the statements may have caused pain, distress and offense to the Brethren. For this, he expresses regret.

These acknowledgments were included in a settlement agreement that was entered in U.S. District Court. This resolves all outstanding concerns regarding the former activities. The Brethren are grateful that Mr. Wyman has agreed to refrain from publishing anything further on the subject of the Brethren.”

Members of our community have been aware for some time that your company’s website included a very small press release regarding the amount of money that the Exclusive Brethren had given to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. This raised a question in our minds: did the Brethren recommend this in the hope that Peebs.Net would run with it and expose it in the media, thus allowing the Brethren a means of immediately trying to enhance their credentials in the eyes of the public so that they could gain Council approval for the building of Exclusive Brethren rate-free halls? We refer especially to their application to build what the local media described as a “mega church” within the Shire of Nillumbik; a proposed new Melbourne headquarters of the sect, to be located in a region badly affected by the February bushfires. It is noticeable that the Brethren gift to the Bushfire Appeal has now been publicized on their own website, and we wonder whether this has anything to do with the “mega church” proposal being knocked back by Nillumbik Shire, and the almost certain future appeal against the decision.

It was certainly a clever tactic by the wealthy Exclusive Brethren sect to make this extremely large donation to such a very worthy cause. However, those of us with experience of the Brethren over many years know that they traditionally have never given to such appeals in the past, let alone broadcast the donation. After all, world leader Bruce Hales exhorts his flock that they must get “a hatred of the world”. This gift does not sit comfortably with that philosophy, so, at the risk of us appearing churlish, we believe their motivation must be questioned.

Perhaps the most poignant point about this issue is made in the very Book that the Exclusive Brethren will tell you that they live by:

“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.”
(The Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 1-4, New King James Version of the Bible).

Can you and your company really continue to support the actions of this sect, along with its doctrine and practice of extreme separation of families, against all concepts of fairness as embraced by our great country – and indeed against the Holy Scriptures and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Please think about it.

Yours sincerely

Concerned members of the Peebs.Net community

As with all other communications to Jackson Wells – there has as yet been no response. We do not find this surprising. A client like the Exclusive Brethren must keep a company of spin-doctors in a permanent blur (at $500+ per hour). However, we do wonder what the other Jackson Wells clients feel about sharing their stable with “an extremist cult and sect”

Follow the reactions of ex-members of the Exclusive Brethren as they review the details of the Jackson Wells whitewash attempt within the Peebs.Net Community Forums.