‘Firestorm: Black Saturday’s Tragedy’ and the familiar sound of Exclusive Brethren silence

Frequently, it is what the Exclusive Brethren do not say that speaks loudest.

Many will recall the first cult smear advertising that first hit the streets in New Zealand in 2005. Later, Australia suffered the same influx of brochures, pamphlets and handouts. They all had one thing in common - the group behind the material was never mentioned.

Rather than provide any normal route to identity, the Exclusive Brethren intentionally obfuscate their publications. When you consider the way they hide their tracks, this is perhaps understandable: false addresses, misleading names, even the business premises of their unsuspecting tenants … One thing is constant, the name of the Taylorite / Symington / Hales Exclusive Brethren never appears.

9/11 and now 'Black Saturday'

And now, in perhaps their most cynical effort todate, they use their own children in an effort to extract money from a public for whom they care nothing and even seemingly entrap a Prime Minister who has publicly declared them an “extremist cult” to assist them. And their public relations lever? The killer bush fires that swept across Victoria in southern Australia during February, less than a year ago.

‘ Firestorm: Black Saturday’s Tragedy‘ is published by Dennis Jones & Associates of Byswater, Victoria, Australia and there is even a website dedicated to the PR cause: http://www.blacksaturdaysfirestorm.com.au

The Glenvale School is an Exclusive Brethren school – one of those campuses that is set to receive some of the over $70 million hand-out authorized by Kevin Rudd over the next two years: Read all »

Answer: these three politicians came into contact with the Exclusive Brethren and have suffered political damage as a result.

Don Brash and John Howard are now history, but Kevin Rudd currently remains the Prime Minister of Australia. Will Rudd manage to retain his role in the next Australian General Election? Time will tell, but the informed media are sharpening their swords over a mounting list of unfathomable decisions that simply do not add up. Of greater import perhaps is the ‘chatter’ from members of the Australian electorate who are the final arbiters in the future of any politician.

For example, consider the voices of those who have objected to the seeming duplicity in Keven Rudd’s decision to allow over $70 million to be paid to the Exclusive Brethren school system in Australia. It is almost mystifying to watch the man who had the courage in late 2007 to call the Exclusive Brethren what they are – “an extremist cult and sect … who break up families” – and then just two years later, to fork out an almost obscenely disproportionate contribution to the school system blatantly designed by the cult for the cult.

These are not schools aimed at producing well-rounded citizens of the countries and communities in which they are located. They serve one main purpose – Read all »

The Exclusive Brethren have been desperate to repair some of the public damage caused to their reputation since their disasterous foray into international politics in 2003. Initially they attempted to handle their own public relations, but their inability to be persuasive in the media forced them to hire a public relations firm.

“In early 2007, senior members of the Exclusive Brethren Christian Fellowship approached Jackson Wells seeking assistance dealing with a sudden and intense increase in media interest…”

“At the heart of Jackson Wells strategy to assist the Brethren was to increase the Church’s engagement with the wider community, mainly through the media.”

“The Brethren Church still has some way to travel in gaining an accurate public understanding of the lifestyle of its members”

Jackson Wells: ‘understanding’ the Exclusive Brethren

The Exclusive Brethren have a track record of hypocrisy. For example, while still maintaining that the Internet was a “pipeline of filth”, they created a website that even today spouts:

“The Exclusive Brethren practice separation from evil, recognising this as God’s principle of unity. They shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio, and the Internet…”

The Exclusive Brethren: Who are they?

In an attempt to demonstrate a self-perceived commitment to public good deeds, The Exclusive Brethren used to trumpet the fact that they had offered unspecified assistance in the aftermath of 9/11 on their ‘evil’ website:

“The Exclusive Brethren assisted the rescue efforts at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.”

Previous Exclusive Brethren website

This changed following the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria Australia when Jackson Wells co-founder quietly leaked the fact that the Exclusive Brethren had donated $3 million to the Red Cross Appeal. (Source Peter Jackson blog )

Shortly afterward, the Exclusive Brethren website replaced their 9/11 self-congratulation with the Jackson Wells bushfire donation story:

“Members of the Exclusive Brethren donated more than A$3 million to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal to assist those affected by the devastating Black Saturday blazes in Victoria on February 7, 2009.

Many Brethren live close to areas burned and employ people who lost loved ones and property in the fires.”

Source – The Exclusive Brethren website

To ensure that the public get the message, an Exclusive Brethren school has now published a book labelled as a fund raiser. In a remarkable public relations coup, they even persuaded Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister to offer support for the enterprise!

The public relations smoke screen follows on the heels of the recent announcement that the Exclusive Brethren schools system have been granted over $70 million (AUS) in Australian federal funds over the next two years.

Brethren schools get $70m in funding
The Australian
by Rick Wallace
January 12, 2010

The Rudd government is handing more than $70 million to schools run by the Exclusive Brethren, a religious sect Kevin Rudd described as an “extremist cult” that breaks up families.

The sect’s schools have secured more than $8.4m under the government’s school building stimulus package and they will share in $62m in recurrent taxpayer funding.

Documents show a Brethren-run school at Swan Hill in northern Victoria was granted $1.2m for a library and $800,000 for a hall when its most recent annual report shows it had just 16 pupils and already had a library.

Grants data released by the commonwealth shows that Brethren schools in every state received funding under the $12.4 billion schools stimulus package. Despite the Brethren’s past disdain for computers, figures show its schools have received more than 300 under the commonwealth computers-in-school initiative.

Source: Brethren schools get $70m in funding

Although it might appear that ‘flying under the radar’ has recently proved beneficial to the secretive cult and their advisors, the confused signals from the Rudd administration have resulted in increased media scrutiny.  Rick Wallace of the Australian continues investigating the outrageous funding:

Exclusive Brethren enjoying $1m taxpayer windfall
The Australian
by Rick Wallace
January 13, 2010

Despite being assessed as wealthy, the Brethren’s mushrooming network of schools is being funded at a higher rate than independent schools in battling regional communities such as Bourke and Longreach.

The secretive but financially savvy sect has taken advantage of a “no-disadvantage” clause put in the funding system by the Howard government, of which the Brethren was a strong supporter.

…

The no-disadvantage clause means that despite the wealth of the Brethren schools’ communities, their funding level is preserved at that awarded to the original campus at Meadowbank in Sydney. Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the funding guarantee was costing taxpayers $3.5 billion a year and must be urgently reviewed.

“The over-funding of the Exclusive Brethren’s MET school is a prime example of a corrupted funding system, with half the private schools in the country funded above their entitlement,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

Source: Exclusive Brethren enjoying $1m taxpayer windfall

Now watch for security fences, steel padlocked gates, CCTV and blocked-out windows.

Exactly what persuaded Staffordshire’s Development Control Committee to grant approval for the conversion of a local pub to a very non-public house last week remains unclear. It seems, in a highly controversial decision, that the Lynton Tavern, Bodmin Avenue, Stafford, UK has now passed into the hands of a local cell of the Exclusive Brethren.

The Development Control Committee members cannot complain that they have no idea whom they are dealing with!  There has been excellently-organized community support in attempting to prevent this example of community self-mutilation. As always with the Exclusive Brethren, there are ‘wheels within wheels’ and only time will tell whether the town officials maintain their ‘ostrich-in-the-sand’ posture.

Controversial plan is set to get green light
Staffordshire Post
Jan 12, 2010

Councillors are set to approve controversial plans to convert part of a Stafford pub into a place of worship despite a raft of local objections.

Stafford Gospel Hall Trust members want to convert the Lynton Tavern, Bodmin Avenue, Stafford, into a place of worship for up to 25 people. Read all »

Criticizing the doctrinal origins of the Exclusive Brethren can be a dangerous ambition.  The history and objectives of this strange seclusionist cult are intentionally steeped in the mists of tradition, conscience and the horror of even suggesting that any existing, or former, ‘Man of God’ (one of the internal titles given to Exclusive Brethren leaders) could possibly do something wrong!  Today, the very concept of criticism is in the process of being carefully bred-out of the group.  One of the irrefutable symptoms of being a cult is this  intolerance toward internal questioning and criticism.

The following December 2009 blog entry presents in a refreshingly clear and concise manner exactly what is wrong with the Exclusive Brethren interpretation of what it is to be ’separate from the world’. The author Milt Rodriguez (never an Exclusive Brethren member) also portrays a perfect summary of why Brethren divide so many times – how many ex-Exclusive Brethren have heard the dread words: ‘I can no longer walk in fellowship with you… I therefore withdraw from iniquity‘ …

“My view is fact; your view is opinion. My view is correct; your view is incorrect. And since your view is incorrect, that makes it erroneous. Therefore, I cannot fellowship with someone who is in such obvious error.”

- Milt Rodriguez in ‘ The Dominion of Opinion’

The Dominion of Opinion that follows is recommended as one of the better doctrinal explanations of where the Exclusive Brethren went wrong with their malformed hypothesis of what ‘Separation from Evil’ really entails. Read all »

Who says Public Relations firms are ineffectual?

The news that Daniel Hales, brother to the Exclusive Brethren leader Bruce D. Hales, is to present a paper at the ICSA Annual Conference in New York in early July 2010 marks a new step in a carefully choreographed transformation.

Daniel Hales has lived in the shadow of his younger brother since not being selected as a suitable leader of the EB following the death of their father John S. Hales in 2002. Always heavily involved in the business and monetary aspects of the cult, he has nevertheless been carefully groomed over the past several years by Jackson Wells (http://www.jacksonwells.com.au/), the EB’s Public Relations Agency, to act as a spokesman for the group.

Several spokesmen have come and gone since Bruce Hales gained control in 2002. Due to the reluctance (some say inability) of Bruce Hales to face the media, a series of personalities have attempted to divert attention away from what many view as firm evidence of cultic behavior. Indeed, the Exclusive Brethren were recently described by current Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “an extremist cult and sect” who went on to state that he believed “they break up families“. Read all »

November 21st, 2009

The impact of Australian senator Nick Xenophon’s comments in Canberra this week regarding the Scientology ‘church’ should not be under-estimated.

First there is the man. Nick Xenophon is an independant and carries no party allegience. His 400BC namesake was also a soldier as well as a respected historian. Nick has a background in law and is a resourceful and intelligent political warrior. Several are noting that the modern-day Xenophon seems to have a strategy in his carefully worded attack against the ‘religion’ of Scientology.

“There are a couple of things to know about Nick Xenophon. The first is that the independent senator from Adelaide has a genius for publicity. He’s a hustler par excellence. The second is he’s rationing his tabloid impulses in Canberra. Xenophon’s record to date suggests he’s opting for strategy rather than sensation; picking his political fights, not going at everything like a bull at a gate.”

Source – Dogged crusader

This is not a ‘flash in the pan’. Xenophon has been planning his attack for some time: Read all »

It’s tough being a cult. People look at you differently.

The Age newspaper reports yet again of hard questions being asked in Australian Parliament. This time it’s about Scientology, science fiction writer Ron Hubbard’s 1950 invention. Although the Exclusive Brethren evolved rather than were created, many of the effects of cultic behavior are startlingly similar.

Former Scientologists allege abuse, intimidation

The Age, Australia
by Katharine Murphy And Misha Schubert
November 19, 2009

Former members of the Church of Scientology have made explosive allegations about forced abortions, child abuse and financial extortion, prompting calls for a parliamentary inquiry.

Letters tabled by independent senator Nick Xenophon reveal claims of vulnerable people preyed on by a coercive and ruthless organisation that punished and shamed dissenters by physical incarceration, withholding food or intimidation.

…

Under the protection of parliamentary privilege, Senator Xenophon declared the church a ”criminal organisation”.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said they were ”grave allegations” and left open the prospect of backing a Senate inquiry into the church and its tax breaks. ”Many people in Australia have real concerns about Scientology,” he said.

…

Asked if the church would co-operate with any inquiry, Mr Brooks said it had ”always been willing to co-operate with any authorities on any concerns”.

Greens Leader Bob Brown backed an inquiry, but wanted it extended to the Exclusive Brethren and other groups. The Opposition said it would consider the terms of any inquiry.

Source (incl. video): Former Scientologists allege abuse, intimidation

You don’t need to have even an iota of religion to understand at a very basic level the difference between right and wrong. It is this basic human ability that makes the average person on the street increasingly angry when they recognize blatant hypocrisy.

If you have the audacity to suggest that you are the perfect church, the only religion, or in one particularly obnoxious case – ‘The Bride of Christ’ – then you open the door to your behavior being scrutinized very carefully indeed. Read all »

Sometimes the Exclusive Brethren publicly demonstrate why they need a Public Relations firm. There can be no other ‘church’ that offers only one form of contact on their official website – a telephone number to their official Spin Doctors – Jackson Wells.

In UK today, the Wolverhampton-based Express And Star newspaper published a strange little side-show that involves the Exclusive Brethren. It is no secret that the Exclusive Brethren love their booze – but their involvement in the possible purchase of an English pub is unprecedented.

The regulars at the pub in Lynton Avenue, Stafford have realized that if the Exclusive Brethren succeed in purchasing their community meeting place, that community access to the building will change forever. The locals have formed the ‘Save The Lynton Tavern Association’ and are even supported by Father Broun from the local Roman Catholic church. This is obviously a serious matter if it concerns both Holy See’s. (‘Both?’ Ah yes, the Australian leader of the Exclusive Brethren uses the term in almost every sentence.) Read all »

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: Read all »