Brethren church to open in Ipswich

The Queensland Times
Australia

The cult Meeting Room in Ipswich, Queensland

The Exclusive Brethren Christian Fellowship will open its doors in Ipswich at the weekend.

Labelled a cult by former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2007, the Brethren will open its new church at the end of Windle Road, Brassall, on Saturday.

The move has outraged local residents, who say the church is a threat to their way of life.

“We didn’t know we’d end up with a stinking church down there,” said one long-term Windle Road resident, who wished to remain anonymous.

“We don’t need this in our street. I’m really cheesed off about it. The more you read about these people, the more you start to worry about what’s going on.

“I thought about putting my house on the market when I heard about it. You live here, you pay your bloody rates and now a church can come in and do whatever they want.

“It’s been built, it’s opening and that’s it. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Workmen were putting the finishing touches on the rendered brick building yesterday.

It is surrounded by a black steel picket fence and has a sprawling car park and landscaped gardens.

…

… another concerned Brassall resident who contacted The QT said the Brethren should practice what it preached.

“How can you talk about inclusion when the church hides behind fences and concrete walls? This whole process was kept very quiet,” the resident said.

“You have to wonder what they’re hiding and why more people haven’t been asking questions about the building appearing out of nowhere.

“I don’t think this will go away very quietly.”

Read the full article in The Queensland Times

The 1st Exclusive Brethren pub

It appears that after leaving the Lynton Tavern empty for months, the Exclusive Brethren are possibly considering a deal that might enable the unhappy residents of Weeping Cross, Staffordshire, UK to get their pub back.  Whether their decision is based on the difficulty of bricking up all the windows on the building is not clear. What is apparent is that they are increasingly anxious to move.

The following Express and Star news item refers to some work that has started in converting the pub to a cult Meeting Room. The level of alteration and changes are not specified, but knowing the Exclusive Brethren love for alcohol, some might expect that the bar would remain intact.

The Weeping Cross community initially set up a Facebook-based effort to try and save the pub, but failed when the Exclusive Brethren pulled out their favorite trick – their checkbooks. The wealthy cult obviously now feels that they have a bargaining chip and perhaps the residents of this small Staffordshire community will benefit after all.

Stafford pub in land swap plan
Express & Star

A religious group is in talks with council bosses over a possible “land swap” deal involving a former Stafford pub which has lain empty since it closed in September.

The Express & Star can reveal today that officers at Stafford Borough Council are in discussions with the Exclusive Brethren over the future of the former Lynton Tavern pub in Weeping Cross.

The talks are centred on the use of the pub car park which is a key facility for local residents accessing nearby shops and post office.

The Brethren purchased the Lynton Tavern and its car park last year when it was put up for sale by owners Punch Taverns.

It served its last pint in September and has been empty ever since becoming a target for vandals.

Work has started to convert the pub into a religious meeting place for the Brethren after the group gained planning permission in January.

News of a possible land swap will give hope to campaigners who want to see the venue re-open as a community pub.

If a better location can be found for the Brethren the group has indicated it would be willing to sell the building.

Gerrard Gates, from the Brethren said: “The situation hasn’t changed from what it has always been. If someone wants it, it is available as long as the council can provide an alternative site. The council and the Lynton Tavern action group are well aware of that.”

He said the group had begun carrying out the alterations to the pub in line with its plans and had not suffered any delays or problems.”

Will Conaghan, spokesman for the borough council said: “We are in talks with the Brethren to ensure the car park at the Lynton Tavern remains available for the use of the public in the future.

“To do this we are looking at a potential ‘land swap’.”

Mike Tyson, from the Save The Lynton Tavern Association said: “It has been in a rough state and the area has been suffering for that but my understanding is that there are contractors in now.

“We believe they are talking to the council and we will be speaking to breweries to see if we can put something in place if the pub is put up for sale again.”

Read more: Stafford pub in land swap plan

One of the classic symptoms of a cult are methods used in enforcing control of the flock. When a Leader says “Jump!”, the only safe response is “how high?”.

Exclusive Brethren cult members endure tightly-controlled lives that revolve entirely around their fellow members and their virtually daily gatherings. Being separate from the world is not only their primary doctrine, it is the main chain welded to each individual. Only by ensuring minimal contact with outsiders and the media can Bruce D. Hales keep his members from learning too much.

Manly residents rally against Exclusive Brethren plans to build churches in their suburbs

Courier Mail

Residents are calling it a cult “invasion”. The secretive Exclusive Brethren Christian sect has been buying land and businesses at Manly West on Brisbane’s bayside and in Gympie and moving in.

With their numbers growing, the Brethren sect has now sparked community outrage with plans to build a mega-church in Manly for up to 1280 people and a third church in Gympie.

The Manly West church has drawn hundreds of objections and would be the largest Brethren “meeting room” in Queensland, on par with those in Melbourne and Adelaide.

In both cases, the churches are proposed in residential streets not zoned for the purpose. They sit between houses, which residents say will affect their amenity and property values and increase traffic. Residents who had no problem with Brethren families moving in say the huge church will change the face of the neighbourhood.

“It’s an invasion of Manly West,” complained 38-year-old Vanita Hamanne.

Retiree Brian Malcolm said there would be no benefit to the community of having such a big, off-bounds facility on their doorstep.

“It’s a prison for them to come and go as they please but there’s no benefit to the residents,” Mr Malcolm said.

Laurie Whitehead added: “They don’t contribute a lot to the community.”

Gympie people also don’t understand why a “cult” church should be allowed in their residential neighbourhood.

In recent years, Gympie residents have noticed a swelling in Brethren numbers to 100 as part of their migration out of Brisbane, where they have traditionally lived around Bulimba, near a 30-year-old church being replaced by the Manly West one.

Read more in the Courier Mail

“Our schools employ only non-Brethren teachers.” – Steve Kirkpatrick

The Exclusive Brethren was labelled a cult in 2007 by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who said they split up families and denied education opportunities to children.

At their daily hours-long scripture meetings at a small church on Gympie’s rural southside, the gates are padlocked when the congregation is safely inside, and a security guard sometimes posted.

…

Paul Gerrard, who is leading fierce opposition to the church, says dealing with the sect had become difficult. Mr Gerrard has accused the Brethren of employing “stand-over” tactics to persuade locals to sell their houses – a claim rejected by the Brethren.

Read the full article – Manly residents rally against Exclusive Brethren plans to build churches in their suburbs

Powerscourt Estate, Ireland

The Plymouth Brethren have several contenders for the title of Founder and Early Church Father. There is however probably only one woman who would fill the role of ‘Mother of the Church‘.  Lady Theodosia Wingfield Powerscourt was a young and wealthy widow, and like Darby, was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy in the early 19th century. Viscountess Powerscourt was a powerful advocate in the formative years of the movement that became known as the Plymouth Brethren.

J.N. Darby, recognized as one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren, was a very close friend of Lady Powerscourt. It is believed that they at one time planned to marry but mutually decided that their lives were headed in different directions. Some say that they were ‘dissuaded’ by other members of the early Plymouth Brethren.

Lady Powerscourt has been described as a young, beautiful and wealthy widow – but she was certainly a deeply spiritual woman, using the palatial Powerscourt estate to host Prophecy Conferences – which were attended by both JND and Edward Irving.

It was at one of these Conferences when Darby announced his theories regarding the ‘Rapture of the Church’, a dramatic end-times scenario that is adhered-to by millions of evangelical Christians to this day.

The cultural world of Lady Powerscourt was also the world of John Nelson Darby and her letters and papers provide valuable insights into the minds and attitudes of the early founders of the Plymouth Brethren.

Both born in 1800, Lady Powerscourt never remarried and died in 1836.  John Darby never married and would live until 1882.

John Nelson Darby

Although not published until 1864, this collection of letters between Rev. Kelly and J.N. Darby commences in 1839 and the views of Darby are therefore significant in the light of his later actions and attitudes.

Topics covered include Darby’s own feelings regarding the Roman church as well as the C of E.

Darby outlines his belief in the importance of having one (Darby-approved) church in a town – an aspect of the Exclusive Brethren that remains to this day.

Darby used this principle notably in the English town of Plymouth, from where the Plymouth Brethren gained their name.  Following a doctrinal dispute with an old friend, Darby forced a split in the Plymouth congregation by setting up a second communion table.  This action precipitated a chain of events that led to the entire Plymouth Brethren being ripped apart during the mid 1840′s … an event known as the Bethesda Division.

There are several other warnings of things to come, including the origins of the ‘closed communion’:

“How can I greet with cordial affection as of one heart and one mind my brethren in the Lord, if I do not and am not to know who they are?”.   - John Darby

AN Groves & JN Darby

This is a facsimile of an 1836 letter written to John Nelson Darby (JND) by the man who many credit as being the originator of the movement that became known as the Plymouth Brethren: A. N. Groves.

The letter indicates clearly that Anthony Norris Groves (ANG) was concerned by signs of sectarianism and rigidity in Darby’s teachings and he gently remonstrates with his old Trinity friend before returning as a missionary to India. Unfortunately, history proves that Darby ignored the warnings.

The Exclusive Brethren today treat Darby’s theory and interpretation of  ‘Separation from evil’ as their foundational principle.  It has led to heartache, ripped-apart families, suicide and even murder.

It is not often that a historical document such as this one can point so clearly to a moment when a future cult could have been avoided.

Matthew Lindqvist (left) and Andrew Doven from the Exclusive Brethren stand opposite Wagga City Council and the corner they used for street preaching for years. Picture: Les Smith, Daily Advertiser

The Daily Advertiser today describes a battle in Wagga, Australia where the Exclusive Brethren are defending their right to free speech on the streets of their town.

In a nut-shell, Wagga City Council have implemented a ‘street activities policy’ that allows just one complaint to halt any street activity. In the case of the Exclusive Brethren, this affects their requirement for regular street preaching. Of course people are going to object to this and it most certainly would be wrong of any organization to attempt to muzzle another simply because they did not agree with their beliefs or what they said.

What Wagga City Council possibly doesn’t understand is that the Exclusive Brethren have to publicly be seen to preach even if this evangelical zeal doesn’t extend beyond the “bellowing“. Their Meeting Room is doubtlessly tax-exempt as a public place of worship and because they do not allow the public full access to their windowless, padlocked buildings, they have to ensure a little public presence somehow.

And their right to free speech? Absolutely! We perhaps should choose to ignore that they have just spent untold dollars in a four year lawsuit aimed at closing down this website because they didn’t agree with what was being said!

Good old Voltaire may have put it like this:

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” – Voltaire

The Exclusive Brethren are hardly so generous, but we are happy to stand alongside them in defence of Free Speech.

Perhaps Wagga City Council could rightly remove the tax-exempt status from the very private Exclusive Brethren meeting room and place the tax-payer dollars so saved in the public noise-abatement fund? Earplugs are not that expensive.

Exclusive Brethren Schools

The following extracts are from Sect pupils in a class of their own, The New Zealand Herald, published on Sunday May 9th, 2010.

This furore commenced on May 2nd, 2010 when a former Exclusive Brethren school teacher was fired for using a non-approved textbook. The fired teacher spoke of clauses within her employment contract that includes proof that the cult attempts to prevent any of their children from going onto university education.

Why?  They’re scared!

Imagine a school whose books had words blacked out or pages removed and large parts of the curriculum – particularly anything to do with puberty and sex – was simply not taught.

A school where teachers received unexpected late-night visits at home to check on their moral probity.

And where all aspects of school life are governed in every detail by a sacred text, but a committee has absolute discretion in deciding how to interpret it.

It may sound like the worst excesses of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Iranian mullahs, but this is the prevailing orthodoxy in 15 Westmount schools across the country run by the Exclusive Brethren.

The Exclusive Brethren have replaced conscience with rules and directives. They do not practice faith, rather they separate themselves from society. They do not allow the strength of character that is built by learning right from wrong and the normal development of self-control – instead, they rip out pages from books!

This week, teachers in Westmount schools have been summoned to meetings and required to sign agreements not to talk to the media.

A veil of silence has descended over the schools, which receive $2.59 million in Government funding and have a combined student body of 1619.

How can any government justify giving tax-payer money to intentionally under-educate children?

A copy of an employment agreement obtained by this newspaper lists some remarkable requirements: teachers must disclose their “personal circumstances”, forgo union membership and agree that evolution is a falsehood.

No inter-school sports or activities may bring students into contact with other schools, and promoting any interest by students in university is forbidden.

Craig Hoyle, 20, was kicked out of the Exclusive Brethren early last year for telling his brothers and sisters he was gay.

He was at the Westmount school in Invercargill and said that the quality of education was extremely good – but very restrictive.

“Biology books had any pages involving sexual reproduction or a mention of genitals ripped out,” he said.

“There was no [sex education], no discussions about puberty anywhere. You’re just left to wonder what is going on. For someone like me who is questioning their sexuality, there is no one to talk to.”

He said he failed one section in an NCEA test on radio because pupils were never allowed to use one.

“None of us had any idea what they were asking. We all failed in spite of the teacher trying to explain what the different things meant without using a radio.”

Both Hoyle and another former student said they were brought up to look down on their teachers as “worldlies” – the word used for everyone who is not Exclusive Brethren.

The other student, a woman in her early 20s who left the sect over a year ago, said it was difficult integrating with the rest of society after her upbringing.

Family members turned against her; cutting all communication other than the odd letter declaring her insane or possessed.

“I completely hated it [at Westmount School],” she said. “Maybe some people were happy there, but I was unhappy at school and at home. It was too restrictive.”.”

Even when the Exclusive Brethren loosened its rules on technology in 2007, it was under strict controls.

Children and young people were not allowed mobile phones and texting capability was removed on phones owned by adults. All mobile phones, faxes, and computers had to be hired from a Brethren organisation.

The pupils constantly had it drilled into them that they were special people in special positions and that “worldlies were dirty people,” said the woman.

Outsiders were seen as a potential threat “to our purity, to our soul” and were not to be trusted, she said.

She said Exclusive Brethren members monitored staff to ensure they were no immoral activities.

“There were late-night visits. They would turn up at your house, uninvited, at around 9 or 9.30pm. They weren’t trying to befriend you; they don’t do that. They were just checking up on you. The clear intent is to catch you off-guard, to see your living conditions: are you living in sin outside marriage, are you getting a divorce, do you have a boyfriend, or – heaven forbid – have a woman partner. You feel like you are being spied on.”

Another teacher said if they had a day off their classroom would be searched looking for any questionable material.

“They would pull you up on anything they found, and children were encouraged to tell if we said anything considered improper. Anything they remotely considered immoral was vetoed. You couldn’t get anywhere with requests for material … they don’t want students thinking too much.”

“They have every resource money can buy, as long as its approved, which of course means many are not. Everything goes through a committee for approval or censoring. The library is full of books with pages ripped out.”

More recently, male students had been studying at university level through extramural classes, but the focus was on business and legal fields, said Lineham. “They have enormous bills for accountants and legal bills.”

Read the full article at Sect pupils in a class of their own

Why are the Exclusive Brethren scared?

University is designed to help people think for themselves, look outside themselves, consider other points of view and to … be mentally and psychologically free.

No cult could ever allow such a thing! From the Exclusive Brethren perspective, this is a fully understandable decision – they have to protect their future workforce, and … how else will the Exclusive Brethren grow in numbers? They don’t marry outsiders and they don’t recruit new members. They have to protect their future – it’s simply economic common sense!

What is not understandable is why governments would use tax-payer money to assist the process.

Bible & Gospel Trust - April 2010

The latest insight into the Exclusive Brethren comes from a document submitted to the UK Charity Commissioner just a few weeks ago. The Bible & Gospel Trust’s Summary Information Return (2009) has some remarkable details and a rather embarrassing typo for a printing company.

To begin with, what is the Bible & Gospel Trust?

If the Exclusive Brethren had a soul, perhaps a debatable concept, then it would reside at Chelwood House, Cox Lane, Chessington, Surrey, UK. This is the address of the printing and printed material distribution center for the Exclusive Brethren. The primary function since its birth, in the years following the 1970 death of James Taylor Jr, is to publish the words spoken by its recognized leaders, sometimes with embarrassing accuracy.

Very similar to the Watchtower relationship with Jehovah Witnesses, the Bible & Gospel Trust has an assured market within the Exclusive Brethren cult. Exclusive Brethren must purchase ‘ministry’, hymn books and bibles from this single source. As an EB teenager begins to earn money, the local EB Assembly ‘BGT Agent’ will approach the young person and let them know that they are expected to purchase the collected writings of all EB leaders, right back to J. N Darby and the mid 1800′s. It’s quite an investment – and the purchase is mandatory.

Of course, there is the weekly, monthly and 6 monthly market cycle as well. Each windowless Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room (only the Public Relations folk call them ‘churches’) is equipped with state-of-the-art digital recording equipment. Any recording of Bruce D. Hales or a recognized leader in Hale’s hierarchy is shipped to Chelwood House where the recording is painstakingly transcribed, checked and printed.

The monthly results of this process, ring-bound on white paper with a white card cover (the color of the ‘Elect Vessel’ Bruce D. Hales), are shipped to every Exclusive Brethren Assembly, where it is mandatory for each head of household to purchase a copy. Periodically, a bound version is also published which contains all the monthly material and few other choice excerpts. This process is the main business cash flow for Bible & Gospel Trust.

All Exclusive Brethren members (men, women and children) own their own bibles and hymn books. These too are produced by the Bible & Gospel Trust.

The bibles, hymn books and the ‘ministry’ are traditionally only for members of the Exclusive Brethren. From a business perspective, the market is big enough to allow the BGT to retain $Millions on deposit. With encouragement for Exclusive Brethren to marry young and produce families early, the market grows at a fair clip.

So how can the Bible & Gospel Trust be classified as a public charity when it really is only a private publishing house?

A good question, but the Exclusive Brethren have an answer. They produce other materials too. In order to retain their tax-exempt status for their private Meeting Rooms, they practice street-preaching (this is designed to demonstrate that they are ‘evangelical’). They do not encourage people to join them of course, Bruce Hales makes that clear in the clearly ghost-written ‘Living Our Beliefs’ available on the EB website.

“While Brethren engage in open-air preaching (street preaching) and we distribute Bibles and gospel tracts to attract people to Jesus as Savior, we do not seek to attract members of the public to join the Exclusive Brethren.”

Living Our Beliefs

As long as they continue to go through the motions of being seen as being evangelical, they can assist the retention of their tax-exempt status. Any comparison between other Christian Evangelical efforts, where sharing the message is also an invitation to join others of like mind and enjoy their company, is quite remarkable and leaves an unanswered question as to their spiritual sincerity.

So the Bible & Gospel Trust do produce other material and they do give it away. But like many things the Exclusive Brethren do, it is for a reason.

OK, so what’s the ‘Epiphany’?

The cult-safe version of the PC

It is no secret that the Exclusive Brethren have a little problem with the internet.

The global ban on them using computers was over once they worked out a way to force internet filters on those Exclusive Brethren who purchased a Wordex Exclusive Brethren computer through an Exclusive Brethren computer supplier – a brilliant business manouver that solved the educational curriculum problem …

and provided the ability to block websites like this one from their members!

Despite their continued insistence that the internet is a “pipeline of filth” :

“They shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio, and the Internet.”

Exclusive Brethren website (Website? WEBsite? As in on-the-Internet? Yeah, really!)

… they have their own websites now and are busy buying up domain names all over the world.

And now, the Bible and Gospel Trust has stated that they are planning one too!

a)  The distribution of Bibles, and other Christian literature entirely in
accord with the Holy Scriptures for the furtherance of Christian knowledge
amongst mankind.

b)  The promotion of Christain [sic] values through the spread of the gospel.

c)  To make literature available at or below cost to disadvantaged persons.

d)  To provide literature suitable for use by those engaged in street
preaching activities.

e)  Improved marketing material and the provision of a website.

f)  Setting up stockists of Christian literature in different parts of the world
for free distribution.

From Bible & Gospel Trust 2010 Statement

What are your charity’s main objectives for next year?

To further increase the range of publications, and make Christian literature
more available thereby reducing the decline in Christian values and
principles.

To set up a bookstore where the general public can review and purchase
Chistian literature.

To launch a website which will allow persons worldwide to access free
downloadable Christian gospel literature.

From Bible & Gospel Trust 2010 Statement

Wow!

It would appear that the probable domain will be BGTUK.ORG and/or BIBLEANDGOSPELTRUST.ORG – both sites seem ‘under construction’. BGTUK.ORG is the current email domain.

BGTUK.ORG is owned by NOA(UK) Ltd – the Exclusive Brethren National Office Assist empire that silently spans the Exclusive Brethren world. Note on the link that NOA (UK) currently owns another 949 domains!

It remains to be seen whether the Exclusive Brethren will make available the collected writings of Bruce D. Hales, John S. Hales, James H. Symington and James Taylor Jr. This website suggests that this cannot happen, because if the ramblings of these Exclusive Brethren ‘elect vessels’ were to be freely downloadable, the business structure of Bible & Gospel Trust would collapse and there would be a growing outcry as to what this cult practices and their real attitude toward “Mankind”.

But perhaps the Exclusive Brethren are simply being philosophical in their transition to huge internet use?  They call it a “pipeline of filth”, but after all, as everyone knows:

“Where there’s muck, there’s brass“.

Scientology

The Exclusive Brethren

1 – They are both considered by many to be bona fide cults

2 – They both have had to have the word ‘church’ added to their official names

3 – Scientology borrows the Christian cross, the Exclusive Brethren have to insert the word ‘Christian’

4 – Both have extraordinarily wealthy leaders who are obsessed with security – David Miscavige (Scientology) and Bruce Hales (Exclusive Brethren).

5 – Both teach that if you leave the group, you are eternally lost.

6 – Both retain lawyers to attempt the silencing of perceived opposition through the use of frivolous lawsuits.

“Beware of attorneys who tell you not to sue … the purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win.” – Ron Hubbard (Scientology)

“Sue the bastards” – James Symington (Exclusive Brethren)

7 – Leaving either requires complete separation from the group. Scientology calls this ‘Disconnection‘. The Exclusive Brethren call it ‘Withdrawal‘. The remaining members will then shun the former member.

8 – Both have their own schools where the curriculum is carefully monitored and where the students are directed toward their unique beliefs.

9 – Allegations of abuse have been laid against both groups and in the Australian Parliament senators have demanded full inquiries.

10 – Scientology and the Exclusive Brethren share the same Public Relations firm – Jackson Wells, Sydney Australia