The Memorial Pages
Memorial Pages Overview
The Peebs.Net Community has been researching and compiling an horrific dossier on the number of deaths that appear directly attributable to the Exclusive Brethren doctrine of Separation. This doctrine is considered the core belief of the cult and has caused nothing but pain and anguish to those affected by it.
The Peebs.Net Community is compiling a growing list of suicides, murders and death and it represents a damning indictment of what happens when Legalism is allowed to overpower Love.
These are the stories of those who were driven beyond what they could bear.
Full details, including many documents, newspaper cuttings and photographs appear on the Peebs.Net Memorial Pages. These blog pages are designed to allow you to read and discuss the implications of these sad case studies.
There are many more cases still being uncovered and researched. Their names will be added to both the Memorial Pages section of Peebs.Net and to the blog.
If there was ever a definitive test of whether a doctrine was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, surely the heartbreak and misery of ordinary people forced to the edge of an abyss, and then over it, is enough evidence in itself.
The Exclusive Brethren take the biblical injunction to ’separate from evil’ as an excuse to hide away from society. Their interpretation of a simple teaching aimed at helping Christians to define parameters to live by, has developed into an often physical barricade against all other members of society – including their own.
To most people, the majority of their numerous rules and directives are simply ridiculous:
- No shared sewer between a house and a street
- No semi-detached or shared-wall homes allowed
- No eating in restaurants
- No hotels
- No vacations
- No television or radio
- No university education
- No employment after marriage (women)
- No professional associations
- No swimming in public swimming-pools
- There are many more …
These are just some of the rules surrounding their ‘Separation’ doctrine and everyday living. The reality and the genuine evil behind their strange beliefs becomes evident in the way they treat the families of those who have members who fall foul of their regulations.
The moment an individual breaks a rule or is placed ‘under discipline’, that person is sent home and shunned – the Exclusive Brethren call this being ’shut-up’. From that moment the individual is not to eat with members of his family, sleep with his wife or indulge in normal conversation. All natural social linkages are withdrawn.
During this time, Exclusive Brethren ‘priests’ will visit, often every few days. These sessions are designed to ensure the individual realizes that he/she has ’sinned against the assembly’. Many describe the ordeal of being brow-beaten and interrogated in their own homes, often within earshot of their families. Humiliation after all, is a powerful form of control.
Should the individual not submit to their authority, or should the ‘priests’ unilaterally decide they are not content with the ‘level of repentance’ they see, this process will inevitably lead to excommunication.
Excommunication from the Exclusive Brethren is a terrifying concept to a member. It involves leaving a cloistered society, a carefully structured and authoritarian way of living where all friends are Exclusive Brethren, your employment is with Exclusive Brethren, your mortgage will be via Exclusive Brethren loan, your work history and education is limited to that allowed by the Exclusive Brethren. Your complete mental and emotional infrastructure is under threat. And worse is still to come …
When a spouse is withdrawn-from, the remaining husband or wife has a very bleak choice. Stay or Go. To Go, means leaving everything behind and going out into a world that from birth has been labeled evil and dangerous. Having been carefully segregated from outside influence all their life, a member of the Exclusive Brethren is not equipped to handle the interactions and social contact that society takes for granted. The only alternative is to stay and to Stay means divorce.
Although self-described as Christian, the Exclusive Brethren do not practice evangelism in order to increase their numbers. As a result, their only form of growth is from within. Exclusive Brethren children are therefore an invaluable commodity. The Exclusive Brethren have frequently demonstrated that they will fight through the courts to keep children within the fellowship. As a result, the withdrawn-from spouse is unlikely to get any form of reasonable court ordered visitation and even then, there will often be humiliating clauses that define what can and cannot take place during those visits.
Once an ex-member is out of the house, the children remain under Exclusive Brethren influence and are taught to consider their departed parent as ‘evil’. As a result, almost inevitably, the relationships begin to fail and then, the ex-member is truly alone.
These are the real pressures forced on people by the Exclusive Brethren doctrine of Separation. Not only does this aberration of Christian teaching cause untold stress and emotional hardship, but, as the stories of those on these pages reveal, it also kills.
View the Peebs.Net Memorial Pages (opens in a new window)
