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 – keeping children separate from other non-cult children so that by the time they might meet non-EB members of society, they are already pre-conditioned.

Once the children graduate from their Exclusive Brethren schools, they do not have the normal life adventure of deciding on a suitable university. Exclusive Brethren young adults are provided with one or two tertiary opportunities via correspondance courses, but the character-building adventure of beginning to fend for oneself is not an option the Exclusive Brethren allow.  In fact, it is the last thing they want!

Thinking, research, free access to all literature, thought and philosophy are luxuries that Exclusive Brethren children are trained to shun. With an unthinkable future of being disfellowshipped, thrown into outer-darkness and an eternity in hell fire, most succumb to the threat and obediently start working for one of the wealthiest religious international business networks which are in turn linked to one of the largest and most complex international charitable trust (read ‘tax-free’) organizations in the world today. Girls have one future ahead of them – Motherhood. The Exclusive Brethren do not recruit from outside and must therefore fill their schools by breeding from within.

It is this sub-culture that Kevin Rudd is enabling by allowing government funding. It will permanently damage his political future.

Listen to your electorate Kevin!

“I’m not opposed to the use of taxpayer funds to support so-called “private education”. It makes good economic sense, especially given the contribution some schools make to the education of rural students and those with disabilities. Many more students from such schools make immense contributions to the community in later life, more than repaying the money spent on their education. These things, however, are not true of the Exclusive Brethren.”

“The purpose of their schools is to isolate individuals from society and make them so dependent on the group that they are unable to leave because they have no external support network.”

“I suggest the Exclusive Brethren should show a willingness to participate in society before they receive taxpayer funds for education.”

“Brilliant stuff. Fund them all to run their loony schools and do away with sane, rational public education altogether.”

“Schools that accept taxpayers money are not “private”.”

“… whose only purpose is to groom the next generation to fund the religious cult, (illegal and unconstitutional in any other country in the world) otherwise the present religions would simply fade away like all the other thousands of invented religions have? “

“The facts are that the majority of Australian families will never afford to use these private religious cult schools or ever want to use them “

“We should have similar legislation here in Australia so that our taxes are not used by religious cults on political parties, advertising and the indoctrination of vulnerable young children (which many consider child abuse) “

“… by privately run outrageously expensive religious global corporations whose only purpose is to groom the next generation to fund the religious cult, (illegal and unconstitutional in any other country in the world)”

“Church tax in Germany dates from well before Hitler. It was levied back in 19th century, and was part of the Weimar Constitution of 1919 … The tax office collects the tax on behalf of the religion … Those who belong to other religious groups or who have no religion, do not pay the tax. Anyone who officially leaves their religious community is no longer liable for the tax.”

“Exclusive Brethren raise their daughters telling them that if they ever marry or sleep with a man not of their church they will never see their families again. This is child abuse. Plain. Simple. Shut this cult down.”

“this is an obscenity!”

Random quotes extracted from The Australian Letters Blog