But before we give this our full attention consider this. Now I know there are those of you out there who love a conundrum. You love to find that exact scripture and verse. Well I invite you all to comment on this lot for me. I have to say –there are so many bells ringing with me here that it sounds like Westminster Abbey here right now. The following comes from several people – some of whom you may know…
I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.
Susan B. Anthony
God made so many different kinds of people. Why would he allow only one kind to serve him? (I’m presuming this is the old – we are the only true church line.)
Martin Buber
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself. (Rings true for Hales and his cronies.)
Richard Francis Burton
How can the Church be received as a trustworthy guide in the invisible, which falls into so many errors in the visible? (Also rings true for the Peebs)
John W. Draper
You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic. (It’s true. The wards are full of them.)
Doris Egan
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Galileo
And for those who say it is ALL true-
The biblical account of Noah's Ark and the Flood is perhaps the most implausible story for fundamentalists to defend. Where, for example, while loading his ark, did Noah find penguins and polar bears in Palestine? (And kangaroos and wombats)
Judith Hayes
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.
Jonathan Swift
And my absolute Number one quote of the week is so pertinent to the Peebs that is instantaneously resonant-
Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
Well –this week we have confirmation of what we all know and have suspected for some time. Hales is mildly out of control (even for him) and lording it over his poor subjects even more appallingly. An insider this week – has confirmed the whole sorry mess that is the Brethren today. I mean – we knew he was nuts. We knew he was out of control. We knew he was an alcoholic. We knew he had devised a business out of a religion. And now we have irrefutable proof. The guy is as whacko as any of his predecessors.
Consider this -and I quote our insider friend-
“Personally, I find the white books fascinating nowadays as they are becoming more and more bizarre, especially when BDH is on a world tour, as he seems to feel obliged to make extreme statements to hold his congregation’s attention. At times he cannot even remember what he has just said. In America recently, he described himself as a bum, and said that “our (printing of JT’s) meeting is better than their (the OB’s) meeting” – how intensely childish for goodness sake. It is the same meeting, just edited differently!
In Argentina he told the brethren that they owed their lives to him.
What is disconcerting is the way that he isolates from the rest of the brethren nowadays; travelling in a private jet, or a flash car convoy, entering meetings via a marquee which is inaccessible to the masses, selecting who he will speak to, and having local brethren placed at the end of each row in the aisle he walks up to ensure no unauthorised individual can get to ask any questions. These are symptoms of paranoia and suggest an extreme sense of self-doubt. He does not even show the common decency to reply to, or acknowledge, letters which require answers to difficult questions.
The obsession with money is extraordinary. It has nothing to do with spirituality or committal to Christ – only committal to BDH and getting a place at the top of the pile, which is, admittedly, very gratifying. Brethren used to be promoted due of their personal uprightness, knowledge of Christ and the Holy Scriptures. That has gone out of the window now, and we are seeing previously reviled brethren given prominence due solely to their ability to generate hard cash.”
We have certainly called this correctly since this whole new ‘System’ became blatantly evident. It wasn’t hard to spot. But this also throws the spotlight on a man who is clearly out of control in a number of areas.
Visit Friends Alive folks and discover what else our friend says. It’s a real eye opener. Not that it is news to any of us. Like I always say- when you get away from the Peebs – you start to see things very clearly.
