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:

The Prime Minister provided a letter, accompanied by a photo, congratulating the Exclusive Brethren-run Glenvale School in Victoria for producing the book. The Brethren yesterday confirmed Mr Rudd was aware the sect was involved in the book when he agreed to provide the letter.

The letter is reproduced on a full page at the front of the book, which is billed as a fundraiser for the Country Fire Authority.

About 55,000 copies of Firestorm: Black Saturday’s Tragedy have been printed and are on sale for $50. The preface says the book was the work of “parents and friends” of Glenvale’s Lilydale and Berwick campuses, but fails to note the school is run by the sect.

From The Australian – Kevin Rudd endorses Exclusive Brethren fire book

At best this ‘fund raiser’ is a feeble Public Relations effort but those who know the Exclusive Brethren and their ways see a more sinister intent – a transparent ruse to try and improve their irrepairably damaged public reputation – on the backs of a gut-wrenching disaster and by the use of children that continue to be indoctrinated at the expense of the Australian tax-payer.

It will not escape the attention of many that the last time the Exclusive Brethren attempted anything like this, they were trumpeting their ‘assistance during the aftermath of 9/11‘ – as to exactly what their assistance was at that time, no one knows.

The fact that Glenvale School, the Publisher and the Exclusive Brethren’s public relations firm do not disclose who is behind this effort speaks louder than words – the silence is the continuing sneaky hallmark of one of the most destructive religious cults around today.

As Simon & Garfunkel knew: “silence like a cancer grows...”

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share…
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence

“Fools,” said I, “you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.”
“Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you.”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls,
And whisper’d in the sound of silence.”

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

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:

“The comments this week have been more than a year in gestation. He hooked into Scientology while doing a stint as a talk-back radio host in Adelaide before coming to Canberra. The trigger was a piece by Fairfax writer David Marr. The Marr piece prompted him to query whether the controversial organisation deserved its tax breaks.”

Source – Dogged crusader

David Marr, a highly respected Australian investigative journalist, is no stranger to looking at certain ‘religions’ with a calculator handy:

“You don’t know these three Sydney suburban businessmen, but their sect has influenced politics in four countries. David Marr reports.

With an iron hand, West Ryde businessman Bruce D. Hales rules his world church. To his 40,000 followers in the Exclusive Brethren, this prosperous supplier of office equipment in the Sydney suburbs is known as the Elect Vessel, the Lord’s Representative on Earth, the Great Man, the Paul of Our Day, Minister of the Lord in Recovery and Mr Bruce.
…
They cover their tracks. The name of the sect is never mentioned. Their political demands are a seamless mix of business breaks and hard-line Christian morality. Under Hales, the Exclusive Brethren have become a new player in the right-wing politics of the world. And they have lots and lots and lots of money.”

Source – Hidden Prophets

David Marr goes deeper …

“The sect is having legal problems on other fronts. In June, the High Court confirmed a ruling that the Brethren’s fortress-like meeting halls in Brisbane are not “places of public worship” and it must therefore pay rates. These halls stand on prime real estate all over Australia. The Brethren are up for millions.

But the sect is rich and there is lots of money to pour into the fight against same sex unions. A delegation of Brethren warned Brown this year that gay marriage is completely and utterly wrong, shocking and perverted: “The world is rushing on to destruction.”

Even the Victorian Liberal leader, Ted Baillieu, is talking civil unions now. But with an election only weeks away, the Brethren are organising. They’ve been to see the Victorian Nationals leader, Peter Ryan, to complain about Baillieu and check out his own position. He was able to reassure them completely. “I do not support the principle of gay unions in any sense of it equating to marriage.”

Meanwhile, inside the sect, opponents of this heretical excursion into politics are biding their time. They are terrified of making a move. All they have is at risk: their wives, children and businesses. They say it’s all but impossible to explain what life is like in there: “You cannot understand the horrific mistreatment of people.”

Source – Hell’s fury ranks behind outpouring

And has there been improvement in the last three years? Well, hardly surprisingly the Exclusive Brethren have dropped below their famous ‘radar’ in politics. Their rightly ridiculed political foray was the ‘brain-child’ of the ‘Elect Vessel’ Bruce D. Hales and had the end result of the Exclusive Brethren being seen as political pariahs, untouchable smear-tacticians and brought a focus of international media attention – the one thing that any cult fears the most!

Their ‘help’ resulted in Donald Brash in New Zealand resigning, and John Howard losing his seat, his Prime Ministership and his party’s election. With George Bush (also Exclusive Brethren supported) long gone, the quality of Bruce Hales’s political campaign leadership in the Exclusive Brethren must be considered an unmitigated disaster. If he was not the leader of a cult and holding the temporal and eternal futures of his members  in his hands, he would have been fired for pure incompetency!

Much of this era and the history of the cult has been captured brilliantly in Michael Bachelard’s Exclusive Brethren exposé: ‘Behind the Exclusive Brethren’. Of this October 2008 publication David Marr commented:

“Shocking and compelling. Michael Bachelard has written an eye-opening account of power and cruelty in a tiny Christian sect that enjoys a privileged existence in Australia.”

David Marr Comment – ‘Behind the Exclusive Brethren’

David Marr kept watching …

“A father’s price for quitting his marriage was to lose contact with eight children left behind in the Exclusive Brethren. David Marr caught up with sect defenders.

The Exclusive Brethren has enjoyed sweet victories in the Family Court before, but none sweeter than this. Despite all that is now known about the methods of the Brethren, the court has denied a father in Tasmania any access to his children for reasons that boil down, essentially, to this: he left the sect.”

Source – The Exclusion Brethren (July 2009)
Comment – THE ELUSIVE, EXCLUSIVE AND NOW – EXCLUSION BRETHREN

There have been a number of attempts to gain an official inquiry into the business workings of the Exclusive Brethren as well as an investigation into human rights abuses behind their security fences and locked doors.

Quite rightly people are asking questions about their tax-exempt status and the huge amounts of public money thrown into their ‘schools’.

Then there is the matter of a vast international network of charitable trusts linking every Exclusive Brethren Meeting Room, every Exclusive Brethren ‘school’, every Exclusive Brethren gathering, their ‘Watchtower-like’ Bible and Gospel Trust, ‘Poverty Funds’, Old People Homes, Land Developments, the National Office Assist network, the Wordex distribution, EB cell phones, digital cameras, travel organizations and medical insurance fund.

Tax-exempt money flows freely though the integrated charity network and when necessary couriers bring neatly packaged sums of cash (just under the $10k limit) across international borders.

Hopefully Nick Xenophon will get his wish – an investigation into the cult-like Scientology organization.

We then suggest that Nick Xenophon and fellow-senator Bob Brown spend a little time together. Bob has access to some really interesting information that some will consider demands an investigation into the cult known as the Exclusive Brethren.

“Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has called for an inquiry into the extent of the Exclusive Brethren’s influence in federal politics”

Source – Brown wants probe on Brethren influence (2009)

Go Nick!  And get back in there Bob!

Bruce Hales is a different kind of Exclusive Brethren leader than all those before. Not gifted as an orator, not particularly learned, apparently a shy and retiring man who is reportedly scared of media attention and that ‘someone may attack him‘. As a result, sightings are rare and Bruce Hales travels secretly and normally with a contingent of bodyguards. No other Exclusive Brethren leader has ever acted this way.

Even the Exclusive Brethren recognize the differences between Bruce Hales and his predecessors. The varied spokesmen now publicly decry the use of the term ‘Elect Vessel’ and ‘Man of God’ which is both an admission of the lack of quality doctrine and teaching involved in BDH ‘ministry’ but is perhaps also an unusually realistic assessment of his spiritual stature. It has been noticeable that there has been a recent increase in the travel and use of other more gifted teachers within the Exclusive Brethren community.

This should not to be viewed as a sign of weak leadership however! ‘Mr Bruce’ is very much in control and is adulated by most Exclusive Brethren. Expressions like “Mr. Bruce will look after us” or “Mr Bruce is filling our storehouses for the coming famine” are frequently heard and these speak to the new position that Bruce Hales has carved for himself. Playing off the ‘End Times’ forecasts of doom and panic that have been the main doctrinal heritage provided by many EB writers and teachers, Bruce is placing himself in a role of ‘Joseph’, the biblical son of Jacob who became the savior of both his family and Eygpt. One obvious difference of course, is that Joseph didn’t keep most of it for himself …

His role has been carefully transformed from being a Spiritual Leader to a Corporate Executive. It is certainly a role that far better suits BDH’s abilities. It is interesting to note in some of his published ‘ministry’ how his most dynamic and well-spoken moments surround anything relating to Business. On that topic, Bruce Hales is surely in charge, the corporate CEO of ‘Exclusive Brethren Inc.’.

The financial structures that his father put in place have become the international business framework of a vast and astonishingly wealthy organization that uses any tax exemption route possible in the holding, transfer and reporting of funds. The best example of the manner in which this organization operates is to take the model of a giant corporation with in excess of 40,000 employees. When viewed in that light, the organization of the Exclusive Brethren becomes far clearer and the similarities are dramatic:

- A Board of Directors
- A President/CEO firmly in control
- A professional Public Relations firm on retainer
- At least one full-time professional lawyer (Wiseman) on staff
- A variety of legal firms and lawyers on retainer around the world
- Country, Regional and Local Managers
- Vastly diversified but inter-connected business areas
- International Distribution channels
- Revenue routes for both for-profit and for ‘corporate contribution’
- World-wide real estate holdings
- All real estate (Meeting Rooms) are tax-exempt
- A captive work-force with specially defined roles for women / men
- All managers are men – there are no female managers at any level
- Internal financing for business start-ups and property mortgages
- Their own Medical Insurance Plan
- Their own Superannuation Pension Plan
- There is no Life Insurance as it is not needed (they look after their own)
- No restriction to doing business (retail) with non-Brethren
- A world-wide electronic network with limited (censored) Internet access / Email
- EB OEM computer hardware with specially crippled operating systems
- It is mandatory to purchase an EB OEM computer if computing is needed
- EB OEM cell phones with limited capabilities and with mandatory GSP tracking installed
- EB OEM digital cameras with limited software provision
- Electronic Business Management Services via central electronic HQ
- Comprehensive Business Training classes (a BDH specialty and expensive!)
- Children trained-to-serve in their own growing separatist school system
- A minimum of outside recruitment for any internal roles
- A code of secrecy fueled by carefully manufactured paranoia

If any internal event of the last 12 months was to be highlighted, it would be the forced withdrawal of Bruce Hales from the political arena.

Many will recall that he burst upon the international political scene in 2003 with a well-funded advertising campaign drawn from mandatory donations at local assembly level throughout the USA and Europe. Not anticipating the enforced transparency of government funding laws, the complete list of all donors was easily available with many personal names and EB business names comprising the annual report of the ‘Thanksgiving 2004 Committee’. Quotes like “we prefer to fly under the radar” by the arrogant and untrained alerted the media that EB political involvement was worth watching – and indeed it proved to be so.

Everything BDH touched politically was a disaster. It was a case of blunder after blunder and as a result two things happened: the Exclusive Brethren were quickly seen as operating at the dirtiest end of politics and the more they lied, the more it became clear that they were operating as a cohesive force – and second, the media watched, documented and investigated. Just the media archives for the past 5 years tell the story – hundreds of articles and within a matter of months, the Exclusive Brethren were exposed to the world as a political hot-potato. Any politician seen to be in contact with them was doomed. The leader of the New Zealand National Party – the then incumbent Prime Minister of Australia …

It took the total political failure of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia to allow the obvious message to sink home and then the world-wide edict went out – “Stop!”. Information from Exclusive Brethren Regional Political Campaign Managers and Organizers (despite their claims to the contrary, the EB had a very comprehensive organization in each EB country) show that work stopped immediately and completely. The Exclusive Brethren had withdrawn from their forte of ‘smear campaign’ politics. Although the media will miss the easy target the Exclusive Brethren represented, the political world is probably breathing a sigh of relief!

We saw the brief and rather ridiculous use of Bruce’s older brother Daniel Hales as official EB Spokesman. It was an event that was carefully orchestrated by the new EB PR gurus, complete with an impressive portfolio of photographs taken of Daniel at home, in his armchairs, smiling, sitting with his wife and daughters in their palatial home … the visual epitome of success. The several interviews were unsuccessful. The untruths were blatant and the attempted fatherly persona, unconvincing – Daniel came across as arrogant, unsubstantial and it appears that he has since been relegated.

The highlight of the year must be Michael Bachelard’s book – ‘Behind The Exclusive Brethren’. It ranks as one of the best researched and clearly accurate accounts of behind-the-scenes Exclusive Brethren that has yet been written. It was universally well-received by both a fascinated ex-Exclusive Brethren community and by an equally enthralled public. Sales were high in Australia and New Zealand with reports of Exclusive Brethren attempting to buy up complete stocks from bookshops – not for cult consumption of course – Bruce banned the book even before he read it!

So as we move into another year with Bruce Hales as Corporate Leader, what might we expect to be the main headlines and changes to come? The short answer is that you never know and the Exclusive Brethren even have a term for it – “The Lord turning a corner”. It is a very convenient method of ensuring that the flock know who is in charge and to be ready for anything – a classic cult tactic.

The ‘Lord’ has turned so many corners with Bruce Hales since 2003 that the sand is filled with spirals: faxes … radio-controlled devices … computers … internet …. email … cell phones … digital cameras … medical insurance … all the items once soberly condemned by the “unbroken line of divinely accredited leaders” have been made clean (as long as you buy the OEM Exclusive Brethren model).

We anticipate that Television may well soon become a further legal addition to EB homes – many already have a set or two hidden away. We are aware of some conversations that are in progress with filtered cable/satellite companies. The EB have remote-education facilities in some of their schools where use of closed-circuit TV is viewed as being ‘separate’ from the pipelines of filth.

Their extraordinary ability to persuade lawmakers to invest public tax dollars in their separatist school systems will doubtlessly continue until the public truly grasp the way in which they are being forced to help indoctrinate yet another generation of Brethren who will offer nothing to their local communities.

We anticipate that the message might become stronger in towns and municipalities as a backlash is surely growing in momentum as to why the Exclusive Brethren should enjoy tax exemption for their fortress-style windowless Meeting Rooms. There is a growing number of contacts being made with local organizers of community groups who are attempting to block new schools and meeting rooms.

We hope that the impact of media education will grow in helping local authorities distinguish between the mild and evangelical Open Plymouth Brethren in their Gospel Halls and Chapels – and to be able to see that when the Exclusive Brethren make an application and call their Meeting Rooms ‘gospel halls’ and themselves ‘christian or plymouth brethren’, that they are intentionally obfuscating the application process.

We expect at least one more publication in 2009 and this one will be a shocker. We send our best wishes to the writer – his story is horrendous and the telling is as agonizing to record as it will be to read.

One aspect of the Exclusive Brethren we do not anticipate changing is their reliance upon their malformed doctrine of ‘Separation from evil’. Although it can be simple to show why this 150 year old doctrine is wrong, it is the glue that holds the work force together. Separation is another term for the Control that the Exclusive Brethren exert upon their flock and without it, the leadership know they will lose their young. And this is why the EB school system is so important to them.

A married man with an EB job and an EB mortgage and an EB wife is a fairly secure member of the workforce. A single man or single woman has options. All EB know the impact of leaving. They must leave everything behind and they will take nothing with them – including job references, superannuation, visitation rights, spiritual hope or family access. A person leaving the Exclusive Brethren becomes an immediate refugee in their own town.

We anticipate helping more Refugees in 2009 and so does the ex-Exclusive Brethren Community which recently swelled the world-wide number of Helpers to over 120.

Although the Exclusive Brethren are attempting to close down this web site through prolonged litigation and with more suits in progress, we know that this work will continue – because it must.

Happy New Year to you all and especially to those who are considering leaving the Exclusive Brethren. It can be done and there are hundreds of us out here who wish you nothing but good and will help you in any way we can.

Blessings!

Peebs.Net Team

New Zealand is politically tumultuous. There is no question in anyones mind as to one of the sources of the ripples of paranoia and suspicion that have dogged the 2008 New Zealand elections. It simply traces back to 2005 when the ‘secret seven’ Exclusive Brethren commenced their undercover role of spending money raised at the world-wide command of Bruce Hales, leader of the Australia-based cult.

The smear tactics and ‘dirty tricks’ that the involvement of the Exclusive Brethren initiated was utterly outrageous. Within 2 years of taking over ‘EB Inc.’, Bruce Hales had declared his intent of making an impact on the world political stage – but the route he chose was a dismal failure.

Everything Bruce Hales touched politically was disastrous. He lost Don Brash his position, he lost the NZ National Party their chance to rule and later he repeated the effect in his home country and constituency by helping John Howard, the sitting Australian Premier, lose his own seat and office. It is rumored he also once met George W. Bush … (the EB have deleted the reference to this meeting from their web site)

And today? The ripples still show – even if “beneath the radar” – the Exclusive Brethren self-styled choice of operation:

So where is the money for the party coming from now Mr Field doesn’t have the backing of the Labour machine? It is rumoured that the Exclusive Brethren are helping. Mr Field says they are getting backing from all kinds of Christians. Fliers and the party’s website give bank account details.

“We don’t make it our business to decipher all that. These donations appear in our account and we just thank the Lord for it.”

Source: The Dominion Post – Fighting for spiritual South Auckland
Friday October 31st, 2008

“All kinds of Christians” … that would certainly include the Exclusive Brethren.

May 24th, 2008

A news article published today in New Zealand highlights one of the most outrageous and frankly, stupid projects the Exclusive Brethren ever funded during their laughable ‘political’ enterprises in the last NZ elections.

When the book is finally written on the political impact of a cult living separated from society whose then new leader (Australian Bruce D. Hales) arbitrarily decided during 2004 to throw bushel-loads of money in ‘supporting’ selected political figures, the names of their ‘chosen’ immediately tell the tale:

• George Bush
• Donald Brash
• John Howard

You can almost hear the prayerful pleading of conservative politicians throughout the western world as new election cycles commence this year – “Please Exclusive Brethren, Oh please don’t support me!”. The concept of the ‘kiss of death’ certainly applies to the end results of their meetings and offered friendships to those they considered suitable recipients for their contributions. Politically of course, they continue to bat zero and indications are they have now decided to fly so low below the radar that they are hopefully permanently stalled. If this is the case, it would be the most intelligent Exclusive Brethren political decision to come out of Sydney, Australia since 2002.

But back to the news article. The Dominion Post – How our man in Moscow made a sprat of himself. The story is a summary of the strange tale of retired NZ diplomat Ian Noel Clark and how the KGB played upon and around his desire to increase his salary.

As part of the article, Phil Kitchin produces a list of other notable ‘Outed Spies’. Top of the list is:

OUTED SPIES

2006: It is revealed that a Dunedin private investigator, Wayne Idour, was hired indirectly by religious sect the Exclusive Brethren, through another private investigator, to spy on senior Labour MPs as well as Prime Minister Helen Clark and her husband, Peter Davis.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4558576a6479.html

Although the Exclusive Brethren initially tried to convince an increasingly dubious public that their political efforts were ‘the work of individuals’ who were ‘acting on their own initiative’, it became increasingly obvious that there was a wider pattern and a centralized mandate. Documents came to light and recently escaped members spoke of ‘mandatory political fund collections’, ‘regional political officers’ and a centrally-designed and politically-focused campaign that covered all Exclusive Brethren territories.

There was nothing wrong with the Exclusive Brethren being involved in politics – it’s a right of any democratic society – but the way they went about it ranged from the extraordinary to the hilarious. They lied, they gave false addresses, they utilized the lowest smear-style tactics, they conducted secret meetings, they hired private detectives … and they politically damaged everyone they touched!

At the end of the day, perhaps the Exclusive Brethren are now starting to realize what they are good at – making money, operating a cult and ensuring a new generation of their labor force remains behind their fenced compounds.

We are sure that we are not alone in hoping that their forays into the world of politics have ended. The only way that the Exclusive Brethren could have helped politically would have been to conduct political campiagns with honesty, integrity and openness. These are hallmarks of those Christians who choose to operate in the carefully monitored world of international, national and regional politics.

On that basis alone, it is obvious that politics are not a sphere that the Exclusive Brethren are qualified to operate within.