Kim Kardashian and the Exclusive Brethren?
The chatter press has been full of the sudden divorce of the completely over-rated Reality TV star Kim Kardashian from her sports star husband Kris Humphries after 72 days of marriage following a lavish $10 million wedding.
There is absolutely nothing worth writing about in terms of the Kardashians, but a New Zealand writer has managed to achieve the amazing feat of associating the Exclusive Brethren cult with this equally strange woman.
How did she do that?
Catherine Woulfe, deputy editor for New Zealand’s Sunday magazine provides a 5 point worksheet for new Zealand politicians.
As far as we’re concerned, only one really matters:
4. Never overestimate your audience.
They are all kinds of stupid. You can do a really bad thing (say, schmooze with the Exclusive Brethren or earn squillions from your sham wedding) but just smile and say that you didn’t, and it’ll all be okay.
Ouch! Does Catherine know the Exclusive Brethren or what?
The New Zealand public certainly does. The foray by the cult into the world of politics was the brainchild of the current leader, Bruce D. Hales. As Catherine says: ‘they are all kinds of stupid’ …
by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
Final Episode of: Cast Outside The Camp by Neville and Philippa McCallum (2008)
Aftermath - The Conclusion
It is worth a pause here, to note the irrational and unintelligent action of all the EB’s present this night. Some of us ‘outs’ have been trying to penetrate this thinking during the ‘review’ process. In both our case and my Mother’s case (as T. Deck states), it was Jim Symington (Neche) who gave the killer blow which was obeyed with precision by our tormentors and the local brethren, but when our cases were reviewed, both cases were overturned and we were reinstated.
You would then have to conclude that JHS is also in error, but definitely not – the world leader can not be wrong even though his judgements are overturned. This fallacy stems from a MIND-BENDING statement made by leadership in NZ:
” No matter what the world leader does, it could not be wrong”
For any sane human to believe this obvious fallacy, shows the level of mind control they are capable of, as in another statement of brain washing:
“When the brethren are wrong they are still right”
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
A meeting to remember
Aftermath - The Monarch of the Glen
This visit would have to be the most interesting, the most revealing dialogue I have ever had with a human being, other than perhaps with Tony McCorkell in 2007. To some degree this session has left the waters a little unsettled for the Blenheim hierarchy, due to the Monarch’s unintelligent exposure of the ‘world leader’, which means that there is unfinished business on this matter.
This visit took a year or more to organise. A meeting time would be set, but the Reverend Deck would become unwell etc etc. I made this visit conditional on one matter – that his wife Ann, accompanied him. There was a specific reason for this request –
1. The women (sisters) amongst the EB’s are always kept in the shadows, and have no say nor defence in any of the administrative matters. They just accept unchristian judgements while being subject to their husbands.
2. The women are not guilty for the human atrocities committed by their husbands.
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
We build too many walls and not enough bridges
Aftermath - The Social Chains
Going back to our apprehension about making decisions, what happens now, that Pip and I have to decide if our children eat their lunch at school, and 100 other matters that we had never had to think about? We had been good (most of the time) Exclusive Brethren, with the one-and-only decision to make, which was to unconditionally obey every dictate of the ‘world leader.’ There was, and is today, no other important decision to be made. Your head and every breath is spared or lost by this cultish behaviour. Due to the above, we were not well resourced to survive on the outside.
There were two situations that we feared –
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
Two men practice a Brethren in Christ "holy kiss". (Brethren in Christ Historical Library and Archives)
Aftermath
- The ‘Holy Kiss’ -
I cannot write about this odd behaviour without a shudder from head to foot. This order was given by J.T.jr (1968 approx) and no male was exempt. From memory, every man kissed every other man every day (or week, at the meeting room) for far too long, maybe a year or two. Once again, scripture was adulterated to accommodate the dictates of leaders. A holy kiss?? If all things holy are as pleasant as this experience was, then I might just choose all things unholy!
As no directions were given for the physical execution of this intimate performance, we did what all people do when left in the dark, work it out yourself. With all the bony noses, wet noses, slobbery lips and hairy ears that smacked me in the face every day, I for one learnt super quick, how to duck, roll, lean and sometimes clean miss, just to save my face being messed-up for the following meeting. When you’re faced with 30 or 40 oncoming male lips, desperate to please the Fuhrer, it is amazing how enthusiastic these lips became, and how different they all seem to be.
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
The bewildering impact of Freedom
The bewildering impact of Freedom
ROUND 15 (Part 2)
- Coping With Freedom -
We were the fourth generation of our families (McCallum and Janson) to be in the Exclusive Brethren fellowship, with our ancestors joining in the 1800’s.
Even though we had kind of re-grouped during our 3 year ordeal, now we were alone to stand or fall on every decision we made. This is when the going got tough.
Up until this day (in our generation timing), we had never been permitted to make any important decisions ourselves, as all decisions came through the ‘world leader’s’ ministry which every home globally received a copy each month.
For any non member, including our children today, the above statement is impossible to understand without me giving a foundation for it.
Here are just a few examples –
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this often deep, always insightful and sinister human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
And now matters start coming to a head ...
And now matters start coming to a head ...
ROUND 15 (Part 1)
- Excommunication -
After the last Round, I had to do a little homework, in case I was employing the 18 year old illegally. I contacted the Labour Department, and enquired into the matter. The laws of the land were as follows –
It was lawful to employ any person who reached the age of 18 yrs without joining them to a union, providing they had not been approached by a union official. There was no responsibility on the part of the employer to even suggest to any employee that they should join a union. The fact that no union official had ever set foot on my property let alone speak to my employees, left me in the clear legally.
I asked my 18 yr old employee, if she had ever considered belonging to a union. I got an emphatic NO. The result of the above enquiry was like ‘music to my ears’.
I was ready for the return of the thugs.
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by Neville and Philippa McCallum
Neville McCallum experienced the full wrath of the Exclusive Brethren in New Zealand during the notorious reign of James H Symington (cult leader through the 1970′s until his death in 1987). In Cast Outside The Camp, Neville and his wife Philippa recount how it felt to be pursued, interrogated and eventually cast-out of the Exclusive Brethren. They pull no punches in this deep, insightful and often shocking human drama which is presented by peebs.net as a multi-part serialization.
ROUND 1
One law for the rich and another law for the poor
Background to our last meeting amongst the brethren in Blenheim.
Dave Fisher sold his bakery business in 1979 to a non-member, but retained the exclusive right to use a certain recipe. The new owner dishonoured this agreement regarding the recipe, by using this recipe, which goaded the local War Cabinet (Terry Deck and Malcolm Hamilton) into leading the charge to interrogate this new owner by visiting him, using a tape recorder during these visits, etc.
The above interference by these priests then spilled over into the meetings in a dramatic way. Almost every meeting was coloured by this issue, to the point where M. Hamilton finally threatened all of us in a ministry meeting, that if we did not join in the fight, for Dave Fisher’s recipe rights, then we were going to be in trouble. None of us were asked if we wanted to fight for Dave Fisher’s recipe problems, we were forced to join this ill-fated battle.
Two points were not adding up to me –
1 - Why was the assembly being forced into doing battle with something that was none of our business in the first place? It was a Fisher problem, and Fisher only.
2 - As JHS (James Symington, world leader) was being asked for his opinion, despite it being none of his business either, why did we not wait for his reply before threatening the brethren into making further decisions?
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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!
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‘Firestorm: Black Saturday’s Tragedy’ and the familiar sound of Exclusive Brethren silence
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:
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