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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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 –
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The Exclusive Brethren have been desperate to repair some of the public damage caused to their reputation since their disasterous foray into international politics in 2003. Initially they attempted to handle their own public relations, but their inability to be persuasive in the media forced them to hire a public relations firm.
“In early 2007, senior members of the Exclusive Brethren Christian Fellowship approached Jackson Wells seeking assistance dealing with a sudden and intense increase in media interest…”
“At the heart of Jackson Wells strategy to assist the Brethren was to increase the Church’s engagement with the wider community, mainly through the media.”
“The Brethren Church still has some way to travel in gaining an accurate public understanding of the lifestyle of its members”
The Exclusive Brethren have a track record of hypocrisy. For example, while still maintaining that the Internet was a “pipeline of filth”, they created a website that even today spouts:
“The Exclusive Brethren practice separation from evil, recognising this as God’s principle of unity. They shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio, and the Internet…”
In an attempt to demonstrate a self-perceived commitment to public good deeds, The Exclusive Brethren used to trumpet the fact that they had offered unspecified assistance in the aftermath of 9/11 on their ‘evil’ website:
“The Exclusive Brethren assisted the rescue efforts at Ground Zero during the aftermath of the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.”
This changed following the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria Australia when Jackson Wells co-founder quietly leaked the fact that the Exclusive Brethren had donated $3 million to the Red Cross Appeal. (Source Peter Jackson blog )
Shortly afterward, the Exclusive Brethren website replaced their 9/11 self-congratulation with the Jackson Wells bushfire donation story:
“Members of the Exclusive Brethren donated more than A$3 million to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal to assist those affected by the devastating Black Saturday blazes in Victoria on February 7, 2009.
Many Brethren live close to areas burned and employ people who lost loved ones and property in the fires.”
Source – The Exclusive Brethren website
To ensure that the public get the message, an Exclusive Brethren school has now published a book labelled as a fund raiser. In a remarkable public relations coup, they even persuaded Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister to offer support for the enterprise!
The public relations smoke screen follows on the heels of the recent announcement that the Exclusive Brethren schools system have been granted over $70 million (AUS) in Australian federal funds over the next two years.
Brethren schools get $70m in funding
The Australian
by Rick Wallace
January 12, 2010The Rudd government is handing more than $70 million to schools run by the Exclusive Brethren, a religious sect Kevin Rudd described as an “extremist cult” that breaks up families.
The sect’s schools have secured more than $8.4m under the government’s school building stimulus package and they will share in $62m in recurrent taxpayer funding.
Documents show a Brethren-run school at Swan Hill in northern Victoria was granted $1.2m for a library and $800,000 for a hall when its most recent annual report shows it had just 16 pupils and already had a library.
Grants data released by the commonwealth shows that Brethren schools in every state received funding under the $12.4 billion schools stimulus package. Despite the Brethren’s past disdain for computers, figures show its schools have received more than 300 under the commonwealth computers-in-school initiative.
Although it might appear that ‘flying under the radar’ has recently proved beneficial to the secretive cult and their advisors, the confused signals from the Rudd administration have resulted in increased media scrutiny. Rick Wallace of the Australian continues investigating the outrageous funding:
Exclusive Brethren enjoying $1m taxpayer windfall
The Australian
by Rick Wallace
January 13, 2010Despite being assessed as wealthy, the Brethren’s mushrooming network of schools is being funded at a higher rate than independent schools in battling regional communities such as Bourke and Longreach.
The secretive but financially savvy sect has taken advantage of a “no-disadvantage” clause put in the funding system by the Howard government, of which the Brethren was a strong supporter.
…
The no-disadvantage clause means that despite the wealth of the Brethren schools’ communities, their funding level is preserved at that awarded to the original campus at Meadowbank in Sydney. Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the funding guarantee was costing taxpayers $3.5 billion a year and must be urgently reviewed.
“The over-funding of the Exclusive Brethren’s MET school is a prime example of a corrupted funding system, with half the private schools in the country funded above their entitlement,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
Who says Public Relations firms are ineffectual?
The news that Daniel Hales, brother to the Exclusive Brethren leader Bruce D. Hales, is to present a paper at the ICSA Annual Conference in New York in early July 2010 marks a new step in a carefully choreographed transformation.
Daniel Hales has lived in the shadow of his younger brother since not being selected as a suitable leader of the EB following the death of their father John S. Hales in 2002. Always heavily involved in the business and monetary aspects of the cult, he has nevertheless been carefully groomed over the past several years by Jackson Wells (http://www.jacksonwells.com.au/), the EB’s Public Relations Agency, to act as a spokesman for the group.
Several spokesmen have come and gone since Bruce Hales gained control in 2002. Due to the reluctance (some say inability) of Bruce Hales to face the media, a series of personalities have attempted to divert attention away from what many view as firm evidence of cultic behavior. Indeed, the Exclusive Brethren were recently described by current Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “an extremist cult and sect” who went on to state that he believed “they break up families“.
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Sometimes the Exclusive Brethren publicly demonstrate why they need a Public Relations firm. There can be no other ‘church’ that offers only one form of contact on their official website – a telephone number to their official Spin Doctors – Jackson Wells.
In UK today, the Wolverhampton-based Express And Star newspaper published a strange little side-show that involves the Exclusive Brethren. It is no secret that the Exclusive Brethren love their booze – but their involvement in the possible purchase of an English pub is unprecedented.
The regulars at the pub in Lynton Avenue, Stafford have realized that if the Exclusive Brethren succeed in purchasing their community meeting place, that community access to the building will change forever. The locals have formed the ‘Save The Lynton Tavern Association’ and are even supported by Father Broun from the local Roman Catholic church. This is obviously a serious matter if it concerns both Holy See’s. (‘Both?’ Ah yes, the Australian leader of the Exclusive Brethren uses the term in almost every sentence.)
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It is a remarkable moment – an Exclusive Brethren submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission is a newsworthy event indeed! The following submission was published a few hours ago on the Human Rights Commission website.
The three names shown as signatories: Daniel Hales, John Myhill and David Stewart, are representative elders of the cult in Australia. (Daniel Hales is the passed-over older brother to the current reclusive leader, Bruce D. Hales.)
There is little hint of the Jackson Wells ‘turn of phrase’ in this tangled document – some comments border on Incitement to Discriminate and the general appeal seems to be little more than a ‘self-pity party‘.
Submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission Continue reading »
on
Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st Century
by
Daniel Hales, John Myhill and David Stewart
[2009]
The following letter is an individual response to the recently published Jackson Wells paper, ‘Into the Light: understanding the Exclusive Brethren’. This letter was copied to Peebs.Net by an individual who was once a member of the Exclusive Brethren cult. As far as we know, there has not been a reply.
From: [removed]
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2009 12:42 PM
To: kjackson@jacksonwells.com.au
Cc: info@peebs.net
Subject: Exclusive Brethren
Please could the following be directed to Ben Haslem.
FTAO: Benjamin Haslem
Dear Benjamin,
I read with interest your article - Into the Light: understanding the Exclusive Brethren
I have had years of involvement with the Exclusive Brethren and may be able to help you. I do not wish to denigrate what you have written in your article, I would rather seek to assist you in your endeavours to portray the truth regarding this little-known sect. I am very aware that it is difficult to understand the Exclusive Brethren as they are, by nature and intention, secretive. They prefer to be out of the limelight and not subject to criticism. They do not enjoy engaging in debate and discussion with those outside the sect. They are much more comfortable with confrontation that can be resolved through finance or intimidation, rather than through merit. You are unlikely to find members of the Brethren involved in open debate with the wider community, freely engaged with religious scholars, or willingly discussing theology with any other faith groups. But you will often see them in a courtroom, they have a long history of litigious behaviour. You will also note that they employ eminent lawyers and public relations consultants.
Unfortunately, there are statements in your article that are misleading or untrue. I would like to take this opportunity to help you, and to correct these errors. Also, many people who have been victims of the Exclusive Brethren’s disciplinary activities may find some of your statements offensive. I would like to help you to be accurate and thus be sensitive to these victims. I will comment on your writing by way of interjection, I trust that you find it useful.
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July 11th, 2009
Victory . . . Brethren elders Daniel Hales, left, and Athol Greene. "You're probably not in a position to realise the happy lives our children have." Photo: Kate Geraghty
You would be forgiven for assuming the toothy smile of Daniel Hales and the self-satisfied smirk on the face of Athol Greene (Father-in-law to Daniel’s brother Bruce Hales) was as result of some joyous moment in their spiritual lives. In fact, their good humor comes from the fact they have gained an outrageous ruling in Australia’s Family Court that prevents an excommunicated member from seeing his eight children.
We reproduce a David Marr article from the Australian press that sums up the anger resulting from the Family Court ruling. The intransigence and arrogance of the group that Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister accurately described as “an extremist cult and sect” comes out in a quote from Athol Greene below:
“You won’t change us,” he says, fixing me with his old eyes.
“You. Won’t. Change. Us.”
The Exclusion Brethren
by David Marr
July 11th, 2009
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.
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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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