It’s an unusual event for peebs.net to post an article that actually defends the Exclusive Brethren! Let’s get it over and done with, shall we?
Matthew Lindqvist (left) and Andrew Doven from the Exclusive Brethren stand opposite Wagga City Council and the corner they used for street preaching for years. Picture: Les Smith, Daily Advertiser
The Daily Advertiser today describes a battle in Wagga, Australia where the Exclusive Brethren are defending their right to free speech on the streets of their town.
In a nut-shell, Wagga City Council have implemented a ‘street activities policy’ that allows just one complaint to halt any street activity. In the case of the Exclusive Brethren, this affects their requirement for regular street preaching. Of course people are going to object to this and it most certainly would be wrong of any organization to attempt to muzzle another simply because they did not agree with their beliefs or what they said.
What Wagga City Council possibly doesn’t understand is that the Exclusive Brethren have to publicly be seen to preach even if this evangelical zeal doesn’t extend beyond the “bellowing“. Their Meeting Room is doubtlessly tax-exempt as a public place of worship and because they do not allow the public full access to their windowless, padlocked buildings, they have to ensure a little public presence somehow.
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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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November 7th, 2008
Quite an insight into the psyche of the Exclusive Brethren was made available this week in the quaint English market town of Stow-in-the-Wold. A number of citizens of the small Cotswold town had decided that there was more to the extravagant recent planning applications and sudden ‘outpouring’ of community interest displayed by their contingent of Exclusive Brethren than perhaps met the eye!
They did some research, wrote some emails … did their homework. They then circulated their findings quite openly.
They were against the application to build a comparatively huge new Exclusive Brethren windowless fortress on the outskirts of their town. After viewing the Brethren documents and considering the aspects that were clearly missing from their application, most rational people would probably agree!
But the Exclusive Brethren cried foul …
Religious sect say they are victims of propaganda
Gloucestershire Echo
November 7th, 2008Stow Brethren has hit out against an anonymous circular it claims is drumming up opposition against its bid for a new gospel hall.
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