The main thing- the single most important thing that is wrong with this so called Christian sect called the Exclusive Brethren or Plymouth Brethren or whatever they call themselves next month in an effort to disguise the flotsam in their wake – is that they don’t make sense. There is no consistency. For a place that is run on rules and ruled by rules -this is glaringly strange to those of us who have felt their sharp, unyielding retribution.
This week we read about how they now communicate with each other. Far from being left behind on the IT superhighway – they now embrace it to such as extent, that many of the people they threw out and withdrew from in the 1980’s and 90’s for having a rudimentary word processor in their business or home, would have their heads spinning with their glib IT terminologies and in-house software packages. When it comes to the Web- these people are right up there with all the latest.
Funny, I have waded through reams of ministry by the great man himself -Bruce Hales and his predecessors rabbitting on about the filth of the thing and how it should be reviled and refused at every turn. The Web he said- is a pipeline of filth. (How he knew this is anyone’s guess.) Bit like when they raided Osama Bin Laden’s hideout – apart from lots of computers all they found was piles of pornography. A fact not lost on the tabloids -who the next day printed their 4 inch banners with ‘Osama Bin Wankin.”
But Hales- never one to be defeated when it comes to driving his probes ever deeper into the businesses of his flock – has come up with the people and the technology to maximise his returns and having his followers all playing happily on the Web like seasoned professionals.
How must the families of those people he and his father threw out of fellowship feel today? How do they feel when they see the proliferation of full blown IT hardware and software almost being made mandatory in their businesses and homes and remember back when their husband was tossed out for even thinking about the benefits of a computer in their business lives? I say ‘thinking about’ – because their was one brother down south, who dreamily mentioned to his wife when they got into bed one night that a blinking computer would make the running of their office so much easier. He never actually got one – but she snitched on him and he felt the full force of the Halesian boot. Pretty sure it was Hales senior who got him. And now Bruce demands that people have ‘webinars’. Crikey I didn’t even know what a ‘webinar’ was and I’m an evil worldly opposer!
Hales ‘Webinars’ have a heirarchy of administrators and spies who monitor every word and motion. Minutes are kept meticulously and organisational charts are distributed worldwide so people can see who is in control. I daresay – if you are not part of a ‘Webinar’ you would have very little use for Bruce Hales. Hales dictates that all ‘Webinars’ must take place at 6 am -thus elevating them to the same sanctity as the supper from a timing perspective. This also means he gets a good 8 hour day out of them as well I suspect. Sect leaders are, after all, always cracking the whip.
What an appalling situation. He controls them at church. He controls them out of church. And he makes money from them at every turn.
But be you Peeb or non- Peeb- spare a thought for all those people who foresaw the value in technology long before Hales got into it. And got off on it. They were thrown out- their families destroyed, their children lost forever and in most cases – even lost their businesses. And now Hales rubs their noses in it by flogging computers and software and holding ‘webinars.’
How the hell can that be right? Does Hales owe these peoiple an apology today? I’m sure he does. And maybe a few million for lost income, gross inconvenience and greivous mental harm.
It is a wicked anomaly folks. A wicked thing. And you know how Hales will answer this unforgivable double standard? These people ‘moved ahead of the Lord”.
Well the Lord I know had nothing to do with computers. And he certainly never had a ‘Webinar’!
