The Story of The Exclusive Brethren

What Does The Exclusive Brethren Have to Hide 

You might assume that this is a building that has been closed down or is awaiting demolition, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, this is the church of The Exclusive Brethren, where people regularly meet to worship and pray

I have decided to bring you this report about The Exclusive Brethren. I will start by stating what the official description is and go from there. Please bear with me this is NOT a religious blog, it is true crime research but will cover the religion bits first.

"The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as The Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848. 

They share some of the same beliefs as many other evangelical Christian groups in that the bible is the literal word of God and that people can only be 'saved' only by faith and belief in Jesus Christ, The trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sadly there are many much darker beliefs and rules as I will explain.

The Exclusive Brethren are now divided into several groups, most of which differ slightly on minor points of the doctrine or practice. The best known of these groups are the Raven Taylor Hales Group, now simply known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. The church teaches and maintains the strict doctrine of separation from the world, based on their interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6 and 2 Timothy 2 from the bible. They believe that attendance at a communion service "The supper of The Lord", governs and strictly limits whom they have contact with, their relationships with others even to the point that they often do not have contact with other brethren groups.

There are approximately 16,000  (sixteen thousand) Exclusive Brethren in Britain and some 46,000 (forty-six thousand) with congregations throughout all countries, so whilst it is not a massive order compared to Anglican Christians, who according to official figures in 2005 numbered some 25 million that were actually baptised to one part or another of the faith in England and Wales, it is still quite a large and growing group of churches, in my opinion doing a lot of harm.

 A sign outside one of the Exclusive Brethren church buildings note the prison-like fence.

The meeting halls (churches) of this sect or cult are very unusual in that many have no windows or if they do they are covered internally by heavy blinds or curtains, I am assuming this is to keep the eyes of the public from looking in as much as to keep the members from looking out. You see one of the main rules of this cult is that members must not at any time have contact with "worldlies", simply meaning people that are not members of the organisation.

The organisation say that the reason for the churches having no windows is that the members choose to keep themselves separated from other people, including other Christians because they believe that the world is sinful. The church's "exclusiveness" refers to keeping away from the evils of the rest of the world. I am not sure how meeting in a building without windows affects makes that any more achievable but that is the official reasoning, according to their website.

Members are not invited to join from outside (or even to attend meetings), from the public if you like but rather they are born into the church as children, and as the use of contraception is not allowed you can well imagine exclusive brethren families are often quite large. 

There is not really a choice as to whether an exclusive brethren family member joins the church, because it is ordered that all family members must be exclusive brethren otherwise as soon as they reach the legal age to care for themselves they will be forced to leave the family home and lose contact with their parents, siblings, etc. 

In several cases that I have researched, there are stories of a child having reached teenage and he or she has decided that they are unhappy in the church, following the strict rules and ways so they have been what is termed 'shut up'. Usually being shut up has meant being banished to their room and food delivered on trays at the door, they are allowed absolutely no contact with their family members, then when they reach 16 years old they are told to leave the home. From that point on they are then not allowed to have any contact with any member of the church including their entire family. Of course, i should point out that I am in the UK where the earliest age where a parent ceases to be legally responsible for a child is 16 years old, this will be different in other countries.

I think before I go any further I should probably list the Exclusive Brethren rules:1. To have very limited contact with the 'outside' world, including not communicating with members of other churches, that way you will see the seriousness of this and why I am bringing this to your attention.

The Rules of The Exclusive Brethren:

1. To have very limited contact with anyone 'outside' of the church including other churches
2. Not to visit other churches, this includes other Exclusive Brethren establishments
3. To marry early in life
4. Women must not cut their hair at all and wear scarves on their head outside of the family home and must not wear makeup
5. Men must be clean-shaven
6. Men must keep their hair short
7. Men must never wear ties
8. Members must start communion by 6am
9. Alcohol may be consumed in small amounts in the family home, but being visibly drunk is absolutely not allowed
10. No smoking
11. No gambling
12. Women must not wear Trousers
13. No TV or radio or recorded music
14. No pets
15. No parties
16. No living alone
17. No cinema
18. No reading of fictional books or magazines
19. Not allowed to go to University
20. No moving house without full permission from the church elders

Because of the strict rules set down by the Exclusive Brethren, the organisation began opening schools that although teach the national curriculum they are able to maintain the rules as all pupils are from Exclusive Brethren families so they will not come into contact with "worldlies". Interestingly the teachers are all non-brethren as of course in order to be a professional teacher in Great Britain they will have been required to undergo training at university. Of course, Exclusive Brethren are not allowed to go to university, hence the reasoning behind the school teachers being from the "outside community".

These schools are mainly operated by Focus Learning Trust, a registered charity formed in 2003, which operates a network of independent schools in the United Kingdom that are affiliated to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Focus has a non-selective intake of pupils from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.  They have their head office in Warwick in England but operate many schools across Britain

I came across the story of one such school that apparently "shut-up" 6 children for 37 days as a punishment for creating a Facebook page. The so-named "shut-up" involves children being confined at home for using the internet and male and female children that had been found talking to one another!! 

The school in question had its elders removing pages from school textbooks or glueing them together in order to hide information about gay rights and sexually transmitted diseases, this was despite the said books being authorised by the Government as part of the national curriculum. An official investigation was made by Wiltshire County Council education authority, police after a dossier alleging child abuse were supplied by a teacher at Wilton Park School, near to Salisbury.

The school elders were said to have behaved in this dreadful manner due to the Exclusive Brethren's beliefs relating to modern technology. The teachings of the church are that equipment such as laptops and tablets are the work of evil and use of the internet is strictly controlled in order to protect users from defiling material. 

Pupils at Wilton Park are also banned from sending emails to one another as according to a school memo "such communications promote 'special' friendships and that is beneath the dignity of the church's calling". I really am shocked and horrified about the vast amount of material that I am uncovering about the Exclusive Brethren and their draconian behaviour.

The dossier from the Wilton Park School teacher states that "On the elders, instructions six pupils were withdrawn from the school and confined to their homes and not allowed contact with anyone outside their immediate family household. inside the Exclusive Brethren community, these punishments are known as shutting-up". 

The teacher who is not a member of the Exclusive Brethren wrote: "As an employee, I have known of families that have been 'shut-up' for varying lengths of time, but I had never witnessed children 'shut-up' before".

Wilton Park School claims to have a strong Christian ethos, designed to protect students from the less desirable aspects of modern society

The pupils were 'shut-up' between 4th May and 22nd July 2012 with the only girl among them being 'shut-up' for the longest period,  a total of 37 days out of 70 school days. All of the days that the girl was away from the school were marked as "authorised absence". She was not allowed to have any contact with anyone outside of her family in her household which caused her to suffer withdrawal, she was completely cut off from life outside of her bedroom, with no friends, no extended family. The child lost weight and became emotionally distressed. This is nothing short of child abuse at it's worst

except for two teachers and this was literally only to discuss school study that she had been given to do at home. When it was eventually decided that she should be allowed back to school it was fully controlled by the elders of the Exclusive Brethren, the girl was driven to school, escorted to an empty classroom where she was not allowed contact with anyone except for two teachers, who were only allowed to speak to her about school studies. At the end of the school day, she was collected by her parent, driven home where she would remain in her bedroom until the next day.

I was further shocked to read that even the staff of the school, including 'non-brethren teachers have a strict dress code whereby Females must wear skirts of at least knee-length, (no trousers allowed) and tops must be modest and non-revealing whilst males must keep their hair short and must be clean-shaven, no beards or moustaches. 

So what was the outcome of the official inquiry? Well this is where I am made even more angry and suspicious, the outcome, in brief, is as follows:

The school initially closed for one month but then reopened 

It was agreed that the concerns raised in the dossier were 'unfounded' 
There were no safeguarding issues were identified 

A statement from Wilton Park said that it welcomed the investigation and no policies needed to be changed as there were no safeguarding issues. 

The school also said "We are delighted that the school has reopened and it is the strengthened resolve on the part of both teaching staff and pupils to maintain the excellence that characterises Focus schools.

In other words, it seems to me that a few pockets were lined somewhere as it has been discovered that some 50 MPs gave their support to the school in their bid to maintain it's charitable status and it's entitlement to full tax relief on charitable donations. If this isn't 21st-century corruption at the cost of innocent children then I have no idea what is.

Is this just a rare and 'one-off' unfortunate case involving these twisted people and their creepy organisation? I only wish it was. The horror stories are just endless and many can be and have been verified as absolutely true. For example:

A lady who we will call Lucy (not her real name) said that her life was completely controlled by the Exclusive Brethren until she finally found the strength to leave in 2018. She claims that her telephone was monitored by members of the brethren and they brainwashed her completely. Her children were taken from her at one stage and that they were stopped from seeing their father completely for three years after he decided to leave the cult and that her husband could not attend his mother's funeral because he had been "ex-communicated".

Lucy said that members of the group are only allowed mobile phones that are provided by the universal business team, a company solely owned by the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and that there is a massive restriction on the kind of websites that holders of these telephones are allowed to access. All communications including web search history and data are monitored by elders of the church.

Interestingly Lucy originally wanted to leave the church in 2015 but the cult had her declared 'psychotic' by a psychiatrist who just happened to be an Exclusive Brethren and as a result, Lucy's children were sent by the church to live with a host family for four months until Lucy was "better".

In an interview with a newspaper, Lucy said that she was born into the Plymouth Brethren and met her husband at a fellowship meeting of the church. The Exclusive Brethren operate a "doctrine of separation' whereby members must separate themselves from non-believers and therefore when Lucy's husband made the decision to leave the church in 2015 he also had to separate from Lucy and their children, this is just absolute lunacy as no organisation, no matter how powerful, religious or otherwise should have the power to order such things. Even a man and wife separated by the legalities of divorce still have the right to see and make parental decisions about their children, I believe it is time this cult was revealed for what it is and the dreadful harm it is doing with its draconian rules.

Needless to say, the church declined to offer a comment but strongly deny that the organisation has ever done any wrong, not just to Lucy but indeed to anyone

There are innocent people that have ended up tragically taking their lives because of the Exclusive Brethren or Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and this is so wrong on many, many counts.

In a nutshell, the Plymouth Brethren or Exclusive Brethren are sometimes described as the British version of the Hutterites, without the colonies. They are the same in that they are conscientious objectors to any kind of military service, they do not vote and they do not allow TV or radio in their homes. They do not allow computers in their homes with any function other than email and fixed programs purchased from a Brethren owned supplier. 

These people are in my opinion nothing short of criminals hiding behind the flag of a "church", how can they possibly subject members to such dreadful treatment? It really is beyond me. 

So why did I post this in a true-crime blog? The answer is very simple, the actions of this cult and that is what they are a 'cult' are totally draconian and in many cases unlawful. The activity of this "church" is nothing short of criminal. 

There is so much more that I could write and as I learn more I may well return with more for you but, that is for another blog on another day. I will pop a few links below for you to follow up and I will see you again soon.

The closed-door church

HTV Documentary 1993

Escape from the Exclusive Brethren

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