Fundamentalist Christian sect makes waves Down Under By David Barber and Sid Astbury

Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
Published: Wednesday September 27, 2006

By David Barber and Sid Astbury, Wellington- While the United States, Britain and other parts of the world are worrying about Muslim extremists, members of a secretive fundamentalist Christian sect, who do not vote but launch costly campaigns to overturn governments they dislike, are making waves in New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand cabinet minister David Parker has likened the Exclusive Brethren to the Taliban in Afghanistan, noting the "sinister undertone" of their shared intolerance of those who disagree with them.

"They're so convinced of their own righteousness that for them the ends justify the means," Parker said.

Like fanatical Muslims, the Brethren live apart from mainstream society and the rest of the population, who they call "worldlies."

Like the Taliban, the sect's members reject the equality of women, who are not allowed to go out to work, and do not allow their children to go to university. They do not watch television, listen to the radio, read newspapers, have computers or use mobile phones.

"You come in touch with worldly people, if you get a little close to them, you'll have some sense of defilement," Sydney businessman Bruce Hales, the so-called Lord's Representative on Earth who heads the sect, has reportedly told his 40,000 followers around the world.

Members of the sect do not vote, believing that governments are created and dismissed by God, who is the only authority they recognize.

"But if the country is in decline we feel we have to do something to arrest it," Christchurch businessman Douglas Watt said last year after he and six other Exclusive Brethren admitted they were behind a costly anonymous leaflet campaign designed to oust the Labour Party government and its Green Party allies at last year's general election.

Their campaign followed similar political interventions in Australia's 2004 elections, when the sect produced similar pamphlets supporting the conservative Liberal Party.

The main issues targeted was the same in each case - left-leaning parties' support for gender equality, legal abortion and homosexual relationships. Members even carried the fight against gay marriage to Canada, where they mounted an aggressive election campaign on the issue.

The sect took out newspaper advertisements in New Zealand criticizing the Labour government's failure to join the war in Iraq - even though members refuse military service.

The formula of intervention was also identical - each campaign was anonymous as sect members tried to keep their involvement secret.

When forced to reveal themselves, they claim to act individually, not on behalf of the church or its estimated 20,000 members in Australia and New Zealand.

That is "complete nonsense", according to Massey University Professor Peter Lineham. "That is not how they work. Nobody has a mind or view independent of the church in the Exclusive Brethren - that's what you get excommunicated for."

It is the secrecy that upset New Zealand's Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark, who dubbed as "scumbag politics" recent claims that the Brethren hired a private investigator to look for dirt on her and her husband, who was forced to deny he was homosexual.

The lobbying has not done Clark's main opponents, the conservative National Party, much good either. Leader Don Brash changed his vote to oppose civil unions for gays after being lobbied by Brethren, but has now dissociated the party from the sect.

Voting is compulsory in Australia, but the Brethren prefer to break the law and pay the fines. Unlike Clark's Labour Party in New Zealand, Australian Prime Minister John Howard's conservative coalition can expect the Brethren to campaign against his opponents, even if they do not vote for him. He admits he has met members of the sect.

"It's a free country," Howard said. "They are not breaking the law. Like any other group, they are entitled to put their views to the government."

"The Brethren are a liability to whatever political party they're associated with," says Auckland political scientist Barry Gustafson, who dubbed their beliefs bizarre and their strategy secretive.

Marilyn Maddox, a professor of religion at Wellington's Victoria University, says there is usually less of an imperative for Down Under politicians to watch the vote of religious groups, with 80 per cent of New Zealanders regularly voting and only 10 per cent indicating adherence to a Christian faith.

That lies in contrast to the US, where a little over half of the population vote. Because 50 per cent of them go to church and 40 per cent identify with evangelical Christian groups, politicians will more readily pander to religious interests to get people to the polls.

The involvement of the Exclusive Brethren in last year's election indicated a radical post-millennial belief that Jesus will only return when there is Christian government on earth, Maddox said.

New Zealand's Labour government is considering clipping the Brethren's political wings. Some Members of Parliament are pushing for an official inquiry into the sect's political activities and legislation banning all outside groups from direct campaigning in future elections.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa