Tag Archives: Exclusive Brethren

Exclusive Brethren Compared to WOFF (2)

     Concerning the Exclusive Brethren:For 175 years the sect has counted among its strange proscriptions – no public entertainment, no novels, no eating with outsiders, no university, no membership of other organisations of any kind, no shorts (“God has no pleasure in the legs of a man”), no party walls shared with non-Brethren, no films, no radio, no television and no mobile phones – an absolute ban on worldly politics.” This is an excerpt from the article found here.. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hidden-prophets/2006/07/01/1151174401719.html

    This post is part two of a comparison sent from a survivor of this religious cult group called –“Exclusive Brethren”. He has taken the list of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) “don’ts” that was posted earlier on this blog and reviewed it for similarities with the Exclusive Brethren.  The survivor who we will call “Paul” has taken the list and commented after every few rules with his observations. The list of “don’ts” can be found here.  WOFF Don’t list from 03 10  Follow down the home page of this blog for the first post in this series. Also, the first post about Exclusive Brethren on this blog can be found here. https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3198  

    These comments are from an email returned to me from “Paul”. His comments will be italicized after he quotes from the WOFF list. My comments will be after his comments. 

Comparing the list between WOFF and the Exclusive Brethren From Paul

WOFF Rules on Pictures, Videos and such….

Don’t take pictures during a regular service.
Don’t make your own recording of a service.
Don’t bring visitors unless you tell someone in the office so they
can tell Jane.

EB- Pretty much never ever happens.(Paul mentioned in the previous post that visitors were very rare, to none, in the EB)

Continue reading Exclusive Brethren Compared to WOFF (2)

Exclusive Brethren Compared to WOFF (1)

  A survivor of a religious cult group called –“Exclusive Brethren” (EB) has taken the list of Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) “don’ts” that was posted earlier on this blog and reviewed it for similarities.  The survivor who we will call “Paul” has taken the list and commented after every few rules with his observations. The list of “don’ts” can be found here. (WOFF Don’t list from 03 10)  The first post about Exclusive Brethren on this blog can be found here. https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3198   

    These comments are from an email returned to me from “Paul”. His comments about EB will be italicized after he quotes from the WOFF list. My comments will be after his comments.  

 Comparing the list between WOFF and the Exclusive Brethren From Paul

WOFF- Do’s-
You will be required to attend every service. If for some reason
unforeseen at this time, you miss a service; you will be required to
listen to the tape at the church. (Death, severe illness and surgery may
be considered excused absences.)

EB- Yes, in the early stages of the cult known as the Exclusive Brethren
which here a
fter will be refer to as the EB, there was a rule of strict
adherence of need to be attending all services .Members risked being put
under assembly dis
cipline by way of separation for a period of time, and
ex
communication for any who were not repentant or those who became
repeat offenders
. However, these days these rules have needed to become
rela
xed a little, this being because of fear of losing to many of the
youth should t
hese rules be kept as strict as they once were …. (in my
opinion)
Public scrutiny has also played a big part in the relaxing of
these rules
, the EB doesn’t want to seen as a domineering cult by the
public
.    (That is what WOFF needs- PUBLIC SCRUTINY!)

Continue reading Exclusive Brethren Compared to WOFF (1)

More on the Exclusive Brethren

    In a previous post, I shared information about a group called the Exclusive Brethren. In that post found here… https://religiouscultsinfo.com/?p=3198 I made some comparisons between Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) and the Exclusive Brethren group. One main point of that post was how similar the folks who leave each group are treated. Here is a quote from the first post on this subject:

    –For the most part, members who have left the Raven/Taylor/Hales group (of Exclusive Brethren) are completely ostracized. Members are not permitted to live with those who have left and this causes families to break up; in fact, remaining members do not even speak, eat or otherwise socialize with those who have left the group’s membership. To leave the group, either voluntarily or to be excommunicated, means to be asked to leave one’s home, and the subsequent breaking of all normal family relationships with those who remain within the group.[7]   

  This sounded so much like what I had seen and been a part of with WOFF; I felt the need to learn more. When the survivor from this group contacted me, I asked him about any similarities and here is a quote from an email he sent: (used by permission- from “Paul”)

    Continue reading More on the Exclusive Brethren

Exclusive Brethren – Similar to WOFF?

     This week, I was made aware of information about a group called the “Exclusive Brethren”. The information given about their practices sounded eerily familiar. Before I proceed and as a review, I spent 16 years either direct or indirectly under the teachings of Jane Whaley. She leads the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) of Spindale, NC. In comparison, I have much more knowledge about WOFF than the Exclusive Brethren. That is almost too obvious to mention except that if a reader accuses me of an error in my comparison, then my deficiency would be in knowledge about the Exclusive Brethren. My intimate working knowledge is of WOFF. Does that seem plausible? Can that WOFF knowledge be easily disputed?

   In reality, I do not consider Wikipedia® to be the know all, tell all, rock solid source for information. However, the article was sourced and I did follow the links and read the sources for the information in this post. I found the correlations between the two groups amazing to say the least. In this post, I will list main points and encourage you to follow the links toward the end of this post for further reading.

   “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, the Exclusive Brethren movement subsequently evolving into two main branches.” This is the opening line from Wikipedia.com found here.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_Brethren#cite_note-bbc.co.uk-6  Exclusive Brethren have been around for much longer than WOFF. I do not find that comforting knowing they have had many more years to treat people in the manner described in these source articles. The Wikipedia article goes on to explain the characteristics of the two main branches. The one which is described as the “Raven/Taylor/Hales group” have had the most criticism concerning “cult” like practices.

    Continue reading Exclusive Brethren – Similar to WOFF?