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Introduction

The Exclusive Brethren

The Exclusive Brethren are an Evangelical Protestant Christian church distinct from the Christian or Open Brethren.

Members follow a rigid code of conduct based very strictly on Bible teaching, which provides a firm moral framework and is focussed on a strong family unit.

They keep themselves separate from other people (including other Christians) as far as possible, because they believe the world is a place of wickedness. They regard 'exclusiveness' as the only way to keep away from evil.

The main group of Exclusive Brethren is called 'Taylorites' after James Taylor Senior and Junior who led the church for much of the twentieth century.

Most of the information available about the group comes from people who have left it. As a result the Exclusive Brethren often gets a bad press and is referred to using phrases like "an exclusive and secret religious sect" or "a secretive church".

There are thought to be approximately 43,000 (2008 figure) in the Taylorite branch of the Exclusive Brethren worldwide.

There are up to 16,000 Exclusive Brethren in Britain, with congregations throughout the country.

Structure

The Exclusive Brethren is not a democratic movement, nor do individual congregations have any autonomy. For most of the last 100 years, it has been ruled by a series of single individuals. This is different to the Open or Christian Brethren, whose churches are largely independent.

Lifestyle

Like many closed groups, the Exclusive Brethren provide a warm, loving, family-centred way of life to its members that most find fulfilling and rewarding. The intention is to provide a safe way of life that protects members from the corrupt world outside.

Criticisms

Members who leave or are expelled from the group have, in the past, often been avoided by current members. Critics have described this practise as cruel.

Leavers are avoided by members of the group because they are seen as having chosen the world and the devil against God and because they could bring members into contact with the sinful world.

Until recently (early 2002) Brethren who left the church were completely ostracised. Members would not speak, eat or live with those who had left and this caused families to break up.

Since many Exclusive Brethren work in Brethren-owned companies they have to give up their jobs as well as their family and their home if they leave the faith.

Recent developments

Addressing the frequently asked question, "Do the Brethren break up families?" on their website, the Brethren reply: "The Brethren as a group hate the break up of families. However adherence to the doctrine of separation prevents normal relations between family members when one of them leaves the fellowship. Where family breakdown occurs this is always tragic, however this usually occurs when sin brings in irreconcilable difference."

History

Beginnings

The Brethren movement began in Dublin in the late 1820s with a group of men (John Nelson Darby, Anthony Norris Groves, John Bellett, Edward Cronin and Francis Hutchinson) who felt that the established Church had become too involved with the secular state and abandoned many of the basic truths of Christianity.

The first Brethren assembly in England was established at Plymouth in 1831 which is why Brethren are often called Plymouth Brethren.

In the late 1840s the Brethren split into the Open Brethren and the Exclusive Brethren. The split was the result of what Darby and his followers saw as the growth of 'clericalism' and "grave error as to Christ's persona and sufferings".

John Nelson Darby

The leader of the Exclusive group was John Nelson Darby (1800-1881), an aristocratic Church of Ireland clergyman who left that Church when his bishop insisted that converts Darby had made from Roman Catholicism should swear allegiance to the British Crown. Darby rejected this as unscriptural.

Darby became disillusioned with the mainstream churches and wrote:

He thought that the churches were reservoirs of earthliness rather than holiness. He was gloomy about the state of the world too. Evil was gaining power; nothing could prevent it except the return of Christ in judgement.

Darby believed not only the secular world was corrupt, but that the other Christian churches had gone astray as well by becoming involved with the secular world. By doing this they had taken on elements of sin and to some extent rebelled against the Lord.

The only way for believers to get right with God was to keep away from the sinful world and adopt a simple and straightforward relationship with Christ, that adopted much of the practice of the early Christians, before they were altered by the mainstream Churches.

Keeping away from the secular world was a serious business. Each Brethren Assembly was empowered to judge its members, and, if they were found to have become impure (or even to have spent time with people who behaved wickedly) they would be expelled in order to preserve the purity and holiness of the group.

Darby was a physically unattractive man, despite being an inspiring preacher. One of his supporters, Francis Newman, described him:

After Darby

Frederick Raven became leader of the Exclusive Brethren when Darby died in 1882. The movement divided shortly afterwards on theological grounds.

Raven died in 1903 and his group was then led by James Taylor senior, who was succeeded by his son, James Taylor junior, after a 6 year period of disputed leadership. The group they led became known as the Taylorites.

Jim Taylor junior extended the rules for separation from the world. He decreed that members could not eat with non-members, be friends with them, or join a professional organisation with them. Their only 'safe' places were their own houses and the meeting-rooms. Children were brought up to keep separate the world outside.

In 1970, James Taylor Jr faced accusations of immoral conduct. He protested his innocence but the scandal divided the movement and around 8,000 members left.

James Harvey Symington followed James Taylor jr as leader. He was followed by John Hales. On the death of John Hales in 2002, the leadership and the title 'Man of God' passed to his son Bruce Hales.

Rules of exclusivity

What does exclusive mean?

The doctrine of 'separation from iniquity', or separation from sin, makes the Exclusive Brethren unique. It has two parts:

• members must avoid anything sinful
• members must keep away from any person or group that does not follow Exclusive Brethren teaching - including other Christians

Families do not have televisions, radios, or go to the cinema or theatre. Members marry other members. Divorce is rare. Children are often educated within the Brethren community, although many Brethren children do attend mainstream schools.

Members who do something against the Exclusive code are required to confess their sin and demonstrate their repentance. If they don't, they are withdrawn from: no member of the group will speak, work or eat with them.

Things Exclusive Brethren can't do

The activities below are forbidden for members of the Taylorite Exclusive Brethren because they are too worldly:

• watching television
• listening to the radio
• visiting places of entertainment
• owning pets
• taking out life assurance
• going to university (this exposes young Brethren to morally unhelpful influences)
• standing for political office
• voting in elections
• bearing arms (though Brethren do serve in the non-combatant corps of the armed forces in times of war)

Contact with outsiders is limited

Members of the Exclusive Brethren are very limited in their contact with outsiders. They must not:

• visit other churches
• join any other religious organisation
• join a trade union
• join a professional organisation (this excludes members from professions such as medicine and pharmacy)
• join any membership that includes people outside the Exclusive Brethren
• live in the same building, including apartments and semi-detached houses, as outsiders (this means that members can't share a house with a spouse or with children if the spouse or child has been expelled from the Exclusive Brethren)
• marry outside the Exclusive Brethren

Many Exclusive Brethren work in Brethren-owned companies in order to reduce contact with outsiders. If they leave, or are expelled from the Brethren, they have to give up their jobs as well as their family and their home.

There are several Taylorite innovations that Jim Taylor Jr added to the list of dos and don'ts for members. He instructed them to:

• marry early
• be clean shaven (men)
• keep hair short (men)
• not to wear ties (men)
• keep hair uncut (women)
• wear scarves (women)
• start communion services at 6 a.m.

Withdrawing from

Members who break the rules are likely to be withdrawn from. This means that they are banned from worship meetings and will be ostracised by members of their own family and other Exclusives.

They can lose their home and, if they work for an Exclusive company, their job.

The Exclusive Brethren only withdraw from a member if they commit a serious sin and will not repent about it. They believe that they are following the teaching of St Paul in doing this:

'Shut up'

Members who sin can also be 'shut up'. This is based on the Biblical procedure for the treatment of lepers, and involves being isolated from family and friends and only allowed to see specially chosen church members until local church leaders believe that God has forgiven the person.

Structure

Autonomy

The Exclusive Brethren is not a democratic movement, nor do individual congregations have any autonomy.

All members must follow the rigid code of behaviour and rules that govern the contact they can have with outsiders. This is far from the Open Brethren idea that individual churches should have a great deal of freedom in their dealings with others.

Leadership

Members of Exclusive Brethren churches are expected to be totally loyal to the leader of the Exclusive Brethren.

The leader is regarded as a person of inherent moral power, following in the tradition of the leaders of the past and upholding their teaching in such a way as to lift the membership out of the world of wickedness.

The leader of the church has great influence over members of the sect. He gives guidance, resolves disputes, and can advise on action to be taken for breaches of discipline.

The leader has the authority to convey new light from God appropriate to modern times. This is a long established pattern as Darby also gave new teachings.

While outsiders usually portray this as bad, those on the inside disagree and speak enthusiastically of the leader. One English member put it like this:

Members see the head of their church as a servant-leader who puts his life at the disposal of others. Outsiders see him as an autocrat.

Clergy

• The Exclusive Brethren have no ordained clergy
• All Brethren groups are opposed to 'clericalism', which is the belief that some people should have a special and exclusive position in leading worship, exercising ministry or administrating religious groups
• They believe that the Lord is present wherever 2 or 3 believers meet in his name
• They believe that the priesthood includes all believers
• Exclusive Brethren believe that everyone is not equal - Brethren accept that some people are better at teaching, preaching and ministry than others

Worship

Worship should be very simple:

• No ritual
• No set words
• No liturgy or form of service
• Worship should follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on the day
• Women may not preach or pray aloud - this is based on the biblical command that women should be silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34)

Other beliefs

The Exclusive Brethren share some of the same beliefs as other evangelical Christian groups:

• The Bible is the inspired and literal word of God
• People are saved only by faith in Christ
• God is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• Jesus was, is, and always will be God, and from the time of the Incarnation - fully man
• Christ will return soon

For and against separation

Criticisms of separation

The practise of separation has been heavily criticised in the press and by former members of the Exclusive Brethren.

They say that the Exclusive Brethren's rigid laws destroy marriages, split families and damage the lives of members who try to leave.

Since a member's whole existence has been focused on the church they have to rebuild their lives completely if they leave or are expelled. It can be a very lonely experience.

Representatives of the Brethren have rejected the claim about hell: "salvation is not in any way limited to membership of an organisation or fellowship".

Families often put great pressure on leavers to return to the Brethren, which can add to the trauma of separation. Other pressure can include job loss and having to leave the family home.

One researcher found that leaving the church could produce psychological problems:

Brethren spokesmen say that this sort of criticism is unfair and that:

They also say that members know that certain sorts of behaviour will lead them away from the fellowship and so their expulsion is the result of their own free and informed choice to do things that are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel.

Theology of separation

The Exclusive Brethren keep themselves apart because they believe that "it is impossible for God to fully bless and use his children who are in compromise or complicity with evil".

To put it another way; they believe that someone who does wicked things or spends time with bad people pushes himself or herself away from God.

Most Christians would agree with the general idea, but would probably say that the Exclusive Brethren label too many actions and too many people as wicked.

Two sides of separation

Separation is seen as having two aspects:

• keeping away from evil
• getting closer to God

The positive side of separation from evil is getting nearer to God and achieving a close relationship thorough dedication, worship and service. God responds to this by moving closer to the individual, and loving like a father those who separate from evil.

Biblical precedent for separation

The Bible refers indirectly to the doctrine of separation from evil by talking about God's chosen people, and everyone else.

In the Old Testament God frequently makes a distinction between his own people, who were expected to be holy, different and separated from other peoples in order to belong to God as his very own, and everyone else.

In the New Testament God wants believers to keep themselves separate from this world and its wickedness, from sinners who do not repent and from those whose teachings are against the Bible.

J N Darby, founder of the Exclusive Brethren, believed that "separation from evil was the divine principle of unity," because any wrong belief would cause "gross moral contamination."

Darby was angry that other denominations had compromised with evil for the sake of unity - this was a false unity, he preached, and those churches had apostatised (i.e. they had abandoned and betrayed Christ).

Bible texts used to support the doctrine of separation

The doctrine of separation is based on many passages in the Bible, including the following.

Some Bible passages that support separation set very precise categories of those who believers are supposed to keep away from: