Power wielded from the fringes

The Age, Australia/September 23, 2006
By Mark Coultan

In 2004, the US presidential election was drawing to an end when a series of advertisements appeared in The New York Times, the Tampa Tribune and the St Petersburg Times supporting the re-election of George Bush and that of a Florida Republican Senate candidate, Mel Martinez.

Nothing unusual about that, except that the Bush campaign and the Martinez election organisation said they knew nothing about the advertisements or the organisation behind them, the Thanksgiving 2004 committee. In fact, the White House tone was harsh for a group that had supported Bush's re-election.

The St Petersburg Times, a Florida newspaper, quoted White House spokesman Taylor Gross as saying: "The President thought we had gotten rid of this kind of shadowy activity. I have never heard of this group." The Martinez campaign said they were clueless about the people behind the Thanksgiving Committee. The committee was formed less than two weeks before the election, and it took until a month after the poll for disclosure forms to be lodged.

The St Petersburg Times investigated the committee and found it consisted of members of the Exclusive Brethren.

The Brethren's political stance put it well within the mainstream of the religious Right in America. It is anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage, with a strong emphasis on family life and worship.

As such, its support for George Bush would be unremarkable, except that the group had not previously been known to enter into politics. In fact, its teachings prohibit members from voting.

There are other contradictions. The Exclusive Brethren has an apparently official website that says members "shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio, and the internet". Their beliefs and way of life place them on the fringes of American religious movements, much like the Amish.

Ian Markham, dean and professor of ethics at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, says the 2004 involvement in politics came at an important time for the Exclusive Brethren. "I think it was almost certainly provoked by their apocalyptic world view. My guess is they decided to support George W. Bush primarily because they were concerned that the depravity of (Democrat candidate John) Kerry, and the widespread possibility of the affirmation of homosexuals, and all those sorts of things, would bring about the end of the age faster," he says. "They had just instituted a period of grace for old members who had left the sect to come back."

Markham, dean of a liberal theological college, has a personal interest in the Exclusive Brethren. His father left the Brethren, and had not heard from his brother for 42 years until 2004, when he suddenly got a letter inviting him back to the sect. He declined to rejoin.

Markham says the Brethren would have seen Bush's victory as an act of grace by God, which facilitated more time to respond to God's love and come back into the Brethren's fellowship.

The St Petersburg Times reported that the Thanksgiving Committee finished the 2004 campaign with more than $US100,000 ($A132,000) in cash. A search of electoral funding databases does not reveal if the group is active in the 2006 congressional elections. The largest donor in 2004 was Bruce Hazell, who gave $US377,262. Contacted in London, Hazell said he could not talk, but would try to ring back. He did not.

When the St Petersburg Times rang him last year he offered to talk later, but was not there when the paper rang back at the appointed time. Steve Truan, who was listed on the 2004 returns, did not return calls.

Even though the $US600,000 raised in 2004 represents a substantial amount, it is a drop in the bucket of American election campaigns. The Thanksgiving 2004 committee was what is known as a 527 committee, named after the section of the electoral act under which it operates. Sometimes tied to political parties or candidates through backdoor methods, they are a way of skirting campaign finance laws.

According to electoral watchdog Common Cause, 527 groups spent an estimated $US400 million in the 2004 election year. It said about 25 individuals gave $US146 million alone to these groups, some of which were staffed by political operatives who had close ties to the national political parties.

But the Exclusive Brethren's support for Senator Martinez is instructive. None of the donors came from Florida, suggesting its purpose was strategic. Martinez is a noted conservative, a Cuban-American who strongly opposes same-sex marriages and abortion in all cases. He won the Florida Senate seat in an extremely close race, replacing a retiring Democrat and ensuring a Republican majority in the Senate.

The thoughts of Bruce Hales

On the world:

See, it's whether I can pour scorn on the world, look at the world as an utter object of contempt as I go through the streets and the book-stalls and anywhere I go, and through the crowds, and I look at the world as an utter and absolute object of contempt, because it's already been judged… To be intelligent as to that, the world has no grip on you, it's utterly demeaning for a Christian to be sucked in by the world.

On avoiding contamination by "worldly" people:

It's really by the power of the Holy Spirit. It says, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And that forces these wicked worldly people back. You don't need to know that they're wicked or whatever, but it forces them back, and you're in control, you're superior, I mean morally.

On the judicial system:

Of course, the (Brethren) assembly is the highest court, so that's a matter that we can take comfort in. It's a very great matter, I think, to know that this place, the assembly, is the highest court. It's the area of God's direct dealings, and it's got the power to overrule other judgements if there's a righteous basis.

On university:

See, he (Hales' father, John) went to university, he didn't go on a daily basis, he went at night. I think he mostly slept through the lectures … see, we don't want to … deprive our young people of what's necessary, but I think the saints have got everything they need within their reach to provide everything that's needed for the education of the children.

On cordless phones:

I think our whole aim, really, is to try and keep our young people from trouble. Telephones get you into trouble, the use of them gets you into trouble, the overuse of them … How quickly rumours can be spread …

On mobile phones:

The mobile telephone in it's current form is a tool of the devil, it's an instrument of hell. I have no doubt pronouncing on it as that … And it's also, I would say, the greatest tool of disorganisation that business has ever taken on!

Excerpts from The White Book, scriptural lessons given by Elect Vessel Bruce Hales, and distributed to brethren worldwide.