Plymouth Brethren

Got some Bristol Brethren.

Strict religious order with bit of a dislike of modern tech what’s not to love

They’re not doing the forum upgrade are they?

eddiebaby They’re not doing the forum upgrade are they?

Proper coffee spat out moment ;)

As per CountZero’s post do they have some sort of PPE fetish as I have only ever encountered them running safety supplies company’s?

I’ve been told that they run the organisation as a charity and purchase as much as they can through group or company discounts. Mortgages are arranged internally, being loaned by the senior members. They have a purchasing arm which, for instance, bulk buy VWs which are used by members.

They have lots of business interests which fly under the radar because ‘they keep themselves to themselves’.

They dont believe in education after a certain age (16?) so their schools are staffed by non-members. (My friend is one of these.)

I found out last year that a uni friend’s family were brethren. When he divorced and started seeing another woman he was cut off entirely by his family.

The split between Exclusive and Plymouth Brethren is worth looking into if you like a bit of hypocrisy.

Yes the mortgage system is internal and it effectively imprisons members, i.e. you want to leave we take your home.

Open brethren are more integrated but the basic theology is the same, very calvinistic and conservative. John Lennox the Christian apologist is open brethren.

A friend’s wife (non-Brethren) is a teacher in one of their schools. There are loads of silly rules that she has to abide by. e.g. Not allowed to use a projector as ‘evil will come through the air’, cannot bring a newspaper in to school, anything wireless or bluetooth is banned.

It’s a just a backwards looking cult that exerts total control over its members.

Is that any different from any other cult? My best pal had a narrow escape from some mad woman who was a member of a cult and started pressuring him to join. Then he discovered that her previous BF had committed suicide. He kicked her into touch pretty fast wen it all began to become clear.

I don’t agree with the Brethren banning all modern technology, but when you see all the problems arising from “screen addiction”, especially among kids, you could argue that secular society could do with ditching it all (digital detox) for more of the time.

An old workmate of mine moved to teach at a Brethren school.  As an engineering teacher, he had to get them up to speed with CAD, but they weren’t allowed to do it in their school so came to use our pc suite instead.

The students were very nice, polite lads who were happy to work hard. A bit puzzled by some of the computing but quick learners.

The clue’s in the name. A tendancy to take the bible literally means women are very much second class citizens.