Parental Care

January 02, 2007

Sect asked for power to prevent child visits

The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/
sect-asked-for-power-to-stop-child-visits/
2006/12/26/1166895299757.html

Michael Bachelard
December 27, 2006

THE Greens senator Bob Brown will move for a Senate inquiry into the activities of the Exclusive Brethren religious sect next year after revelations of its long attempts to influence the Government on family law.

The Herald can also reveal that the Brethren met the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, early last year and asked him to amend the Family Law Act to "ensure that a child is not subject to a radical lifestyle change without compelling reason".

If the request was granted no child brought up in a Brethren family would be able to have access visits with a parent who had left the strictly separatist sect.

Documents obtained by Fairfax also reveal that the Brethren representatives wanted Mr Ruddock, as part of the 2005 Family Law Act amendments, to beef up "parenting plans" to make them legally enforceable. Such plans are designed mainly to help separating parents sort out access arrangements, but the Brethren wanted to use them to prohibit parents who had left the sect from getting access to their children.

In a letter to Mr Ruddock on May 5 last year the sect described the concept of parenting plans as a "crucial issue".

"Why shouldn't the fact that a parenting plan has been adopted by the parties (even before any discord has arisen) be a factor that the court is expressly directed to take into account in determining issues?" sect representatives wrote to Mr Ruddock.

"Or could there be some presumption arising out of the fact that a parenting plan has been entered into?"

Such a provision would mean the Brethren could force newly married adherents to sign statements promising to bring children up within the strict rules of the sect, and then have those statements enforced by the court if the marriage broke down. Family law practitioners Fairfax has spoken to have ridiculed the idea.

Mr Ruddock's response to the Brethren was that the Government's changes would "emphasise the rights of the child and the right of the child to know both their parents".

The Herald revealed yesterday that the thrust of all Brethren lobbying in family law is to keep lapsed members away from their children, and keep children within the sect.

The group has been more successful in its lobbying in other areas. In industrial relations law it has been granted "conscience" clauses to prohibit unions from entering its businesses.

Senator Brown moved unsuccessfully earlier this year for a Senate inquiry into the sect, and he said yesterday he would put a similar motion next year.

"I want an inquiry into the impact and effort to undermine Australia's family law, and to override the interests of children for self-interest, which is the exclusion of Australian society from what they do."

He said Mr Ruddock should reveal all details of his and his predecessor Daryl Williams's dealings with the sect because "their success with IR laws shows they're used to getting a result out of the lobbying". Senator Brown has asked questions of 20 federal ministers about details of their meetings with the Brethren, but none has responded.

"This leverage on the Government and the Attorney-General is obviously very strong," Senator Brown said.

The documents obtained by Fairfax showed "a plan by the sect to gain precedence over all other Australian families".

Posted by Perry at 03:54 PM

Sect told girl: banish your dad

The Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/
sect-told-girl-banish-your-dad/
2006/12/25/1166895241013.html


Michael Bachelard
December 26, 2006

THE world leader of the Exclusive Brethren church intervened personally to break up a family this year, telling a 12-year-old that she would lose her mother if she did not renounce her father.

The Sydney-based Bruce D. Hales - the "Man of God," or "Elect Vessel" of the separatist cult - urged the girl to cease contact with her father, saying: "Your mother will not be able to accept you if you continue contact with him."

Notes of the conversation, taken immediately after they met in Sydney in January, also reveal Mr Hales told the girl: "You cannot love Christ if you wear pants [jeans], and you cannot be a Christian if you leave the Brethren."

And documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act demonstrate the Brethren's efforts over 15 years to bend the Family Court and the Federal Government to its will, in the hope of keeping lapsed Brethren away from their children.

After the January 17 meeting between Mr Hales and the girl, the mother - with the help of the church - moved the girl, her sister and brother 700 kilometres away from their father. He has not seen them since.

"My ex-wife went from having daily contact and decision-making involving me to nothing, just like closing a door," said the father, who has spoken on condition of anonymity. "It happened immediately after Mr Hales said that."

The Family Court has granted him joint guardianship of the children and guaranteed weekly access, but these conditions have been ignored.

His children had told him they were lured to the January meeting, at which another senior Brethren member, Neil Kennard, a Sydney businessman, was present, under the promise of an apology and a gift of money. But the church wanted to keep the father away from them because he had ceased being a member in 1999. However, he had been living with, or near, the girls and his former wife, at her invitation, through most of last year because she was ill and was dealing with unrelated legal proceedings.

During this time, he said, she had repeatedly said to him: "Please protect me from the Brethren. I can't deal with the pressure they put on me." He has kept notes and letters from his former wife thanking him for his help.

The Brethren enforce a strict policy of separation from the world: those who are "not in fellowship" are to have no contact with sect members, even if they are members of their family.

Continue reading "Sect told girl: banish your dad"

Posted by Perry at 03:49 PM

November 14, 2006

Arrows for the War : Evangelical Group's Motto Is Breed to Succeed

Quiverfull mothers think of their children as no mere movement but as an army they're building for God.

Arrows for the War
By Kathryn Joyce, The Nation (November 27, 2006 issue)
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/joyce
http://www.alternet.org/story/44254/

When the Gospel Community Church in Coxsackie, New York, breaks midservice to excuse children for Sunday school, nearly half of the 225-strong congregation patters toward the back of the worship hall: the five youngest children of Pastor Stan Slager's eight, assistant pastor Bartly Heneghan's eleven and the Dufkin family's thirteen, among many others. "The Missionettes," a team of young girls who perform ribbon dances during the praise music, put down their "glory hoops" to join their classmates; the pews empty out. It's the un-ignorable difference between the families at Gospel Community and those in the rest of the town that's led some to wonder if the church isn't a cult that forces its disciples to keep pushing out children.

But after the kids leave, Pastor Stan doesn't exhort his congregation to bear children. His approach is more subtle, reminding them to present their bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord, and preaching to them about Acts 5:20: Go tell "all the words of this life." Or, in Pastor Stan's guiding translation, to lead lives that make outsiders think, "Christianity is real," lives that "demand an explanation."

Lives such as these: Janet Wolfson is a 44-year-old mother of eight in Canton, Georgia. Tracie Moore, a 39-year-old midwife who lives in southern Kentucky, is mother to fourteen. Wendy Dufkin in Coxsackie has her thirteen. And while Jamie Stoltzfus, a 27-year-old Illinois mom, has only four children so far, she plans on bearing enough to populate "two teams." All four mothers are devoted to a way of life New York Times columnist David Brooks has praised as a new spiritual movement taking hold among exurban and Sunbelt families. Brooks called these parents "natalists" and described their progeny as a new wave of "Red-Diaper Babies" -- as in "red state."

But Wolfson, Moore and thousands of mothers like them call themselves and their belief system "Quiverfull." They borrow their name from Psalm 127: "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate." Quiverfull mothers think of their children as no mere movement but as an army they're building for God.

Quiverfull parents try to have upwards of six children. They home-school their families, attend fundamentalist churches and follow biblical guidelines of male headship -- "Father knows best" -- and female submissiveness. They refuse any attempt to regulate pregnancy. Quiverfull began with the publication of Rick and Jan Hess's 1989 book, A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ, which argues that God, as the "Great Physician" and sole "Birth Controller," opens and closes the womb on a case-by-case basis. Women's attempts to control their own bodies -- the Lord's temple -- are a seizure of divine power.

Continue reading "Arrows for the War : Evangelical Group's Motto Is Breed to Succeed"

Posted by Perry at 04:03 PM

April 26, 2005

Tests Show Only One Child Linked to Deya

Only one of the nine children seized from the home of the London-based evangelist Gilbert Deya has been proved as his.

Continue reading "Tests Show Only One Child Linked to Deya"

Posted by Julia at 10:09 PM

April 18, 2005

'Eye-popping' look at Smart case

In August 2002, two months after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared, Salt Lake police were called to the downtown library to check out a homeless man wearing robes and his two female companions.

Continue reading "'Eye-popping' look at Smart case"

Posted by Julia at 01:43 PM

April 14, 2005

Kingston kids to go back to mom

Judge gives her a chance but warns reuniting will take effort.

Saying their future ''rests in your arms, your hands and your love,'' 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez ordered the state Wednesday to begin the process of reuniting Heidi Mattingly Foster and her children.

"I do believe you've made some changes," Valdez told Mattingly Foster, who has 11 children with polygamist John Daniel Kingston. ''I'm trying to help you become a better mom, that's all.''

Continue reading "Kingston kids to go back to mom"

Posted by Julia at 12:26 PM

April 12, 2005

Judge talks to Kingston kids, is expected to rule today

Conflicting views: The counselors working with the children and their mother disagree on whether they can safely reunite

Third District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez finally heard from those with the most at stake in the protracted Kingston child-welfare case: the children.

Continue reading "Judge talks to Kingston kids, is expected to rule today"

Posted by Julia at 06:15 PM

April 09, 2005

Teen in US cult sends 'last word' to folks

The 18-year-old Northcliff High schoolgirl who married into an American cult now refuses to have any contact with her family.

Continue reading "Teen in US cult sends 'last word' to folks"

Posted by Julia at 08:10 AM

December 16, 1991

Mom seeks to save kids from cold hands of cult

SCRIBA - A pained expression came over her face. Her eyes widened and welled with tears.
"I'm afraid of repercussions the church might take against my children because of what I'm doing," she said.

Continue reading "Mom seeks to save kids from cold hands of cult"

Posted by Julia at 10:05 PM