With this amount of money flowing into the coffers you'd think they'd be able to stand on their own two feet and avoid the scrutiny associated with Government funding. Oh, that's right, they made sure they're exempt from anyone questioning what they do with these handouts.

Brethren schools have received $313,000 in capital grants in the past two years under the federal Investing in Our Schools Program, as well as a $219,000 capital grant in 2004.

The Meadowbank campus, in John Howard's electorate of Bennelong, was given $70,000 this year for the upgrade of furniture and resources for classroom, design and technology equipment, library resources and playground equipment. The campus has 70 students.

Grants were approved this year for a campus of the Tasmanian school ($30,000 for 42 students to upgrade a manual arts area) and a South Australian campus ($63,600 for 37 students for a science area and canteen). The Victorian school, Glenvale, has applied for a $70,000 grant.

Under federal government guidelines, a school does not need to open its books for scrutiny if the grant application is for less than $75,000. All the Brethren applications fit under this threshold.

Not everything is going the Brethren's way. Greens Senator Bob Brown has been pushing to have them investigated for all manner of dodgy dealings, including their education funding scam. He argues that perhaps the schools should not be receiving money when they're running a profitable business.

The government should investigate whether Exclusive Brethren schools have broken the law by setting up a tyre franchise, the Greens say.

The franchise could be in breach of federal regulations requiring private schools to be non profit entities to receive funding, Greens leader Bob Brown said.

Fairfax newspapers reported that schools run by the secretive sect have set up a chain of wholesale outlets in four states that import tyres from Thailand.

Yet Exclusive Brethren schools receive tens of thousand dollars in government building grants on top of $6.6 million in recurrent federal funding.

Senator Brown said millions of dollars from Australian taxpayers flowed into the sect's coffers each year and their funding arrangements should be vetted.

Another point Senator Brown has raised is the inappropriate influence the cult has had on family law in Australia.

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.

It's a classic cult move to separate the gullible from those who've started to think for themselves, but cults rarely draw attention to themselves by attempting to get their insanity enshrined by law.

And why would anyone want to leave this bastion of Christian love and affection? Perhaps because their grand poohbah is a batshit-insane, power-mad loon who insists on controlling every aspect of their lives and will stop at nothing to achieve those results.

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.

Then there's question of where women stand within the Brethren. Well, it seems that they're little more than breeding stock and property.

The welfare of the children is best preserved by being maintained within the lifestyles and belief systems which they have been brought up in since birth, the Brethren argues.

It says the Brethren lifestyle is better than that of worldly people because women stay in the home. The cornerstone of a healthy society is the regulation of order in the family home in accordance with the creatorial status of man and woman. Numerous social studies confirm the enduring value of the dedication of the mother to the home setting and the tender care of children.

Brethren women are required to wear long skirts, no make-up, and have their hair long, with headscarves. They are not permitted to work once married.

I have to wonder what's so wonderful about this Brethren lifestyle that it should be permitted to tear families apart. Are their children raised to love and respect all others? It appears not. It seems like every other loony fundie cult, they are indoctrinated to be unquestioning sheep that follow in the footsteps of their nutty leader and the hate all non-Brethrens.

Brethren members who have left the church say their children have been schooled by sect elders to spit at their fathers, throw stones, and to say they do not want to see them on access visits. Vincent Field remembers very well the psychological pressure put on him as an eight-year-old to reject his parents. He, his brother and sister were moved to their grandparents' house after his mother and father were withdrawn from in 1990.

There is a point where you actually start to believe that because your parents 'aren't right with the Lord' that you don't want to see them, Mr Field said. It's continually reiterated by all the people in the church, especially when they pray in their meetings. They're careful not to say they're evil: they say they're 'not right', and then you'd read some Bible scriptures saying those who aren't right with the Lord are evil and wicked and you'd make the connection.

I know first hand that initially we would have loved to see our parents, but just the methodical phrases and the way they talk about your parents made you not want to.

A psychologist, Louise Samways, said many in the Family Court system did not understand the ferocity of the fear planted in these children by fundamentalist sects such as the Brethren.

They teach that people outside are condemned to hell, and if you want to be saved you're not allowed to associate with people outside the group. They use the expression 'of the devil', Ms Samways said.

From a child's point of view, to be told they have to spend time with the parent who is of the devil is an extremely frightening prospect ... it's definitely psychological abuse. If you undermine a parent to a child, say that parent is of the devil, there you see abuse, there is no doubt about it.

Spitting at, throwing stones and being taught to actively hate your parents doesn't seem a terribly Christian way to behave.

But wait, there's more. It seems the Brethren want to be just like all the other mad Christian wingnuts, so, of course, they happily protect paedophiles while shaming and ridiculing their victims.

The Exclusive Brethren sect has tried for almost four years to cover up the sexual assaults of two girls, protecting the abuser, ostracising the victims and blaming their mother.

The perpetrator, a senior, respected and rich Brethren elder in a country town, was found guilty two weeks ago of eight charges in a Sydney court, including the digital rape of one girl of eight, and the repeated indecent assault of her older sister, who was 12 and 13 when the offences occurred.

The Age has obtained a document showing the Brethren leadership ignored written warnings as early as 1991 that the perpetrator, a serial molester, had sexually assaulted many young women within the sect.

The abuser has been ejected from the secretive group, and is in custody awaiting sentencing.

Well, what would you expect from a bunch of loons more interested in lining their own pockets than in rasing children. If they teach them to hate their own parents, why wouldn't they accuse them of lying when one of the rich elders gets accused of kiddie fiddling? These guys do seem to think the sun shines out their own arses, after all.

Fancy taking your concerns to the police? How about a little scripture, guilt and blame instead? And while we're there, let's have the rapist blame the victim too.

A local Brethren woman quoted the scripture to my ex-wife. She said, 'It would be better for a millstone to be hung around your neck and for you to be cast into the depths of the sea, rather than go to the police.'

According to the father, one of the Brethren's Australian leaders also told the victims' mother that she should take the blame for the sexual assaults.

During this time, the wife of the sexual predator was allowed to interview the older sister for several hours. Towards the end of that session, the abuser himself also joined the interview. Under the pressure, the girl retracted her complaints and issued a written apology to her abuser and his wife.

It was a coerced admission that it was because of my own daughter's naughtiness and sinfulness that she had said such a thing, the father told The Age.

Getting the bastard convicted didn't help the victim or her family either.

It was only after the charges were laid that the Brethren imposed any assembly discipline on him. That set the scene for the vilification of my family, the father said. The kids were excluded at school, jeered at, made fun of. And from that time ensued a period where my ex-wife's house was repeatedly egged - eggs under the doormat, being smashed on the windows, the car being scratched.

Scammers, child abusers and rapists. All in all, a delightful bunch of people, and the Christmas round-up of their joyous traditions didn't even manage to touch on their political machinations, lies and corruption. Perhaps, next time.

Sect's schools flush from parents - and federal funds—The Sydney Morning Herald, 28th December 2006 (via redwolf.newsvine.com).
Greens query Brethren school's funding—The Sydney Morning Herald, 29th December 2006 (via redwolf.newsvine.com).
Sect asked for power to prevent child visits—The Sydney Morning Herald, 27th December 2006 (via redwolf.newsvine.com).
Sect told girl: banish your dad—The Sydney Morning Herald, 26th December 2006 (via redwolf.newsvine.com).
Sect covered up sex assaults on two children—The Sydney Morning Herald, 30th December 2006 (via redwolf.newsvine.com).