Entry 399, on 2006-09-25 at 14:15:13 (Rating 5, Politics)
An interesting current issue here in New Zealand is the political influence of the Exclusive Brethren religious sect. Traditionally, this group has stayed out of politics because they believe there should be no source of authority other than Christian teachings which are communicated through their church. They tended to keep to themselves (theoretically they can only associate with, employ, etc other Brethren but this doesn't seem to be strictly followed) so they weren't too much of a nuisance.
Their beliefs are rubbish, of course, but no more rubbish than other examples of the more extreme sects of Christianity. One belief attributed to them is that long term planning for environmental issues is unnecessary because the second coming is imminent. That's been imminent for almost 2000 years and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe we need a contingency plan, because Jesus has obviously been held up somewhere!
As long as they kept to themselves their nutty beliefs didn't really do much harm, but its becoming apparent now that they are actually quite interested in politics, and are not averse to dabbling in a few dirty tactics along the way! For example, they hired private detectives to dig up dirt on members of the current government. You can't get much lower than that. But I shouldn't be surprised, because hypocrisy seems a common attribute of some of these exclusive freaks!
They also funded a smear campaign against the Labour party here in New Zealand at the last election, and after doing some research I have found they have been doing similar background meddling in politics in Canada, Australia, the US, and Sweden. So for a group who don't recognise political power or vote, they do seem to be prepared to invest a reasonable amount in propaganda campaigns designed to change the results of elections.
Unfortunately for them, now that their activities have been made public their efforts are likely to be counterproductive. Many people who perceive that a conservative party has the backing, official or otherwise, of a bunch of nuts like these, are less likely to vote for that party. So I think the Brethren should continue with their amateur political games - or maybe they would be better off preparing for the end of the world!
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