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Exclusive Brethren - query....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Spunkymunky
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The biggest problem i have encountered so far is their attitude towards domestic pets which almost made me lose my temper. They mistreat them, kill them etc as they dont believe in their right to live. They only believe in animals being a source of food which dogs, cats etc aren't. So upon moving into my Brethren owned house (lovely house) a cat has adopted me. He is beautiful but very thin and was STARVING when he came in. He knows the house inside out so my guess is the previous owners just moved and ditched him. Poor little thing. ........................

Now that is something I would have very serious problems with. In my humble opinion all living creatures are entitled to respect and, provided they are not an imminent threat to my wellbeing, should not be harmed.

Sure, I eat meat but killing food animals humanely is one thing, mistreating or failing to care for pets is absolutely shameful and disgusting as is any culture which condones that.
 
I agree sven but it is interesting to note that when i was in an RE lecture at uni the Marrist Brother teaching us stated that pets dont have a soul and as such anything we do to them doesnt reflect on our eternal soul (not that i am Catholic - did it as my minor to avoid teaching science!). The UPROAR that ensued from this comment was amazing but the basic fact is, what he said is in line with the Churches teachings. Obviously it is not what the majority of Catholics, Christians or any other religion follow but these people are fundamentalists and i always try to remember that when marvelling at some of the stupid things they say and do.

I ABHOR their attitude towards pets....hence why i have a giant orange furball stretched out on my stomach who is full of tasty cat food and very happy.

Spunky - putting the "fun" back in fundamentalism......
 
Why thankyou Newbies081 but as i stated before i have nothing to do with them outside of school. They believe that we (the non-Brethren) are the children of Satan and are going straight to a nice toasty warm place down below. So i give them the state based education that every child is entitled to, increase their literacy skills, try to make them as aware of the outside world as possible and in return they pay me the normal teacher wage (e.g. not very bloody much) and do not allow us to associate with them oustside of the school environment.

They have no interest in "recruiting" as you need to be born into their way of life and whilst some of their behaviour's are very cult like i would debate the use of the word cult.
 
Spunkymunky said:
I agree sven but it is interesting to note that when i was in an RE lecture at uni the Marrist Brother teaching us stated that pets dont have a soul and as such anything we do to them doesnt reflect on our eternal soul .............. do.

I ABHOR their attitude towards pets....hence why i have a giant orange furball stretched out on my stomach who is full of tasty cat food and very happy.

Spunky - putting the "fun" back in fundamentalism......
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Yes, I have heard that too but surely common decency would tell us that cruelty of any kind to any other living creature is wrong. If, as the bible would have us believe, God created everything then surely all His creations should be treated with appropriate respect??

Anyway, there is hope. By providing these kids with a proper education and, hopefully, teaching them to think for themselves you may be equipping at least some of them to eventually re-enter mainstream society. There, I am sure, their fellow citizens will soon straighten out their attitudes.
 
Your mission

Spunky, if in the course of your teachings of these sadly misguided children, you can teach them HOW to think rather than WHAT to think, you will have done them a great service.
 
Thank you Sven and Corneus - i have never taught kids who have no concept of the outside world before. It makes it difficult to teach them about wars and conflicts etc when they literally know NOTHING and have no understanding of famine or barbarianism or anything like that. Even teaching the little kids about space travel is a struggle.

Mostly they are just normal kids.......with some funny ideas about what their teacher does in her spare time!
 
Not fond of the word normal myself - what is normal? Whilst the ideal of teaching someone how to think is appealing when one grows up surrounded by brainwashing the task is not so simple..
 
Did you think about how it might look on your resume down the line?

There are a lot of extremely good reasons these kooks have trouble getting teaching staff.
 
Newbies081 said:
Did you think about how it might look on your resume down the line?

There are a lot of extremely good reasons these kooks have trouble getting teaching staff.
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Considering the fact i am head of primary, head of arts, writing all my own programs and am a first year teacher i don't think it will look that bad. They also give excellent references.

They have trouble getting teachers because of the perception people have off them, all you need to do is google them to see that! Before i came out for the interview i spoke to people who had grown up in a Brethren town, worked with Brethren and had business dealings with them. I also spoke to three teachers who worked in their schools. I did my research - and if all else fails ive effectively doubled my employability. I am a secondary/TEE trained teacher who now has experience teaching primary as well.
 
TemptMe said:
Not fond of the word normal myself - what is normal? Whilst the ideal of teaching someone how to think is appealing when one grows up surrounded by brainwashing the task is not so simple..
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Would i not be brainwashing them to if i am teaching them how to think ? It's all very difficult to say - whilst there are parts of their way of life that are very bad and i strongly disagree with (pets, attitude to government, division of families if someone leaves the faith) they have positive things as well. There family units are exceptionally strong, they have a very low divorce rate, sexual abuse is non-existent as is unemployment and the support networks are very strong.

Doesn't make it okay but i still believe the word cult is to strong.
 
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In my mind 'how' is the encouragement of developing one's own thoughts and ideas, not my idea of brainwashing... As far as the term 'cult' (not my opinion) depends on the connotations you take from it - doesn't have to be seen as a negative although much of society sees it that way. Each to their own provided it doesn't impinge or harm others in any way....
 
We all have our standards, morals and ethics that we like to believe we stick to.

Thing is: I'm sure there were gas fitters who worked in early 1940's Germany who weren't Nazis and didn't believe in Hitler's policies.

Hope that makes sense, even if it is an extreme analogy and apologies for invoking Godwin's law
 
On the plus side the stuff the kids aren't supposed to know about or do such as common news, music, mobile phones, television, sport etc they all find a way to get around anyway. For children that are supposed to be the lambs of God and the "saved" they can be truly evil.

The reason the teacher before me left is because the primary kids locked her in a cupboard for half a day......only found that out today!

They wouldn't DARE try that on me which gives me some confidence about my teaching ability :-)
 
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