They no longer own the jet, they lease one from another company instead.JimFoxvog wrote:Note this is a 1995 article. My question is whether the talk of them changing is correct.Josh wrote: Like it or not, being part of Bruderhof means absolute allegiance to people who do stuff like this:
http://articles.courant.com/1995-11-12/ ... mennonites
The Bruderhof also owns a Gulfstream jet...These don't look like things that sincere Christians do, although I think these are things the leadership is instigating, not the rank and file. Regardless, anyone looking to join them needs to seriously consider what they will be joining and supporting.Antagonism between those critics and the people in the Bruderhofs has become vehement. Last summer, former members banded together into a support group called Children of the Bruderhof and publicized a toll-free telephone number. It was flooded with 1,700 harassing calls. After an investigation traced many of the calls to pay phones in the vicinity of the various Bruderhofs, the calls tapered off.
They filed several slap suits against Children of the Bruderhof and other critics and ex-members (I was involved in one of them). The children of the Bruderhof disbanded as they could not afford to defend themselves. The other major suit was dropped (after a lot of us had to spend a lot of money on lawyers) quite possibly because several of those being sued discovered that their insurance policies would cover their legal expenses or because the defendants were likely to have subpoenaed the records of meetings and correspondence from the Bruderhof.
The man who ended up paying for those 1700 harassing phone calls (it was an 800 number) never received a penny from the Bruderhof. The Bruderhof mysteriously sent checks out to many ex-members about 10 years ago, some of them substantial. There was no explanation sent with the checks. The elder visited some of the prominent ex-members asking for forgiveness, but never admitting to any wrong or specifying forgiveness for what. At least one of ex-members most in the know about abuses there has been mysteriously silent (and seemingly in good financial condition) since then.
They had been receiving too much bad press for a while and some of their critics were effective on the internet in calling attention to their abuse, so they pulled down their web sites and went silent for many years. There had also been a lot of internal turmoil with many people leaving, young people being corrupted by some of the Bruderhof's strange bedfellows and failed attempts to win favor with some of the Hutterites. Now they are back on line and making a good impression with everyone, but I know from recent leavers and recent incidents involving ex-members that nothing has really changed, the Bruderhof communities and the leaders won't admit to their abuses or repent of them or reconcile to the families they have hurt.
I should add too in response to Dan's comments. There are sincere and dedicated Christians there, but I was reminded recently that they, like myself, have assented to what they know is wrong. They put the elder in the position of absolute power. They have supported the abuse by not being brave enough to say no to it. I was not blameless when I was a member there, and when I finally did speak up I was made to be no longer a member. One has to take the risk of actually taking one's vows and the Jesus' words seriously, and few members at the Bruderhof do.