Christian Church or Commercial Cult?
During the course of our research into the Plymouth Brethren, we have raked and scraped our way through companies house, following thread after thread to bring to life the inner business workings of the brethren members. We have found circa 1700 companies listed on companies house that have brethren members as directors, we have found a further 200 that are dormant. It is our estimate that there are over 2,000 companies registered in the UK. If you look at the male 18-65 demographic for the PBCC in the UK, we suspect this equates to one registered company for every two members!
The history of how the brethren became so reliant on their own companies, goes back to the leadership of James Taylor Jnr in the 1960's, when the members were instructed to reduce their contact with non brethren "worldy" people, not to break bread with non brethren and not to attend university. All these activities were seen as morally corrupting. This led to many brethren member having to run their own businesses. This has escalated under the last two leaders, Bruce D Hales and his father John S Hales. The focus on commercial activities has become more and more prominent. Brethren members who run successful enterprises are held in high esteem by the leadership. We question if the church has morphed into a commercial enterprise?
There appears to be a consistent approach on how a company is structured by the brethren community. The categories we looked at show a pattern for a family business, a school related business, a wider brethren or church company set up and finally a construction business for the building of meeting halls.
The history of how the brethren became so reliant on their own companies, goes back to the leadership of James Taylor Jnr in the 1960's, when the members were instructed to reduce their contact with non brethren "worldy" people, not to break bread with non brethren and not to attend university. All these activities were seen as morally corrupting. This led to many brethren member having to run their own businesses. This has escalated under the last two leaders, Bruce D Hales and his father John S Hales. The focus on commercial activities has become more and more prominent. Brethren members who run successful enterprises are held in high esteem by the leadership. We question if the church has morphed into a commercial enterprise?
There appears to be a consistent approach on how a company is structured by the brethren community. The categories we looked at show a pattern for a family business, a school related business, a wider brethren or church company set up and finally a construction business for the building of meeting halls.