Secretive Group Buys Political Ads

[Judi Lynn]

Published Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Secretive Group Buys Political Ads
Members of a religious body spent nearly $530,000 to support candidates.

By LUCY MORGAN
St. Petersburg Times

TALLAHASSEE -- A mysterious committee backed by members of a secretive religious group whose members are forbidden to vote spent more than $500,000 on newspaper ads last year supporting President Bush and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez.

The Thanksgiving 2004 Committee raised the money from residents of 18 states, plus $377,262 from Bruce Hazell of London, England. None of the money was raised in Florida, according to a report filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

The group of men who formed the committee belong to the Exclusive Brethren, a reclusive religious group with roots in England and Australia. The group includes members from Knoxville, Tenn., Omaha, Neb., and other American cities.

Members of the Exclusive Brethren do not vote, read newspapers, watch television or participate in the outside world, according to published reports. So why would they care who gets elected in the United States?

That's hard to say, and members contacted by the St. Petersburg Times wouldn't say anything except to praise President Bush and say they wanted to see him re-elected.
(snip/...)

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050118/NEWS/501180333/1040/NEWS12

[pinniped]

1. How did they contact these whackos? Pigeon-gram?

?

[rooboy]

2. I think this is the crowd who believe in literal Biblical law.

i.e. if the bible says you should be stoned to death for adultery, then you should be stoned to death.

[acmavm]

3. Figures, Omaha, Nebraska. This place just keeps getting wackier

by the minute. I'm certainly not surprised.

[punpirate]

4. Here's the Wikipedia article on them...

... and it traces the intellectual and spiritual roots of the denomination to John Darby, whose dispensationalist theories were picked up and expanded on by Scofield, in this country:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_Brethren

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1160739