No Hairy Faces For Brethren

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 15

No Hairy Faces For Brethren

(Special Crspdt. N Z.P A.) LONDON, August 6.

From now on no bowler hats or beards may be worn by any male member of the Exclusive Brethren, the “secret” religious sect rigidly controlled by its American leader, “Big Jim” Taylor, according to the “Daily Express.” He has ruled that bowlers and hairy faces are outward signs of vanity. There is also a new instruction for women members of the sect, says the newspaper. In future, if one of the brethren proposes marriage there is to be no question of a refusal. It is not becoming for a woman to be "fickle,” says Mr Taylor. The sect’s rules already prohibit members from drinking, smoking, watching television, going to the cinema or theatre, playing games, or mixing socially with non-members, even among their own family. Discipline Mrs Lillian Nightingale, of East Barnet, Hertfordshire, who claims her marriage broke up because of the sect, said: “We have had reports from all over the country—-

and even from Australia — that discipline is being tightened up. “At the same time, the brethren are worried because so many are abandoning the sect because they object to its severe control.

“My husband, Eli. a member for 25 years, left me because he objected to my going to whist drives and playing my radio. Now I understand he has been ‘withdrawn,’ which means he's been kicked out,” she said.