Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 33, Number 10. 8 July, 1970
"Every word that cometh out of God's mouth . . ."
"Every word that cometh out of God's mouth . . ."
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"What I resent most about the new morality is that we didn't get in on it".
Reading matter is supplied to be bought at monthly intervals by each household. No novels are to be read or brought into an Exclusive house. Almost all the sect's books comprise edited transcripts of meetings involving prominent leaders. John Darby used to write instructions on doctrine and the way of life to be followed, but recordings of meetings, discussions and addresses are now most popular and are distributed in large quantities. Two or three books are published each month, besides numerous leaflets. The most important recorded meetings are those of Jim Taylor, but these are censored by him before distribution so that radical ideas are carried by word of mouth rather than on paper to the rest of the world.
Most publications, therefore, do not contain specific injunctions. The message, rather, is disguised under verbiage of doctrine and establishing relationships between Biblical passages. Biblical typology and symbolism form a major basis for such discussion.
The standard of reading matter used to be fairly high, as John Nelson Darby was an educated man, and his followers tended to speak well. This standard has steadily degenerated, however, with the minimising of education and the advent of James Taylor Junior. As his works are no longer edited but printed direct from tape, there is no halting the flow of bad Americanisms which are quickly picked up and used by his followers. This degeneracy in the quality of the spoken 'Exclusive' Word has become part of an anti-intellectual campaign, as English accents are frowned upon and good speaking generally regarded as "orthodox pomposity".