According to Bryan Wilson, the Bruderhof is not a cult, but rather "positive and life-affirming,and it maintains non-violence as a basic principle." I am not sure what others think, but this is a very interesting paper from a man who spent his life studying cults and NRMs.
Here is the text:
"The Bruderhof
by Bryan R. Wilson, Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford Among the minority religions with which I have become acquainted in the course of my studies is the body known as the Bruderhof. I have read much of the available social science literature on this movement and on the history of the wider Hutterite fraternity. On two occasions, I have visited the Bruderhof community at Nonington in Kent, and am acquainted with some of their leading members. As will be apparent, my approach to the Bruderhof and to all other minority religions is objective and ethically neutral. I am not and never have been a member of the Bruderhof.
The Bruderhof can claim to inherit the authentic spirit of the radical Reformation, and shares with others in the Hutterite tradition (the name derives from Jacob Hutter (d.1536)) the commitment to a simple communitarian way of life in which basic Christian virtues and values are cherished and nurtured. The members of the Bruderhof espouse a Protestant ethic with an emphasis on the shared possession of the necessities of life. They are committed to non-violence and the endeavour to promote peace and goodwill among all mankind.
Their communal life certainly differs from the life-style of most citizens, but it is generally recognized by scholars to be a way of life informed by wholesome ideals and conscientious concerns.The general evidence concerning such communities is that they are of long-term benefit to the societies in which they are established. As self-regulating bodies they are virtually crime-free, and such are the standard held up to their young people that they are unlikely to be involved in vandalism or any other form of anti-social behaviour. A Bruderhof community requires no police surveillance,and might have the direct or indirect effect of reducing the policing costs of the wider society. Similarly, the strong family values which pervade the community encourage its members to look after one another, and this is of considerable importance to the elderly, who are so well cared for in the community that even in extremis they are unlikely to become a charge on local or state government finances.
The Bruderhof community succeeds in maintaining control and mutual support because its members have permanently in mind the teachings to which they are committed and the need to be seen to live up to their professed standards.Members keep themselves generally to themselves but, when occasion demand,they show themselves to be good neighbours by participating in local schemes for social improvement, recently exemplified by devoting labour to maintain a tidy environment and by providing swings for a children’s playground. Whilst members undertake much of their own maintenance work, it is also true that the existence of the Bruderhof from time to time, present employment opportunities for non-members resident in the neighbourhood.
There is no reason to suppose that the Bruderhof would ever pose a threat to those living and working in its locality.In recent years, the widespread diffusion throughout western societies of new religious teachings, and the proliferation of the organizations that have come into being to purvey those teachings, or variants of them, has led journalists and some public figures to make comments concerning minority religions which have been ill-informed and distressing to some members of the public. Chief among the miss-directed assertions has been the tendency to speak of new religious movements as if they differed very little, if at all, one from another. The tendency has been to lump them altogether and indiscriminately to attribute to all of them characteristics which are, in fact, valid for only one or two.
In point of fact, minority religions represent a wide variety of beliefs and practices. The tragic history of five small movements: the People’s Temple in Guyana; the Branch Davidians at Waco; the Solar Temple, in Switzerland, France and Canada; the Aum Shinrikyo in Japan; and the believers in Heaven’s Gate in San Diego, captured the attention of the Press in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and induced an indiscriminate fear of minority religious movements among some members of the general public. It should be pointed out, however,that these are five isolated instances among an estimated 2,000 religious bodies operating in western countries. Public fears have thus led to unfounded rumours and ill-informed allegations against many sincere, innocent, and altogether blameless believers, belonging to religious fellowships uncontaminated by the self-destructive theories of so-called “salvation” canvassed, in one form or another, by these five movements or so-called “cults”.
In the popular press, the word “sect” and, even more especially (at least in English), the word “cult” have now been extensively used to categorize reputedly“dangerous” religious movements. These words lack stable definitions but have taken on pejorative and derogatory connotations, which in the popular mind suggest that cults in particular are organizations that use methods of deceptions,fraud, mind-control, exploitation of converts, among other malefactions, and that converts are likely to have their lives endangered. Typically, the cult is presented as being under the control of one or a very few powerful leaders; to have drawn its teachings from eclectic, arcane, and often occultist sources, and usually sources other than the indigenous religious tradition (i.e. in the West,Christianity).If these characteristics are accepted as the popular understanding of what is meant by the term “cult”, then it must be said that the Bruderhof in no way approximates “cult” status. Its goals and values are positive and life-affirming,and it maintains non-violence as a basic principle.
The first Hutterite communities come into being well over five hundred years ago, and since that time these religious believers have attained and recurrently enhanced a reputation for diligence in work, integrity in personal relationships, peaceable living, and good neighbourliness. The two English Bruderhof communities maintain these traditions and give them manifold expression"
Here is the text:
"The Bruderhof
by Bryan R. Wilson, Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford Among the minority religions with which I have become acquainted in the course of my studies is the body known as the Bruderhof. I have read much of the available social science literature on this movement and on the history of the wider Hutterite fraternity. On two occasions, I have visited the Bruderhof community at Nonington in Kent, and am acquainted with some of their leading members. As will be apparent, my approach to the Bruderhof and to all other minority religions is objective and ethically neutral. I am not and never have been a member of the Bruderhof.
The Bruderhof can claim to inherit the authentic spirit of the radical Reformation, and shares with others in the Hutterite tradition (the name derives from Jacob Hutter (d.1536)) the commitment to a simple communitarian way of life in which basic Christian virtues and values are cherished and nurtured. The members of the Bruderhof espouse a Protestant ethic with an emphasis on the shared possession of the necessities of life. They are committed to non-violence and the endeavour to promote peace and goodwill among all mankind.
Their communal life certainly differs from the life-style of most citizens, but it is generally recognized by scholars to be a way of life informed by wholesome ideals and conscientious concerns.The general evidence concerning such communities is that they are of long-term benefit to the societies in which they are established. As self-regulating bodies they are virtually crime-free, and such are the standard held up to their young people that they are unlikely to be involved in vandalism or any other form of anti-social behaviour. A Bruderhof community requires no police surveillance,and might have the direct or indirect effect of reducing the policing costs of the wider society. Similarly, the strong family values which pervade the community encourage its members to look after one another, and this is of considerable importance to the elderly, who are so well cared for in the community that even in extremis they are unlikely to become a charge on local or state government finances.
The Bruderhof community succeeds in maintaining control and mutual support because its members have permanently in mind the teachings to which they are committed and the need to be seen to live up to their professed standards.Members keep themselves generally to themselves but, when occasion demand,they show themselves to be good neighbours by participating in local schemes for social improvement, recently exemplified by devoting labour to maintain a tidy environment and by providing swings for a children’s playground. Whilst members undertake much of their own maintenance work, it is also true that the existence of the Bruderhof from time to time, present employment opportunities for non-members resident in the neighbourhood.
There is no reason to suppose that the Bruderhof would ever pose a threat to those living and working in its locality.In recent years, the widespread diffusion throughout western societies of new religious teachings, and the proliferation of the organizations that have come into being to purvey those teachings, or variants of them, has led journalists and some public figures to make comments concerning minority religions which have been ill-informed and distressing to some members of the public. Chief among the miss-directed assertions has been the tendency to speak of new religious movements as if they differed very little, if at all, one from another. The tendency has been to lump them altogether and indiscriminately to attribute to all of them characteristics which are, in fact, valid for only one or two.
In point of fact, minority religions represent a wide variety of beliefs and practices. The tragic history of five small movements: the People’s Temple in Guyana; the Branch Davidians at Waco; the Solar Temple, in Switzerland, France and Canada; the Aum Shinrikyo in Japan; and the believers in Heaven’s Gate in San Diego, captured the attention of the Press in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and induced an indiscriminate fear of minority religious movements among some members of the general public. It should be pointed out, however,that these are five isolated instances among an estimated 2,000 religious bodies operating in western countries. Public fears have thus led to unfounded rumours and ill-informed allegations against many sincere, innocent, and altogether blameless believers, belonging to religious fellowships uncontaminated by the self-destructive theories of so-called “salvation” canvassed, in one form or another, by these five movements or so-called “cults”.
In the popular press, the word “sect” and, even more especially (at least in English), the word “cult” have now been extensively used to categorize reputedly“dangerous” religious movements. These words lack stable definitions but have taken on pejorative and derogatory connotations, which in the popular mind suggest that cults in particular are organizations that use methods of deceptions,fraud, mind-control, exploitation of converts, among other malefactions, and that converts are likely to have their lives endangered. Typically, the cult is presented as being under the control of one or a very few powerful leaders; to have drawn its teachings from eclectic, arcane, and often occultist sources, and usually sources other than the indigenous religious tradition (i.e. in the West,Christianity).If these characteristics are accepted as the popular understanding of what is meant by the term “cult”, then it must be said that the Bruderhof in no way approximates “cult” status. Its goals and values are positive and life-affirming,and it maintains non-violence as a basic principle.
The first Hutterite communities come into being well over five hundred years ago, and since that time these religious believers have attained and recurrently enhanced a reputation for diligence in work, integrity in personal relationships, peaceable living, and good neighbourliness. The two English Bruderhof communities maintain these traditions and give them manifold expression"