The Exclusive Brethren's elect vessel,or world leader,has stepped up his verbal brawl with Kevin Rudd by issuing his first direct comments to the media,rejecting the Opposition Leader's criticisms.
Sydney businessman Bruce Hales,who leads the secretive sect of about 40,000 devotees,hit back at comments by Mr Rudd on Wednesday that the church was"an extremist cult"that"breaks up families".
Mr Hales said those comments were"not factual,they were not informed,and it seems to us they were deliberately intended to put the Brethren in an unfair light for political purposes".
Mr Rudd said through a spokesman that he would"not be intimidated by the Exclusive Brethren"and that he stood by"everything he said,100 per cent".
The war of words is likely to goad the sect into another expensive campaign for Prime Minister John Howard,whom they consider one of the"Christian men in Government"- and for the Brethren,money is no object.
The dispute started whenThe Age revealed that Mr Hales,accompanied by three senior Brethren figures,met Mr Howard in Canberra two weeks ago.
Willmac,a company owned by one of the men at the meeting,Mark Mackenzie,paid for $370,000 of pro-Howard advertising in the Prime Minister's seat of Bennelong and elsewhere at the 2004 federal election.
That company is now under investigation by the Australian Federal Police for its electoral activities.
Describing himself as the"church leader",Mr Hales said in his statement that Mr Rudd had"failed to respond without citing any reasons"to a number of requests to meet Brethren leaders.
"If we cannot explain ourselves to him and he will not inform himself properly about what we believe and practise,how can he have a realistic idea of who we are and what we do?"Mr Hales said.