In most destructive cults, the rules for the central figure and his or her inner circle are not the same set of rules for the rank-and-file members. The narcissistic tendencies of a cult leader takes pleasure in dictating what their victims can and cannot do, and even more pleasure in enforcing those rules. William Branham’s cult of personality is no exception.
There is a very large number of things that William Branham harshly condemned, from anything not matching the Pentecostal/holiness dress code to watching television and even men wearing suede shoes. Branham got very up close and personal, rebuking women whose body type required booster bras, and forbade women from wearing them. Even the Pentecostal/holiness dress code was altered to be more controlling; Swimming pools and swimming parties were forbidden because the women would be outside in a bathing suits. Skirts that did not cover the ankles were called “scandal skirts”, and false teeth or dyed hair was worthy of condemnation under Branham’s narcissistic control.
Those who knew the Branham family and William Branham’s inner circle, like my family, were faced with a set of double standards. William Branham had a swimming pool. The Branham family had televisions, watched movies, and took my family to theaters. The female members of Branham’s family wore skirts above the knees and exposed their shoulders with the latest fashion. The boys wore shorts, though Branham harshly rebuked men who wore shorts as “perverted sissies”, and said that wearing them was an “abomination before God”.
In private, William Branham himself wore shorts, and he wore them enough to have tanned legs. William Branham’s daughter, Rebekah Branham, shared this fact while laughing during a “photo sharing” meeting, and made one of the photographs of Branham in shorts public for all to see.
Quote:
"This was in South Africa, at the Kruger National Park and when he was down there I believe it was 1951 and the brothers took him [William Branham] there and talked him into putting on one of these safari suits and had his picture made to bring home to us kids and when we saw it, we said, "That's not Daddy! That's not Daddy!" but you know the Stetson, the Florsheim shoes, they give it way. That's Dad."
- Rebekah Branham Smith
You can learn this and more on William Branham.org.
Cult Rules:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/cult_rules
Shorts:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/shorts
Audio of Rebekah Branham Describing the Shorts:
https://william-branham.org/data/topics/shorts/audio/Shorts.mp3
Swimming pool:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/swimming_pools
Branham home:
https://william-branham.org/site/research/topics/home
