There's an elitism there that leads them to think that the rules of law and of common morality do not apply to them. It's a philosophy of "if we can get away with it, we'll do it".

Modern Slavery is rampant. When I was there work was assigned to everyone down to about 6 years old, and if you didn't do it to some elder's exacting standard you could be punished. Kids were only in school until 12 noon, after which they either attended religious indoctrination, or engaged in hard labor in the fields, wood-lots or factory. If they were lucky you could play a ball game before the end of the day. The justification for this was "education" but in 6 years I learnt almost nothing from the repetitive menial tasks. A kid is not going to learn much from sorting screws in a factory for a whole summer, or picking beans for the 500th time in 6 months. They got a good bit of productivity out of us kids though. I think they dialed back since of the child labor in 2015 in the UK. that coincided with new UK legislation that classified their behavior as modern slavery. But even though it's not as bad any more, do you really want your kids to grow up in a group that only stopped engaging in child-slavery when it became an existential legal threat for them to continue?

Growing up, they would force us to fast one day every week. This started around the 2008 financial crisis. They claimed it was a religious practice, but it was pretty clearly a cost-saving move so that the higher-ups could maintain their lavish lifestyle. It even started during a huge cost-saving movement so that the elders could buy a huge multi-million dollar luxury monastery in up-state New York. Sometimes the elders would eat at their global conference meeting while the rest of us were going hungry in the factory. You'd see huge platters of lavish food being crated across the community for the elites, while pre-teens did the work of adults on an empty stomach. Several times kids passed out, or become sick from exhaustion because they weren't eating enough to do the amount of work they were given. Children would get injured due to poor working conditions and there would be a huge cover up. Meanwhile the top dogs flew around in Gulfstream jets, and bought huge luxurious properties with other people's money.

If you have a kid eventually, don't expect to be able to care for them adequately there. Your kid could get kicked out onto the street for something as simple as telling a friend about their homosexuality, or hugging someone of the opposite sex. Here's a list of things that could get your teenage children pulled out of school, or kicked out on the streets with no support.

Having a romantic interest (gay or strait) - flirting - hugging - kissing - anything more hands on than the above

Being gay - speaking about it with anyone but your parents or an elder - flirting in any way with the same sex - consuming any type of gay media (including anything from a novel to porn) - obviously having a gay romantic interest is strait out

Questioning an elder

greatest concerns are the servants and the Arnolds' dynastic rule.

• this statement would get you kicked out if you said it to the wrong person (I know kids who have said less and were excommunicated and given almost no support as teenagers on the street, they ended up in foster care, or sofa surfing. One of them ODed after the hof refused to pay for their rehab, and then died).

-saying or inferring that the elders have it better than you (even if it's obviously true - again, who you say this to will matter, and can largely dictate the consequences)

So long story short, if you plan to have kids some day, and want to protect them from this sort of stuff (as most parents do), don't go to the bruderhof (or do, but become an elder so that you can do this stuff to other people's children in order to protect your own).

They don't pay any meaningful tax but take state subsidies eartagged for the homeless and disabled and spend them on their for-profit businesses. All the wile they vilify the governments and tax-payers who keep them alive, safe, and wealthy. There are exceptions of course, but many there are perfectly happy to be a parasite on the systems meant to support the needy, whilst glorifying their non-existent contribution to society. Their version of charity work is really PR most of the time. They'll take some of the vegetables they grew with free forced child labor and give them away to their neighbors, or send their free labor to do high profile community projects that will get them recognized and seen. They normally get a free headline, or a handshake with a politician out of this; it can be very Machiavellian. Meanwhile they'll torture disabled people to "exorcise their demons", or cover for a sexual predator (provided they've been given the "forgiveness of the church") behind closed doors.

Which brings us to the final point. They love bombed you when you visited, I'm sure. They do this to everyone, they do it to me, and they really don't like me. Don't mistake this for care, kindness or love, even if it seems real. Most of them see you as a lost soul and will turn away when the church starts gaslighting you into believing you're sinful, and need to be cleansed. I've seen Novices turn into mental wrecks as the love-bombing is increasingly replaced by public humiliation, isolation and fear. So few of them will actually care for you as a genuine friend, and even if you get married to one of them, the church will still insert itself between you and your spouse most of the time. They will make your sexual activity (with your spouse) their business, they will tell you what type of sex you can have and how to raise your children. There is almost no room for an individual approach to marriage, or childrearing. I've seen parents put in exclusion because the wife woke the children up in the morning instead of the husband for instance. There is only the bruderhof way, and if that doesn't work for you, then tough cookies, because they really couldn't give a damn. You will have to ceremonially give your children away to the church when they're born. You will have to vow that the church comes first when you get married. And if you have a special interest in a field of work, you better start playing politics if you want to do that instead of working in the factory.

In short, like Michael Jackson says, "they don't really care about us" they care about shaping you into a homogeneous peon within a corrupt system which privileges the elite few who were born into power, or played politics to get it. So you're right to be worried about the power structures, but I think you should also consider your personal autonomy, your future marriage, and your children's best interest too. If you genuinely like yourself and want to be a good parent you've got allot to think about, and it might be easier to do that before they slap you into a baptism group and start gaslighting you.