Exclusive Brethren Suicide - Winifred Rhodes

As an example of unyeilding and vicious Exclusive Brethren legalism there is little better example than what happened to Winifred and Elsie Rhodes in UK during 1962.

a tiny symbol of a lion used by the British Egg Marketing Board in 1962 The British Egg Marketing Board installed legislation that ensured eggs were of a marketable quality. This involved inspection of facilities and various scientific tests. Once the inspection was complete, the sign that an egg was of marketable quality came in the form of a small stamp of a lion. Without the stamp, the egg was deemed unsaleable for the main distribution channels.

On the basis of 'Separation from evil', a statement was made by the Exclusive Brethren that this stamp, a seal of food safety, was "an impure link"! James Taylor Jnr, already out of control, deemed that this harmless and health-oriented symbol was 'The Mark of the Beast'. The small-mindedness and ridiculousness of this particularly idiotic Exclusive Brethren edict would simply be yet another laughable example of a sect being led deeper into cultdom, if it were not for the fact it directly lead to the deaths of Winifred and Elsie Rhodes.

I remember very well the tragedy of the Miss Rhodes, two years after I left the brethren. They were simple, guileless country folk, who managed to support themselves by keeping about 1,500 chickens. They were known among the brethren for their hospitality and few of us ever left their house without some little gift of eggs, flowers or other produce.

For me, the destruction of those harmless innocents ( because the little lion stamped on their eggs by the Egg Marketing Board was said to be 'the mark of the beast', as in Revelation 16 and 20) was one of the very worst deeds of the brethren, even at a time when there were many shocking deeds.