Eva Hales
The story of Eva Maude Snowball Hales is dark and one which reverberates through time. It is glaringly significant that the Aunt of previous ‘elect vessel’ John S Hales and his brother W. Bruce Hales, respectively father and uncle of today’s leader, Bruce D Hales, died at her own hand, but it is the reasons why Eva was driven to take her own life that should make you take pause.
Eva Hales was known as a strong woman. She had a mind of her own and was therefore not a natural recruit for the Exclusive Brethren sisterhood. It was because she consistently rejected repeated proposals to join the Exclusive Brethren that she became the subject of increasing pressure to conform to the Hales family’s wishes. It was a process that eventually would cost Eva her life.
Eva became increasingly described as ‘difficult’ - a badge of honor indeed, given her lonely stance in a family that had extraordinary ambitions.
In the mid-1960’s, almost precisely half-way through the turbulent decade of James Taylor Jnr, two brothers were sowing the seeds of havoc among the Exclusive Brethren. James Taylor Jnr was ‘away’, although we now know the seriously sick man was being treated for advanced alcoholism. During the period of time he was absent, John Stephen Hales and his brother W. Bruce Hales moved like a whirlwind through the Exclusive Brethren. They concentrated on money. They wanted to know how much you made, how much you had and how much you were prepared to give. It became known as ‘The Commercial System’.
W. Bruce Hales, the current leader’s uncle and namesake, had married well. He had Consuelo, the daughter of James Taylor Jnr on his arm. This coup granted WBH immediate status among the Exclusive Brethren. Couple this with the financial brains of his brother and their joint raw energy related to all matters financial, the ‘dynamic duo’ took hold of a temporarily leaderless flock and attempted some dramatic changes.
While John and Bruce were increasing their power and influence, it must have remained an irritating thorn in the sides of the Hales brothers that their ‘difficult’ Aunt Eva continued to maintain her insistence that there were some areas of the Exclusive Brethren she considered wrong. Those who were near to Eva described what happened:
“… they made life so hard for her (a single woman) and manipulated her with threats and insinuations …”
Eva Hales lived with her sister Rhina. They were devoted to each other. About six months before her death, Eva became ill and had to be hospitalised. In a classic ‘Divide and Conquer’ manoeuvre, the Exclusive Brethren now focused on the quieter, more malleable Rhina and persuaded her to ‘come and be looked after while your sister is in hospital’.
When an obviously weakened Eva was able to return home from hospital, she returned to an empty house. She became increasingly desperate in attempting to persuade Rhina to return back to their home, but Rhina was not being allowed to do so. Through the leverage of what amounts to enforced abduction, immense pressure was now being placed on Eva to conform. Such cruelty is almost incomprehensible to those who have not personally experienced how the Exclusive Brethren can operate.
It would take five weeks.
VETO BY SECT LED TO DEATH
A middle aged woman, said to have been distressed over her exclusion from the Exclusive order of Brethren, was found gassed last night
She was Miss Eva Maude Snowball Hales, 53, of Cliff Rd, Epping.
Her brother, Mr. Stephen Hales, found her lying on the floor of the kitchen of her home about 8pm.
All jets on a stove were turned on and she is believed to have been dead about 24 hours.
A neighbor said today Miss Hales had been very distressed when her sister Rhina left home to join the Brethren.
She was completely devoted to Rhina, he said.
The neighbor said the Hales sisters and their mother had moved into the house in Cliff Ave about 14 years ago.
After the Mother died the sisters lived there together until Rhina left.
It broke Eva Hales’ heart when the Brethren forced her sister to leave home the neighbor said.
Eva wanted to become a member of the Exclusive Order of Brethren, but they would not admit her. She was a member of a section of the Brethren but was not a member of the Exclusive Order.
Miss Hales, who often visited us, said she did not believe some of the edicts of the order and this excluded her.
Miss Hales became very ill about six months ago and was admitted to hospital. While she was away Rhina went to live with members of the Brethren. Eva returned home about five weeks ago, but Rhina told her the Brethren would not permit her to return to live with her.
-Extract from a Nov 16th 1965 news report
Of course, it would be simple at this point to place all blame for her death upon Eva’s nephews. But within the shadowy politics of the Exclusive Brethren, nothing is certain. The Exclusive Brethren are not a ‘person’ or even two ambitious brothers. They are a system, anamorphic in nature, continually distorted by the external influence of their human leaders.
Just weeks before Eva’s strength finally disintegrated, James Taylor Jnr had returned upon the Exclusive Brethren world stage. He returned with renewed vigor from a completely renewed blood supply. For a short while, before his alcoholism recommenced the destruction of his body, he was a different man. Quickly assessing the world scene and noting the adulation and popularity of the Hales brothers, he struck hard and fast.
John and Bruce were denounced along with their ‘Commercial System’. They were withdrawn-from, much of their teachings repudiated and James Taylor Jnr was back in control. He replaced Bruce Hales as Australian leader with John Patton, the previous incumbent.
One might have thought that in the middle of all this political turmoil, events could have been kinder to Eva but the real issue and the underlying evil was not the embarrassment of having a strong-willed Aunt, instead it was the root cause of almost every death recorded on these agonizing pages:
The Exclusive Brethren doctrine of Separation
had claimed yet another victim.
Eva Maude Snowball Hales died because she was ripped apart from her family at the precise moment she needed them. Weakened by illness and the continual pressure to conform, the deadly combination drove one more person beyond what she could bear.
