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.
