We have been sent a remarkable document written by a New Zealander while she was still an Exclusive Brethren cult-member in 2008. As can be seen, Lindy Simmons put a great deal of time and thought into organizing her thoughts.

In mid-2008, Lindy decided she needed some answers and mailed the following document to Bruce D. Hales, the current leader of the cult, in Ermington, NSW, Australia.

Bruce Hales did not, or could not reply.

Lindy Simmons left the Exclusive Brethren at the end of 2008 and is now coming to terms with freedom from one of the most restrictive modern-day religious groups.

Lindy’s List

Lindy Simmons – Summary Letter

21 August 2008

The aim of this letter is to summarise my questions and issues about the E.B. It is an appeal for increased understanding and answers in regard to these things.

Obviously, I will have to go over them in greater detail before my current thinking could be changed, if I was to be thoroughly settled and convinced about them.

Where I am currently at is that I have such questions and issues about foundational EB beliefs, principles and practises that I feel I can no longer belong to the EB church.

However if they can be answered, their reason for existence explained, or if I become convinced some other way that before God I must remain an EB, then I may do so, as I believe the Word of God is law and obedience to Him is highest priority.

Brief summary of my questions/issues about the Exclusive Brethren:

• I don’t understand or agree with the EB application of ‘separation from evil’. I don’t understand why we must be so extreme in our separation, especially
  • Why do we separate so totally from other believers?
  • Why do we separate ourselves so totally that we restrict our capacity to evangelise/do outreach to unbelievers? Or even just to get more involved with ‘doing good’?
  • Why do we separate from ‘out’ family members to the point it is like a death and its a complete cold severance? (Especially how can this be Scripturally justified when they are not wicked and haven’t given up the faith?)
  • Why can’t we belong to associations/memberships etc?
  • I don’t understand the EB application and interpretation of 2 Timothy 2.
• I don’t understand the EB teaching that they are the ‘one divinely accredited position’ or the ‘best position’.
  • I don’t know what the ‘light of the assembly is’ and cannot see that we have a more special position or more special light than some other assemblies I have come across.
  • I don’t understand the teaching that the EB will have some special part in the ‘end times’ – or that they are the only ones who are Christ’s Bride, or that they can claim to be holding some special ground.
  • I don’t understand the ‘we are exclusive’ or ‘special’ mindset.
  • I don’t understand the teaching that the EB assembly as a whole will one day be perfect and sinless while still on earth.
• I don’t understand the concept of one elect vessel, one man who leads the entire assembly.
  • I don’t understand how his one ministry is all that we should follow.
  • I don’t understand why he can be called ‘Paul of our day’, I struggle to believe every word that comes out of his mouth is from heaven, I struggle to believe he is infallible and that he is God’s only representative here on earth.
  • He does a lot of good, yet I still see far too many people totally out of his reach and falling through the gaps. It is impossible for one man however great to adequately serve a flock as big as the EB. There is something wrong with this system.
  • I don’t understand the teaching about how any human can reach a sinless state, such as is claimed about the ‘great men.’
  • How can it be right that the ‘great men’ and their ministries are quoted and spoken of far more in the EB meetings than Jesus or the Bible is?
• I don’t understand why the EB do not support or do any missionary work.
  • I don’t understand why the only form of evangelising/outreach is the street preaching.
  • I don’t understand why we don’t advocate Jesus, and the EB position, far more to ‘all men’ or do more to ‘put our light on a hill’.
• I don’t understand why the EB cannot have jobs other than working for EB businesses. Especially why not service-type jobs (eg. fire-fighter, nurse) and jobs that are essentially doing humankind (and therefore God) good.
• I don’t understand how the teaching in regard to the Lord’s Supper can be right – that the Lord only attends the EB communion. I’m struggling to understand the teaching about our social boundaries being set by those with who we have the EB Lords Supper.
• Other things that I cant understand – again, that I cannot see the moral or logical reason for:
  • I don’t understand why there is this extremely strong and yet unable-to-be-pinned-down concept among the EB that it is forbidden and immoral to marry anyone who is your 5 th cousin or 4 th cousin.
  • I don’t understand why there is also this extremely strong concept that marriage between persons who have different skin-colouring is forbidden and immoral.
  • Why we cannot donate blood or organs
  • Why we do not vote
  • Why we cannot adopt or foster children
  • Why if I have a non-Statcom phone, camera or computer I am immoral.
  • Why we cannot have pets

Perhaps it will help you to understand also, if I describe to you a little of what I have found in ‘Christendom’ out there in comparison to the EB.

• Far better system of care for all ages, stages and needs:
  • Pre-school care, Bible/Christian teaching and provision for help.
  • Primary age kid Bible/Christian teaching and provision for help.
  • Far better teen Bible/Christian teaching and provision for help.
  • Far better Bible/Christian resource, help and care available for adults incl:
    • For pre-marital help
    • For young couples
    • For marriage counselling
    • For husbands,
    • For wives,
    • For at work,
    • For at home,
    • For fatherhood, motherhood – parenting
    • Right through to far better care etc. for the elderly.
  • There is much, much more resource available for young people/adults to help them in the Christian path. There are Bible study courses, groups, teaching and extensive work/resource there to ground, set forward and help Christians. Why is not available amongst us?
  • There are people readily available whom the flock know they can turn to for help and advice – people who are trained counsellors and mentors whom anyone can turn to. This sort of person is seriously lacking among the EB.
  • There are women, available to help women in many ways – priestly, spiritual, emotional, practical etc. This is nonexistent in the EB too.
  • There is support and help ready for almost any type of mental/emotional trouble, either through their own counsellors and flock members, or if that’s not enough, then there are links in place to others who can help. For example;
    • Marriage help
    • Alcohol/drug abuse
    • Depression
    • Eating disorders
    • Sexual problems, molestation, etc
    • Other mental disorders

    These are just some examples. It is very noticeable that a member of the flock has access to help for these sorts of problems through the church, or are under the umbrella of church care unlike in the EB where the individual has to battle on alone without that.

  • I have found far more emphasis on practical Scripture teaching directly from the whole Bible including the OT, Jesus, and Paul’s ministry etc.
  • and far more emphasis on our Saviour Jesus, which I was overjoyed to see as He is my Best Friend and daily Strength and Guide. I struggle in the EB as I only hear talk about Him at the Gospels.
  • I found more emphasis on doing good works, putting your ‘light on a hill’, evangelising and being a Christian part of the community – which I totally agree with, and love to see, and crave to be part of.

  Also I will include a few examples of things I want no part of that are among the EB:

  • I’m frightened of, and never want to suffer religious abuse at the hands of people who rise into power in the EB, who then can have such a lot of control over your life and who can abuse this authority/power – and there is no way of stopping them.
  • I can’t stand the idolisation of BDH
  • I can’t stand the social pressure and the pressure to conform to norms of dress code, food, housing, high affluent standard of living &lifestyle etc.
  • I want better Christian resource for myself and others whom I care for, than what is available in the EB.
  • I want to be part of a fellowship that is more love-centred and demonstrates real practical Christianity, instead of one that claims great light but has not much fruit to show it, and is more concerned about law-keeping than love.

  I hope from the above you can understand a little why I am at this fork in the Y.

  I have long held that there are only two purposes for life:

  1. is to get closer to God and to become more like Him
  2. is to serve others with the aim of drawing them nearer to Him and to shine His light to those who don’t yet have it.

  I have come to the conclusion that while I am in the EB I can’t fulfil these purposes as much as I could out of the EB.

  I believe that God has given me the passion I have to serve others especially young people for Him, and that I should answer this. Also I want to be part of a Christian fellowship where I get better Christian/Biblical teaching, support and fellowship than I can foresee me ever getting in the EB.

  Also, I cannot remain in the EB anymore until I believe in my own heart, the principles and practises they follow. I do not want to live a farce again – conforming to these things just to avoid getting into trouble, when I don’t actually understand or agree with them at all. I can’t consider getting married and taking those vows for life, I couldn’t raise children in the EB unless I really believe in it, and also I couldn’t even help other people/young people in the EB path as I would be being totally fake.

  This letter is not all-conclusive and there will be more detail/offshoots to the above issues and questions that would need to be worked through before I could commit to the EB fellowship.

  Thank you for taking the time to try to understand and help me, thank you for the love and perseverance shown; I do want to do what is right in the eyes of God and I pray desperately that we have the wisdom to see His will and to receive the light, the strength, and the faith to do it.

  Kind Regards

  Lindy Simmons

  Click here to download a PDF version of Lindy’s List

  Read what the ex-member Community thinks of Lindy’s List!

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.

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.

In true Exclusive Brethren fashion, the sisters were hounded and cowed into submission. As Norman Adams wrote in ‘Goodbye Beloved Brethren”:

The sisters ran an egg farm at Gailey in Staffordshire. They were kindly, well-liked by their neighbours and they had been members of the Brethren since childhood. Against their upbringing they were obliged to carry out the creed of separatism. This meant they stopped visiting their cousin and her husband in Eccles, Lancashire, after many years of friendship. Brethren priests then put new pressure on the sisters, telling them their dealings with the Egg Marketing Board constituted an ‘impure link’. The Rhodes were even told the little lion stamped on the Marketing Board’s eggs was a ‘sign of the devil’, and that they should sever their link with the Board.

The Brethren priests ordered the dismayed sisters to sell their smallholding. They advised (sic) it was worth £7,000. In blind obedience, they sold their property for less than £5,000.

In a brief interview the woman witness describes how one night as she came out of the Brethren meeting with the sisters they walked to the other side of the road, followed by two priests. She went on: “The two men were shouting at the sisters and pointing at them. After a few minutes the men walked away and the sisters stood there, crying and shaking with fear.

- Norman Adams – Goodbye Beloved Brethren, 1972

Part of the attack against the two sisters was the increasing pressure being placed upon Exclusive Brethren women to not work for a living. Their Brethren ‘advisers’ wanted them to sell the farm and live off the proceeds. As two middle-aged Exclusive Brethren spinsters, they had few options. The impact was immediate as the two sisters were forced into submission. The Scottish Daily Mail records:

Mrs. Nora Cox of Ravensdale-Gardens, Eccles, Lanashire, talked yesterday of how her cousins, middle-aged spinsters, neglected their chicken farm and let the family business run down until it was unsaleable.

They cut themselves off from relatives who could have helped them out of financial trouble and finally walked to their death in a pool – because they were Exclusives, she claims.

“That was the reason,” she said. “They were brainwashed in a fantastic way.”

“Their lives had become directed in every detail by the Brethren – but when it came to material help at a crucial time there was none.

“They changed from happy people into dispirited recluses.”

“They would not turn to members of their own family even to help them out of financial difficulties that were by no means insurmountable”

- Scottish Daily Mail, July 24th, 1962

The writer, David Burgess, himself a former sect member, told ‘The People’, in March 1968 how the harsh Taylorite doctrine drove the unmarried and middle-aged sisters Elsie and Winifred Rhodes to take their lives. Burgess wrote:

“The desperation of this situation drove the two sisters to despair. They could see no way out. Finally, at the end of their tether, they walked hand in hand into a pool near their home on the night of June 29th, 1962, and drowned themselves.

“At the inquest a verdict of suicide whilst the balance of their minds was disturbed was recorded. No real explanation for the tragedy was offered. But I have the name and address of one person who was an actual witness to the persecution of the Rhodes sisters and the real reason for their suicide. I will not divulge her identity, but I am prepared to do so to the proper authorities if required.”

- David Burgess (as recorded in Goodbye Beloved Brethren)

The image is heart-breaking. Two sisters, all they had were each other and their chicken farm. They sat and watched their life’s work slowly deteriorate and then, when it was over and there was no further hope, they left us too.

They drove to a nearby small lake with their beloved dog. Leaving him inside, Winifred and Elsie walked slowly, hand-in-hand into a life without harsh decrees and liquor-fuelled madness.

When their car was found near the pool where they drowned themselves, their much-loved, over-fed collie was inside, as was also a little note saying:

‘Be kind to Bruie, our dog.’

In compiling these outrageous excerpts of history, we cannot help but hope that Bruie found a non-Exclusive Brethren home. A few years later, the alcoholic leader of the Exclusive Brethren, James Taylor Jnr, suddenly decreed that all pets must be slaughtered or given away in another mindless act of social and emotional vandalism.

Read the full article on the Memorial Pages

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.

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.

In true Exclusive Brethren fashion, the sisters were hounded and cowed into submission. As Norman Adams wrote in ‘Goodbye Beloved Brethren”:

The sisters ran an egg farm at Gailey in Staffordshire. They were kindly, well-liked by their neighbours and they had been members of the Brethren since childhood. Against their upbringing they were obliged to carry out the creed of separatism. This meant they stopped visiting their cousin and her husband in Eccles, Lancashire, after many years of friendship. Brethren priests then put new pressure on the sisters, telling them their dealings with the Egg Marketing Board constituted an ‘impure link’. The Rhodes were even told the little lion stamped on the Marketing Board’s eggs was a ‘sign of the devil’, and that they should sever their link with the Board.

The Brethren priests ordered the dismayed sisters to sell their smallholding. They advised (sic) it was worth £7,000. In blind obedience, they sold their property for less than £5,000.

In a brief interview the woman witness describes how one night as she came out of the Brethren meeting with the sisters they walked to the other side of the road, followed by two priests. She went on: “The two men were shouting at the sisters and pointing at them. After a few minutes the men walked away and the sisters stood there, crying and shaking with fear.

- Norman Adams – Goodbye Beloved Brethren, 1972

Part of the attack against the two sisters was the increasing pressure being placed upon Exclusive Brethren women to not work for a living. Their Brethren ‘advisers’ wanted them to sell the farm and live off the proceeds. As two middle-aged Exclusive Brethren spinsters, they had few options. The impact was immediate as the two sisters were forced into submission. The Scottish Daily Mail records:

Mrs. Nora Cox of Ravensdale-Gardens, Eccles, Lanashire, talked yesterday of how her cousins, middle-aged spinsters, neglected their chicken farm and let the family business run down until it was unsaleable.

They cut themselves off from relatives who could have helped them out of financial trouble and finally walked to their death in a pool – because they were Exclusives, she claims.

“That was the reason,” she said. “They were brainwashed in a fantastic way.”

“Their lives had become directed in every detail by the Brethren – but when it came to material help at a crucial time there was none.

“They changed from happy people into dispirited recluses.”

“They would not turn to members of their own family even to help them out of financial difficulties that were by no means insurmountable”

- Scottish Daily Mail, July 24th, 1962

The writer, David Burgess, himself a former sect member, told ‘The People’, in March 1968 how the harsh Taylorite doctrine drove the unmarried and middle-aged sisters Elsie and Winifred Rhodes to take their lives. Burgess wrote:

“The desperation of this situation drove the two sisters to despair. They could see no way out. Finally, at the end of their tether, they walked hand in hand into a pool near their home on the night of June 29th, 1962, and drowned themselves.

“At the inquest a verdict of suicide whilst the balance of their minds was disturbed was recorded. No real explanation for the tragedy was offered. But I have the name and address of one person who was an actual witness to the persecution of the Rhodes sisters and the real reason for their suicide. I will not divulge her identity, but I am prepared to do so to the proper authorities if required.”

- David Burgess (as recorded in Goodbye Beloved Brethren)

The image is heart-breaking. Two sisters, all they had were each other and their chicken farm. They sat and watched their life’s work slowly deteriorate and then, when it was over and there was no further hope, they left us too.

They drove to a nearby small lake with their beloved dog. Leaving him inside, Winifred and Elsie walked slowly, hand-in-hand into a life without harsh decrees and liquor-fuelled madness.

When their car was found near the pool where they drowned themselves, their much-loved, over-fed collie was inside, as was also a little note saying:

‘Be kind to Bruie, our dog.’

In compiling these outrageous excerpts of history, we cannot help but hope that Bruie found a non-Exclusive Brethren home. A few years later, the alcoholic leader of the Exclusive Brethren, James Taylor Jnr, suddenly decreed that all pets must be slaughtered or given away in another mindless act of social and emotional vandalism.

Read the full article on the Memorial Pages