The revenge of Bruce Hales – I have been very astute when it comes to Bruce Hales and his Hench team. Mind you- it’s not hard to work him out. I saw the posturing after his father’s death and the bravado and insecurity of his bible fumbling’s in his first meetings. And fumble he did. But luckily he had a father in law with loads of front row service under his belt who it is reported used to help out with scripture and verse and topics for fellowship and three days meetings.
But the real story here is that this is not a tale of the next link in the unbroken line – but a tale of revenge. A bloody tale. Most coups are bloody and not without their victims and casualties. Names like Paskewitz come to mind when JSH grabbed the reigns from Symington’s dying hands. There was a worldwide expectation that the eminently qualified Mr P. would take over as the Elect Vessel. And there were people with other candidates in mind when JSH was ailing. But his sons had formed the wagons into a circle at the time and there was never any other option. BDH was filled with talk of keeping the pure line in family hands. And of revenge. The most telling thing that Bruce Hales said at the time, according to former Sydney heavyweight Bob Thorncroft, who was the recipient of this pearl of intention, was- and I quote:
“The Hales name has been dirt for a number of years, but it is going to be different now”.
This was a family grasping back the power that it has lost – not once but three times. And it rankled them- you could tell. They were peeved in the extreme and humiliated that their father and uncle and others had been dealt with for their misdemeanours. Sadly – in the Exclusive Brethren- if a Man of God says it- you’re stuck with it! So when Hales’ father was thrown out three times by Taylor and Symington- the younger Hales could do no more at the time but sit there and grind their teeth as the shame and anger welled up inside them. Of course they paid lip service to Symington – BDH even ringing him to say that he agreed with him for the judgment on his father. Symington then told BDH to stay close to Ron Fawkes- before Fawkes met his Waterloo, along with other threats to the top job. I could say that he was a grovelling little bastard but to be fair- if BDH didn’t take this line he would have been out on his ear too. Like I said- Brethren leaders are as infallible as any Pope.
But as John Hales’ health was failing him, including the reported over reliance on anti-depressants by both John and Helen Hales, together with the underlying fear of what he had placed on his brethren coming back to bite him in the afterlife – his son was already working hard to ensure that he would be the one to take over from him – thus destroying the conception that Elect Vessels come from heaven. They don’t. Trust me. And this letter from Bob Thorncroft, a once prominent stalwart in the Sydney assembly, is more telling than many may realize. And Thorncroft provides not only an insight – but actual words that provide evidence of this transition of power from JSH to BDH. He witnessed it.
You can see the intent and venom in that one line. Of course, Hales would refute this or dilute it today – but Bob Thorncroft was from the old school and was not a man to tell lies and he remembers this is exactly what BDH said on that particular day.
Now I have maintained for years that the Hales are by nature- power freaks. And we also know that they are nepotistic to their core. And they have become known to be very cruel people too. There is evidence that John Hales liked to push younger Peebs around as far back as WW11, reading and learning tactics of control from books. And the evidence of their System day’s shenanigans is still top of mind with most people who lived through it. They ran roughshod over the poor unsuspecting Brethren who were powerless to respond as they might have liked to at the time. This of course is one of the main issues with Sect leaders….you can’t back chat them. Your opinion does not matter. Your feelings don’t matter to them either.
Bruce has been good to his word. He has reversed just about everything that was wrong with his extended family and bestowed privilege on his brothers and relatives. He has brought back his uncle and cousin, he has whitewashed his aunt’s name and reputation, he has expunged and paid for debts and he has set them up like never before. Their family trusts runneth over. He has rebuilt the Hales name – better make that- Brand- and he has built a new castle for himself and his family and provided for his relatives. His name is on every legal title and he has raped and pillaged the Brethren financially – reversing every rule in the book to maximize every last buck out of their wallets and now their companies. His fingers are in every pie and he now presides over his empire with the aggression and watchfulness of a Kim ll Sung.
The wicked thing is that this family has not reversed its judgments on those they deposed and dealt with appallingly- from other families. Like the man who refused John Hales’ requests to look at his business books. Hales contacted his wife and told her that he had ways and means to assist her to leave her husband. Then they threw the man out and took him to court so many times that he really never saw his kids again. Oh- he won the court case but by then the children were so poisoned against their father that the result was the way Hales had orchestrated it anyway. And this was not because this man was doing anything unspiritual. It was because he had an accountant and didn’t want John Hales nosing through his personal financial records as well. Remember this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tVdoRRUT2o
This is where a church becomes a sect. Right there! When your leader stops being your religious leader and tries to get his fingers on your finances and records – you have your definition proven in an instant.
Poor old Bob Thorncroft was thrown out in a vengeful way and never wished to be reinstated. He died out of the fellowship. But his thoughts at the time bewildered him as he set them down for us to see the early history of this current Brethren leader.
He goes on to say “I am convinced that pride and the love of prominence is at the root of his (BDH’s) trouble.”
When you get away from the EB – you can see them very clearly for what they are. And what they are not. And the last 10 years have perhaps been the most disturbing. We have watched an inept, greedy man and his brothers with a genetic lust for power and a love of other people’s money, wrestle the leadership from the hands of an ailing father and go into areas never before plumbed by the EB.
Bob goes on -“The brutal way that we, as old brethren have been treated particularly over the last three years by Bruce, Daniel and Ross Hales and the party stalwarts is something I would rather not go into, even to rejecting that we can have communion privately with the Lord. What more could they do to un-Christianise a person? I can well understand some persons treated like this becoming bitter. We pray for grace to preserve us from this. The fact is Bruce was furious because concern was expressed publicly about the worldly conduct in which his own family had a leading part, and has done his utmost to find or fabricate some reason to get me out of the way. Searching for imagined evil has entered into it and he resorts to bluff to get brethren to believe what he wants them told. Unfortunately many have been so mesmerized that they think he can’t possibly do any wrong.”
Amazingly, Bob was a long-time supporter of John Hales and his family. But boy – didn’t he get bitten by the junior Hales members! Indeed they have done it to many people. All of their perceived threats have been removed. John Hales’s meticulously recorded personal files from his terror filled regime were apparently carefully destroyed by the sons so that their fathers interference in other people’s lives could not be pinned on the newly cleansed Hales name. But the waters have never been so muddy since his youngest son has taken over the reins. Indeed his reversals are in many cases -a direct opposite to what his father was throwing people out for 20 years ago. Of course this sort of inconsistency and human flotsam is of no consequence to a Hales.
The controlling position and the desire to obtain wealth from others is everything. And the removal of ‘mud’ from the Hales name.
