#jack schaap

Pimppreacher.com 05/06/2016

HAMMOND, INDIANA: Jack Schaap, the disgraced former pastor of First Baptist Hammond, Indiana, has fallen even further from grace.

Thoughts on Abusive Christianity From a Man Who Studied at Hyles-Anderson College

From my inbox:

Thanks again for your blog. But I want you to know you caused me to get totally off task for over 4 hours last night. 

I followed your links to the blog with the long list and case histories of Independent Baptist Fundamentalists who have molested children via their "ministries." I don't know if you have listened to the multi-part audio documentary on a particularly horrendous case of systematic abuse in a church in North Carolina. It brought so much back to me that I had put far behind me. The website and blog make a strong point to link this systematic abuse to one place who trained the perps: Hyles-Anderson College. It is fair to say that Jack Hyles is the father of both the evangelical mega-church movement and the most insular and dangerous brand of fundamentalist Christianity. The audio documentary uses archival sermon clips, many of which I heard in person, to paint a picture of the justification and glorification of abuse of power that is hard to fathom. I wrote a note to the webmaster that had I not been there I would not believe she'd not taken those clips out of context, but since I was there I know she presented it all too accurately. 

I hope you don't mind, but I think you might like a few excerpts from the email I sent:

As I sat and listen to the your discussion on Jack Hyles it brought back so many things that I had long ago had deliberately forgotten.

I spent 5 years at Hyles-Anderson College and received a B.S. in 1986.

I just don't see how anyone who have not been there can quite understand what that world is like.

Your research in putting together the audio clips is amazing, but I'm sure most "normal" people just can't imagine Jack Hyles really meant the things he says in those things. How could they? It just sounds insane to me as a 50 year old; but I know all too well he meant it all.

Your rebuttals to Hyles-ism is excellent. Sadly I had to find those answers as a 22 year old student at Hyles-Anderson. Even though I concluded I was on the “wrong side” in my 5th year at Hyles-Anderson; it took me a decade to fully break free from that brand of Christianity.   

One more interesting tidbit for you. Like Shifflett, when I heard about the charges of adultery regarding Jack Hyles I did not read what the accusations. This was not hard since I had graduated and was a masters’ student at another college. However, when Jack Hyles sent a multi-page defense of himself to all the alumni  I read that.  I was shocked. It was filled with things, penned by “Brother Hyles” that anyone who had gone to Hyles-Anderson would have to know were outright lies. Some of the things were stupid little things that didn’t matter, and I could not imagine why he boldly printed and mailed these patently untrue statements.

That was when I first realized Hyles-Anderson was the world of Orwell’s 1984 and the letter was the “how many fingers am I holding up?” test.  If you could not make yourself believe those things, you were disloyal.  I failed that test. I could not make myself believe the lies. That was the end of my relationship with Hyles-Anderson College.  

Looking back to my interactions with Jack Schaap, it is almost Shakespearean in it's the way that a decent young man (and I think he was once) stepped into a role that only the most exceptional person could not end up the same place he did. But once he passed the test of openly professing to believe things no-one who'd been at the college could not know were false, he was lost. He is only 5 years older than me, but because he had married Jack Hyles daughter he was in leadership by his mid-20's with no more qualification than he was "Brother Hyles" son-in-law.  He could have broken free earlier on, but when he did not leave with the other "sane" people, the end of the story was as sure as it is each time I read Othello.

Perhaps as many as half the faculty left when they were asked to choose loyalty to Pastor Hyles over reality. But, what is really frightening is that half of the staff stayed. If you go to the college's website, look at the faculty list, for some reason they have removed it, but if you follow the links to the current catalog you will find the list. There is only one (1) person on the faculty or administration whose entire education was not at Hyles-Anderson College. Since the college does not have a doctoral program, all their teachers who go by "Dr." are falsely using the honorary doctorates given to them by.....yes....Hyles-Anderson College. 

Sorry for rambling on like this. It's your fault though. LOL.

FYI, as my Rev. Polyamory alter ego presents, though I still use the word Christian, I make it clear that I am a firm secular liberal in the vein of Emanuel Kant and take the position that Jesus presented the model of human rights centered liberalism.  I actually began developing that position while at Hyles-Anderson 30 years ago. I now "Preach" secular human rights liberalism from the pulpit of a major state university professor's chair. My Rev. Polyamory blog is the toned down version of my main blog where I go by Professor Polyamory. That blog is NSFW and I use sexual provocation as way to keep people on board so I can get them to read the things that matter. 

Sure, link away.  I will certainly mention your blog in my "Sunday Sermon" this week. I'm writing on abusive Christianity. This email is posted on my main blog anyway, so feel free to post it. I'd love it if that would lead someone who is struggling with the damage so-called "Christianity" is doing to drop me a note.

Sorry for going so long...now to do what I was supposed to do last night.