Books, Preachers

Books…Sorta.

92 Comments

So what are your favorite books, Dr. Schaap? Evidently the answer is 1611! Hyles! The 1611 that belonged to Hyles! another 1611! and Hyles! And more Hyles! And then some more 1611!

I’m downright embarrassed for him.

92 thoughts on “Books…Sorta.”

  3. I’m positive I’ve seen this guy before on a spoof dating video. The same speech patterns, the same mannerisms–maybe it’s his son?

    1. Here ya go — an older post about Schaap’s son preaching. http://bit.ly/hqWcag Not a dating video, but with the way he treats women in his illustration, he could use all the help he could get.

  4. 3000 books and he could only name an old dusty collection of sermons?
    Other than the 1611, of course.

    1. I thought the same thing, but they really don’t care about anyone or anything other than establishing and maintaining their power, so makes sense they would only read stuff that empowers them to further their agenda. At first I thought BS who would only read such a narrow swath and emphasize how disconnected he is, but now I’m thinking he probably does only read stuff he considers empowering.

    1. I know. I thought he doesn’t seem like that bad of a guy in this video…then I thought about a clip I saw of him preaching. 😯

  6. Phillips Brooks?? I can’t imagine a fundamentalist liking Brooks. If Brooks were alive today, he would be considered to be in the left wing of evangelicalism. His was a big-hearted gospel, radically Christ-centered, not nit-picky over doctrine, and leaning toward universalism (he believed God will not turn away any person who is an earnest seeker, and held to the possibility of universal reconciliation).

    That said, he was one of the greatest preachers in American history.

    What Hyles or Schaap would see in him is beyond me. He was definitely not one of their ilk.

    1. I know. I about fell out of my chair.

      Philips Brooks was a liberal Episcopal bishop (and I use the word “liberal” in its historical context, not as a theological curse word.)

      And that was the first non-Bible book he mentioned!

        1. >>I had the same response to the Phillip Brooks bit. As in, wait – I LIKE Phillip Brooks! That can’t be right! Maybe he’s never actually read them.

          Uh . . . You said it, I didn’t.

          But it’s what I was thinking the whole time. :mrgreen:

    2. Well he didn’t really say he had read Brooks’ book did he? It has a nice binding and a pretty jacket, and the title is embossed on the spine in genuine simulated gold leaf. Isn’t that what he meant?

  7. 1. Jack Schaap is the son in law of Jack Hyles.
    2. Jack Hyles served in the 82 airborne during WWII.
    3. WWII ended in Asia in 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender.
    4. In Japan, the Family Computer was released in 1983 by Nintendo
    5. Nintendo’s breakout hit was Super Mario Brothers, resulting in the Super Mario Brothers franchise
    6. A spin off of the original Super Mario Brothers game is Super Smash Brothers worked on by video game designer Ken Sugimori.
    7. Ken Sugimori designed the Pokémon character Pikachu

    Pikachu can shoot lightning out of special electrical sacs in their cheeks.
    Jack Schaap is a Pokémon.

    2. @Shoes,
      You have a gift of fundy logic. It is too bad it can’t help you in the real world.

      1. bait and switch. I am being led to reveal the connection to cartoon characters this week. DO NOT question my calling.

        1. After today’s installment, Shoes, I will never question your calling again. 😀

      2. I’m only three times removed from Kevin Bacon. I’ve really gotta figure out my connection with Bieber.

  8. I’ll have to admit that when I hear my former leaders speaking when they’re not angry, part of me feels drawn back. I know it’s not something I’d ever do, but the pull to see what used to be familiar is still there.

    1. Emily, you deserve much better than “only crazy and abusive part of the time.”

    2. I think they have a lot of repressed anger that they let out when preaching. Maybe those that go into preaching have a real split personality, and they see preaching as an opportunity to dump out their aggression on a beaten down audience that has to take it and become an extension of their sick inflated egos.

  9. “If you come across good books, I love good books.”

    Well, I have a copy of “Early Christian Fathers” on hand, if you insist! Or perhaps I can run out and pick up a copy of “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” for him.

    The thing that I noticed is that he kept talking about the thousands of books that he owned but didn’t mention just how many of them he’d actually read.

    1. As a matter of fact, he didn’t say he had read any of them. And the ones he owns, he apparently inherited from Jack Hyles, except for large 1611 Bible that someone in his staff spent “a lot of money” on, which is now in a plastic case (i.e., not being read).

  10. The question and answer was for prized books, not favorite books. There is a difference.

    1. 😆

      He didn’t say they were 6,000 DIFFERENT books, though, did he?

      It wouldn’t be at all surprising if FBC has a back stock of a few thousand copies of “Jesus Had Short Hair,” or some other Hyles classics.

      2. My personal favorite is “How To Rear Children”. I wonder if he wrote that before, or after the birth of his son David.

        1. I had to do a paper on that book >.< It was odd reading that and How to Rear Teenagers knowing how Dave turned out 😛

        3. Michelle, he turned out very badly. He messed around with girls in the youth group when he was youth pastor of First Baptist, and then got hustled off to Jack Hyles’ former church in Texas where he was caught messing around with wives of members there. I believe he also had something to do with the death of a girlfriend’s child… but didn’t end up going to prison for it. (spanking is GOOD for a sick baby, right?)

  13. Kinda reminds me of Sarah Palin’s response to Katie Couric’s question about her favorite newspapers. (Not trying to start a partisan fight; I was a fan of Palin’s at the time but less so now.)

    It’s not surprising, though. I remember visiting my sibling one Christmas and staying at the house of one of the Christian school’s English literature teachers (she was away for the holidays). Beyond a couple of Christian novels, there weren’t any books in the house. Unbelievable. And, of course, the TV (appropriately censored with the god-box, I’m sure) is front and center in the living room. I just don’t get it.

    (We beer-drinking, rock-music-listening Anglicans, meanwhile, have a TV without cable or even broadcast reception and use it exclusively for Netflix and the Wii. I don’t want that trash coming into my house. And by trash, I don’t mean the language; I mean the ads, the sensationalism (which nixes TV news), and the pornification of everyday life.)

    1. I don’t want to start a partisan fight, either (really, I don’t), but I, too, couldn’t help thinking of Sarah Palin’s being unable to name any newspaper, and of W’s failing to come up with an answer to the question, “Who is your favorite political philosopher?”

  14. How generous of him to donate his first library. I understand that he hadn’t even finished coloring some of those books.

    2. Chick tract has coloring books now? I assume lots of scenes from hell of people drinking booze to color?

  15. Who needs books when you have divine revelation? :p

    PS: I can’t get over how much he sounds like the guy from “The Music Man”…

    1. Hey, I thought the same thing! When he’s quiet and “normal”, he does sound like Robert Preston.

    2. Hmmm…I’ve been thinking. I just read his “biography” on his official page. He was born and raised in Michigan…why does he have a Southern accent? Is it an affectation?

      2. I think he picked that up in college. All the *good* preacher boys picked up the Hyles accent, and the REALLY good ones would cough and clear their throats at the same time too. (Until they were told to knock it off)

    1. He has moved on to “Love Wins”

      If you see the next clip, he mentions how much that book has impacted his life and thought. 😉 :mrgreen:

      1. I picked up on that in his 20/20 response. He mentioned Heaven and He’ll, but didn’t get very specific. Too many lattes with Rob.

  17. Also…

    When I see the videos of him screaming and saying things that aren’t accurate, I feel angry. But when I see this video, like someone said above, I almost feel drawn back in.

    I think this is the key to his success at FBC. Some of the most successful people I know at keeping others in their grasp are those who know the value of throwing out breadcrumbs of “kindness” in between beatings. Those are the most dangerous kinds of people, because for some of us, especially those who need father-figures (think troubled, fatherless youth of FBC and the IFB college students’ whose dads treated them harshly ALL the time) the temptation is too much.

    “If I just have more faith, just do what he says without asking that one nagging question, he will approve of me.”
    “If I’m a good girl, he will say that I am worth something.”
    “If I don’t break any rules, then I will be his favorite and everything will be okay.”

    Thus we exchange our freedom for the warm, fuzzy feeling of “security.” Problem is that it’s conditional security, unlike that found in a relationship with God, and it will end as soon as a person starts thinking their own, original thoughts. It’s a shame for many reasons, but mostly because this kind of love-hate dependent relationship can rub off on the way a person thinks about God, and mess them up.

    Here’s to not being fooled. *raises glass*

  18. These “Ask the Preacher” snippets are pure fundy gold if I have ever seen it.

    In a word, “Wow!”.

    1. About as many as he’s read books by Sagan, Hawking, Kako, Ferris, or Feynman. 😉

  21. Wow, that was embarassing. I can honestly say I have never asked someone what their favorite book was and they told me the book they liked and proceeded to describe the cover, the color and the condition of the book. ???? This guy obviously never cracks any of the books he has. So weird! It’s like a kid with a marble collection, “I like this one because it’s blue with a little white swirl in the middle and my friend Spanky gave it to me.”

  22. I know he has to start with Bibles and sermons, because if he didn’t people would complain. But he doesn’t seem to be able to conceive of a valuable book which isn’t either of these things.

    I was trying to think of something he could claim to read without being slammed on it. Not the classics (Dickens or Tolstoy say) too uppity and edumacated. Not modern classics (Hemingway or Faulkener) too worldly. Not detective stories – too violent or lascivious. Not modern fiction in general – ditto.

    But what about books about God’s creation, natural history, botany, astronomy? Books about economics or history?

    1. I don’t think so.
      Natural history, botany, zoology: Too many indications that species have evolved.
      Geology: Doesn’t work unless the earth is over 6000 years old.
      Astromony– Doesn’t work if the earth is flat or if the earth doesn’t orbit the sun. Non-Biblical.
      History– You might find out that the Founding Fathers were NOT Baptist fundamentalists.
      Economics– Too secular a world view. No contemporary economist that I know of says that riches drop out of the sky when you please God.

      2. “History– You might find out that the Founding Fathers were NOT Baptist fundamentalists.”

        HAHA

        And yet they were still considered good Christians. Fancy that.

      3. Astronomy – see also Geology re age of Earth. Method/timeframe of creation of universe also questionable.
        You may add to the forbidden curriculum the following courses:
        Physical Education – you may have to break the dress code to get the most out of it. Women have been known to (gasp!) wear *shorts*!
        Foreign Language Elective – you might learn that people *other* than Fundamentalist Americans have valid perspectives on the world

  23. I heard Scrapp has the world largest collection of “Sugar Creek Gang” books and a signed first additional of the bible

  24. Another reason to be happy about leaving fundyism, I can read what I want and form my own thoughts and opinions about the subject matter. It’s so freeing, of course, the first taste of freedom was a bit intimidating at first for me.

  26. I think that really his favourite book list runs likes this:
    1) the Bible
    2) the first Garfield compilation
    3) the second Garfield compilation
    4) the third Garfield compilation
    Etc etc.

      2. Normally, I would rather have a root canal than watch Schaap, bu when you mentioned Mr. Rogers, whom I adored, I had to watch. The fact that you DID mention Mr. Rogers made this hilarious! 😆

      3. This clip is noteworthy because it is a rare case of Schaap allowing a woman to speak, however briefly.

  29. Don’t be so hard on him. He is FAR too busy doing the work of God here on earth to bother with book-readin’ Why, he learnt ever-thang he ever needed to know from his father-in-law. Did he mention that his F-I-L is Jack Hyles? It seems like that gets worked into just about every sentence… Living the dream.

    1. Sims, I am hesitant to correct you, my dear old fellow survivor, but that should be “he LARNT ever thang.”. No need to thank me. You simply must be careful to present him as the giant jack-hole he is. 😎

  31. I got a tool for ya. Here’s a nice warm glass of Shut-The-Hell-Up. We all hope it works great for ya.

    1. THIS made me LAUGH. Thank you, After Glow.

      He could never tackle anything deeper than his FIL’s extremely shallow wrongheaded books. What would Jack-Hole do with C.S. Lewis, or John Stott? 😯 🙄

Comments are closed.