One wonders how the defenders, deniers, and other denizens of fundamentalism are going to try to spin this now that Schaap has flat out admitted that had sex with a minor.
The Chicago Sun-Timesl reports:
The recently fired pastor of a Hammond megachurch will plead guilty to taking a minor across state lines for sexual activity, federal prosecutors in Indiana said Tuesday.
Jack Schaap, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, was fired in August because he allegedly had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl. The church initially said its deacon board fired Schaap because he committed a “sin.”
The church has said the 17-year-old girl and her family are members of First Baptist, which was one of the first megachurches in the country. The church has a congregation of more than 15,000.
Schaap, 54, of Dyer, is scheduled to have his initial appearance Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Judge Paul Cherry in federal court in Hammond.
Church officials said in August that they didn’t believe any crime had occurred but that they had turned the case over to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s office and the FBI investigated the case.
Schaap graduated from Hyles-Anderson Bible College, which is associated with First Baptist, and married Cynthia Hyles, daughter of First Baptist founder Jack Hyles.
Church leaders have said Schaap has been spending time since leaving the church with his wife, as the two try to save their marriage.
I predict that the tune will now enter again the old refrain of “can’t we just forgive, forget, and not talk about this anymore?” It’s the same old song just louder and worse.
Let me take this opportunity to repeat myself from a previous piece I wrote about Bob Jones University which is equally applicable to their crazy cousins over at Hyles-Anderson.
The great stratagem is thus to continually change the terms of the debate until you prove that you are right on some solitary point. Once you have done this then claim that the point on which you are standing is the only one that matters and no other arguments can possibly count.
Has there been a moral failing? Point out that the people involved were legally correct.
Was what was done illegal? Appeal to some higher, biblical authority and decry the corruption of the legal system.
Was the action indefensibly immoral, illegal, and unbiblical? Then use your eternal trump card and claim that to focus on it would be a distraction from The Gospel and that nothing can possibly be more important than seeing souls saved.
And do all of the above while endlessly touting your own innocence and integrity and relentlessly denigrating the character and motives of your accusers. But whatever you do, don’t say you were wrong. Don’t apologize. Don’t make restitution. Don’t for a second doubt that you are right simply by being.
For no matter how many court rulings and media stories and witnesses and blogs and protestors rise up against you, you can be confident that you have never been wrong. This is your birthright. This is your heritage. This is the sacred trust passed down from father to son for generations: the gift of being always and forever right.
Check out Andy Beith’s situation under the same Judge Schaap has at Conservative Babylon – he got a lesser sentence over time for way more charges than Schaap has
http://home.conservativebabylon.com/2006/11/06/william-a-andy-beith/
Here’s the link to the Beith situation
Dear It never mattered:
The ‘Conservative Babylon’ website is now defunct. I was able to retrieve your linked file by accessing the internet archive. If you have not kept that article but want to preserve that record for your use, you can access it at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/d5tqepl
Everything on the internet is temporary.
You should be able to access the home page for ‘Conservative Babylon’ at http://tinyurl.com/d82mwuq . Once you access the site through the ‘Way Back machine,’ you should be able to access the page fairly normally.
Christian Socialist
Are you sure Conservative Babylon is defunct? They have a post dated September 20th, 2012.
Dear Pearl:
Thought it was, or so went the error message. Perhaps it was just one of those herky internet things …
Christian Socialist
the egregious issue is not that Schaap had sex with a minor but that he is a abuser of those under his spiritual ministry. If a Psychologist were to do what he did the doctor would be guilty of professional abuse and, if caught, would probably never practice again. Schaap is guilty of both professional and spiritual abuse.
Schaap, like his father-in-law was a verbal bully who thought that if he said things loud enough, often enough, that people would follow the movement. He was right unfortunately since people are like sheep. He however was a worthless shepherd.
And there-in lies the error of the IFB. There is no professional watchdog to hold these men accountable. Their independence is the lynch pin for abuse, corruption, coverup, and the drawing card that attracts men of lesser moral character to the pulpits of the IFB. By now my tag line is sounding like a broken record but, “When one is only accountable to God, they soon become the only god they are accountable to.”
Hi Don,
respectfully disagree that ecclesiastical oversight would solve anything. hierarchies themselves would need watching then since they have the same clay feet (bias, corruption). your way would add a layer and, in my thinking, complicate it further.
clear analysis and wide publication works better imho.
The ecclesiastical system set up in the New Testament has elders at the head of it, but representation from all quarters and rights of appeal. That is the system that works best, and that is the system embedded into the text of the New Testament, and Christian Fundamentalism doesn’t just ignore that system. They rebel against it. Like it or not, Christians are to be unified, to reckon themselves members one of another, and see that they are united into one body in Christ. Independence just isn’t part of that equation.
I’m inclined to concur with you, Alex. What I have never understood is how a pastor escapes not only being accountable to God, but to his people. They do, after all, pay his salary. I don’t see a church hierarchy accomplishing anything–as long as the people in the pew are still content to sit on their hands, the hierarchy only lends the potential for greater abuse.
My question then is how many scandals such as this and other recent “failures” have there been in Churches where there is a plurality of elders? Yes, we are all made of the same “stuff” but… it is the accountability that makes the difference.
o.k., replying to myself to clarify miscommunication in my response to Don. I was thinking of church independence not necessarily pastor independence. I have no problem with an elder board and accountability in principle.
“Professional watchdog” I think threw me and speaking of the IBF sounded like denominational hierarchies in quick reading on my part. So, sorry I was not singing from the same sheet. 😳
Accountability also only goes so far too. Could an elder structure be helpful to curb these types of failures? Possibly. I do not believe it is foolproof though either, nor do I have all the answers.
I appreciate the collaboration of sites like this one to exchange ideas. We have been doing “home church” for awhile with occasionally visiting fellowships to find a community and are now in the midst of moving, so we are transitioning and will visit different places once we are settled. We are in a somewhat unique circumstance which doesn’t readily accommodate doing “traditional church”, if there is such a thing.
Its very sickening to see these failures repeatedly in “so called” Christian circles. I left these types of churches nearly 30 years ago and back then saw this same type of failure from prominent pastors. The works sanctification aspect, I feel, was one error I could see since “the flesh” will always fail us if we depend upon it.
Dear Alex Krause:
Whole bodies are indeed corruptible as you say. And yet Churches with a more biblical polity have greater transparency. Sin and crime need darkness and secrecy to continue. Congregational, individual and criminal abuse thrives in the IFB movement because the ‘I’ [in IFB] gives it the fertile seedbed it needs to continue.
Merely severing pastoral ties applies no discipline. It allows offending ministers to inflict abuse on other congregations. It essentially says, ‘let him become a problem for another congregation. This refuses to live by God’s rule of love. It also refuses vindicate the honor of Jesus’ Name, or to uphold Christ’s rule in the church.
Fundamentalists are schismatic. They are quick to cite the texts schismatics always do: Eph 5:11 [expose the unfruitful works of darkness], 1Ti 5:20 [those who sin, rebuke in the presence of all], 2Th 3:6, 14 [avoid those leading unruly lives; do not associate], Ti 1:13 [reprove them severely], Ti 2:15 [reprove with authority].
But they are just as quick to argue that revealing secret things [Mt 10:26; Mk 4:22; Lu 8:17; 12:2-3] is an eschatological act, and that judgment is supposed to suspend until Jesus returns [1Co 4:5] and the like. Why determines which set of texts is argued is decided by the sign on church lawns. IFBs can’t have it both ways.
Don is entirely in the right to say that it is precisely because of corruption’s work that oversight is an imperative, both practically and Biblically. Egregious crimes and spiritual abuse must be acknowledged and redressed. Abused churches and individuals are better off with mechanisms of accountability than without them.
My church defrocks errant ministers every year. The names of offending clergy together with the relevant article from our Church Order defining the nature of the deposition are published in the denominational magazine. Other churches do the same. That minister is through. What church will hire them with that record!
Christian Socialist
Dear Alex Krause:
Thanks for the note of clarification. I began replying earlier this morning, but was interrupted. When I returned to task, I didn’t update the page but continued where I was. So I didn’t see your reply to Don until I had posted my own. Sorry about that!
Christian Socialist
Good analysis of the tactics of the Joneses and cousins.
From what I have read briefly about the Peterman saga at BJU, where the administration knew that they were not going to award him a degree (for probably personal reasons) and yet let him ‘twist in the wind’ until just before the end of the term and then expel him. Also, that they have acted in this way consistently with similar so-called offenders is very disturbing to my way of thinking.
I don’t expect reprobates to understand Scripture, so I will teach you one right now, free of charge. Pay attention: All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.
Even Moses and David have sinned. So you all have no reason to mock a Godly man like Pastor Schaap. He has repented and his sins are washed clean, a crimson stain made white as snow. On the other hand, has this young woman forgiven him? As far as I know, she has not. To hold a grudge and refuse to forgive a fellow believer is itself sinful. So here we have a continuing sin on her part, and you all should be mocking her and not the one who as confessed and repented!
It doesn’t surprise me that this man was prosecuted by female lawyers. They were probably very eager to destroy the reputation of a man of God and to undermine the Gospel and the church. This is what feminism is all about. This is exactly why it is important for a female to be guided in love by a Godly man.
**shudder** even in jest this is just too creepy.
Your response was a joke, right? Schaap is Godly? Really? Compared to who? Not God. Schaap is cut from the same sick, insane mold as his late father in law. An evil twisted man who picked the low-hanging fruit of guilt-ridden “Gospel” and left most people worse off than they were before coming to Christ…if indeed they ever really did. He set up a hierarchical system of performance and works that rivaled the Catholicism he decried and despised. To be brutally honest, when I darken the pearly gates, if I should see Hyles I’ll be more surprised than if I run across any Popes or pimps. The man was a blight…as is Schaap. If the minor in question were my daughter we’d have handled that the way men did it back in the Philadelphia neighborhood I grew up in. He would have simply gone away.
What a piece of work! Sounds like your wife is in need of a “godly man”. I’m sure Schaap would be willing to help you out! Oh, wait, he’s willing to help your daughter out! My bad! “Pride goeth before a fall.” That’s your problem and Schaap’s. He’s no more repented of his sin than you have yours. He probably told Cindy it was her fault he sinned because if she was being the kind of godly wife she was supposed to be he wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere. You are both a couple of losers. It has nothing to do with faith, christianity, FBCH, HAC or IFB or what kind of wife Cindy was. It has to do with a guy who knew the word of God and thought he was above the word of God and thought he was smart enough to sin and get away with it. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Schaap’s sin found him out. Couple that with the fact that he should have been on his knees before that girl, her parents, Cindy, and the FBCH congregation at the first service following his firing but wasn’t and hasn’t says louder than anything that he is unrepentant and has not sought forgiveness. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” You are both a couple of losers. I am sorry for your wife and will pray for her!
@ David said “This is exactly why it is important for a female to be guided in love by a Godly man.”
There are several things I could say about that, but for now: “Godly men” can and do sin, are deceived, mislead people, and fall into sin, so females are better off thinking for themselves and not blindly following the guidance of any male.
Fake.
Oh, I hope so. I very much hope so. Even thinking it was a parody, it still made me sick to my stomach.
Pastor’s Wife – I mean what I say. I stand on the Word. And if it makes you sick to your stomach, then take it up with God, not me. Because the Bible teaches that we must forgive and that if we do not, then God will not forgive us our sins. Matthew 6:14-15.
Schaap has repented and asked forgiveness. If this woman refuses to forgive, then her own sins will not be forgiven. That isn’t what I say, it is what the Bible says. Since no one can enter the Kingdom of God lest their sins be washed clean, this woman is risking her eternity with her unforgiving spirit.
You call me a fake, but I can’t believe you are really a pastor’s wife. Either your husband is failing to teach you God’s Word and make you apply it in your life, or perhaps your husband is a pastor in a false church. Either way, I will pray for you.
Actually doofus the Bible is clear that we offer forgiveness only after the person who wronged us has confessed. And forgiveness doesn’t mean restoration. Again…if this were my daughter you’d be talking about the late pastor Schaap
ah, not a fake or a poe but an ass.
I didn’t realize those critters could type.
Davis:
The girl did not press charges. The United States of America did. They are God’s minister of justice. They do not bear the sword in vain.
If you don’t like that sword being brought against Jack Schaap, take it up with God.
Actually, do we know Schaap has repented and asked forgiveness? Publicly? (It should have been done publicly.)
His statement, read by his attorney after his plea hearing, said nothing about repentance, did not ask forgiveness, did not even say “I’m sorry for what I did” or even “I regret what I did.
If he was really repentant and really wanted forgiveness, wouldn’t that statement have been a perfect time to let the world know that’s what he wanted?
Instead he made a lame statement about pastors being human and stumbling.
If he’s sorry at all, he’s just sorry he got caught.
“You call me a fake, but I can’t believe you are really a pastor’s wife. Either your husband is failing to teach you God’s Word and make you apply it in your life, or perhaps your husband is a pastor in a false church. Either way, I will pray for you.”
Really? What is wrong with you?
1.) We have individual priesthood of the believer, and that applies to women as well. No one should be “making her apply it [God’s Word] to her life. What is wrong with you? If we have a question about the Bible, we are to ask at home, but she is not some school child to be forced to comply with whatever – she is a grown woman accountable to her God for her own faith and actions.
2.) “Her husband is a pastor of a false church” Really? How do you know that? Have you been there? Have you heard her husband preach? Have you read anything she has written besides this accurate statement on forgiveness that you in your Baptist idolatry disagree with? Read her posts over the years – she is one of the most loving and grace-based believers I have ever read. Her and Don’s writings frequently give me a blessing, and I’m not even of their stripe anymore! She is the one who gently and with a lot of Bible deals with trolls whose heads I would gladly rip off. She, taken in totality, has shown more of the fruit of the spirit than I have seen in my life. If only I could have a pastor’s wife like her in real life.
3.) Lastly, God never requires us to forgive without some repentance first, which we have not seen from “godly” (I will not capitalize that with him) Jack Schaap. Furthermore, how do you know that his victim has not forgiven him – she is not the reason the justice system is involved, that responsibility falls to FBCH and a traveling evangelist from Youth Conference. Victims don’t get a say in how their cases are prosecuted. Furthermore, just because a case is prosecuted doesn’t mean that she hasn’t forgiven him. Justice does not preclude forgiveness. Your view there is completely warped.
Finally, there is plenty more troll food where that came from. I’m an vacation and I’ve got a big bag that I’m not afraid to use. Don’t you dare attack PW, one of the most Godly and gentle people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
Thus ends the rant. 😈
Craig- He did confess. What do you think the guilty plea is? What more do you want of this man who has dedicated his whole life to preaching the Bible? Do you want him crucified as well?
Pearl- You are an ignorant woman. He is repentant and has asked forgiveness. You need to curb that deceitful tongue of yours and stop telling lies or you may not like God’s response to you. Prov. 19:9; Psalm 52:4.
I see in this response the typical IFB arrogance in answering women. To Craig, this writer makes no personal attack; he merely disagrees with him. He attacks Pearl personally, calling her both an “ignorant woman” and a liar with a deceitful tongue.
Shame.
OK, Davis…so “a man who has dedicated his whole life to preaching the Bible” can section off part of that life for fooling around sexually with an under-aged girl.
I don’t want to hear another word about him “stumbling into sin.” This isn’t a stumble…it’s an all-out, voluntary, whole-hearted, cannonball PLUNGE.
Listen jackass, a plea agreement read by your attorney isn’t a confession of SIN. As for him “dedicating his whole life to preaching the Gospel” You’re just another hyper-fundie fool who thinks the sermon begins and ends at the pulpit. You LIVE the sermon, moron. You speak it a couple of hours a week but you LIVE it 24/7. Schaap was living his REAL sermon in those out of state hotel rooms with a young girl who is scarred for life. If FBCH had any real men, they would have gotten together and whooped his ass until he cried like a little baby. Keep making excuses for this animal. That makes you just as guilty as he is.
Forgiveness is not waiting for an apology.
Some of you say, “I will forgive them as soon as they say they’re sorry.” I hate to break it to you, some people are never going to apologize. Some people are going to continue in their destructive, rebellious, and foolish life course. Some people will be stubborn and religious and self-righteous and they’ll never confess or admit. Some people will move away, you’ll never speak with them again. Some people will die before they articulate repentance. And so you forgive them before they apologize.
Brian, your view is a valid one when you’re talking about interpersonal relationships. However, Jack Schaap is a public figure who has long demanded that his listeners comply with his standards and convictions.
He should have publicly repented and asked forgiveness. David’s Psalm 51, written after Nathan confronted him about his sin, is about as public as you can get–read by people for centuries. It depicts a man who is transparent and broken, throwing himself on the mercy of God.
Schaap’s court appearance showed nothing even remotely close to that.
Davis, when did Schaap publicly repent and ask forgiveness? This “ignorant woman” would love to know.
Where does the Bible say any such thing as “forgiveness is not waiting for an apology?”
I’m not saying a person should harbor hate inside them but Jesus never said to forgive someone before they apologize.
I don’t know if Jack Schaap has apologized to this girl. I do know that I have nothing to forgive. He hasn’t harmed me. I’ve never met him. I’ve never been to HAC. I haven’t been IFB in ten years. I am not angry with him.
I am glad to see him be stopped and go to prison.
He hasn’t harmed you? Really? He harmed someone God loves, someone He sacrificed Himself for.
To quote the great poet, John Donne:
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Each man’s pain also “diminishes” me –
Well said! He harmed a little one. And as a dad, I would love the privilege of being the guy who gets to tie the millstone around his scrawny neck and shove him into the sea.
Your crazy
Really. I don’t care what John Donne says. Jack Schaap hasn’t done anything to me. I don’t have enough energy to be angered or upset by every bad thing that happens to anyone in the world. There are seven billion people.
Since Davis preaches we must be biblically forgiving of everything that belches, he must forgive us for believing Jack Schaap is a child-molesting creep.
Thanks, Davis!
By the way, it has always haunted me that I stole some makeup when I was fourteen. But wait…you’ll forgive me! I feel so much better!
Sophie – Your rebellious and mocking spirit comes shining through. You may be laughing now, but God has the last laugh. I would ask you if you are married to a believer, but I think I know the answer already since no Christian man would tolerate that kind of lip.
To answer your insolent and childish question, forgiveness is required after repentance. You and the reprobates on this site have not repented of your arrogance, ongoing apostasy, and prideful sinning or your unfair attacks on Pastor Schaap. But if you did repent, I would forgive you all. The Lord requires this and I follow the Lord.
But you shouldn’t be concerned about my forgiveness. It is God’s forgiveness that you need. Without that, you are heading for a terrible destiny, I assure you! Just as this young woman is going to learn unless she humbles herself, forgives her repentant pastor and then seeks forgiveness for her own sins.
Fake..
Right friend, keep telling yourself that. I’m the realest person in here. I know where I stand with God and where I am going. Do you even go attend church or do you sit around smirking at Christians on the internet all day?
@ Davis. Your views points are irrelevant.
“unfair attacks on Pastor Schaap.”
Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!
Jack – I didn’t know having sex with a 16 year old was illegal – Schaap?
Lame-o FBCH leadership who did not even thing this was a crime? The same guys who watched Schaap masturbate an arrow in front of thousands of teens AND DID NOTHING… The same guys who let a pervert preach perverted sermons unabated for years…
David, you need to pick better friends. You know what pastor says, “Nearness is likeness”
Wow. “Noname” answers “Your (sic) crazy” to, I suppose my post, since I believe we are – especially as brothers & sisters in Christ – affected and hurt by each others’ pain.
People are arguing about the timing of forgiveness, as if it matters – I guess it’s okay to poison my soul with bitterness because someone wronged me and they aren’t sorry?
Jesus certainly forgave his accusers from the cross before any of them repented.
We should be so grateful for God’s grace. I know “where I’m going” too, but it isn’t because of anything I’ve done. That’s true of every one of us, so we’d do better to keep our comments civil and remember the pit from whence we ourselves were plucked.
I have friends who went to Hyles Anderson who literally carry the scars 25-30 years later. All that place ever did was ruin the faith of thousands of people. I feel horrible sadness for this girl, because these monsters are such manipulative control freaks that she might never recover from the wounds he inflicted. I hope prison is like a perpetual scene from “OZ” for this animal. I hope this becomes the final blow to the sham of FBCH and I hope…in the ultimate act of irony and God’s eternal sense of humor…TBN buys the property and some day we see Carman embarrassing himself from the former stage of FBC Hammond. …and I hope Schaap gets the gift of tongues in jail and lives out every sermon about how satanic that is. Rat bastard.
C.N.L., You’re obviously a good person, but imagine holding your beloved child, trying to comfort after he/she suffered under the hands of a pevert.
Would you really say “I’m so sorry this happened, but now we must forgive.”
Do you forgive Hitler? If so, what would a concentration camp survivor, who saw his family murdered, say to that?
I think, perhaps, my comments have not been clear. I completely agree with you, Sophie, about forgiveness and Hitler, etc. I never meant to imply that Schaap should be able to say “Oops” and move on while his victim is still suffering. I think the creep should stay in jail for a long time and never be allowed to work with young people again.
My comments were more directed at the person who said he had nothing to forgive since Schaap hadn’t done anything to him.
So, I apologize for any misunderstanding.
No apology necessary…thanks for clearing it up.
Sophie – Did you see the time when I posted? : 😕
1:58 pm? That whooshing sound is your question going over my head. Explain?
No…4:35 am…way too early to be thinking clearly and posting!
The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years. ~Thomas Jefferson
You’re in good company!
The sun catches me in bed every day.
You go, Bob. As to Davis – I cannot believe what I am reading; I hope you are not married, Davis. I pity any woman associated w/ the likes of you. Your attitude is chilling and makes me revoltingly sick in the pit of my stomach. You must hate the gracious Lord Jesus; He loved women and lifted them up. You are so frightening – a small, wizened, dark soul. Turn away, away from your ugly pride; it is kicking you in the rear and you haven’t enough sense to repent – yet. r
You all will be judged for downing the man of God. Bro. Schaap fell. So did David and Paul. Job’s friends were like you folks. God blessed Job in the end, Job’s friends not so much.
FBC is a great church and will rise from this better than before because they love the Lord and he loves us.
We win souls and will continue to do so while you all do nothing with your lives but mock and make fun of and tear down, you all are like that blasphemous blog that lies about our wonderful church and college. The Independent Fundamental Churches as a whole will be proven one day to be right while you’re all burning in hell. You’ll remember the days of scoffing, but at that point it will be too late.
Gal 6:7 – “Be not deceived; God is not mocked” I feel sorry for all you, God will be judging you for your ways.
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS FIVE.
LONG LIVE BIG BROTHER!
LONG LIVE JACK SCHAAP!
When did the Apostle Paul fall?
Paul didn’t fall. Saul sin greatly before he was saved – and it must be said, it took a voice and a blinding light in the desert before he repented. As Paul, he made great sacrifices, and accepted his fate as being executed in a rather nasty way.
David was a man after God’s own heart – but that was ONLY said before he sinned with Bathsheba. As a result of David’s sin, his child died. He had many other problems in his life – one of his sons raped one of his daughters, and another son decided to kill his Dad. Fun stuff.
Neither of them raped a minor, mind you. I don’t know of ANY bible character who did that, and they did some pretty nasty things.
Oh, and Job? He had persecutions when he had done nothing wrong. He has nothing to do with Schaap.
Funny how all these Schaap supporters know nothing about the bible they claim to follow. You’d almost think they had been taught by a man who refused to teach truth. For, like, a decade or something. Strange that.
When David had waxed old and got no heat, how old do you think the virgins they got to lay beside him were? How old was Mary when Joseph married her? We really don’t know because the Bible doesn’t say.
The state of Indiana allows people to marry as young as age 15 with judicial consent. Most nations in the world allow marriage at 16, usually with parental consent. The whole “sex with a minor” thing obscures the real issue. I’m glad the law was able to catch him at something, but it’s not the biggest issue.
He was predatory. A pastor has all kinds of women who come to him in a vulnerable condition, not necessarily because of age. They could be 45 but burned with emotional or relationship problems. A man in that sort of position is supposed to be able to be trusted not to take advantage.
So yeah, Mary might have been 16 and Joseph might have been 30. But nothing in the Biblical narrative indicates Joseph was predatory in any way.
Jack Hyles was a vile whoremonger, his daughter Linda has come out with a video (before Schapp’s fall) detailing the abuse that the entire family suffered at the hands of this narcissistic meglomaniac! Of course he raised up Dave (in his image) in this wicked, legalistic atmosphere and what did he do? Even worse (if that’s possible) than his wicked father. Dave has torn up several churches with his adulterous rampages. And then we come to Schapp, who saw all the money, power and corruption and decided to join in on the fun, we see where this pervert ended up!
The graduates of Hyles/Anderson have spread out over the country like a plague, infesting our country with false, unbiblical, legalistic teaching. H/A graduates have been involved in hundreds of sexual assaults and overall improper conduct! Indeed the jail cells of America are very familiar with the residue of Poppa Pervert Jack Hyles, cult followers!
I am beginning to wonder just how “innocent” 1st Baptist really is in all of this. Are there at least 50 righteous people in this cesspool of legalism, who love and listen for the voice of God? You have had “allowed” two monsters to run at large in your so-called church, preaching legalism which always kills the Spirit of God, are none of you in touch with the true and living God? I know that there must be some good folks at this church, I certainly hope there is, but I must issue a challenge to this legalistic bunch, and that is to humble yourselves and seek a new direction for your lives, church and college. Folks the writing is on the wall, what you are doing is not working.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
If Hyles had a son, how could Schaap inherit the throne by marrying his daughter?
The crown prince got ran out of town for banging too many underaged girls and married women. He then pastored a church and got ran out for the same thing. Then was run out of yet another church for the same thing.
So the crown passed to a son in law instead of the son.
“Man of God “? How so ? Set aside your blind love and begin to listen to this man…. Listen AND hear and understand. Begin praying for discernment.
It seems to me that that whole church is lacking in discernment – if not, how could they have suffered unaware through YEARS of Jack Hyles ?! I was a high school student in the 70s when he came to Southside Baptist Church (Walt Handford); I knew then that the man was arrogant and unhealthy. How could a high school student know this, but not the “elders” ? I think we learn to be blind.
I just got back from visiting a friend of mine who is currently a guest of the government and had a thought regarding Schaap and all of the other convicted pervs coming out of FBCH/HAC…how hard would it be for the Feds to bring a RICO charge against the boys in Hammond? Their structure is almost a mirror image of LCN (Boss=MOG, Underboss=Assistant MOGs, Capos=Deacons/Administration, Soldiers=Bus Captains/Faculty), only they trade in deviant sexual crimes rather than gambling, loansharking, etc. (As an aside, their “Jericho Program” could also be considered ‘sharking.) It is undeniable that they are all associated with each other and, at the very least, were enablers of one another. My friend’s “association” with his co-defendents is far less documented that the relationships between all of these guys.
I’m also a bit confused about this post, because it was the associate pastors and board of directors and members of the FBC that gave the case to the authorities. If Schaap was indeed the most controlling figure, it would have never leaked out and not hushed up by fearing members.