58 thoughts on “Compromise”

  3. I like SvenGoolie and he’s pretty tame, but not by the standards of First Baptist Hammond ~Cleavage and innuendo~

  5. Whaaaaaat? Really?

    I’m genuinely surprised! Maybe there’s another FBC Hammond or something, like its evil twin? You know, The Other FBC Hammond.

    1. The non-fundy arm of FBC Hammond that likes Elvis impersonators, cleavage, the pseudo-occult, and being with the unsaved? That could be its own attraction!

      1. Maybe, Linn.

        In Montgomery AL there are two First Baptist Churches, a few blocks from each other.

    3. there is only one First Baptist Church in Hammond, IN.

      it’s also the logo they created around 12 years ago.

      -a former church member and said Purdue student who took the photos

  6. Maybe somebody used the FBC name to sponsor it thinking it works be funny.

    Or maybe FBC is getting desperate and flaking out.

  7. Well, they let women wear pants and date black guys at BJU, so I guess it was just a matter of time.

  8. Why would anyone drive 2 hours from Lafayette to Hammond for this? It’s Boilermaker football season, and there’s alcohol to be consumed.

        1. I now reside in IU territory, so I have to watch what I say around where I live… 😮

    2. It’s not the main Purdue U, it’s PU-Calumet, or Purdue-Cal, as those in Hammond call it

  9. I know it’s not Hallowe’en, but still, don’t fundies tend to view stuff like this as . . . well . . . leaning toward the Satanic?

    1. First Baptist had some of the most “irresponsible” and horrific Halloween Haunted houses ever back in the 70’s and 80’s. They also had one every year at the College back in the 80’s. Blood, guts, gore, — they didn’t even do the “Scare the Hell” out of them gospel presentation at the end like some do. It’s a wonder someone didn’t get killed when they used to do them for the bus kids.

      1. When my roommate got literally run over by a bus (driven by a freaked out rental driver) in the FBC haunted house in ’95, they stopped doing so much of the craziness.

    2. I was so surprised when I found out that some fundies DID go in for Halloween. It was verboten for us.

      That said, what a weird event for First Baptist to be sponsoring. Aren’t they “unequally yoked”?

  10. Not just any kind of sponsor, but a TOP sponsor.
    Makes me wonder what they are getting out of this arrangement.

    My former Fundy church is trying to get more involved in the community – probably to improve their cult rep with the locals – just IMHO. Maybe that is what FBCH is trying to do.

    Funny, but it seems they are using a lot of the methods they used to criticize only a few years ago.

    1. You could have a point there! The “get involved in the community”, be-missional mindset has been very big for a while now. Maybe fundies are finally figuring out that fewer and fewer people are coming into their walled-off fortresses so they’ve started doing more community-minded things (besides “visitation”).

      I wonder though if they only partner with non-religious organizations. The fundy churches I know would never do anything with other non-fundy churches (even conservative evangelical ones), even something good. 🙁

  12. I loved watching the Son of Svengolie on Saturday afternoons, when I was a kid. All those old, campy sci-fi movies. Feed my love of Halloween, which reminds me – I need to set my Department 56 Halloween Village up this weekend.

  13. Dear SFL Reader …

    I’m just not feeling it.

    Since a while back when Darrell posted that bizarre youth conference thingie video with the three dancing/puffing/blowing/blazer_swinging apes on stage, this doesn’t even begin to register as ‘wacky’ or ‘outrageous.’

    Christian Socialist

  14. It seems to me like this bazaar is pretty harmless, but it does seem like the sort of thing that they’ve been known to criticize other churches for doing.

  15. This is not from Purdue’s main Lafayette campus, but from the much smaller and nearer Calumet campus. Not that I think many college students are going to spend their Saturday at this thing.

  16. I’m guessing that they sponsor it because it is emphasized as “family friendly” entertainment.

    But I was surprised to see their name as a major sponsor.

  18. I’m thinking they simply paid for prime booth space and advertising. They gonna reach them sinners at the bazaar. passing out tracts and getting contacts for “visitation” while yelling at people sounds like a great time!

    2. For 5 grand they can pass out chick tract’s, of course they aren’t avoiding all appearance of evil. Maybe next week they will buy a round a beers at Charlies Pub, everyone gets a chic tract with a free drink!

      1. Chick tracts are all about the appearance of evil! You need the appearance of evil! You need the Conspiracy, the evil, grinning Priests worshipping Satan as they print money with the all-seeing Eye that gives you the Mark of the Beast when you spend it. You need the threat, the terror, the feeling of God’s intense wrath about things He really does nothing to stop!

        Otherwise, what is there to get saved from?

        1. Dear rgtmath:

          Excellent job weaving together multiple conspiracy theories into a single statement. Have IFBers ever met a conspiracy theory they didn’t like?

          Christian Socialist

        2. Christian Socialist, I have been in fundy circles a long time, and I have heard them run the gamut. Every type of conspiracy from the olde-type freemasons, illuminati, Council on Foreign Relations, Rockefellers, Papacy, porn and public schools to the Fox News Obama is a Muslim, 911 was a government hoax, etc.

          Even creationism is a conspiracy theory. Them damn sciuntists is out to foolz yu! Jist trus t Babble and the Lawd will do yu gud. Dinosore bonz wuz put thar by the Debbil hisself. Sinners don’t need schoolin an education. They needs the Lawd!

          Movies are a conspiracy of Hollywood, but Oh! they love certain ones and others they keep as their pet sins. And government is out to persecute them, so when they don’t get to persecute others, they just know they are on the losing end! After all, it can’t be possible for people to let beliefs be a personal relationship between them and God. You either impose your beliefs or they are imposing theirs.

          And not being in the ascendency in all things is the essence of Compromise.

        3. CR,
          I’ve noticed the same thing. Except they for some reason reject any conspiracy that involves republican politicians.
          lolz

        4. The biggest conspiracy my wife believes currently is the alien one that says that aliens will be blamed for the rapture. The government leaders are all controlled by Satan who knows the rapture is soon so they are secretly promoting the alien conspiracies while publicly denying Aliens have been contacted. Then when the rapture happens they will say it was the aliens. Of course evolution is weaved into it as well as leading scientists like hawking.

      2. Dear HiddenExfundie:

        How ’bout a free drink for turning in a Chick tract?

        Christian Socialist

  19. FBCH’s orchestra has played at the event in years past. I don’t have info about whether they are doing it this year. The year I was there, they played the Star Wars theme and some other TV/movie themes, as well as upbeat classical pieces.

    1. GASP! They played worldly music created by the satanic Hollywood system? Those compromisers, next thing to go will be the KJV and then pants on women. Of course, once the wimminz start wearing pants the men will become unrestrained and the church will turn into one giant orgy. If they had just not played that Star Wars music and kept on the old paths.

      Wait, maybe the Star Wars music is old enough now to be considered old paths, it’s almost 40 years old, so close.

  21. I know this says it is wacky fun for the family….but I am always questioning fundamentalists’ outreach to children. In the one town I pastored, the new fundy pastor came to an ecumenical meeting insisting that the VBS have altar calls and questioning who gets to baptized the children who “Get saved” at the VBS… It just seems wrong to exploit the innocence of children to make a decision like this….and then to do so without consultation to parents or respect for the fact the children may be attending other churches in the area… Perhaps it all just rubbed me the wrong way and I am projecting it on this as well…

    1. I’ve heard several IFB prechers say that children will always be the primary harvest because they haven’t been hardened by the world yet. Children should be led to Christ as early as possible so that they will at least go to heaven even if they don’t stay in the church. Of course they use “suffer the little children to come unto me” and “it would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into a lake than to hurt one if the little ones” implying letting them go to hell is hurting them. Of course they throw all that away when the pastor/techear/etc gets caught molesting the kids.

    2. I don’t think you are projecting at all. Youth ministry like Vacation Bible School and Wednesday night activities are high pressure. Children are “saved” and subtly taught their parents aren’t if they go to another church or don’t go to church. It interferes in the parent-child relationship. Of course, some relationships aren’t all that good anyway, but I don’t see this high pressure work as being productive.

      And there are other ways to nurture faith than with pray this prayer, etc. telling them of the many ways God shows His love would be a great place to start. But they see salvation only in set ways and they see any relationship with God outside of “being saved” as only judgment.

      It is a form of exploitation and abuse.

    3. My children went to an inner city Catholic school. Only a few of the students were actually Catholic. Every spring, the second grade Catholic students were taken aside for an hour of prep for first communion. (I forget if this was daily or weekly). Many of the other students would express curiosity and interest, and would ask to convert. The school/church would refuse unless the parents had also wished to convert.
      In one case, the church was considering letting a teenager join who was attending Sunday Mass every week on her own. But there was never any pressure on any of the children to convert.
      BTW, many of the students were non IFB Baptist, and quite a few of them were preacher kids.

      1. That’s a pretty good policy. The school then can’t be accused of “poaching” kids from other faiths, which could set them down the path for something worse.

  23. I loved watching Svengoolie on Saturday nights when I was a teenager growing up in the Chicago area. I’ll bet whoever was in charge of the sponsorship bit their lip and held their nose while signing off on the approval to bring Rich Koz (the dude who plays Svengoolie) down to Purdue

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