(Picture via chicagomag.com)

Bryan Smith of Chicago magazine has penned an exposé of First Baptist Church of Hammond’s long history of harboring abusers that ran in this Sunday’s Chicago Magazine. Although I’m not cited in the article, I did speak with Bryan before he wrote this about the background of fundamentalism and the culture of institutions like FBC Hammond. I would love to see someone expand on this and realize that Hyles-Anderson and FBC Hammond are only one of any number of large churches and schools from the same basic background that use the same methods to control and manipulate their people.

It’s always interesting to me to see people from the outside world try to make sense of large fundamentalist institutions. Their confusion as to how and why these institutions continue to exist is almost palpable. But I think that’s why people continue to meet on forums and blogs like SFL.

We get it. Others do not.