I have a message for you all from the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana and their associated staff, members, fans, toadies, lackeys, and hangers-on: they would like for all of you to shut up now. Stop talking about Jack Schaap’s sin. Stop feeling sympathy for his victim. Stop recalling the sins of Jack and David Hyles. Stop bringing up all the many others just like them that have walked the halls of that church and school. Cease and desist. Just shut up.

You’re hurting the cause of Christ by letting the world know that (yet another!) fundamentalist pastor is a hypocrite. You’re hurting all the church members who sat and watched his shenanigans in silence and didn’t move to stop him. You’re vindictively hurting a good man who only made one little mistake and who has probably already suffered enough and should be back in another pulpit any time now.

Besides all that, you can’t possibly know the whole story. This seventeen-year old was just as guilty as the pastor who preyed on her. I heard from a very reliable source that he read on the Internet that she was a seductress trained by the Communists at the Vatican to ensnare fundamentalists preachers. And I like that story a lot better than the one you’re telling so it must be true. If there’s any victim here is that man of God who has lost his ministry. He’s all that matters, not some little tramp.

Is Schaap’s offense really all that great? He slightly stumbled. He merely tripped. He slipped a little, lost his balance and inadvertently penetrated a seventeen-year-old. It could happen to anybody. There’s no reason for all this fuss. After all, we can all agree that he’s still a wonderful man with a powerful ministry. Who cares what happens to one floozy? Is she more important than all the souls we’re trying to save?

All you have to do is be quiet. Sit silent. Do nothing.

Silence gives consent.