At the Wednesday service of FBC Hammond’s Youth Conference 2010, Jack Schaap gave his signature sermon “A Polished Shaft.” Then he proceeded to demonstrate exactly how to…polish a shaft.
And still we are to believe that nobody there had any clue that this guy might have some strange sexual proclivities? I suppose none are so blind as those who will not see.
While the folks over at Hammond are still feigning shock that one of their own would be guilty of a “sexual indiscretion,” I though it might be a good time to look back at the last few years and observe some of the other infamous offenders from this church and school. This is not an exhaustive list and do keep in mind that these are only representative of the ones who have been caught…
March 1993, AV Ballenger, Former FBCH Deacon, convicted for molesting a child. Jack Hyles had the church give him a standing ovation and kept him in the bus ministry.
July 1995 Russell K Overla, Hyles-Anderson graduate, pleads guilty to molesting two underage girls at various locations over a period of months and years.
July 1999 Kerry Martin, former Hyles Anderson student, is sentenced to 205 years in prison for raping a teenage girl in his church office.
March 2001 Joe and Evangeline Combs, former Hyles-Anderson staff members who took a girl from the orphanage in 1978 but never adopted her. Joe used her for sex. Evangeline repeatedly tortured her in a jealous rage. Both of these monsters were convicted and are now in prison.
May 2001 William Beith, Hyles-Anderson graduate, kidnaps an 11-year old girl and takes her across state lines stopping at various motels to have sex with her. He had previously managed to get into a counseling program instead of facing charges of exposing himself in public but was allowed to become principal of Liberty Baptist Academy anyway where he met his victim. He was released from prison in 2009
May 2003, David Joseph Jorgensen, Hyles-Anderson graduate, pleads no contest to two felony counts of committing lewd acts upon a child, according to online court records. After he completed probation, he sought to have the crimes reduced to misdemeanors and had his record expunged in September 2006, but is still part of a civil lawsuit for allegedly “committing lewd acts” on a female when she was 14. He then reportedly went on staff at the First Baptist of Hammond.
April 2006, Craig Sisson, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted of first degree child molestation of an 11 year old girl.
May 2011, Chris Settlemoir, Hyles-Anderson graduate, convicted for Criminal Sexual Conduct wth underage males.
May 2011 Matt Jarrell, former Hyles-Anderson student, was arrested on suspicion of rape and sodomy after picking a woman up in a West Virginia bar. He then committed suicide in his jail cell before he could be made to face the charges against him.
October 2011 Greg Neal, Hyles-Anderson graduate, escapes charges of sexual misconduct by hiding evidence of his video voyeurism util the statute of limitations had run out. The church refuses to cooperate with the investigation.
January 2012 Tedd Butler, Hyles-Anderson graduate, is sentenced to twelve months in the county jail for Criminal Sexual Misconduct (in two separate counties) for his molestation of a five-year old boy.
Special dishonorable mention goes out to Dave Hyles, Hyles-Anderson graduate, former FBCH staff member, former heir to the Hyles throne, who has never been convicted but was attached to numerous scandals, and bravely pleaded the fifth amendment when questioned about the death of Brent Stevens.
For a college of just over 1000 people Hyles-Anderson College certainly does seem to have quite the stable of perverts, criminals, and twisted minds.
A big Thank You goes out to Jeri Massi who has worked tirelessly to document abuses cases not only from Hyles Anderson but also from fundamentalist institutions around the world. Her passion for helping victims and seeking justice for predators is unwavering.
From all indications, Jack Schaap, the infamous pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond and chancellor of Hyles-Anderson college, is on his way out the door. For now he’s on “indefinite medical leave” which in fundamentalism is generally accepted code for “about to be quietly fired for doing something horrible.” Word to the wise: keep an eye on the Wednesday evening service at FBC this week. It might be worth your time.
Update 1 (7:30p.m.) The story has officially broken by CBS Chicago so I now feel free to share it here. Christ have mercy.
But at least Jack managed to get one last burst of crazy in before he headed for an undisclosed location to await this fate and here it is. From July 8th here are some relevant excerpts from his sermon “What Mom And Dad Don’t Know Will Hurt Him.” Only click that link for audio if you have a strong constitution.
01:20 Let me ask your daughter something. You date him? Have you
kissed him? Ya’ sleeping with him? Multiple times?04:04 And I’ll look at the person and say, who ya sleeping with? Your
kid’s problem(s) isn’t, the, did you see how short her skirt is, no,
the problem is, she takes her skirt, and everything else off. Your
kids are coming to me and telling me they have sexual experiences in
the hundreds; hundreds; hundreds.05:04 Is she good in bed? How many times have you slept with her? Are
you uncomfortable?05:46 You know, the most common question I ask our teenagers: are you
safe in how you act? Mom and dad, you understand the language? That’s
my most common question. In Baptist Church, in Hammond, Indiana, are
you practicing safe sex?09:10 I want to say to my fellow brethren cremate me over this. Absolutely destroy me on the blog pages. Massacre. We’ve lost lost
scores of HAC students because pastors get furious when I talk about this. But who wrote the book on sexuality folks?09:47 Nobody wants to be more intimate with you than God does. The language that Jesus Christ used when he talked to his Father about what he wanted for his people. Read John 17 mom and daddy and tell me how intimate he wanted your kids to be with him. Read John 15 and ask me if Jesus Christ just wanted to shake hands. [whispering] If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. I in you. You in Me. We in the Father, the Father in us. Don’t try to reach some ambiguous theological nonsense in that. Jesus was saying, can I put it in language that everybody understands. He says “I want be the most intimate of intimates with you.”
10:50 But if we don’t get it figured out that we’re connected with God. And when your teenager goes through adolescence and they start changing, and daddy, you don’t want to touch her anymore, you know you don’t want to hug her anymore; trust me, she’s got a boyfriend lined up who’ll be happy to touch her.
11:50 Mom, dad, listen to me. I don’t need more business, but when your children reach that age, and they start going through that 13, 14, 15 year stage, send them to me, I’ll talk to them. Please don’t look at me like I’m stupid, why are you talking this way? Because I don’t want to lose your kids, that’s why. Because you don’t want to find out about it do you mom and daddy. And I’ll tell you three reasons why. Number one, because you’re dirty yourself.
12:42 I was one of those little kids that went to a public school. You’ve heard me say it, I watched sex take place in the Junior High hallway, but I was a virgin when I got married.
13:09 You know what grieves my heart. I’m looking around and see some of you men sleeping and I want to walk up to you. I can tell you how many girls your son has slept with; I know. He lives at home with you right now. You’re sleeping. You’re sound asleep. I want to walk up to you and say wake up dad, your son is whoring around.
15:03 Do you know how many times your daughter sneaks out in the wee hours of the morning to have sex with her boyfriend? Well, not my
daughter. I’ll take pictures for ya’.
A couple of things struck me about this video. One was that the “special music” style they’re using here is the same one that HAC used to bash PCC for about a decade ago.
The second was the thought that we’ll no doubt see some of the faces of these graduates again in a few years when they pose for their first mugshots. Lord, have mercy.
If this were a white man at a church in South Carolina I doubt the preacher would be quite as willing to share such a Charismatic tale. But everybody knows that mystical stuff is a lot more likely to occur in Africa.