In June 1991, a Sunday school teacher accused A. V. Ballenger, a 57-year-old deacon who had spent two decades in the church, of fondling a seven-year-old girl. He left everything to the organization, which my younger sister and her husband now lead. God will hold a metaphorical knife to your throat (as Schaap would illustrate by holding a steel blade against a twig the way an assailant might press on a jugular). I literally feared for my very life if I ever told what went on in our home, for fear that it would hurt his ministry. Former pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Bristol, Tennessee, Convicted in 2000 of kidnapping and abusing a minor, 5. I, too, witnessed a lot of hypocrisy growing up in a Baptist church, but my unbelief and rebellion was my own fault and not something I could blame on others. They also corrected a previous repo Love Makes the World Go Round (RPM Sketch #2), A New City/A New Home (JimBaumerMe Newsletter), One Sheet for Living in Some Strange Days (indie rock). Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. . I asked Rick Ross, whose nonprofit institute maintains an online archive of data on cults and controversial movements. First, there was the expectation that the school provided . When he entered, we would all stand on the pew and sing, We love you, Preacher. ..and stay on our knees in prayer, because Satan is just waiting for the opportunity to strike. A string of assaults and sexual crimes committed by pastors across the country have one thing in common: The perpetrators have ties to the megachurch in Hammond, Indiana. Today her name is Linda Murphrey and it appears from this testimony that she has rejected biblical Christianity because of the hypocrisy she witnessed growing up in the home of the man who said God had given him "the steering wheel of fundamentalism" and who boasted that his church "was the greatest church in the history of Christianity." According to dozens of current and former church members, religion experts, and historians interviewed by Chicagoplus a review of thousands of pages of court documentshe is part of what some call a deeply embedded culture of misogyny and sexual and physical abuse at one of the nations largest churches. You could still see it from his office. He told us she was crazy. I went to him twice about things I had heard about Dave. (I had also been instructed to carry a Biblethe King James Versionbut I couldnt find my mothers and so arrived empty-handed.). Torrent v.2. Another philosophy of his is that he doesnt want to hear anything, because then he doesnt have to deal with it. If he wasnt scolding his flock for not living up to Gods demands (tithing, volunteering, soul winning), he was delivering R-rated sermons that, for example, likened the Lords Supper to having sex with Jesus Christ. Jack Hyles set himself up as the saviour of fundamentalism and the pastor of pastors. Hyles lied about the existence of the door, saying, There IS no door, which was technically true at the time, since it had been removed after the matter became public! He knows all about Dave Hyles and all till now. Our pastor back home had given us a point of contact. . I felt like I had one main responsibility as a child. Kerry Martin, 56 The ushers, standing in back throughout the 90-minute service, occasionally whooped, like cowboys at a rodeo, at something they found particularly inspiring. Hyles lied about the existence of the door, saying, There IS no door, which was technically true at the time, since it had been removed after the matter became public! DeAnda, a trim 30-something who is spoken of as a candidate for the top job, made no references to sex. Instead, she continues, he was allowed and encouraged to perpetuate what my father began: idolatry, secrecy, adultery, and a harshly punitive culture based on an endless list of legalistic rules that served the man of God. Not Godor at least not a God that I would want to know.. Mar 20 2013. She talks about growing up and finally leaving the cult at age 28. Dont get me wrongI certainly believe Jack Schaap is guilty of a crime and deserves punishment. TEDx speaker Linda Hyles Murphrey for the first time publicly reveals the secret life she was forced to live as the daughter of the former leader of an Indiana mega-church turned cult. I entered a bit after the 6 p.m. start time, ducked past the crimson-coated ushers, and found a seat in what I eventually realized was the section reserved for the deaf. I sat in the pew, gazing at the colonnaded pulpit, bright white under a spotlightthe spot where Schaap had given his infamous Polished Shaft sermon. There are some very good people still there whom I love dearly and who truly have hearts for the Lord but were deceived, Busby says. There is a gross lack of spiritual discernment at play here. He charmed people in order to get them to do what he wanted them to do., As Schaap consolidated his grip on the congregation, says former church member Linda Gensaw, he became more brazengraphic sexual sermons to the point that I didnt want to take my children., Tom Brennan, the Independent Baptist pastor in Chicago and former First Baptist member, agrees. In 1997, the parents of a mentally disabled 12-year-old sued First Baptist over what they alleged was a months-long pattern of rape and torture of their daughter. Goal:Distributed by Way of Life Literature Inc., the Fundamental Baptist Information Service is an e-mail posting for Bible-believing Christians. The bravest voices lifted against him were the voices of women, the very women who had been hurt by this mans ungodly actions, women who showed themselves stronger than a huge number of weak-kneed, ostrich-like pastors. Yet, you have failed with the most precious gifts God could have ever given you your wife, your children, and now, your ministry. (The previous are excerpts from Dave Colemans Interview with Paula Hyles Polonco, first wife of Jack Hyles son Dave, November 1, 1989).THE TESTIMONY OF JACK HYLES OWN DAUGHTERThe following is excerpted from Linda Murphreys testimony at the TEDxOjaiChange event in Ojai, California, April 5, 2012. Linda Hyles Murphrey on the cult her father created. 25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Cindy cut off her own sister, Linda Murphrey, who left the cult and has spoken publicly in Ted talks about how her father was abusive, hated her mother, abused church members, and enjoyed his affairs while preaching condemnation to others from the pulpit. Lawyers are trained in using minor mistakes to draw attention away from major facts. For over fifteen years I have watched and learned much from the circus that you have performed with the lives of those I love most in the world. Lowest rating: 1 . Tags: Crime & Law, Print-Specific Tags - Feature, Writers - Bryan Smith. We were taught to not question and to take the man of Gods [Schaaps] word over everything, says Julie Silvestrone Busby, a former First Baptist member who now hosts a Christian radio show in Iowa. Instead, he spoke of doing more for the church, of stepping up, of trying harder. And now that Ive had a chance to step back and take a look at it from a distance, to think that I was sucked up in that really scares me. Much of our material is available for free, such as the hundreds of articles at the Way of Life web site. The answer is definitely yes and there are a hundred people who know that. Yet they would drop us off in rough neighborhoods for eight hours on our own to go soul winning.. Breaking Free: Linda Hyles Murphrey Speaks At TEDxOjaiChange. Virtually no one would marry without Hyless blessing, several former church members say. The case remains unsolved; Paul Ciolino, a former DCFS investigator now in private practice, says he is still pursuing leads. You had to really look. 700 Children's Drive. Linda Hyles Murphrey - The Jim Baumer Experience. Linda Hyles-Murphrey - IMDb SEE RANK Linda Hyles-Murphrey + Add or change photo on IMDbPro Contribute to IMDb. helped salvage what was left of my self-respect. We could never even tell our best friends what went on in our home, because we might be the cause of the destruction of his ministry. He began calling himself an Independent Baptistuntethered to any dogma or ritual he didnt cotton to, unaccountable to any ruling body or person beyond himself. Within a couple of years, his flock had swelled to 4,000, earning Hyles a far-reaching reputation. Linda Hyles Murphrey - The Jim Baumer Experience. They didnt go on a vacation without asking my dads permission, and if he had said to drink the Kool-aid, Im not kidding, they would have. The stick was displeasing God, a message hammered home virtually every Sunday. Ohh! . Where there is longstanding passionate romantic steam there is probably physical adultery, but certainly there is mental adultery. Busby is far from the only person to compare First Baptist to a cult. PacifistAg. Hated her. Beatings would last endlessly, it seemed, says Mary Jo McGuire, 45, a corporate trainer in Colorado whose father was a deacon in the church. There are still many, many victims out there, says Busby, herself involved with a group of former First Baptist members who have their own abuse stories. It was a fine sermon, and the people around memen in suits and ties with neatly combed hair, women in tastefully modest dresses, children sitting quietly beside themsmiled and nodded. Much of our material is available for free, such as the hundreds of articles at the Way of Life web site. ), If a man did stumblehaving an affair, say, or visiting prostitutes or abusing childrenthe question wasnt how he could have but rather what the woman, or the child, did to drive him to such sin, some former church members say. The culmination of many events in our lives brought us to the decision that we have made to move. At first, Busby says, it really seemed like he wanted to help us. But soon Schaap was requesting numerous sessions with Busby alone. He came and went as he pleased. One of the things I know about organized religion is that reality regularly falls far short of the ideal. We will see that Jack Hyless own daughter and Judy Nischiks daughter both believe that the two had an adulterous affair.Regardless of whether Hyles actually committed physical adultery, he was unquestionably guilty of a grossly improper relationship with a woman who was not his wife, and was thus disqualified to be a pastor. Jack Hyles was a personal friend. I used to joke that people would not rearrange their living room furniture without help from Brother Hyles, says Jerry Kaifetz, a former teacher at First Baptists Pastors School who left the church around 1990. That reknown enabled Hyles to begin crisscrossing the country as the de facto leader of a loose coalition of Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches. I am continually amazed at the pastors who defend Jack Hyles, denying that he was a moral reprobate as well as a dictatorial cult leader. I dont care how controlling Jack Schaap was. I told his dad about that. This, of course, was well after his son, Dave, had wreaked havoc on the youth department and had moved on to terrorize more than one church in Texas. 26 Many seek the ruler's favour; but every man's judgment cometh from the Lord. When she put that curtain that went across the wall, it probably stuck out a good four feet from the wall and it went all the way across, so you had to go behind the curtain to see the door after she put that up. The sermon was called The Polished Shaft, and in the many times that Jack Schaap, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, had delivered it, it was the kind of showstopper that made him a rock star to his flock. And now that Ive had a chance to step back and take a look at it from a distance, to think that I was sucked up in that really scares me. In fact, he has sat at my table in my home. 2:02p, 6/2/16. support@wayoflife.org. Maybe you could start your investigation there. He soon took it upon himself to arrange marriages. The year was 1985. Its not even a valid comparison.. Every member was in complete obedience to my father. I knew the man first hand. The girl told authorities that her father used biblical references to justify beating, torturing, and sexually abusing her. Gibbs,I just watched the video on the First Baptist Church website where you, Terry Duff and Eddie Lapina discussed the church's current scandal. This was not merely a simple local church issue. helped salvage what was left of my self-respect. Former pastor of First Baptist Church, Culpeper, Virginia, Convicted in 2006 of cruelty to children and assault and battery, 4. We trust that your Christian honesty will preserve the integrity of this policy. COLUMBUS (WCMH) The Gahanna Division of Police says a woman found dead in her residence on Brookhill Drive was most likely the victim of a murder-suicide. David was a blatant liar. Eddie Lapina, a Hyles-trained church fixture, is acting as interim pastor while a committee searches for Schaaps replacement. Treated her terribly. The 1990 book details the affair and many other misdeeds, including a Watergate-like coverup of affairs and sexual abuse at First Baptist. Terry was a deacon in the late 1980's when the deacon board rejected my family's appeal to them to -- finally -- deal with Jack Hyles and his decades-long affair with my mother. They didnt go on a vacation without asking my dads permission, and if he had said to drink the Kool-aid, Im not kidding, they would have. Yellow buses lined back streets and alleys. You could see their family from our back door. My dad lived a double life, one of a righteous family man and of a dynamic speaker in the public eye, but [another] one of sordid sexual secrets privately, secrets that only my siblings and me and my mom knew. This is a moment when we need, as people of integrity, to be honest in all of this. I believe that Brother Hyles knows that David had moral problems from the day he hit puberty, but it has never been dealt with. I am reminded of the lessons of Proverbs 29:24-27 --, Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not. My understanding is that with all the stuff going on theyve done something with it. Sermons on the scandal rang out from pulpits across the country. They need to know that there is help. Nischiks letter, which he later publicized, said in part, MY HOME WAS TAMPERED WITH AND MY MARRIAGE DELIBERATELY WRECKED BY JACK HYLES. Hyles arranged for Jennie Nischik to work as a secretary in an adjoining office in the late 1960s, and she would not allow her husband to touch her by 1971. - www.wayoflife.org, Sharing Policy: Oh, God, that hurts! he shrieked. We could never even tell our best friends what went on in our home, because we might be the cause of the destruction of his ministry. When I think of him sitting in a jail cell right now, my heart can hardly handle the ache. The bombshell exploded with apocalyptic force in May 1989. After his first sermon in 1947, Elijah blushed and Heavens flag flew at half mast for three days, he lamented in a 1975 Time magazine article. Their offices each had a door opening to the hallway as well as the private door connecting the two rooms. last year) recognize that it is clearly a cult. I was embarrassed and humiliated that he said that, because David had kissed every other girl in the church, too, and they were all sitting there laughing. Excrement was left on his doorstep. Though the sermons werent nearly as sexual in the beginning, says Schaaps former editor, he was seductive. But neither did he dwell on compassion. A link to the original report is very much appreciated as the reports are frequently updated and/or expanded. Born in the tiny Dallas suburb of Italy, Hyles often preached about his alcoholic father, his devoted and deeply conservative Christian mother, and the curse of growing up poor. 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