The
Country's Most Misogynist Minister Proves That Hypocrisy From The Pulpit Has No
Bounds.
"At this time, we
deeply regret the need to announce that First Baptist Church has dismissed our
pastor, Dr. Jack Schaap, due to a sin that has caused him to forfeit his right
to be our pastor. First Baptist Church is in full cooperation with our local
authorities in their investigation of this matter. Our church grieves over the
need to take this action and the impact it will have on our people." - First
Baptist Church of Hammond
The "sin" was extreme hypocrisy in the mode of Bishop
Eddie Long and Creflo
Dollar.
And the set up to that "sin" could not have been a more "perfect
storm" of religious hypocrisy:
- The First Baptist Church of Hammond boasts a huge congregation as far back as
1978: 30,000, with the claim that it ran the "world's largest Sunday
School." In 2006, it was listed as the 24th most influential chuech in the
United States.
- Young pastor Jack Schaap pens a book on dating: Dating With A Purpose (1995)
- Jack Schaaf inherits the megachurch from his father-in-law, the late Jack
Frasure Hyles in 2002.*
- Schaap receives country-wide notoriety when he declared some views that were
definitely off-kilter with the rest of Baptist teaching: he declared the King
James Bible not to be inspired and that:
"When
a wife receives her husband's body, she is saying, 'I just want to remind you,
Christ, that I am receiving You'."[11] Additionally, "The person who
deeply loves Christ understands that when He receives Christ as Saviour, it is
a spiritual intercourse.A person receives the body of Christ. A Christian is
the female gender in the spiritual realm, and God is the male gender of the
spiritual realm. When a person receives Christ as Saviour, he is receiving
Christ as a lover."**
- Schaap pens another book on marriage, Marriage:
The Divine Intimacy. (Hyles Publications, 2005)
- 20/20 does an expose of Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches, claiming
that they akin to cults that have covered up instances of statutory rape. It
characterizes such churches as "cults." It features Jack Schaap who
is quoted as saying it would be "cold day in hell before I ever let a woman
teach me theology". Schaap responds with the video below.
- Schaap is fired from his position as senior pastor because of allegations
that he had an adulterous affair with a minor. Schaap confesses to the affair.
The police are investigating all criminal charge possibilities including
transportation of a minor across state for immoral purposes.
Silence
of The Religious Lambs
Within
hours of the announcement and press statement, reference to Dr. Jack Schaap's
books on the Hyles Publications website have been expunged and many YouTube
videos have also been shut down. No statements have come from either Schaap or
Cindy, his wife of over thirty years.
The
silence of Cindy Schaap is not too surprising considering Schaap's views. In Marriage: The Divine Intimacy ,
Cindy Schaap posited a subservience to her husband that might make some of
today's modern women cringe:
"Before my husband would come
home, I would read books in private about romance; and I would get myself ready
to be excited about romance."
What's more telling about the situation: some congregants have
come forth to say "he's only human" while not addressing the question
of what abuse was done to the teenage girl.
And the real silence of skirting issues may bring to the fore the
cult-like atmosphere of First Baptist Church of Hammond.
Joining The Pulpit Hypocrisy Pimps
Jack Schaap. Eddie Long. Ted Haggard. Creflo Dollar. Jimmy
Swaggart. Jim Bakker. Megachurch pastors and televangelists who have peppered
America's religious landscape with scandals in the last generation and have
shown America that the pulpit is the most revered source of hypocrisy, hate
speech or misogyny - backed by God Himself, of course:
"No woman ever
got me involved in ministry. I didn't follow a woman into ministry. A woman
didn't write this book. No woman wrote the scriptures right here. A man wrote
the Bible -- got it from God. A man hung on the cross. His name is Jesus Christ
and God called a man to lead the church here. Hey! I'm glad I'm a man!"
The portrait of Jack Schaap that will emerge from this latest development in
Christian Right circles will no doubt be the same as he has always had, just a
trifle more intense. And whether or not he can weather it as one of the supreme
hypocrites of the Right remains to be seen: Dollar, Long, Swaggart and Haggard
are still around.
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