Claims to fame: Deacon and “bus director” at Jack Hyles‘ First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana; child molester
Moral apex: Convicted in March, 1993, and sentenced to five years in prison for molesting a seven-year-old girl. Having exhausted all appeals, Ballenger started serving his sentence in 1996.
A million-dollar civil suit by the girl’s parents against Jack Hyles and the First Baptist Church was settled out of court. Hyles not only dismissed the parents charges by telling them they didn’t have a case (Ballenger “just liked little girls,” said Hyles), but continued to allow Ballenger, free on appeal, to work at the church, often in contact with children.
Twinkie defense: “Ballenger testified that he put his arm around the girl because she was cold in the air-conditioned room, but that he did not fondle her.” [One step closer to the end, Northwest Indian Times, March 31, 1996]
What is a “bus director,” you ask? (We definitely had to ask.) Explains Miss Poppy:
How do you “grow” a church? Well in the late 60s Christians came up with the idea of bus ministries. As Jim Vineyard and Jerry Falwell testify in “Winning Souls Through Buses” bus ministries “put the ‘go’ in the Great Commission.” While resistant to the use of buses to take children to SCHOOLS these white wonders will go to any length to introduce children to ignorance and superstition. In the early 70s 1500 Sunday School pupils rode Falwell’s buses to the doors of Thomas Road Baptist Church.Was this outreach program successful? What tactics did they use to bring these seekers to their knees? Read on, and prepare yourself for the body count.
First, the door-to-door invitations. When approaching someone’s house,
Look for signs of children, for usually they will be your first riders. However, you expect about 20 percent of your riders to be adults if you will go after them, and more as you perfect your tactics.… After you have them at the church, separate the children and take them to their own special classes. Mr. Vineyard likes to act out Bible stories for the children, playing all the parts himself. If he wants to be especially frightening he has been known to take out his partial plate. …
Now when you’re casting your net for sole you have to expect to get a few trash fish as well. How does brother Vineyard suggest handling misbehaving, recalcitrant children?
If a child continues to misbehave, we have a room at the rear of our platform which we call the “Diaper Room.” We escort them there and make them sit facing the wall. The embarrassment of having to go to a room with such a name usually settles most children down.
Not only are innumerable children scarred for life with his bloody, violent depictions, but Brother Vineyard makes sure the rest are delivered over to infantilist fetishes. When, oh when, will we stop the church from preying on our young?
Suggested Bible reading for Mr. Ballenger:
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
— Romans 1:22, 24-25
