Conservative Babylon

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Claims to fame: Cult-like IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) preacher; longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond (Indiana); founder, Hyles-Anderson College (Schererville, Indiana); patriarch of cultish network of churches and schools with long track record of sexual abuse; very, very scary guy once called “the next David Koresh“

Moral apex #1: His alleged extramarital affair with his (equally-married) assistant.

In 1989, one of Hyles’ deacons, Victor Nischik, accused Hyles of bumping uglies with Nischik’s wife Jennie. Hyles, of course, denied the affair, and then turned around and publicly smeared Nischik, calling him “an immoral man” and stating that Nischik’s wife left him after catching him in flagrante (or, at least, in his pajamas) with another woman, and finally implying that he was “a homosexual” — which is usually the last resort for fundies trapped in a corner — although that’s a pretty lame accusation, in light of Hyles’ heterosexually-oriented adultery accusations against Nischik.

(Nice way for a preacher to act, eh? Apparently vengeance was Hyles’, not the Lord’s.)

As recounted by Robert Sumner in his Jack Hyles Exposé, the real story went like this:

One day Dr. Hyles came to Vic and said, “I need your wife in my office.” Even though their children were small, both husband and wife were delighted that she could be involved in such a worldwide ministry and Vic readily gave his consent.

A little time went by and the Nischiks began experiencing marital problems. She would not permit Vic to touch her. In 1971, Jennie told Vic she wanted a divorce; in fact, she gave him 24 hours to get out of town and never see his children again. He refused. When she called Hyles to the home, the latter offered Vic financial help to relocate elsewhere, suggesting Denver. Nischik totally rejected the offer, saying he wanted to keep his home together for the children’s sake and because he loved his wife. Nothing was settled that night and the next day the three met again. This time, as Vic testified under oath:

“At that meeting the substance of it was that I produced evidence of an improper relationship between my wife and Hyles, and produced evidence to that effect, which caused him to beg me to stay for the sake of the church and the ministry, and after a number of days discussion, I agreed to stay for the sake of the church and for the sake of my children.” He defined that improper relationship as personal involvement going farther than mere friendship, adding that when he produced his evidence, “… Hyles backed off about me leaving and, in fact, begging me to stay, and worked out the arrangement under which we have lived ever since.” So, when this evidence was produced, instead of “get out of town within 24 hours and never see your children again,” it became, in effect, “stay around and put on a front for the good of ‘the ministry’.”

The bizarre solution Hyles worked out for the Nischiks was as follows: continue to live in the same house, but not see, speak, eat together, ride in the same automobile, or even contact one another in any way except for an hour or so on Christmas, exchanging gifts with the children. A schedule was even worked out about when each parent could be with the children, one that was rigidly followed.

At first Vic merely had a rollaway cot in the unfinished basement, but eventually a room was fixed up in one corner, for which he paid Jennie rent, even though he was allowed no physical contact whatsoever with her. …

A few years later, when Vic again demanded that Hyles terminate the affair with his wife, Hyles ordered Jennie to file for divorce. She did, but when Hyles realized that Nischik planned to put him on the witness stand in open court, the former met with the attorneys on both sides and unilaterally negotiated the terms of the divorce settlement. …

Vic opposed the divorce to the very end…

Of course, Hyles denied all. Vehemently.

Moral apex #2: The existence of his son, Dave, who boinked a couple-dozen women he wasn’t supposed to be boinking (and was implicated in the mysterious death of the son of one of his lovers). Pastor Jack never did acknowledge, or apologize for, his boy’s failings.

And why should he? Well, we figure any big-time preacher who puts so much emphasis on the proper rearing of children (see “Memorable Hyles quotes regarding discipline”, below), and then raises a kid who gets kicked out of at least three different churches for “grave sexual misconduct” (with a total, by our count, of more than two dozen women) has some serious ’splainin’ to do.

Of course, Brother Hyles can’t ’splain nothin’ now, ’cause he’s dead (as of 2001).

Moral apex #3: The track record of sexual impropriety (and sex crimes) among Hyles staffers and students alike — and Hyles’ (deliberate?) failure to do anything about it.

In short, Hyles’ ministry spawned a vast network of sick freaks.

Here’s the short list (click each link for the ugly little details of each man’s story):

• A.V. Ballenger

• William A. “Andy” Beith

• William S. Beith

• Joe Combs

• Mark Foeller

• Russell Hirner

• Dave Hyles

• Jeffrey Jerrell

• Timothy Lee Leonard

• Kerry Martin

• Chester Mulligan

• Russell K. Overla

• Earl Reeves

• Calvin Stone

• Jim Vineyard

Allegations of severe child abuse in Hyles’ church and schools, and the many churches and schools tied to his, under the guise of “discipline,” are legion. If you want to hear some of the most shocking stories, Bassenco’s Blog on the Lillypad 2 has all five parts of WJBK’s “Preying from the Pulpit” 1993 news series available in MP3 audio. Listen only if you are certain you can stomach it; this audio is practically guaranteed to induce flashbacks in survivors of childhood abuse (sexual and otherwise). The audio files are here; scroll almost halfway down the page to find them. Parts 3 and 4 specifically document the abuse allegations.

Memorable Hyles quotes regarding discipline:

Let the child realize that you are simply representing God in the execution of the punishment. …

Sometimes spanking should leave stripes on the child. …

During the formative years, yea, the infant years, the child should be spanked. As soon as his is old enough to walk away from his parents he should be spanked if he does not walk where they say he should walk. … Parents should not have to remove vases and delicate glass ornaments from living room tables. A house need not become disorderly and full of riots because a baby has come. Start early in disciplining the child. …

The [spanking] ritual should be deliberate and last at least ten or fifteen minutes. … It should be a ritual dreaded by the child. He should not only dread the pain but the time consumed in the ordeal. …

The punishment should always be far in excess of the pleasure enjoyed by doing wrong. …

Never give a child that for which he cries. The baby who cries for attention and gets it will become a child who cries for a toy and gets it…

The spanking should be administered firmly. It should be painful and it should last until the child’s will is broken. It should last until the child is crying not tears of anger but tears of a broken will. As long as he is stiff, grits his teeth, holds on to his own will, the spanking should continue. …

After the spanking tell him why you did it. While he is still crying have him sit down. …

Happy is the child who feels the security of such punishment.

— Jack Hyles
How to Rear Children (1972)

About Hyles-Anderson College (or: Putting the “Mental” into “Fundamentalism”): The 2006-2007 Hyles-Anderson College catalogue pitches its brand of hysteric-fundyism to prospective students thusly:

We are committed to training preachers who will go from here to build Bible-believing, fundamental, separated, soul-winning churches. Thus, our goal is to train America’s future pastors, assistant pastors, evangelists, song leaders, youth workers, bus directors, and missionaries.

…

All programs are planned as terminal education. This means that we prepare students to go directly upon graduation into the ministry for which they have been trained.

…

Skirts above the knee are not allowed. Men must wear neckties to class and must have short haircuts. Young ladies may not wear shorts or slacks.

Young ladies are not allowed to go off campus unchaperoned. Young men and young ladies may not date alone in cars. Absolutely no hand holding or other intimacies are allowed between the genders. There are date nights with bus transportation and adequate chaperones provided by the college. Student insubordination is absolutely forbidden.

…

We are fundamentalists and use the terms proudly. We believe in a literal Hell which has fire and brimstone and a literal Heaven with streets of gold. We stand for the King James Bible as the only Bible and the local New Testament church as the only true church. We believe in redemption through the blood of Christ, salvation by grace through faith alone, and the premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ.

Absolutely no drinking, smoking, or dancing is allowed. No student is allowed to attend Hollywood movies, play cards, or participate in other questionable amusements. We do not fellowship with liberals but instead take a strict separatist stand from the world and apostasy.

…

Pastor Jack Schaap … He was led to Christ at the age of five by his sister Kristi as he sat on the edge of the bathtub.

…

…Brother Hyles felt God speak to his heart about founding an old-fashioned, sin-hating, Devil-fighting, Christ-honoring bible college where … the chapel pulpit was ablaze with red-hot preaching; … a college where young ladies were taught be to submissive wives and dedicated servants of God.

…

We are not impressed with what is being done at Devil State University and Satan U. …

We are opposed to the stuffy, bookish, all-lecture style of teaching. We think it is ridiculous for a Christian to spend hours and hours in a psychology class studying what the rats do when they run in a maze. In most psychology courses the professor is concerned about what makes an individual’s eyes the color they are. We are more concerned about looking an individual in the eye and communicating truth to him. We are a bit tired of the snobbish, intellectual sophistry of much of the education of our day. …

…

Each student is expected to live, act, talk, and dress so that at no time will he bring reproach upon the name of Christ. Hyles-Anderson College stands separated by God from worldliness and its likenesses.

The nine-million-dollar campus includes one hundred acres of wooded hills…

…

All wives of Hyles-Anderson students are provided a special program to help meet their needs because they are also a part of the college family. … As a Hylander wife, you can learn to be a successful leader’s wife, you will be challenged as a Christian, and you will receive practical helps on how to be a better wife and mother.

Fun facts about Hyles-Anderson College:

• Hyles-Anderson College is not accredited — which means its “degrees” (and conferred “titles”) are utterly worthless in the real world; college credits can’t be transferred to any real university; students are ineligible for federal loan assistance or government grants.

• Hyles-Anderson boasts that “Men have the opportunity to participate in exciting football, indoor soccer, basketball, and softball leagues.” Emphasis on the word “men”; there are no women’s teams. (A photo in a college pamphlet shows what appear to be cheerleaders, sitting on the sidelines in full-length-sleeve, sky-blue sweaters, and white, ankle-length skirts.)

• It’s all a numbers game: “No church in history,” boasts a Hyles-Anderson pamphlet, “has seen as many people saved and baptized as the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana — averaging over 10,000 baptisms each year for the last eleven years.”

• Hyles-Anderson courses include: Christian Manhood; Personal Evangelism; Evangelistic Songleading; The Fundamental Man; Cults; Countries Without Christ; Starting a New Testament Church; Church Transportation; Christian Ladies’ Attitude and Appareance (ladies only); Church Education (men only); Preparation for Marriage (ladies only).

• The Missionary program is for men only — although a “Missionary Wife’s Diploma” is offered for “ladies only,” designed to train wives of missionaries: “Ladies who go to the mission field will most likely serve as missionary wives, mothers, and teachers.” Courses for the “ladies” include “The Missionary Wife” and “Missionary Relationships.” (What, no “Missionary Position” class?)

• The Physical Education program is for men only. So is the “Master of Education in School Administration.”

• The Homemaking program is for women only.

• Hyles-Anderson offers an “Associate of Science Diploma in Marriage and Motherhood” (for the “ladies” only, of course), “designed to train ladies to be wives and mothers.” (It’s not ’til one’s senior year, however, that one takes the all-important “Sewing Drapes and Household Items.”)

• The Hyles-Anderson campus is designed so that a student would never have to go outdoors in order to travel from dorm to class, class to class, class to chapel, etc.

• The First Baptist Church’s combined grade school, junior high, and high school campus in Schererville, Indiana, is known as “Baptist City.”

Why Jack Hyles thought Jack Hyles was God:

Once I tied a little boy’s shoe. He looked up at his mother, who was a very poor lady, and with a tear in his eye and excitement in his voice he said, “Mother, did you see God tie my shoe?”

There was a little boy in my church who called [me] “Brother God.” When I would be preaching some Sunday morning on hell fire and damnation he would look up at his mother and say, “Mama, ain’t God mad today!”

One day when I was talking to my son, David, when he was a little fellow I asked him what he had learned in Sunday school. He said he had learned about God. “What else?” I asked.

“I learned that God loves me more than anybody loves me,” he replied.

“What else did you learn?”

“I learned that God spanks me when I do wrong.”

“What else?”

“I learned then that God loves me and tells me it hurt Him worse than it did … Hey, Dad, are you God?”

…

One of the precious little girls in our church recently wrote me a note Its was my birthday and she said, “Happy Birthday. I am so grateful for a great and wonderful preacher. You don’t know how grateful I am to you for doing do much for me … I used to be flop in school, but I am at a Christian school and it’s because you have done this for me. I don’t know how much I do love you, but I love you so much that I can’t even write it. I love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. Love in Christ, (signed).”

Some parents have been on the job, haven’t they?

— Jack Hyles
How to Rear Children (1972)

More memorable Hyles quotes:

The first part of the hippie program is to kill your parents. …

God pity you people who call yourselves Christians and wear your long hair, beard and sideburns like a bunch of heathens. God, clean you up! …

[T]hank God that there has been a J. Edgar Hoover in America, I hope he lives forever. …

You parents who won’t send your sons and daughters to our school, you say “I am afraid that the Hammond Baptist High School will not be properly accredited.” We are a little above this kind of accreditation. We are too scholarly for this kind of garbage. We are too cultural for this kind of talk. …

If you belong to a church that belongs to a denomination that belongs to the National Council of Churches, God pity your soul when you face your maker. It is a leftist, Communist-oriented, pacifist, lewd kind of immoral union to destroy everything that is decent about Christianity in America, unless we expose it and fight it. …

Send your kids to the Christian school. “Brother Hyles, I cannot afford it.” Eat beans for breakfast, mashed potatoes for lunch, and fried potato peelings for supper and potato soup the next day. We used to go down to the store and ask for a bone for the dog. After you have eaten the bone, then eat the dog. …

It is going to take a lot of money for us to do what we are going to do. I mean some of you ought to give some property. …

— Jack Hyles
Satan’s Bid for Your Child (1971)

[O]bedience is the most necessary ingredient to be required from the child. This is especially true in the life of a girl, for she must be obedient all of her life. The boy who is obedient to his mother and father will someday become the head of the home; not so for the girl. Whereas the boy is being trained to be a leader, the girl is being trained to be a follower. Hence, obedience is far more important to her, for she must someday transfer it from her parents to her husband.

This means that she should never be allowed to argue at all. She should become submissive and obedient. She must obey immediately, without question, and without argument. The parents who require this have done a big favor for their future son-in-law.

She should not be allowed to play alone with boys. … She should play only with toys that are uniquely for girls. … She should participate in sports enough to become coordinated but she should not excel in sports. If later she marries a man who is very athletic, she could become more proficient in some particular sport that he enjoys, but if she becomes an expert in a sport that is usually associated with men and boys, it could prove embarrassing to her future husband, and for that matter, it could entice her to become more masculine than she ought to be. …

Teach her to be an intelligent listener and an articulate conversationalist. She should read a variety of good books and magazines and have a wide variety of knowledge. It should be obvious to any male with whom she is conversing that she is an intelligent listener and that she can understand and respond to his conversation. She should never seem to know as much as he does (even though she may actually know more)…

The wise lady will never “take over” the conversation. She will add just enough to make a valuable contribution and to show her intelligence on the subject, but she will always make her man feel that he is the more knowledgeable. …

A young lady should not initiate a correspondence. … It certainly is not proper for a young lady to call a young man on the telephone for a social talk, If there is obvious business, it may be done with reluctance, but it should never be done when the call is strictly for social purposes.

Do not show off her talent to others. … Many children have been ruined because their parents were too proud of them and their performances. In such cases the child receives far too much attention and then wants it for the rest of her life. Hence, she becomes maladjusted. …

The girl should be taught that her lot in life is to be obedient and helpful to her husband. …

Teach her to pull for her dad. … In everything he does she should stand on the sidelines and root for her dad.

Teach her to plan for a profession but to hope that it will not be needed. … She should be taught that if possible, she should not follow this profession when married. …

Let her baby-sit. It should be remembered that someday she will no doubt be a mother. …

Allow her to do no loud shouting or hollering. … [T]he parent is to try in every way to make her quiet, meek, and feminine.

— Jack Hyles
How to Rear Children (1972)
Chapter 20: How To Make A Lady Out Of A Girl

The Kinsey report revealed that four per cent of our males over 16 years of age are homosexuals. In California, a sadly misguided preacher found to be a homosexual has founded a church for homosexuals. In the larger cities, clubs for homosexuals have been organized so they can meet regularly together. In our big cities there are homosexual men who live with other men and in a large city recently there was a wedding ceremony which united two men in matrimony. The “Gay” or homosexual community has its own beaches, restaurants, bars, and barber shops; its own tailor, gymnasiums, and apartment houses; its own books, magazines, and periodicals; its own male prostitutes and conventions. …

Let us answer the question, “How can I make a man of my boy?”

1. Dress him like a man. As soon as his hair gets a bit shaggy, have it cut! It is better that little Johnny start life being masculine than to retain those beautiful ringlets at the age of two. Cut off those ringlets and make him look like a man. From the very first time that he is old enough to wear clothes, dress him like a boy, cut his hair like a boy, and make sure he always looks like a man.

— ibid., Chapter 21: How To Make A Man Out Of A Boy

God made woman to sit on the sidelines and cheer when a man succeeds. …

He made woman to cheer on the sidelines while her fellow made a touchdown. God made a woman to sit in the audience while her husband preaches and say, “That’s the best preacher in the world!” God made woman to stand on the side of the street and watch her little boyfriend ride the bicycle using no hands or standing up on the seat and say to him, “That’s the most amazing thing I ever saw in my life!” God made woman to see her man run the 100-yard dash and say, “That’s the greatest accomplishment I ever saw!” God made a woman to sit on the sidelines and watch her fellow throw a 100-pound stone 50 feet and say, “Nobody else could do it like that!” God made a woman to sit on the sidelines and watch a fellow climb a tree faster than anybody in the world and say, “That’s my man! He’s the best tree climber in the whole world!” That’s why God made woman. He made her to be man’s help meet. …

Complete him in his play. Complete him when he catches a fish. When he hits a ball, say, “Let me feel your arm!” I’m saying, spoil him rotten! That’s why God made you. …

Do you know what these women’s libbers are? They are a group of confused women trying to find happiness and failing because they are searching for it outside of God’s Word and God’s plan.

You say, “I have my rights too!”

No, you don’t.

— Jack Hyles
Women The Completer (1981)

Memorable observations:

With your own insecurities and personal failures as your driving force, you have quite simply played havoc with an entire church, some of my dearest friends and worst of all, my family. The saddest realization is that it has all been under the guise of Christianity. How I emerged from such a pit of secret sin, manipulation, and hypocrisy with the slightest interest in my professed religion at all, I do not know. …

Incidentally, Paula [Mrs. Dave Hyles] and I have volumes of stories to swap, and it is interesting to see just how similar they are. What was it that you used to say, ‘Little leopards have spots because big leopards have spots’? How true it is.

Sadly, in your very heart of hearts you must be the most miserable, lonely person alive. You are a self-proclaimed giant, sensationalist, exhibitionist, and ‘big-time spender’ grasping for every expression of love, admiration and loyalty that you can get your filthy little hands on. Yet, you have failed with the most precious gifts God could have ever given you – your wife, your children, and now, your ministry.

— Judy Nischik Johnson,
daughter of Victor and Jennie Nischik
Letter to Jack Hyles, October 1, 1986

[This sexual abuse] problem, of course, takes place in the disobedient churches of Independent Baptist Fundamentalists, where there are no elders: just one pastor and several subservient deacons. The pastor is not held in check by a board of peers, and other fundamentalist pastors do not preach against the corruption that every day increases in fundamentalism.

— Blog on the Lillypad
February 13, 2004

Ego requires continual inflation. It is easily punctured. Self-inflating statements as these were common at FBCH under Jack Hyles: “Before you stands the source of all human knowledge”; “… God knew that probably 10,000 preachers across this nation would call me their pastor.” He boasted on several occasions that if he were brought down, Fundamentalism would fall with him — “Just think how much destruction would happen to America and the churches if I quit”; “America needs me”; “This is the greatest church in the history of Christianity. We must protect it at all costs. Without us, America is gone.”; “Leadership is always right”; and “We are the greatest.” According to one former Hyles-disciple, Hyles was jokingly referred to by some as the fourth member of the Godhead. (Hyles once also claimed that should he tell people on his staff to commit suicide, they would obey him. He has also said if he told his deacons to bow down and kiss his feet, they would do it.)

— Jack Hyles (1926-2001) General Teachings/Activities
Biblical Discernment Ministries, January, 2006

Random fact we didn’t know what else to do with: In his office, Hyles kept pictures of such fundy luminaries as John R. Rice (the founding father of modern “independent” Baptist theology) and Lester Roloff, patriarch of a network of “Bible discipline” homes infamous as long-reputed mini-Abu Ghraibs.

Even more Hyles dirt:

Church’s alleged acts questioned. Local lawyer charges
Northwest Indian Times, October 22, 1991

Suit claims rape at church.
Northwest Indian Times, October 4, 1997

Baptist Megachurch Faces Sex Suit
Christianity Today, December 8, 1997

Suggest Bible reading for Mr. Hyles:

Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

— Exodus 23:1-2