Friday, September 21, 2012

A Judas, not a David

Looks like his "guilty" plea for taking a minor across state lines to have an illegitimate  affair with her is going to land Jack Schaap, former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, in federal prison for ten or more years. 


As it turns out, it is, indeed, a criminal act for a 54-year old (married father of two, no less) to carry on an intimate relationship with a 16-year old under his care and counseling. Whodathunkit!!! While she met the legal age for consent, that only applies as long as there are less than 4 years of age difference... not  ***cough, cough*** 38 years.



To me, looking at it from a biblical perspective, the act of adultery itself is an extremely serious crime, one that God thought fit to punish with the death penalty. Not too many years ago, adultery was considered a criminal act that bore legal repercussions even in our secular penal code.

The facts notwithstanding, the calls for forgiveness, restoration, empathy, and on and on, have been coming loud and clear from many sides. Parallels are drawn to King David of old, whose sin with Bathsheba, and the subsequent murder of her husband, cost him dearly. 

Indeed, even in Schaap's very own statement, read after his appearance at the U.S. District Court in Hammond yesterday, he tells us that “It’s always distressing when a spiritual leader acts in a way contrary to his beliefs and teachings, but spiritual leaders are men, susceptible to sickness, weakness, stumbling and sinning.”(source) Evidently, he still thinks of himself as a spiritual leader, albeit one that is sickly and weak, and one who just kind of stumbled into this sin.

Yes, it is true that ALL of us sin, stumble, get sick, and have weak moments. Having an ongoing affair with a teenager in your church, while living a double life of being a megachurch pastor and married husband, is NOT stumbling. In the purely physical sense, I sometimes stumble. It may be at home, or in a public place like a store, for all to see - but I have never stumbled in a nightclub. Why? Because I don't go there! To "stumble into" adultery with a minor means he was dabbling in things he had no business dabbling in long before his "little misstep," as it were. 
It takes more than one weak moment to commit sins of this magnitude. I would imagine it takes much thought, planning, conniving, and nerve to pull off something like that - much more than one weak moment of making a bad decision, and later coming to regret it. He went to bed next to his wife at night, telling her he loved her, even as he was cheating on her brazenly. He got up and preached about being pure and moral, while himself being vile. He played with his grandchildren even as he was taking a girl young enough to be his granddaughter across multiple state lines.




The above clip was preached on July 8, just weeks before he was found out and fired. It is a true Tour de Force of what any normal person can handle in one sitting, and definitely not anything for little ears. I guess that is why they have guards standing at the doors leading into the auditorium at each service, making sure no children sneak in there. If your church is like an adult shop, you know the wrong message is coming across the pulpit... just a thought...

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’.
(Source of transcript here)

Then there is an even more telling sermon clip from the 2010 Youth Conference, where he seemingly demonstrates an act of rape. I watched it first on my laptop with the broken speaker - even on mute, I was horrified. Later, upon replaying it for my husband on his computer, I could not believe my ears. "Of course it hurts... Of course it's pain..." Blech!!! There you have it. Spoken like a true child molesting pervert. And what's up with suits that look like lab coats on everyone, and the backdrop of lava lamps??? News of his affair should have come as a surprise to nobody. And people paid money to send their teenagers there to be corrupted!!?!?!?!?!

King David was not a child molester. He did not blaspheme God by making Him out to be a homosexual. He did not pervert and sexualize the Scriptures. He did not get up and preach about holiness for his day job, and live a perverted double life at night.

Jack Schaap is not a King David, he is a Judas. He entered a guilty plea not to save his family from embarrassment, but because there was no denying the facts, and the last thing he wanted was for more sordid details to come to light.

Why do people have such a hard time accepting that some "spiritual leaders" are nothing but wolves in sheep's clothing, come in to devour the flock? I would be shocked if we do not learn of many more cases of abuse at the hands of this man involving other victims.




27 comments:

  1. David was a KING, while a pastor is a SERVANT. God did not give the same specific requirements for kings like He did pastors. There were many extremely wicked Hebrew kings that God did not remove from office; however, a disqualified elder is to be removed. God wasn't kidding when He said that elders MUST BE BLAMELESS.

    The kings were political leaders, not spiritual ones. That belonged to the priests. A real pastor is an equal co-laborer who has been given a gift by God for teaching His Word to a group of people. He holds pastors to higher standards that He does not hold other people to.

    Also, when David was confronted, he repented. It was his sin that caused the Gentiles to blaspheme, NOT Nathan the prophet reporting it, nor the scribe that recorded it into sacred Scripture. God said that since the sin was secret the punishment would be public.

    Remember that God judged David for his actions:
    1. His baby died
    2. The sword would never depart from David's house - most of his sons were killed, including Absalom
    3. David's wives were given to his neighbor
    4. His daughter was raped
    5. Loss of his friends (Bathsheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel, David's counsellor, who then supported Absalom's attempted coup)
    6. Loss of life and strife.

    So I ask those who wish to liken Schaap or any other preacher to David, which of his children is going to be the Absalom in his family? Which one will get raped? Which one will die? Because God did all those things to David as punishment.

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  2. I remember your most recent post about this....this....serpent...a few months ago. Yes, he is vile and deserves the harshest of punishments.

    I so worry about the 16 year old girl. I think there has been a lot of disagreement over whether she was a "victim" or not. I really think she will live with shame and regreat her whole life over this and I hope she is not crippled by it but will allow herself the healing God provides.

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  3. What creeps me out is his insistence that all teenagers are having sex and the detail he goes into describing it. I would no sooner have sent my daughter to talk with him (even before he was caught) than send her to a known sex offender. He is a disgusting person.

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    1. Wait a minute. This guy is an Independent Fundamental Baptist minister, presumably preaching to a whole lot of teenagers who have supposedly grown up in his church, heard the teachings on sexuality, have been properly scared to death as any good fundamentalist child is, and he still thinks they are all a bunch of sexually active reprobates? Wrong on so many levels, more than anyone can possibly count. A failure of right teaching (on the part of the pastor!), a failure to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, a desire to assume the worst of the most vulnerable in the congregation... and that's just for starters. I don't want to monopolize the blog, but I'm sure others can fill in a whole lot more answers to "what is wrong here?"

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  4. What a PIG!!! I can not believe he said to, "send your kids to me, they don't wanna hear it from you." What a pervert.

    Sadly, there are so many who will stick up for this man, and continue believing his filth and false doctrine.

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  5. It is incredible how people are disgusted with this man but LOVE Jack Hyles.
    Jack Hyles would have just scooted him along to pastor at another church out of state...just like he did with his son David Hyles who was a sexual deviant like Jack Schaap. Where's "Dr. Hyles" when ya need him?

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  6. Dr Jack Hyles was an adulterer himself.

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  7. I too worry about the 16 year old girl. How can there be any disagreement whether she was a victim or not. I don't care if she was stripping in front of this scum. I hope she goes on to live a very happy life.
    Zsus is so right about how this wasn't a misstep or a mistake. It was completely premeditated by that pervert. Kids are not safe unless they are with their parents at all times. Sometimes even then they aren't safe. Makes me sick.

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  8. That church has been plagued by scandal for decades. Some time ago ago, someone gave me a gift subscription to their publication - "Christian Womanhood." Suffice it to say - I never renewed it. Yuck. Their slavish devotion to the personalities running the church, rather than to our blessed Savior and His perfect Word was unnerving to say the least.

    But, the worst thing was the monthly column written by Pastor Jack Schaap. In what was supposed to be a woman's magazine? His writing was arrogant and condescending, with his entire focus on Christian marriage and behavior. I recall one of his statements in particular - "A wife should strive to look the same as she did at the beginning of the marriage." Pfft! How on earth is a woman supposed to look 19 years old after 20 years and mnay children? What about the husband? I felt it from the first issue - and tossed every issue I received. I usually shared my magazines (like 'Keepers at Home,' and 'Crowned with Silver,'with the young married women at church. Not that one.

    He is no David. Not by a long shot. Nor was his predecessor - Jack Hyles. At least this time around - the church has thrown him out. But it sickens me to hear the sheeple bemoaning the loss of their evil pastor. Wouldn't disgust be the more appropriate response? It is a sick church. And I believe it will take far more than the firing of the pervert pastor to clean it up. http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_chapter3.php

    Actually, Zsuzsanna, I found your wonderful blog while researching the Jack Schaap scandal, and was lead to your husband's scathing (and accurate) coverage on youtube.

    sage

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  9. Thank you for speaking out about this. I agree that his behavior is not STUMBLING. I too was shocked and horrified when I heard what was coming from his mouth from the pulpit.

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  10. This is the exact reason why my children will NOT join children's church or youth group or go into any nursery. I will not leave my children alone with anyone that I know I can trust.

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  11. The deacons did the correct thing by turning him in. However, they sat under that ridiculous preaching for years. Where was the discernment? There are so many celebrity "preachers" called by satan and not God. Wake up church!!

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    1. The deacons did not turn him in. If you read the actual news reports, you will see the carefully worded statement,"handed things over to the authorities". They did not volunteer it. Someone, whose name I know but will not publish w/o permission, called the police on behalf of the victim. Do NOT be deceived that the church is innocent. There maybe innocent people in the congregation but the church as a whole had a whole scheme to cover this up. Just like they did with his father in law, brother in law, the deacon sitting in jail now, and scores of others.

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  12. I agree! Some people that we think of great pastors are really the devil in disguise. Gives all of us much to think about, especially watching the last video.

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  13. I agree with everything you've said about Jack Schap. Only problem is, the Bible DOESN'T view adultery as a sin in the same way for men and for women. The only David was punished was because Bathsheba was already married, not because he was!

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    1. Renee, the Word of God is clear in Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22; Proverbs 6:24-34; Proverbs 30:18-20; John 8:3-5; and James 4:4. . . The judgement on adultery is on both male and female.

      Hebrews 13:4

      King James Version (KJV)

      Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

      1 Corinthians 6:9-10

      King James Version (KJV)

      9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

      10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

      God is long suffering towards us - but David's punishment went into something more grievous, even than adultery. He was also the murderer of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. It was sin, on top of sin, on top of sin. The repercussions of this horrible episode followed him throughout the rest of his life, because he brought shame to the Name of the Lord in the eyes of the pagan nations.

      Please read all of 2 Samuel 12, before you decide that the Bible gives men permission to be immoral. There are always repercussions for sin, for men and women. How the Lord chooses to chasten, is entirely up to Him. Old Testament Law (Leviticus 20:10) required that both the man and woman caught in adultery be stoned to death.

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  14. Absolutely disgusting. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't try to blame the child.

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  15. Change "illegitimate" to "illicit." No need to publish, but children are illegitimate. "Affairs" are illicit.

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  16. Jack Schaap seems to obsess over & discuss sex way too much & in the wrong way. True signs of a pervert.

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  17. I can't understand how he got away with preaching such filth from the pulpit. If I had witnessed something like that from the pulpit I would have grabbed my teens (as they were trying to suppress their laughter I'm sure) and marched out of that service.

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  18. I really pity that girl. Because she must be messed up very badly. Not only because she was involved in that horrible affair, but I think hwe downfall started much earlier. I mean, what kind of parents would allow their young daughter to be "counseled" by a man, one that preached such filthy lies?? Really, I wouldn't let my children anywhere near such a person. The ones who placed blame on the girl too, well even if she had this affair with him "voluntarily", her young mind was corrupted already by his "preaching" and "counseling". No healthy 16 year old girl would want to have a romantic relationship with a man who could basically be her grandfather.

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    1. Men should only counsel men, and women counsel women (that is how it is done in our church), not because pastors or counsellors are weak or anything. But people coming in to counselling are often more vulnerable (that's kinda why their there), and they can see the person that is helping them as their 'knight in shining armor' often subconsciously, but definitely puts them in an even more vulnerable position emotionally. I do feel sorry for the girl, he most likely played on her vulnerability, she probably felt trapped, shamed, and maybe even threatened. I'm not saying she was totally innocent, but definitely vulnerable.

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  19. I am just surprised that people didn't realize what this creep was about by listening to his sermons . Dawn.

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  20. What he did was sick and wrong! I don't understand why what David did in the Bible is considered better or not as bad. David took someone else s wife, and she got no say so in the matter. Then he tries to cover it up and when that doesn't work he has her husband killed! That seems a lot worse than what Jack Schaap did! Everyone can be forgiven if they repent of it and get right with God, David did much worse and went on to do great things for God. I think this guy was sick from the beginning, but seriously saying David was better, not what the Bible says. It was not just simply adultery, it was adultery against the married women s will and then murder! If Jack Schaap would have had an adultery with a married women and then had the husband murdered, everyone would agree that would have been much worse!

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  21. What Jack Schaap did, when he had a child with whom he was counseling, taken across state lines to pleasure himself is not simply wrong! Having sexual relationships with children over whom he has authority, constitutes a CRIME.

    Why would anyone consider a "child lover" a "fallen brethren?"
    Without standing in the pulpit, society considers men and women who have sexual relationships with children, PEDOPHILES!

    Why does Jack Schaap ask the boys, "Is she good in bed?"
    How would a teenage kid know if the other is "good in bed?"

    When Jack Schaap says, "I in you, me in you," he speaks with a creepy voice [shudder].

    Pedophiles frequently groom and convince older teens of a "special relationship." Because the human body responds to sexual manipulation, teens often believe they are at fault or the "affair is consensual."

    At his age, I do not believe this is the first time he had sexual relationships with children. I hope his guilty plea does not prevent further investigations.

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  22. I attended HAC between 1987-88 and was kicked out. As a fairly new Christian, only saved a year, I was a bit ashamed and humilated but looking back at the underlying reason (questioning Jack Hyles and some of his blantant deceptions) I now consider it a badge of honour.
    I can understand now why Jack Schaap was picked. What about those decons? Are they all really that stupid? decieved? or brainwashed? I saw the discrepancies THEN after a short time.

    Daniel J.

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  23. My gosh, what a filthy creep!! All kinds of stalks turning out to be poisoned chaff.

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