Let Us Prey: Big Trouble at First Baptist Church [View all]

[boston bean]

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.

HOW THE "GOSPEL" SPREAD: Here are just eight of the men affiliated with First Baptist Church or educated at Hyles-Anderson—most of them pastors—who scattered around the nation committing crimes.

1. Tedd Butler, 47
Former pastor of Gospel Light Baptist Church, Walker, Michigan
Convicted in 2006 of molesting a five-year-old boy


2. Christopher Settlemoir, 29
Former pastor of Antioch Baptist Academy, Warren, Michigan
Convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting a minor

3. Charles V. Shifflett, 61
Former pastor of First Baptist Church, Culpeper, Virginia
Convicted in 2006 of cruelty to children and assault and battery

4. Joseph D. Combs, 63
Former pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Bristol, Tennessee
Convicted in 2000 of kidnapping and abusing a minor


5. Chester Mulligan, 47
Former pastor of Central Baptist Church, East Chicago, Indiana; current pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Miami, Florida
Convicted in 2009 of felony stalking of a 14-year-old

6. William A. “Andy” Beith, 40
Former principal at Liberty Baptist Academy, Lake Station, Indiana
Convicted in 2002 of crossing state lines with the intent to have sex with an 11-year-old girl

7. Craig Sisson, 52
Former pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Imperial, Missouri
Convicted in 2005 of child molestation


8. Kerry Martin, 56
Former pastor of Temecula Valley Baptist Church, Temecula, California
Convicted in 1999 of molesting a 14-year-old girl

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. (Or would have, had Schaap not habitually railed against the evils of rock music.)

As with most of his sermons at the northwest Indiana megachurch—the 14th largest in the country and the biggest Independent Baptist house of worship in the nation—the message struck as bluntly as a pounded nail: Submit to God’s plan for your life or be snapped like a twig and flung away (as Schaap would demonstrate by cracking a stick over his head, tossing it aside, and barking, “Next!”).

When you do submit, be prepared to endure excruciating pain. 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). Only then, he would growl, will you become a “polished shaft”: one suitable for God’s bow.

At this point, the sermon’s climax, Schaap would heave up a high-powered crossbow and fire an arrow into a red X painted on a fake rock a few feet from his pulpit.

The effect was powerful, and it inevitably produced the desired result: swarms of male teenagers trance-walking their way to Schaap (pronounced “Skop”), ready to commit their lives to becoming pastors. And, equally important, to attend the church-owned Hyles-Anderson College a couple of miles away, one of First Baptist’s biggest coffer fillers.

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-2013/Let-Us-Prey-Big-Trouble-at-First-Baptist-Church/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc

Here is an example of a sermon by the now defrocked leader, who crossed state lines to have sex with an underage girl....

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This is a 7 page in depth article regarding the First Baptist Church. The author does a really good job bringing one through the history of this church... There are countless victims of these predators.... beatings, sexual assault, rape, child rape, molestation, child abuse etc.... some real sick shit..... I'm glad to see it falling apart.