Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, December 27, 2003
 | Jack Hyles and Friedrich Nietzsche
3. Nietzsche was concerned far more with the individual (the Superman) setting himself apart from society and reaching his own potential than he was in establishing a social order. I think he was wrong on all counts, but it's the application of his philosophy to social structure that is the worst and most dangerous (and most inhumane) application of Nietszsche. He may never have intended a rigorously enforced Nietzschien society. Nevertheless, his is what you get when his philosophy becomes a reality: In the Nietzschien social hierarchy, two distinct moralities are necessary to govern people: morality of the Superman, which comes from the Superman himself; and morality for the masses, which comes from the elite class of Supermen to keep the masses content and focused. |
3a. Stories abound and many are documented in WIZARD OF GOD that Hyles, apparently without conscience, told of soul winning but did not go; spoke of daily prayer but was never observed doing so for any length of time; described a prayer altar for praying for our country but did not appear to have one. He exhorted his people to have intelligent discussions with friends about books and ideas, yet he did not have such discussions. He like football and sports. He gave directions on how to rear children, yet Paula, the first wife of his son David, declares that Hyles never did anything in rearing David the he told others to do. David, according to her, did exactly as he liked.
3b. The morality that Hyles preached was austere to the point of repressive: moral strictness for the sake of moral strictness. Yet the former husband of Jenny Nischik alleges that Hyles continued a relationship with her for years, and the doorway that connected her office to his has been seen by too many people to hush up. The excesses of Dave Hyles are legendary to this day, will allegations of pornography, advertising for group sex, and breaking up a marriage (as well as ruining his own) laid at his door. He was expelled from a church for his rampant adultery with the women he culled from the congregation (a truly Nietzschien method of using the “herd” in genuine Superman fashion). Evidently, Hyles never considered himself under the rules of morality that he preached to others. Those who could get around the repression succeeded as Supermen by their own cunning and ability. Those who lived under the repression and followed it were the herd stock. Those whom it destroyed fell into the nifty Darwin-ish category of being unable to compete in rigorous conditions. In the Hyles-based hierarchy, morality changes depending on the person who has committed an infraction. If the person was a Superman, then often there infraction was not considered at all.
| 3c. In the Hyles-Nietzschien moral system, remorse, contrition, and regret have no place. These mindsets hinder the Superman from reaching his objectives. Many graduates/ alumni of Hyles-Anderson testify of being humiliated over sins when they sought counsel, or being dismissed outright for their flaws. Accusations, berating, and reviling are rife in the Hyles culture. Those perceived to be Supermen are alleged to receive favor, while members of the herd are forced back into their secondary place. All of this is contrary to the way of Christ, who would not break a bruised reed or quench smoking flax. At Hyles-Anderson College, it has been alleged that certain people could get away with anything, and others would find themselves in trouble over nothing. My opinion from the e-mails and accounts I have read was that the real rule at HAC was that if you had the strength and cunning to get away with something, you did. Exactly as if you were living in a Nietzschien state. |  |
4. In the Nietzschien morality, Sex for the superman is a thing of joy and domination, not ruled by commitment. He is entitled to take what he wants simply by virtue of him being superman. That which is weaker must yield to the stronger (stated), so the superman can take what he wants from women, young girls, and little boys (implied).
4a.Because the morality of the Superman springs from the Superman, intuitively, (according to Nietzsche), he is his own guide to what is right and wrong. And because survival and progress are his ultimate aims in transforming himself (and his offspring) to the next highest level of development, the Superman is not obligated to respect the bonds of marriage in others. In other words, the Superman is morally free to take another man’s wife. In the Nietzschien morality, the Superman is justified in taking another man’s wife simply because he is able to do so. To have the strength and cunning to get what he wants *is* his justification.
4b.If we look at the Hyles situation with Jenny Nischik, (documented in PREYING FROM THE PULPIT*) we see that Hyles, on the air in a television program, evaded the question as to whether he had taken another man’s wife by stating that the only woman in his life was the mother of his children. But Hyles then used the utmost contempt to describe Jenny Nischik’s husband as a “wimp” for losing the affection of his wife. Hyles gave an almost perfect Nietzschien defense---the man who cannot effectively combat the Superman to preserve his marriage deserves to lose his wife. In stark contrast to the Law of God, which makes marriage bonds sacred, Hyles seemed to be saying that the sanctity of the marriage depends upon the male’s ability to “defend his territory.” The interview came perilously close to showing a complete disregard for Biblical Law regarding the sacrosanctity of marriage, and an almost nakedly Nietzschien outlook in Hyles regarding right and wrong: the stronger man is entitled to take what he wants; those who are not as strong and wiley deserve to lose what was theirs.
 | 4c.We have seen the Nietzschien philosophy of sexual behavior demonstrated in the scandals that have been traced back to First Baptist of Hammond and Hyles-Anderson College. Joe Combs, former HAC Bible teacher and the notorious IFB-KJVO pastor who repeatedly raped his adopted daughter, allegedly told her that God had provided her as his concubine, a quasi- Nietzschien way of saying that because she served as his concubine, that being a concubine was her fate, her divine appointment. It was not abnormal in the HAC/FBCH environment for women to be cautioned that if they did not sexually please their husbands, their husbands would find satisfaction elsewhere---a teaching that amounts to justifying adultery on the basis that the man is entitled to seize what he wants, regardless of God’s Law. |
4d.In the Hyles-Nietzschien environment, sex has been viewed entirely as a male prerogative and right. And sex is referred to as a purely physical pleasure for men. Women were to serve the needs of men. This cultural more stands in opposition to the teachings of Scripture, where a husband and wife come together for both intimacy and pleasure, and neither is to defraud the other. Both are responsible to remain faithful, and adultery in the Bible is to be disciplined regardless of the gender of the offender.
4e.Of course, the Hyles-Nietzschien system that allows gross sexual sinners to return to the pulpit is an ongoing controversy and scandal. Even those who support some of the Hyles pulpiteering style have been shocked to discover rampant fornicators and abusers of others to still be in the ministry or to be training for it. This system of readmitting fornicators to the pulpit is consistent with the Hyles-Nietzschien view of the preacher as Superman. The Superman is not judged by the morality that governs the herd or the masses. The Superman is above conventional morality. Therefore in the thinking that has characterized so many churches molded after the Hyles’ model, a fallen man is his own judge. So when he decides to go back into the pulpit, he is not stopped, regardless of the fact that the Bible claims that he is disqualified from church office.
