Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, January 03, 2004
 | The Leaders are Angry
Quite a hullabaloo is going on in the FFF. Apparently the guilty consciences of a lot of the preachers have been stung by my repeated rebukes against them for their failure to protect the flock of God by preaching against the sins of child molestation. There is a rising number of instances of the problem in IFB-KJVO churches. And the defense I am hearing is that the problem occurs only in Hyles-affiliated churches. But as I argued this with Pappa Bear, he pointed out that Jack Hyles was engaging in his affair with Jenny Nischik before Hyles went KJVO. And then it clicked. We both probably accept that Hyles was a corrupt man and a cynic regarding Scriptural authority. He would go in whatever direction gave him the best advantage. |
Of course, I thought. He could dive right into the KJVO movement, with its staunch support of independence among church leaders and their utter lack of accountability. Needless to say, Jonathan Farris, part of the church that sheltered Dave Hyles for so long while Dave was sleeping with women in the church, has been pretty loud in his denials of my allegations.
Some people are asserting that I am saying that believing in KJVO causes people to become child molesters. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying that the movement known as KJVO/KJB has attracted more than its share of molestation incidences. I don't know if the cause can be proved, though I usually chalk it up to the misogyny that is so rampant in the movement. (Just read the Hyles-Anderson Forum on the FFF and you'll see what I mean.)
But apart from the fact that cultural misogyny has been linked by others to deviant sexual behaviors (Marty Braemer, please note the spelling), I would say that the lack of accountability is what has made the group (KJVO) a place where the predators that are in place are able to last for so long. It's like the Catholic church: nobody challenges the parish priest. So it goes in KJVO: with their unbelievable (and unbiblical) reverence for autonomy and independence, nobody comes in to ask questions or issue challenges. I recall in the Joe Combs case, one church member who suspected that Combs was hitting Esther abusively solved the problem by leaving the church. In other words, he "separated", rather than confronting.
So that's what these guys are doing. In the rush to say, "It's not my problem," they just separate further, leaving a sinning preacher or corrupt church absolutely free to continue on its way.
But my offer still stands. Anybody can prove me wrong by sending me a sermon tape from an IFB-KJVO preacher preaching a sermon against child molesting from those in church office. I'll put as much of it as I can on MP3 and run it here.
