Blog on the Lillypad
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
 | A Reader Writes
A reader from Alaska writes, "Ok, I've been reading the [Fighting Fundamentalist] forum and shaking my head. Everytime I think things aren't as bad as they seeem PMB [Pastor Marty Braemer]and Baptist or some other moron start up again. Their ignorance is astounding." I can only reply that their ignorance, stunning as it is, is not half so stunning as their unbiblical and corrupt ethics. But formerly, IFBx preachers were mostly confined to their pulpits. If you told ordinary people that Jack Hyles really said his congregation should do something simply because their preacher told them to, a certain percentage of people you told would not believe he really said it, or would not believe that was what he meant. These guys who broadcast what they are on an internet forum make for a fine, irrefutable display of just what I object to in these churches, and it is worthy of being documented. |
The latest flap is over Crosspointe Baptist Church (formerly Pinellas Park Baptist Church) who kept Dave Hyles employed on church staff for several years even after his amazing expulsion as pastor from Miller Road Baptist Church, where over a dozen women came forward about having committed adultery with him. Dave was also named by Paul Ciolino as the prime suspect in the suspicious death of Brent Stevens. That case was left open.
I've asked the two assistant/associate pastors (who are the sons of the senior pastor), if they have repented yet for the wrong that they did in bringing Dave onto church staff. In response I have been asked how I know they have not repented, I have been accused of being a liar, have been called ugly (a railing post that was revoked and apologized for, after two other male readers objected), I have been told that maybe someday they will tell me the real story of what happened.
But I cannot get that one simple "yes" that I am looking for. I suppose the answer to the question, "Have you repented?" gets either a yes or anything else. But as I go through page after page of namecalling, counter questions, accusations, I realize that the Farris boys are, in effect, giving me a very simple answer. Just not the one I had hoped for.
Chris Farris has asked when "this madness" (my blogging of the problem) will stop. When the abuse of the office of pastor stops, Chris. And when repentance and faith are acknowledged by those who claim to believe in the Bible as the means of grace and restoration.
