Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Updates on the Godfrey Letter
Part Eleven is now posted on the FFF. Back in the heyday of Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond IN and founder of Hyles-Anderson College (an unaccredited Bible college specializing in WAHOO theology), George Godfrey was a prominent member of the college staff. Godfrey left in the good graces of Hyles to go out on the road as an evangelist. As rumors of scandal continued to mount, and stories got around about sexual misconduct from Jack and gross sexual sins committed by Jack's son, Dave Hyles (who served as youth pastor), Godfrey mailed out a letter to a select circle of former faculty and staff and graduates. The Godfrey Letter was one of the first serious attempts to call Hyles to accountability. A fellow named Thornhill is posting the letter a section at a time on the Hyles-Anderson Forum of the Fighting Fundamentalist Forums. Here is the list of links so far:
Some desperate "Hyles hundred percenters" who oppose the publishing of documentation about the gross scandals of Jack Hyles and his gang are posting screen-name "Look-alikes" on the FFF. So somebody on the FFF is now imitating Thornhill and posting as "Thornhilll" (3 L's). And TheWestBalcony is being spoofed by "TheWestBalconny" (2 n's). Some people have suggested it's Dave Hyles who is doing the name spoofing. I don't know. Experience has shown that almost any hundred percenter is capable of almost anything to keep his idol Jack on his pedestal. If you visit the FFF, bear in mind that the name spoofing is going on. Some very good people are being misrepresented by some very bad people.
Part Eleven is now posted on the FFF. Back in the heyday of Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond IN and founder of Hyles-Anderson College (an unaccredited Bible college specializing in WAHOO theology), George Godfrey was a prominent member of the college staff. Godfrey left in the good graces of Hyles to go out on the road as an evangelist. As rumors of scandal continued to mount, and stories got around about sexual misconduct from Jack and gross sexual sins committed by Jack's son, Dave Hyles (who served as youth pastor), Godfrey mailed out a letter to a select circle of former faculty and staff and graduates. The Godfrey Letter was one of the first serious attempts to call Hyles to accountability. A fellow named Thornhill is posting the letter a section at a time on the Hyles-Anderson Forum of the Fighting Fundamentalist Forums. Here is the list of links so far:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Some desperate "Hyles hundred percenters" who oppose the publishing of documentation about the gross scandals of Jack Hyles and his gang are posting screen-name "Look-alikes" on the FFF. So somebody on the FFF is now imitating Thornhill and posting as "Thornhilll" (3 L's). And TheWestBalcony is being spoofed by "TheWestBalconny" (2 n's). Some people have suggested it's Dave Hyles who is doing the name spoofing. I don't know. Experience has shown that almost any hundred percenter is capable of almost anything to keep his idol Jack on his pedestal. If you visit the FFF, bear in mind that the name spoofing is going on. Some very good people are being misrepresented by some very bad people.
Friday, April 16, 2004
 | Since Boston
Well life has certainly gotten away from me since Boston. I have been frantically busy. I just finished a post-review draft of a software document at work but have to gather more info and comments come Monday, so I'll use the weekend to do a lot of other writing. Most readers are, by turns, amazed, disgusted, and entertained by the high-jinks I report from the FFF. |
On my return, I had the journal of the trip to update. So I missed a new poster (actually an old poster under an assumed name) who got on a soapbox with the semi-troll Melvin and started berating bloggers. His name? Henry's Blog For all his ranting against blogs, he certainly has read mine over and over, with a magnifying glass. As I updated the journal of the trip, he went off on a tangent on each update to accuse me of all my sins. Of course, as I was not aware of the thread, I guess it fell a little flat.
What amazes me is that these IFB preachers overlook things like adultery, pornography, the molesting of children, gross ignorance in the pulpit, lack of accountability, but staunch Henry went after me with this amazing post: Re: She carries her own sheets!Flannel ones!!. He was quite indignant about my reference to changing hotel sheets with my own sheets, a fury that puzzled other readers who didn;t quite get why he was so mad. Henry followed up with this: the second Re: She carries her own sheets!Flannel ones!! post, a post in which he states that he spends about 40 nights a year in hotels and always uses the hotel sheets.
Wow, Henry! Forty nights a year? You must have a job that requires you to travel. Hey, are you an evangelist by any chance?
However, IFB hardness of heart has not softened since my trip. My account of Maria, my therapist at the Wellness Spa, in which I discussed her amazing account of being able to forgive the father who had raped her, was quickly reduced by the pro-Hyles clone Over it to an accusation that I visit massage parlors. And Marty Braemer reduced my account of talking to all kinds of different people in Boston, including giving a declaration of the mercy of God to the gracious Lis Sladen (who also gave me a good word of wise advice), to mere scorn for enjoying Doctor Who.
But other than a new round of spittin' and fightin', not much else is new. No new accounts of child molesting...yet. And Thornhill has not posted the next installment of the Godfrey letter. Maybe he has finished it.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
 | Death and Chocolate
Click here for Episode Four By Jeri Massi Episode Three Episode Two Episode One |
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
 | Just finished DAVROS (audio CD)
Inspired by the recommendation given by Kevin Parker and impressed by actor Terry Molloy, I bought the DAVROS CD at United Fan Con East. This week, I loaded the CD onto my hard drive and listened to it yesterday and today. I recall Michael Wisher's fanatical, excitable, almost frantically evil version of Davros done in the 70's (alongside the incredible Peter Miles). But Molloy's DAVROS is more resigned to whatever the next step brings and yet much more intense. Molloy's delivery of the penetrating evil that has even begun to eat away at Davros himself is excellent and stays on the safe side of going over the top. No mean feat considering how incredibly evil Davros has been. |
The story overall is one of the best in the audio regeneration of Doctor Who. I have a few quibbles with the plot after its mid-point, but I don't want to spoil it for people who have not yet heard the story. Suffice it to say that one legitimate gripe against modern WHO stories is that at times it appears that the writers think they have to kill every named character apart from the Doctor, and some stories can be reduced to clearly visible plot lines of how to kill this character, then this one, then this one, etc.. While this story does not quite go that far, it does go too far in that direction. But that's not quibble enough to stop this from being a really good story.
Terry Molloy makes a magnificent Davros, and Colin Baker once again delivers a likeable, brilliant Doctor who can use sarcasm well and yet shows a deep respect---even tenderness---for the sanctity of lilfe. Some moments provoke genuine laughter from the listener. It gets more and more clear with the audio adventures that during the era of the television series, the sixth Doctor suffered from bad writers, not bad acting. Baker's Doctor harks back to Pertwee and even to Troughton and Hartnell. As a "conservative" in the politics of WHO, I like a morally upright Doctor.
And speaking of the morality of the story, there is a lot of genuinely thought provoking insight given to the reader regarding Davros. Kudos to the writers who gave us a "cartoon villain" for this story and yet depict to the listener some real truths about the long-term effects of choosing to live for self-aggrandizement and ego gratification.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
| Death and Chocolate
Click here for Episode Three By Jeri Massi Episode Two Episode One |
 | Two poems for Easter
LOVE (III) by George Herbert |
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.
"A guest," I answer'd, "worthy to be here";
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"
"Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?"
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.
| For Brent Stevens
(based on an anonymous poem) As one who came too late to save, I'll lay white roses on your grave. All that I could do I've done, Now rest in Christ, forgotten son. |
