A blog I have great respect for is Blog on the Lillypad.
Jeri who is a professional writer, has chosen to take on the corruption, isolation, doctrine, behaviour and attitudes of a sect of Independant Baptists that seem to be clustered in the state of Texas.
With wisdom, humour, a firm grasp of the issues, good research, righteous indignation and personal experience she is tireless in exposing leadership by using thier own words balanced against a knowledge of biblical issues.
It has to be tough.
Another blog that attempts to expose the effects of fundamentalism abuse is I took the Red Pill. Iphy has been blogging her raw pain and path toward healing.
At times it is such a painful but necessary read, for it nothing else it shows the terrible effects on the lives of those unfortunate enough to be raised by those who in callous disregard for thier power, use and abuse others in terrible ways.
Shalom is another blog that doesn’t flinch from calling a spade a spade.
Armed with a formitable knowledge of God’s word, a heart for the wounded, discernment and personal experience about abusive, she is a wise voice in a wilderness.
Simple Green is another who has chosen through creativity in writing to speak against abusive attitudes and to reach out to others in tenderness in spite of hurts and misunderstandings. Quick to listen and emphasize, arguments are avoided as Jonathan pours oil of compassion in troubled situations around the god-blogs.
And Religion News Blog, a division of Apologetics Index links and cross links stories about cults and human rights abuses. Anton has compiled one of the best indexes in the world while struggling on a medical pension, and against many who think he should be silenced. His index is used widely around the world, by many who wouldn’t think to hit the paypal button.
The Scotsman looks at why bloggers have quit. Why would you quit?
I think for me, reading hyper-defensiveness and aggressiveness of some pundits toward others this election year; the anger some theological types tear at others with, the inability to tolerate different opinions is a slow chipping at my soul. I wanted so much to be wrong about the rise pundit blogs this year and the stridency that come with political choices.
The church is my family of choice; diversity, culture, nationality, maturity and differences all part of the mix I have chosen to accept.
Misplaced anger discourages me with the entitlement some few express in their flaming of those they decide need to be ‘corrected’.
Some pundit blog’s comment sections with a common age group and lack of female input, too often slide into a gang mentality. Those outside the religious/political mix that is the US in an election year become subject to name calling, labelling and cheap dismissal. Those in the US that disagree face the same.
It will always be difficult to watch god-bloggers diminish their readers.
It is most difficult when I am guilty of it.
I’ve had a tough 36 hours personally, but trite compared to the world we woke up to yesterday. I know some of my favorite core bloggers are grieving, swamped with work, depression, illness and their family issues.
Taiwan held it’s election and and will hold a recount.
The death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Hamas militant group has sparked hard rhetoric from all sides from all over the world.
Thailand has been dealing with bombs believed to have been placed by Islamic militants.
Fighting in Nepal between government and Maoist rebels killed 130 people.
Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Minister, Mirwais Sadiq, was killed in the western city of Herat. 100 people have been killed in clashes and in spite of the presence of coalition troops, some reports say Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban in 1/3 of the country.
28 people were killed in ethnic-Albanian mob violence directed at Serbs.
The Tuesday deaths of the boys triggered days of rioting, looting and arson by ethnic-Albanian mobs against Serbs. About 600 were injured and 4,000 people homeless by week’s end.
Nato troops are out in the province attempting to maintain calm.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in Monday as Malaysia’s prime minister, after a landslide election victory that handed the fundamentalist Islamic opposition its worst defeat in more than a decade. IreneQ has an election round-up.
The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. - Ralph W. Sockman
via Rev. Mike
My courage falters at times and I am reminded of a line from the second verse of the AA prayer.
“Help me to see life as it really is, and not as I wish it to be.”
Does your courage falter sometimes? What keeps you blogging?
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Thank you for your kind words! It’s always nice to get positive feedback. As you observed, I get a lot of angry feedback, accusations, namecalling, etc. IFB pastors have accused me of everything imaginable, with Lesbian usually being at the top of their list (and I’m not, but these guys like to accuse any enemy of homosexuality.) A few days ago I saw somebody defending me from an accusation that I am hooked on drugs because of my chronic back pain. I never did find the original accusation, but I do not take any drugs for my back pain.
You commented that the IFB problems seem to be concentrated in Texas. Actually, I think it just looks like cowboy talk to outsiders, especially Canadians, so you may be assuming it’s in Texas. The real heart of the problem started in Hammond Indiana, which is just outside of Chicago Illinois. That’s where the first instances of abuse and pedophilia were made public, when Jack Hyles was still alive. He treated all the accused (and indicted) molesters as heros and declared those famous unbiblical words, “I am always for the accused.” As he had been engaging in a 20 year fling with a deacon’s wife, that was a pretty safe line to take.
Since the death of Hyles Senior his son Dave has committed far more abominable sins, using the pulpit as his cover. He did pastor briefly in Garland Texas and was thrown out of the church for gross sexual sin. He got a staff position at Pinellas Park Baptist Church in Florida and was thrown out a few years later for the same thing. Then he went to the church associated with Bearean Baptist College in Orange County Florida and was made a member and was at last thrown out.
As you see from this list, IFB churches do not practice a biblical form of church discipline. Fallen pastors easily migrate and if they cannot get into church office, they can still get into membership.
The most recent scandals have been in Longview Texas and Oklahoma City OK, with controversy still going on about the churches that hosted Dave Hyles in Florida. But the heart of the movement remains Hammond IN, though it’s position is not quite as strong since Jack Hyles died.
What keeps me blogging, especially about such gross sins, is that when I first learned of the death of 15 month old Brent Stevens, I asked the Lord to help me love him with the love of Christ. (Dave Hyles was the prime suspect in the suspicious death.) Over time, the love of Christ gradually worked in me and began to change me. I can’t say I perfectly love the victims of these horrible men. I can say that Christ perfectly loves them, and sometimes when I am sad or down, I think of that and see it again for the amazing love that it is.
The salvation that we have in Christ is an amazing and wonderful thing. I believe that He put me in His death and raised me in the power of His resurrection. I can not impress God; I cannot gain a standing of my own with Him. But Christ gave me His perfect standing with the Father so that I am entitled to come before God’s throne and make my prayers to Him, unhindered by my sinfulness or my frail human estate.
That truth is great enough, amazing enough, enlivening enough to make me want to set right the gross corruption and ignorance of those who claim to believe the same thing but pervert it for prestige or power. The IFB movement, in spite of some good men still left in pulpits in it, has gone horribly wrong and is perverting the truth that once served as its light. I’m not willing to let them say that what they preach is that truth of Christ. It’s not. And the evidence against them is the works that they produce—perversions and sorrow in their congregations.
In Christ we have the power of the Resurrection–life and Sonship and love and light. In sin we have death, perversions, lies, and sorrow. Just let the evidence be documented, and I will leave it to honest people to decide.
Bene!
Hey…I don’t know if you’ve been to Richard’s or Pen’s blogs recently, but I have a new project!
http://2ndstorey.blogdrive.com/
It’s a new group-blog by a bunch of my friends here in seminary. Should be interesting…
For a real “look and feel” experience of life in an Independent Fundamental Baptist college (one that has followed the errors of a large strata of the IFB movement), check out SECRET RADIO, which is a memoir of a year in the lives of such a place. Might give people not in the group a better sense of the mentality and “culture” of such a place.
http://secret-radio.blogspot.com
Hey James:
On my way!
Jeri:
Thanks very much for the background.
I was unaware of the movements roots, and itinerency, so thank you.
Hang in there with me, my readers and I will grasp the bigger picture at some stage!
We have our share of abberant groups with broken and bewildered people stumbling out.
It takes a unique meekness and love to document and expose heresy. And it takes courage many of us
shy from.The name calling can weary one, can’t it? Go under the mercy and blog on!
Thanks for the kind words, Bene! I’m not sure they’re deserved, but they are appreciated.
If I could only get myself in the mood to blog more often…the fighting and punditry has gotten me down too, I think. It gets hard to write things that are creative and positive, when there’s so much stupid $%!# going on in the world.
Thanks for continually being a sane and compassionate voice in a section of the “blogosphere” that can often become vitriolic and painful. Blog on, indeed!
Peace!
Hi Jonathan:
Thank you.
As weary as we internationals do get in the back and forth of the US pundicy rhetoric, we are well served to remember how profoundly difficult it can be for those of you in the US facing an election and your neighbours every day.
I pray that when we outsiders err, we do so rooted and grounded in compassion. Hang in there.
thanks, bene…
i appreciate your sensitivity and awareness.
iphy
Andy Briner, a “best friend” of Dave Hyles, former pastor of Merrywoods Baptist Church (later changed to Haughton Baptist Temple) in Northwest Louisiana has also been accused of molesting and having sex with underage student girls at the church’s school. The church did not discipline him as the scripture cites, but they did ask him to leave. He has avoided legal prosecution because of a conspiracy of silence, even from the girls’ parents.
Under his “leadership”, Merrywoods Baptist Church filed for bankruptcy in the early ’90’s, losing the church’s parsonage, school and gymnasium, and most of the land around the church, bought and moved to new property, changed their name to Haughton Baptist Temple (maybe influenced by Bob Gray, Longview Baptist Temple?), embezzled thousands of dollars from the church, and the list goes on. Very few people who know first hand will talk about it. You can be assured that those “skinned” by Andy Briner will tell all if asked.
Andy Briner is married to Mona, sister to Bill Burrows. Burrows was the previous pastor and he ran off with a divorced female church member as did the pastor before him.
Briner claims to have grown up with Dave Hyles (no doubt he did, as I have heard them both talk about the “good ole days” while at a youth conference at Lavon Drive Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, Gary Coleman, Pastor. (Dave Hyles was pastor of Miller Road Baptist at that time)
Andy Briner is a graduate of HAC. Bill Burrows did not graduate from there but had some type of pastor’s training at HAC.
This church has been racked with scandal after scandal. I hear from a current member that the church voted last Sunday March 31, 2004 to build a house with church funds to sell it and give all the profits to the pastor’s retirement fund. All labor, of course, will be volunteered from current members.
Bill Burrows is divorced from his wife Louise(?) and has /had amnesia and can’t remember any of his sins from that time. Andy Briner left Haughton Baptist Temple for FBC Hammond to “get counseling” from Jack Hyles. Since Jack Hyles death, I can’t find a single person who knows where Briner is now. I’d like to know, especially if he has taken another church to pastor; THEY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HIM!
Thought you’d like to know.
I have finally located Andrew Briner. What to do with this information?
I want to know more about Brimer and could someone tell me who Dave Hyles is? I was a student at Merrywoods. I can tell you first hand there was no fruit there. I am searching for answers about the two years I spent there though.
If you click on Jeri’s name (first commenter in the thread) or on the link in the post Blog on the Lilypad, it will take you to her blog.
There is an email address if you don’t find the answers you need.