https://hephzibah-girls.blogspot.co...to.html?sc=1695050096824#c8075510324101903457 this is for hephzibah.
Is IFB a cult?
- Thread starter lkw8595
- Start date
Stick around and have over 2,000 posts and you will earn your Doctorate, here
Excessive corporal punishment the court found Camp Tracey guilty of too, having ropes and handcuffs too. This was in the 80s. It was still bad throughout the rest of the time it was around too, they believe in corporal punishment, but they're ideas are warped to include beating (including paddling) teenage girls and boys that aren't even their own children! That's just ungodly discipline.
Last edited:
some are still around, it's not all gone. Someone said in a youtube video from 2020, a survivor of new beginnings girl academy how it was their mission to look for the children and shut the facilities down.
https://www.stoppastoralabuse.org/p...-ifb-movement-the-role-of-to-train-up-a-child "Furthermore, the endorsement of such teachings by groups like the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement raises serious ethical questions" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/new-bethany-ifb-teen-homes-abuse/
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/22/...acher-shut-girls-home-linked-to-abuse-im.html
https://www.newsweek.com/2017/03/10...-christian-school-beatings-nudity-562257.html "It was October 2011, and Captain Charles Kennedy, a veteran policeman, was in the main office at the Restoration Youth Academy (RYA), a Christian home for troubled teens in Prichard, Alabama, when he caught a glimpse of something shocking on a close-circuit monitor: a naked boy crouching in a 6-by-8-foot isolation room as a light bulb burned overhead." ...."One of the most common types of private programs for errant youths are the virtually unregulated religious schools, many of which push fundamentalist Christian beliefs and employ violently harsh discipline against enrollees." "As Kennedy says of the nation's unmonitored religious programs: "They're hiding behind a cross, but there's for damn sure evil going on."
OK, just making sure you weren’t suggesting vigilante justice!
The police and the courts would be better able to handle these people. I would beat them though, that's for sure, beat them thoroughly (not kill them) so they hopefully learn their lesson! I would leave this in our Creator's hands.
http://noedenelsewhere.com/hephzibah-house-the-hyles-anderson-connection/ Dr. Phil on youtube, you can look up about hephzibah house as well. Schizophrenic Christianity on Amazon "Massi explains the theology of American Christian Fundamentalism and shows how it has departed radically from historic Christian belief into a gender-based, externalized pietism that evaluates spiritual success in terms of numbers and political power. She paints a frightening picture of a religion gone horribly wrong, in which child molesters can easily pick up the lingo, amass a following, and hold themselves above accountability by merging into a system that refuses to police itself or institute rules of behavior for its clergy." https://www.stoppastoralabuse.org/post/the-troubling-history-of-lester-roloff , Or mack ford of new bethany homes...https://brucegerencser.net/2021/08/npr-story-mack-ford-sexual-abuse-new-bethany-home-girls-arcadia-louisiana/ you could check the comments on that site too....You could look around with his name typed in on google as well. http://bjugrace.com/2016/03/21/barbras-story-part-one-at-cookeville-christian-school/ bob jones university. https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2015/01_02/2015_02_12_Catalanello_MackW.htm This is helpful: https://louisianavoice.com/2013/09/...ns-of-sexual-abuse-by-father-in-law-minister/
"Ford blamed women in general, telling her that a man could “smell a woman” and that smell was what caused men to yield to temptation.
“You used your power to gratify your selfish, sick needs with no regard to the harm and pain and years of shame you were inflicting on innocent children,” she wrote. “And sickest of all (were) your attempts to find sexual fulfillment from children you had an obligation to protect. You lied to everyone—our families (and) multitudes of churches across the nation. You lied and said we were safe with you when in fact, you were a predator of the worst kind.”
When the children at the facility were not being sexually abused, each of the affidavits claim, they were being physically and mentally abused. The abuse including beatings, scrubbing children’s bodies with steel wool pads, handcuffing them to their beds with no opportunity to go to the bathroom, being forced to clean commodes and dog pens while wearing no rubber gloves, and forcing other residents to gang up on rebellious residents."
Last edited:
I agree. Something about these rants isn’t passing the “smell test” for me.
I'm sorry, I was just responding to some people. It's not my intention to spam at all.
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2013
- Messages
- 529
- Reaction score
- 302
- Points
- 63
.
This is not directed at one person or one post.
I grew up in an IFB church (notice I did not say "movement"). While it's true that we had great respect for our pastor, our church was in no way a cult, with our attention directed on Jesus Christ and "the Word of God". And I'll prove that in a moment.
As a backdrop, our church was well known in the community as the main force fighting our city becoming "wet". We were the only church with a radio station, a christian school and a night bible school for area pastors and others interesting in learning. We had a large bus ministry (of which yours truly as a teenager, was involved). I'm just saying that we were an active church with a well known pastor of renown.
But like men everywhere, our pastor was encased in a body of flesh and eventually, he had an affair (with a wife of one of our deacons). There was no cover up. Upon realizing what was going on, our deacons with tears in their eyes, called him in and dismissed him. They then went before the church and told the church what had happened and the lady involved (came up front and apologized to the church - the pastor and his poor wife had already left the city).
That man committed adultry against his innocent wife because he was a weak man whose character was not strong enough to withstand that strong temptation. He did not do this because he was an Independent Baptist.
In my opinion, it's a mistake to first of all, lump all people together who are or were members of churches outside of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moreover, it's an even bigger mistake to infer or outright say that members of IFB churches are more prone to sexual abuse. The only reason you and I know about these accounts is because you and I are or were involved in this "circle". But I say, that everywhere there are penis' and vaginas (excuse my french), there is going to be this sort of thing. It's certainly all over the Catholic church and I guarantee you it's in every other church. Not only that, it's in schools all across this counrty NOT affiliated with Independent Baptist Churches. (Remember the coach in Pennsylvania?)
I'm not making light at all of one cheating on his wife or abusing an unwilling partner. Certainly not. However, I feel that that are more people in these churches that do not do this and there are many many churches (Independent) that do not cover up and are not subservient to their pastor - but to the Bible they revere. And much should be made of them.
There's bad among them for sure but,
It's a mistake to lump all of these churches together as a cult.
.
This is not directed at one person or one post.
I grew up in an IFB church (notice I did not say "movement"). While it's true that we had great respect for our pastor, our church was in no way a cult, with our attention directed on Jesus Christ and "the Word of God". And I'll prove that in a moment.
As a backdrop, our church was well known in the community as the main force fighting our city becoming "wet". We were the only church with a radio station, a christian school and a night bible school for area pastors and others interesting in learning. We had a large bus ministry (of which yours truly as a teenager, was involved). I'm just saying that we were an active church with a well known pastor of renown.
But like men everywhere, our pastor was encased in a body of flesh and eventually, he had an affair (with a wife of one of our deacons). There was no cover up. Upon realizing what was going on, our deacons with tears in their eyes, called him in and dismissed him. They then went before the church and told the church what had happened and the lady involved (came up front and apologized to the church - the pastor and his poor wife had already left the city).
That man committed adultry against his innocent wife because he was a weak man whose character was not strong enough to withstand that strong temptation. He did not do this because he was an Independent Baptist.
In my opinion, it's a mistake to first of all, lump all people together who are or were members of churches outside of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moreover, it's an even bigger mistake to infer or outright say that members of IFB churches are more prone to sexual abuse. The only reason you and I know about these accounts is because you and I are or were involved in this "circle". But I say, that everywhere there are penis' and vaginas (excuse my french), there is going to be this sort of thing. It's certainly all over the Catholic church and I guarantee you it's in every other church. Not only that, it's in schools all across this counrty NOT affiliated with Independent Baptist Churches. (Remember the coach in Pennsylvania?)
I'm not making light at all of one cheating on his wife or abusing an unwilling partner. Certainly not. However, I feel that that are more people in these churches that do not do this and there are many many churches (Independent) that do not cover up and are not subservient to their pastor - but to the Bible they revere. And much should be made of them.
There's bad among them for sure but,
It's a mistake to lump all of these churches together as a cult.
.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2012
- Messages
- 9,295
- Reaction score
- 2,944
- Points
- 113
Well said Gringo.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2012
- Messages
- 9,295
- Reaction score
- 2,944
- Points
- 113
OK, nobody here disagrees that these places were often abusive. I think you made that point sufficiently without opposition. What is your purpose for continuing to talk about it now?
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 2,519
- Reaction score
- 1,332
- Points
- 113
as someone who was saved through the bus ministry of an ifb church - all i can say is excellent post gringo... .. thank you for saying that.....
sorry, SherryH was asking a question to me..."Do you have any police reports to back this up? I don't question what you're saying its just so important for information. We have these reports from many sources saying the same things on this board." and so I was trying to answer her, but I'm not good with this kind of thing, when confronted.
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2013
- Messages
- 529
- Reaction score
- 302
- Points
- 63
"Well said Gringo."
"as someone who was saved through the bus ministry of an ifb church - all i can say is excellent post gringo... .. thank you for saying that....."
What great memories I had on the buses, Aleshanee.
We had a lady in our church that had been a missionary to Africa. Once she came back from the mission field, she became the church missionary, sort of. The church provided her with a car and she, over the years, became well known as she would go out into the city and visit and schedule little children to be picked up on our buses. I remember that as a child, I enjoyed going with her, not because I was a good kid but because she always had freshly baked doughnuts in her car! As a teenager, she got me involved in the buses and we'd go all over the city picking up the little kids. Besides AWANA, we also had what we called the "Joy Club" and every week on Thursday afternoons, we'd go out and pick the little children up and bring them to church for food, fun and flannelgraph (Bible study). Then, on Sundays, we'd pick them up again.
Just like you, some of our kids turned out to be gems. I remember one little kid who today, is the pastor of a church in my home area. One never knows who or what one is dealing with. Each child is special.
Even little boys like the one sitting next to me one Sunday on the way to church. He couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 and I guess he was terrified to say something but there he sat looking so angelic. He looked up at me, opened his mouth and vomited all over me. LOL.
Clarence Sexton, the pastor in Tennessee and founder of Crown College, is also a product of the bus ministry. Speaking of him, he headed up the bus ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church when he was a student at Tennessee Temple. I was also a student and I helped out too. That church had many red and white buses. Every Saturday, they would fix us lunch bags to take as we went out on bus visitation. Then on Sunday afternoons, after the regular service, we'd go all over the Chattanooga area picking up kids for what we called "Sunday School II". I mentioned memories . . . not every little kid was well behaved. I remember one time we were having a service in one of the theater style class rooms at the college and a water pipe burst in the ceiling and we lost total control of those kids. They went running all over the place . . . memories.
"as someone who was saved through the bus ministry of an ifb church - all i can say is excellent post gringo... .. thank you for saying that....."
What great memories I had on the buses, Aleshanee.
We had a lady in our church that had been a missionary to Africa. Once she came back from the mission field, she became the church missionary, sort of. The church provided her with a car and she, over the years, became well known as she would go out into the city and visit and schedule little children to be picked up on our buses. I remember that as a child, I enjoyed going with her, not because I was a good kid but because she always had freshly baked doughnuts in her car! As a teenager, she got me involved in the buses and we'd go all over the city picking up the little kids. Besides AWANA, we also had what we called the "Joy Club" and every week on Thursday afternoons, we'd go out and pick the little children up and bring them to church for food, fun and flannelgraph (Bible study). Then, on Sundays, we'd pick them up again.
Just like you, some of our kids turned out to be gems. I remember one little kid who today, is the pastor of a church in my home area. One never knows who or what one is dealing with. Each child is special.
Even little boys like the one sitting next to me one Sunday on the way to church. He couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 and I guess he was terrified to say something but there he sat looking so angelic. He looked up at me, opened his mouth and vomited all over me. LOL.
Clarence Sexton, the pastor in Tennessee and founder of Crown College, is also a product of the bus ministry. Speaking of him, he headed up the bus ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church when he was a student at Tennessee Temple. I was also a student and I helped out too. That church had many red and white buses. Every Saturday, they would fix us lunch bags to take as we went out on bus visitation. Then on Sunday afternoons, after the regular service, we'd go all over the Chattanooga area picking up kids for what we called "Sunday School II". I mentioned memories . . . not every little kid was well behaved. I remember one time we were having a service in one of the theater style class rooms at the college and a water pipe burst in the ceiling and we lost total control of those kids. They went running all over the place . . . memories.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2013
- Messages
- 2,519
- Reaction score
- 1,332
- Points
- 113
thanks for posting that gringo.... that is truly an awesome memory.... i only rode the church bus a few times... and had to walk to a friends house several blocks away since the bus would not come into my neighborhood.... but on one of those few times i was saved... and no matter how many negative things i hear about ifb and even though much of the criticism might be richly deserved... i cannot condemn it completely nor can i criticize those who took part in the various ministries of the ifb in good faith, and with good intentions..... they brought children into the presence of the gospel... in a way they brought them to Jesus....
and i see your part in that bus ministry years ago the same way... you helped take the word of God and the gospel to children who would not likely have heard it any other way..... and you brought them back to a place where they could see it working in a church and among christian people..... and like you say - one never knows who or what one is dealing with..... i was living a nightmare as a child... no father... and a mother who started selling me to her clients because she got so worn down and bedraggled she couldn;t sell herself anymore.... i was well behaved... but i was already sick from infections and the internal injuries the abuse caused... probably smelled like an animal.. ..and looking back i realize my time was short..it would only be a matter of weeks before i was in the hospital fighting for my life......
james 1-27 says... "pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this - to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction... and to keep himself unspotted from the world".... .you did that once.. and it brought you great joy.... i for one believe you could return to God and do that again - for other children like i was that are still out there.... ...i will continue to pray that it happens for you...
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2013
- Messages
- 4,323
- Reaction score
- 75
- Points
- 48
Good post!
Having cut my teeth in the PCC environment, I have a special affinity for the organization even though I am quite different in some of my convictions. I am what I am because of Mr. Varney, a Campus Church deacon and the director of the local Mission to Military center at the time. Mr. Varney is in Heaven now but I will be forever grateful to him. I also remember a student and A Beka warehouse worker, Chester Keith, who invested time in me. He too, is in Heaven now. I worked with Jim Schettler while he was the youth pastor. He also had an impact on me. Then, of course the sound and reasonable teaching of then Campus Church pastor, Bob Taylor. I was firmly established in the faith by these godly men.
I have always found PCC to be more reasonable than a lot of these loose cannons that seem to garner much of the well earned criticism leveled at the IFB movement.
I have always found PCC to be more reasonable than a lot of these loose cannons that seem to garner much of the well earned criticism leveled at the IFB movement.