During the 1970s and 1980s, Falwell seemed to operate in a space somewhere between the independent Baptist world of his upbringing and the neo-evangelicalism of Billy Graham andChristianity Today. Thou shalt not have more than one hole in each ear shall be amended as follows: WOMEN ONLY shall be permitted no more than one piercing in the earlobe of each ear. His manner of teaching is rough and salted with racist comments about Black folks. BITE Model. If you have to sit on him to spank him then do not hesitate. And because of your trusting love for them, you let them. Independent. Why does Jesus need you to speak for him, Cathy? If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The philosophy is you dont air your dirty laundry in front of everyone. The Star-Telegram series is long, but I encourage you to read the whole thing. They sent their kids to Bob Jones and Pensacola the only choices permitted to them. sigh Do you realize how offensive your words are to unbelievers; people who struggled and agonized over leaving Christianity? Their page says "Our church is a friendly fundamental Bible-believing Independent Baptist . That will needs to be eliminated, since wherever human will is God's will cannot be. Her community turned on her, even though she was defending their health; most of the people in the community worked at local chemical plants, and they feared that the pharmacists allegations would cost them their jobs. A veteran of three decades of magazine and newspaper journalism, hehas also written three New York Times bestsellersLive Not By Lies, The Benedict Option, andThe Little Way of Ruthie Lemingas well asCrunchy ConsandHow Dante Can Save Your Life. I preached over 4,000 sermons. Ben Bogard (1868-1951) was its chief defender during his lifetime. But, I have a few, from the legendary Dr Bob of Longview: Thou shalt watch football on Monday night. I hope you have figured out by now that you have really stepped in the proverbial shit pile. The King James Version is the only true Word of God; all other translations of the Bible are the work of the devil. For their own dark reasons they kept that wicked dance going. Please reconsider Jesus and the Gospel. I didnt understand the extremes of it and was so glad for makeup, but why yell about it from the pulpit?! It is sinful for a woman to dress in any way that might cause a man to spiritually stumble by having even the slightest lustful thought. For decades, women and children have faced rampant sexual abuse while worshiping at independent fundamental Baptist churches around the country. If you're unfamiliar with the beliefs and practices of the Independent Fundamental Baptists, some of them are: The King James Version is the only true Word of God; all other translations of the Bible are the work of the devil. If your reliably unreliable Comcast wifi cuts out, or if your screen-saver kicks in, the paywall will prevent you from finishing the article. The basic beliefs of this group is Anti-LGBT, Misogyny, Anti-Worldliness, KJV Bible only, anti-semitism, and more. Especially about another member of the church, said Josh Elliott, a former member of Vineyards Oklahoma City church. In America, a former member of the Church of England, Roger Williams, separated from officials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony over his belief about church functions. The co-founder, Paul Kingsbury, recently was forced to leave his position at North Love Baptist Church in Rockford, Ill., for his role in helping a sex . I may yet end up in Hell myself, but I wont see you there, nor will you see me. The name Independent Fundamental Baptist Church is used traditionally by churches which pattern themselves strictly after the example of the early church, as found in the New Testament. Oh my. Later that afternoon, thou shalt go to work. Why? I sometimes post on another board and (hopefully its ok) I would like to link a thread that is going on over there. More: Members instinctively go to the pastor first with problems, including those of a criminal nature. It wasnt long before I traveled the road to liberal Christian to agnostic atheist. You know that I am Independent. It was they who didn't truly commit to the truths upon which they claimed to be basing their lives. Golden State Baptist College - Is a ministry of North Valley Baptist Church of Santa Clara, California. Independent Fundamental Baptist churches believe that the authority to baptize was given to the first church, organized by our Savior. #1. It's chief spokesman was J.R. Graves (1820-1893) and other key early figures include A.C. Dayton (1813-1865) and J.M. They attended Bill Gothard seminars and proudly embraced that whole creepy business. Exempt this special report from your paywall. eyebrow, belly button, tongue) shall be permitted to be pierced. But evangelicals should recognize that clerical sex abuse is widespread, and some evangelical and fundamentalist churches do cover up problems and pass them on to others. Dented, maybe, a little -- but definitely not broken. Another rule our Church had not on your list; women shall not cut their hair. Im not. For the sake of consistency in training, you must follow through. After I graduated from that school I didnt wear a skirt for 2 years at my secular university! Brightseat Rd + Third St. $43,000 - $55,000 a year. If I do Ill comment on this comment with details. Movement. Think, learn, and dont be a judgmental asshole. Here are some quotes from the book: Wake up to the day's most important news. However, many of these churches have affiliations through theological colleges or pastoral friendships. What does the description of an "Independent Fundamental Baptist" Church mean? Your reporters deserve better management than this. There are a lot more where these came from, lmao . Memo to Kathy: fuck off. Jessop is a former member of the FLDS (fundamentalist, polygamist Mormons) and her story has a lot of parallels with Zichterman's. I haven't read this particular FLDS memoir . They might as well be Mormons.Sense they add their own rules and Bible.They are acting as a cult its not biblical.Gal1:8 They are teaching false teachings,And not the doctrines of the Bible.They are Just adding their own rules. Thanks! Be firm with him. Baptism: While some Christian faiths perform Baptism on infants, for Baptists this ritual is only performed after a person professes Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Here has been a few problems that caused divisions in the body of Christ thanks to some Independent Fundamental Baptists: 1.) Jesus gives his own list in the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 24/25. - Forums For Independent Baptists - Online Baptist Community I ask this for your opinions, thoughts, and insights. Landmarkism began as a movement in the mid-1800's mainly in the Southern Baptist Convention. Enforcing King James only-ism down the throats in some of their groups. For decades, women and children have faced rampant sexual abuse while worshiping at independent fundamental Baptist churches around the country. BTW, I went to Carolina Baptist College, Reidsville, NC, (Reidsville Baptist Church, Pastor Jerry Carter,) 1998-2002. True Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches uphold the purest teachings of the early church as revealed in the New Testament." . Thou shalt be baptized by full immersion in this particular denomination of church, preferably this specific church, otherwise it might have been a false baptism that didnt take. He alone is allowed to change his mind. Pray tell, Kathy, what are you going to tell me about the Bible that I dont already know? He speaks for God, and God alone may judge him. I grew up with kids who were in churches like that one. Its been the M.O. As I once told a liberal congregation, the IFB church I grew up in had an eleventh commandment in their Bibles, Thou shalt not [fill in the blank]. Sarcasm, yes, however, I swear they half the time they invented it as they went along. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. They didn't sacrifice who they were. Questions About Independent Fundamental Baptists, Leighton Flowers, & Justin Peters Right Response Ministries 36K subscribers Subscribe 10K views 1 month ago GEORGETOWN Can you name one thing. Truly horrifying. Jesus gave us the command to preach the Gospel and also to baptize those who have believed on Jesus. According to the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life, there are. Generally speaking howe. Scripture alone. Mullins knew that he had faculty problems, Sampey did, Fuller did, McCall did . The one thing I do want to say for anyone just making their way out of the darkness of IFB is this: that you once so thoroughly bought into IFB is a sign of your strength, not your weakness. I am far from perfect. A world where you say what is and isn't good. This means that there are approximately 7.85 million IFBs in America today. And while we only memorized verses in the King James Version and lots of them and used the KJV in Sunday services, we were also allowed and even encouraged to read the NIV and other more accessible translations. Part 3: All . They would rather believe a lie that upholds their comfortable lives than face a truth that challenges it. It's you who are singing the songs that need to be heard. The network of churches and schools has often covered up the crimes and helped relocate the offenders, an eight-month Star-Telegram investigation has found. are now routinely included as simply evangelicals. Im not sure what this means, exactly, but I think it means something. He might not be guilty of the allegation, but notice how the church network is still allowing a man publicly accused of sexual abuse to minister. And like everyone else in the world you want that love to mean something, to be incorporated into and desired by something worthy of it. Bruce Gerencser, 65, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 44 years. Say the name of that group several times, slowly, and let it all sink in New. (And yes, martial arts are ok, even though they originated from Asian sources; well win those yellow devils to Jesus, eventually). And what can possibly be more worthy of a person's love than God and family? Prove that you are bigger, tougher, more patiently enduring and are unmoved by his wailing. I wondered how in the world that man could look at his wife much less have sex with her because why would you defile such a woman who looked so sheepish and innocent!! Thou shalt leave tracts in various and sundry places: the aisles of Walmart, in library books, at the doctors office, so that all may know the Good News of the Gospel. I have no research or data to support this, but my sense is that this space between is growing and becoming ever more the center of gravity for white evangelicalism as a whole. Trieber took his glasses off. Preacherboys should watch it in the college gym; anywhere else is worldly. Although I did finally deconvert I resent the years I lost trying to live under these ridiculous guidelines. Most of those victims dont live in Fort Worth. Thou wilt pledge money on the last Sunday evening of every month to the building fund even if you cant pay your rent or mortgage on the first. It really is that simple. They didn't give over their will over to God. Maybe so. They usually have a loose association with other Baptist churches, but they are self-governed, not governed by the association. If your neighbor saw you leaving the Cinemaplex, he wouldnt know what movie you had watched, leading him to have questions about your faith. Black people bear the indelible and wretched curse of the "mark of Cain.". We took sweet fellowship together. Your comments are welcome and appreciated. While practices can vary from church to church, independent fundamental Baptists do share some core beliefs, according to Christianity Today: that the Bible is the divinely inspired and inerrant word of God, for example, and that people should use only the King James Version of the text.Independent fundamental Baptists refrain from engaging in pop culture and many also home-school their kids. Escape by Carolyn Jessop. They believed that the neo-evangelical emphasis on cultural engagement with the world, and especially liberal or mainline Protestants, was a mark of unhealthy compromise that would eventually undermine true biblical faith in America. Yelling, storytelling, and moralism replaced proclaiming simply what God has said. And there are Baptist ch. And hold him there until he is surrendered. For a woman to be pleasing to God she must always and in all things remain perfectly submissive, first to her father and then to her husband. I am curious why the Ifb doesnt want Christians to go to the movie theatre? They also typically teach that the translators of the . Meant to be taken literally, the KJV is inspired, inerrant, infallible, and the supreme and final authority in all things. It surrenders far too much to allow that fundamental refers to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. The fundamentals of fundamentalists are mainly not that at all, but rather a host of relatively recent doctrinal innovations, such as inerrancy. Those independent Baptist churches which teach, as very many of them do, that the God-given inspired word of God is the King James Version typically teach that every other translation of the Bible is part of a conspiracy to remove the King James Bible, the ONLY real Bible, from our churches. Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world. I appreciate being asked to offer you guys a word of support, but you should be offering support to me and anyone else lucky enough to hear what you have to say. He is his own man and refuses to be tied down or corralled by anything. You arent any different than those of us who have been where you are Cathy. We may read these stories of sexual abuse in churches, and tell ourselves that if something like that happened in our church, we would stand up for what is right. Refusing to cooperate with other members in the Church. , I was brought up in evangelical churches which clung to much of this dogma. . We were, I suppose, fundamentalist with evangelical highlights. The items you are questioning are not the "doctrine" of independent fundamental Baptists. You're the power. And it was, of course, wholly absent among Christians before 1611. Cat got his tongue? Im saved now, right? All first-time comments are moderated. #1. So hard to tell if it is a cult. I grew up in the IFB circles in the PNW. Ug, stupid auto correct. READ THE REST OF THE SERIES: Part 1: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders reject reforms. Thou shalt not ever drink alcohol, unless its done in secret and confessed as sin on Sunday. Thou shalt wear the sweatshirts & caps of your favorite basketball team; they are only evil & worldly if you choose to go to college there. This guide to "consistently rewarding every transgression with a switching" (from the book's introduction) has sold more than 670,000 copies. He was a great man! We were you at one time. From the time I can remember (3-4 years old) I knew in the back of my mind it was all bullshit filled with lies and hypocrisy. Baptist. See where Im going with this? In any case, we are definitely living in the end times before the 2nd coming of Christ. The label can be used by a range of autonomous, Bible-believing Baptists (fundamentalbeing a reference to the core doctrines of the Christian faith). This list sounds alot like the Mennonite Church rule book. The pharmacists priest even told her and her husband to leave the parish, because their presence was causing too much discomfort there. This is why I love Jesus. And lets not forget the old For him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin catch-all At my IFB church that I grew up in I loved how they used to use that one to justify saying anything they didnt agree with or like was a SIN . But I find it believable (which is not to say that I believe it, if you appreciate the distinction). They used you as fodder in the war between themselves and everything they fear. Much of this movement was a response to the so-called neo-evangelical movement. Sarah Smith and the other reporters and editors who worked on this deserve great credit and gratitude. People who think that sexual abuse and its systematic cover-up is something that happens only in Roman Catholic Churches ought to read this devastating series in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about how the same thing has been happening in a national network of independent fundamental Baptist churches. Today, the independents are separating, even among themselves, over issues such as Bible translations, music style, and dress. This teaching about the modern day Pastor as it is today is unscriptural, and that's how this legalism got started in the Independent Baptist movement ( HEAR ME OUT). Part 2: Southern Baptist churches hired ministers accused of past sex offenses. It was beyond comprehension in my little brain back then. Jack Hyles preached at our Christian school (1978) and Proclaimed that it was a sin for a boy to wear anything but white underwear, and also a sin if a boy didnt have his hair buzz cut on the back ! You can email Bruce via the Contact Form. You brought the best of yourself. I remember thinking what an idiot he was. Its not a good thing.. The number of articles in the multi-part series exceeds the number of free articles non-subscribers are permitted to read each month. Still, Giovanelli found a soft landing at Immanuel Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, where he is an associate pastor and head of the churchs book publication arm. Never put him down and then allow him to get up. People do not like to be made to confront ugly things. Meant to be taken literally, the KJV is inspired, inerrant, infallible, and the supreme and final authority in all things. I have tried to overlook them, but they won't go away. I was never attacked by them, and to the best of my knowledge neither were my siblings. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. You're the strength. When he got in trouble, Hyles was able to simply move on, from one church assignment to the next. The Independent Baptist Fellowship is the end-product of the legacy journey that started some 60 years ago. He cries in pain. And they used the best of who you are, and the best of what you have to give, to feed those lies. The investigation is ongoing. Jackson filed a police report. Much of what we think of as the religious right would fall into that murky space in between old-school fundamentalism and the mainstream evangelicalism of Billy Graham et. In New York, a couple of Greek Orthodox nuns are protesting the reinstatement of a priest to a parish there after he admitted to unspecified inappropriate conduct with women, and a diocesan spiritual court recommended that he not be returned to that parish. Can same-sex couples be married in your church? This group is for fellowship, sharing of resources, devotional thoughts, posting of sermons, news of interest, ministry ideas, missionary/church links, KJV verse photos, and general edification. This series needs to be widely read but, unfortunately, the Star-Telegramsshort-sighted, inflexible paywall will prevent that from happening. And the all important, Thou shalt not, never, under no circumstances, not even in thought, criticize the pastor. Gods anointed, remember! The biggest difference would be in the way they practice separation. That hide it under terms like order and discipline in order to enforce it. All of it so true and I laughed out loud at some of them!!!