Hammond Megachurch Leader Removed From Pulpit As Authorities Investigate His Relationship With Teenage Girl

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 1, 2012 2:20PM

The First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind. fired its pastor, Jack Schaap, Tuesday for committing “a sin that has caused him to forfeit his right to be our pastor.” In a press release, First Baptist said they’re in “full cooperation with local authorities in their investigation of this matter.” It doesn’t take a mind-reader to figure out exactly what was the nature of the sin.

According to the Times of Northwest Indiana, Schaap admitted to having an extramarital affair with a member of his 15,000-strong congregation. Lake County (Ind.) Sheriff’s authorities and the FBI are trying to determine if the female in question was 16 at the time Schaap initiated the relationship. Times of Northwest Indiana columnist Mark Kiesling reports that the girl was transported to a Cook County Forest Preserve and Michigan for interludes with Schaap, which would explain the FBI's involvement. Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said the investigation involves the church and Hyles-Anderson College, which it operates.

Church spokesman Eddie Wilson told the Times its deacon board made the decision to remove Schaap and that the relationship was a dismissible offense under the church’s bylaws.

Schaap is the son-in-law of First Baptist’s founder, Jack Hyles, who built the church into one of the largest in the country using a massive bus ministry that incorporated carnival antics with testimonials, targeting Chicago’s South and West sides: a program that exists to this day. In the mid-1970s Time magazine quoted First Baptist as having the “world’s largest Sunday school” and up to 14,000 people attended services weekly.

This is not the first time First Baptist has been involved in a sexual scandal. A 1997 lawsuit claimed that a 42-year-old woman who attended the church was raped and beaten multiple times between 1991 and 1996; Jack Hyles was named as a defendant because he failed to protect the woman.

Schaap has often been criticized for his misogynistic and sexist approach to Christianity. His teachings and writings have consistently referred to a relationship with God in a sexual context, with God being the male in the relationship and man the female in a “spiritual intercourse.” He’s also preached that God said that men must be the dominant partner in a marriage.