Love Letters from Schaap: "That is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-prosecutors-indian...

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/feds-ex-pastor-jack-schaap...

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local/indiana&id=9027102

Is it really true that the church would respond to the girl in such a way that she would be afraid of continuing in the church and school?  This is one of the more troubling aspects of all of these abuse cases - congregations seem to have little tolerance for victims of sexual abuse.  Please correct me if I am wrong.

What the state requests: (p 20)

The government also feels that a ten year sentence, followed by a term of ten years of supervised release, in conjunction with the requirement that Defendant register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, will adequately protect the public from further crimes of Defendant

Page 4 in footnote (note ...an earlier Schaap thread had discussion about the staff member who transported the victim to Michigan)

This individual is a 63 year-old married woman who had attended First Baptist Church for over 40 years. Prior to asking her to transport the victim, Defendant confided in this staff member that the victim was in an extremely vulnerable state, had been engaging in self destructive behaviors, and that Defendant needed to spend extended periods of time alone with the victim in order to “save” her – literally and spiritually. PSR, para. 29. Defendant acknowledged to the staff member that if he spent too much time alone with the victim at the church, questions would be raised. Id. So instead he asked the staff member to transport the victim to Illinois for what he called “counseling” sessions. Id. Regarding the trip to Michigan, Defendant invited the staff member to bring her own daughter along with the victim at his expense and claimed that his intention was merely to “touch base” with the victim while they were all in Michigan.

If that church is built on the 'man of god' instead of Jesus...yes, it is, because she brought the 'man of god' (Scripture: idol) down.  Which is exactly what happened.

Ten years...Schaap is very, very, very lucky or has some excellent attorneys.  He could have gotten life for this.

The man is a disgrace. His excuses were pathetic and self-serving. I hope he enjoys his time in prison. I wonder if he will attempt to go back into ministry once he is released?!

Pray for Cindy Schaap too - she's another victim. Also their children.

Maybe, but I don't think so.  This sounds to me like a classic sexual predator who was given a church pulpit because he had the right connections to an already corrupt church leadership.  That's why I've been so hard on Schaap in particular and Hammond in general.

Schaap sounds to me (especially in light of some of the other stuff that has been noted, like his sexualized book on Communion from 2005 - some seven years before this story broke) like a pervert that was actively waiting and looking for opportunities; his life is probably dominated by lust for women, and it wouldn't shock me in the least to find out that he was into pornography.  The original reports did say that the cops confiscated an iPhone, computer, and other stuff, which gives some support to my theory.

This specific case is almost textbook behavior for sexual predators.  If Schaap intentionally lied to others about the purpose for his visits to Michigan to counsel the girl and was telling the staff at the Church that there was nothing going on, I doubt very much that this was an struggle - except maybe a struggle not to take advantage of her.  I'm betting that he met with the parents and explained that she needed his special attention (probably under the guise of 'teaching' or 'counseling') and that they believed the 'man of god'.  It sounds to me like he deliberately structured the affair this way because he wanted to sleep with her (and I doubt that she knew that he was going to try and have sex with her, which is so unbelievably common with sex crime victims).That is why I'm so surprised that we haven't heard about other women that he slept with - this is textbook behavior for sexual predators.  

This is ultimately a story about a church that was beaten into submission that the 'man of god' could do no wrong, and then the 'men of god' used 'god' as an excuse to fulfill their lusts on unaware or undiscerning sheep.  We need to pray for the young lady that Schaap seduced too, along with Cindy Schaap, and we need to pray that the new pastor will build that church on sound Biblical teaching.  Grief that it happened will only take them so far unless discernment is developed.

The "grooming" for this kind of behavior and other kinds of wicked and unbiblical behavior began at the pulpit of that church and spread vertically and horizontally resulting in an institutional culture wherein all manner of malfeasance, abuse, manipulation and intimidation flourished.  Jack Schaap learned from a master and those who knew him and the culture there have reason to know that even the techniques for wielding cultic control over the masses were taught specifically and thoughtfully to him and not just by example, but by training and mentoring.

As an aside, I'm not convinced that the immediate families of either Jack are true "victims".  They knew the "real him", they tolerated their private conduct, they are not stupid people and they were rewarded with material comforts and nepotic positions of prestige for their silence and loyalty and public support.  I cannot begin to imagine my wife (or my children) putting up the kind of behavior that led to this level of corruption and conduct.

Jack Schaap is a product of Jack Hyles and Aberrant Christianity along with Schaap's fostered ego of megalomania. The end result of this combination is something along these lines.

He is not, btw, a classic sexual predator. They have a history, a lifetime history, of victims.

This appears to be a case of someone who lost perspective of boundaries due to the described conditions above which were exacerbated when he was given the leadership role. Predators, on the other hand, have a discoverable history of victims over the years, especially at Schaap's age. The absence of multiple victims over the years speaks not of predation but of excceptional opportunity and the right conditions for extreme weakness to exercise itself.

Schaap's writings are more that of classic megalomania when it encounters theology. Christians are not immune to this. I am reminded of John Knox, who in his 50's married a 17 year old which was quite scandalous (and no, that age difference was not "the norm" of the day, that is a myth). Now granted, he did not have to hurdled over a wife and commit adultery but it illustrates the kind of license one might believe they are granted as allegedly emissaries of God (I say alleged in that God will make that judgment).

But of course I am not comparing Knox to Schaap or Schaap to Knox in any respect but this context (lest someone not have sense enough to understand the immediate and exclusive context to which I make the comparison).

Schaap needs a great deal of therapy, but not the kind some people might think. His problem is not sexual, that is simply a manifestation of a far greater problem. It simply manifested itself in a way which is sexual but is often manifested in other kinds of boundary violation manners by others which is not so scandalous or appealing to the self-righteous and morally superior crowd who take this opportunity to exaggerate their sense of outrage.

Kindle edition is $9.99. 

I would like to read the book but not willing to pay that much for it. Less then $5, maybe!

Just curious, Easton - where did you get those rules from?  I've never seen them.

I was curious as well .. those specific "rules" are ones I can agree with for the most part - but upon googlin' found rules 2 - 9 here:

http://thehidalgograincompany.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/10-religious-rule...

Have a problem with a number of those...

My 2 cents:

http://dorightchristians.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/jack-schaap-sentencing...

sound a lot like Gibbs' Rules on NCIS.

THWAP ... <across the backa the head>    ;-)

Club Fed is generally a myth with respect to federal prisons. The lightest restrictions are at what are called camps. There are several in Florida which gained notoriety for lack restrictions, one at a military base where offenders had jobs on the base but could go to the movies or rendezvous with friends etc. without detection.

Schaap will not be permitted sentencing to a camp due to the category of his offense. He will likely go to what is called a medium or low max which is standard and somewhere in his federal district if possible or to a facility which specializes in treating offenders with sex related convictions.

Mod action: if you wish to discuss this please begin a new thread. 

Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1gixaVYwMs&feature=player_embedded

HT: Stuff Fundys Like http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2013/03/being-a-laughingstock

The real news would be Jay Leno actually being funny.

Of course Jack Schaap is an embarrassment - and, I'm sorry, but the prospect of Schaap being asked to "dance" while in prison does evoke a wry smile.

(Look at me right now - I'm smiling wryly...)

But, I quickly become uncomfortable with Christians reveling in Schaap's scandalous down-fall.  The piling-on soon becomes something very similar to Leno --

Un-funny.

...and I stand by my earlier assertion of Schaap as a sexual predator.

Records from federal attorneys show that Schaap started counseling the girl last spring after she was expelled from First Baptist’s high school because of a sexual relationship she had with someone else. A school administrator wrote to Schaap that the girl was hurt and confused at the time and that the administrator had convinced her to trust her church leaders and let them make decisions for her.

“The administrator further writes that the victim is willing to trust her leaders but is very scared,” Lozano said.

The administrator then asked Schaap to counsel her.

Schaap did so, and from the beginning took improper steps toward the girl, Lozano said. Church rules state that someone counseling a person of the opposite sex should not have closed-door sessions for more than 20 minutes. Schaap’s first session with the girl, who had attended the church for most of her life, lasted two hours behind a closed door. One session lasted six hours.

When staff questioned him on it, Lozano said, he responded by saying, “I made the rule, and I can break it."

This certainly isn't either:

He also wrote that God wanted them to be husband and wife and that he was leading her to a “better path of living — that’s what we call Righteousness.”

Lozano said he was concerned how Schaap used his power as a pastor and the fact that the girl had been taught her whole life to obey church leaders to “mold her into what you wanted.”

When a church technology employee finally found photos of Schaap with the victim, he told another church employee, who then approached Schaap’s wife. That’s when Schaap held a six-hour meeting with church employees, railing at them for their lack of loyalty and for questioning his actions. He then fired the one employee and later asked the technology employee if he could delete the photos and the more than 600 texts between Schaap and the victim.

The employee instead downloaded the photos and took them to other church officials, who went to the local law enforcement around the end of July.

So the solution to a woman who had an immoral sexual relationship was to expel her from school, then mandate that that she have counseling with the pastor (not a principal or teacher or counselor).  Then when the Pastor starts putting himself in a compromising situation, he blatantly defies his own rule, fires an employee that questions him, and continues the relationship anyway.

No, that's not intentional and predatory behavior.  Not. At. All.

to me is the difference between a serial killer and a killer.  Both have committed first degree murder.  One has murdered more than one person in a pattern of homicide.  The other's victim, though murdered in the first degree, fits a certain set of circumstances and qualifications (e.g. the abusing party in a domestic violence situation) which no one else would fit.

The distinction you seem to ignore is the single event verses a documented pattern. A sexual predator has most commonly in view just what has been pointed about regarding serial murders and a single event murders which, themselves, can have elements of predation but such a person, though acting with forethought, malice and predation is not classified as a serial murderer.  It is still a single or unique event, though possessing elements similar to a serial or predatory murderer. If having any elements of predation for sexual and relational development forces us to label Schaap a predator, it makes everyone a predator seeing every human involves themselves in some form of predation and many in sexual predation, though magically they don't get called predators. A man who sends notes to a woman or flowers or a woman who flirts, she is grooming, hence it is predation and now we must call her a predator? Ridiculous of course but that is what happens when critical distinctions are ignored.

One of the differences between a sex offender/predator and a murderer is that you can only kill a person one time. With sex crimes, the same victim can be attacked again and again. 

I don't care if a lion eats one antelope or five, it's a predator. With Schaap, there are aspects of predatory behavior and a documented pattern of sexual abuse, even though at this point there is 'only' one victim. 

There is also a difference between pursuing a relationship and grooming a victim, especially since we are talking about a minor child here, not an adult woman. And while phone calls can be made, and cards and flowers can be sent by both a gentleman and a Jack the Ripper, obviously their motives are different, and will be reflected in the ongoing nature of the relationship and the eventual outcome. 

We have the outcome of the Schaap case, and I think it is reasonable to assume that if this girl had been removed from his grasp, he would have found another victim. 

I've wondered about that too.  One of the initial news reports mentioned "another young woman coming forward" in addition to the first victim.  Predators like Schaap usually have multiple victims before they are caught.

Jack the Ripper? Again, save me the melodrama.

Schaap has no history of paramours or even teenaged paramours. The reasonable and rational response isn't invoking Jack the Ripper but noticing this as an anomaly. Why and how did this happen. Schaap was arrogant and narcissistic to say the least but many arrogant and narcissistic are quite bounded and so was Jack Schaap.

So to assume he would have moved on to someone else actually speaks against his history. But let's not that get in the way of things, eh? The assumption isn't that he would have found someone else, rather the facts of the case speak to a unique event where the combination of his immaturity, arrogance and narcissism met with a teenager who was willing to form an immoral relationship with him. Did he exacerbate his failure with other activities? Yes but that should not be surprising, most people who believe they are to be discovered for a significant or lesser indiscretion reasonably seek to avoid that. Sure, they might distastefully and unethically use certain means to cover it up but simply doing that does not somehow make them a predator, it makes them desperate to not be discovered whether it be having broken mom's vase or doing something immoral and/or illegal.

Finally, as to trying treat their repeated dalliances as predatory is certainly an argument that a prosecutor might make and understandably so, they wish for the worst descriptions of every law-offender whether they are true or not. It is a prejudicial use of the context of both the relationship, immoral as it was.

To believe I am defending Schaap's character is to demonstrate you have not grasped the essence of my assertions which is a defense of the context and narrative of the event and not of any person.