Jack Hyles' daughter speaks out: "bizarre world" ... Dad a "cult leader" ... brother like Dad ... speaks about Jack's mistress

Link: http://www.noncomradio.net/fbch/lind-hyles-speech.pdf

PDF attached

I would have to say “whoa!” to Dan’s comments about Beverly Hyles. While I am not unmindful, nor unsympathetic to the anger generated by the cover up of the unseemly, especially of this length and scope—I would point out that it is just that kind of response that fortifies the tendency of victims to hide. However materially “well-kept” Mrs. Hyles may have been, that would have been no comfort or compensation for being unloved, tormented, humiliated, and threatened day in and day out for decade after miserable decade.

As you know, mind/spirit control begins subtly and grows gradually, By the time the vast wickedness of the controller becomes manifest, he has secured his borders so-to-speak—or at least, he makes his followers think so. It is my belief that Mrs. Hyles lived in a thick-walled prison, and was likely made to believe that there was much more than her livelihood at stake if she dared to speak up. She would have daily been confronted with the possibility that her accusations would be disbelieved, ridiculed out of all credibility, and spun by the media. Furthermore, she may well have been reminded that “vast numbers of souls would be lost” if the ministry shame were exposed. While I cannot deny or condone her enabling behavior, I am inclined to believe that fear of media savagery and spiritual conflicts, were her constant companions.

My siblings and I were saved as teenagers out of a mainline denomination. The man under whose ministry we sat in the years following was so absolutely orthodox in his preaching, and keen in his spiritual insights that he put MANY Christian fundamentalists to shame. He received his ministerial training at a Christian school that remains highly reputable to this day, and creed-wise he would have appeared to be without flaw. From his pulpit we learned about justification by faith, sanctification by grace, abundant Christian living and the errors of the apostasy—the whole package. But he also skillfully laid the ground work for a personality cult that ultimately climaxed in terrible abuse. He established himself on a pedestal in our young minds by testifying to a mysterious experience from the Lord in his call to the ministry. It was scant on detail, but we got the message intended—that he was unique. He distanced us from other credible sources of spiritual guidance by continually pointing out their flaws, while at the same time establishing himself as beyond questioning, If we ever appeared to exert any kind of independence, he was quick to put a question mark over our “salvation.” (He was too “orthodox” to suggest we could lose our salvation, but had no qualms about convincing us we may never have been “truly” saved in the first place.) He met any and all threats to his autonomy in our thinking by frequently invoking the phrase “Touch not the Lord’s anointed.” Yes—we were entrenched in a bona fide cult.

By the time I arrived as a freshman at the same school from which my minister had graduated, I had no understanding of a contented, peaceful, Christian life. The emotional see saw of being saved one day and declared unsaved the next had taken its toll. But it was my brother who fared the worst. Because my parents remained in the mainline church, it was not hard for our pastor to convince my brother that moving in with him would be a declaration of his separation from the apostasy. It was also better than attending the “flawed ”Christian college. Once he was under the same roof, the pastor took it upon himself to “teach” my “sheltered” brother what he declared he should know of the ways of the world. This instruction included beating my brother with a two-by-four, constant verbal abuse, bankrupting my brother’s bank account, throwing him down and kicking him, forcing sickening quantities of liquor down his throat, and numerous attempts at forced homosexual acts. I am sorry to say that our “pastor” was never prosecuted for any of this abuse, but has since gone to his reward. Like some in the Hyles household, my brother’s ability to come forward with all that happened came too late.

I and my siblings have been blessed to be brought under the ministry of healing mentors—I in college, and my brother under the ministry of a loving fundamental church.

Hindsight says—“How could we have been so blind, so weak, so stupid?” By grace it also says—“The Lord taught me much.” But, based on my own, and my siblings’ experiences, I will never say, that in any aspect—“It was enjoyable.”

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