The Five Most Revolting Details from the Evidence in the Jack Schaap Case
PHOTOGRAPH: KYLE TELECHAN/THE TIMES/AP
Jack Schaap preaching in 2010.
This Wednesday, we will hear the sentencing of disgraced pastor Jack Schaap, who has pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage girl who attended his church. This is the next chapter in the story of the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana, an organization Chicago magazine has been following since a feature in the January 2013 issue.
In this trial, Schaap began by claiming, in effect, that his prostate made him do it, as part of an attempt to lighten his 10-year minimum prison sentence. But his excuses riled federal prosecutors, who countered by filing a 23-page response that revealed previously withheld details of the disgraced 55-year-old pastor’s actions.
This memorandum will be instrumental in determining the pastor’s sentence. A look through its contents reveals plenty of cringe-inducing behaviors. Here are five of the most disgusting details:
1) Schaap kissing the victim during counseling. “When I asked you if it was wrong, you said, ‘No,’” the girl said in a statement. “You told me that I was sent to you from God; I was his gift to you.”
2) Schaap’s claim that Christ wanted the two to be together. The two spoke on the phone or texted each other more than 600 times, according to prosecutors. In one transcript, a text from Schaap reads: “Yesterday was ‘off-the-charts!’ :)))”. Another read, in part, “[this] is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants us to marry + become eternal lovers!”
3) Schaap’s cover stories for his numerous rendezvous with the teen. One, for his trips to an Illinois forest preserve, was that he needed to “spend time with God walking and praying.” To explain his taking the girl alone to his Michigan cabin, he told his assistant that he needed to spend extended periods of time alone with the girl to “save” her—both literally and spirtually. Investigators later recovered photos taken inside the cabin showing a grinning Schaap “on a couch in an intimate pose” with the girl and also “french-kissing [her] while touching her in a sexual manner.”
4) Schaap having sex with the teen in his office. During a church youth conference.
5) Schaap dishonoring the teen’s father and mother. “I will never forget how [he] looked me in the eyes...and told me how great my daughter was doing,” the father wrote in a victim’s impact statement. “It is sickening to me that a man who claims to be a messenger of God, with a daughter of his own, would take advantage of a young girl in such an evil and immoral manner.”
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This is a betrayal of trust on an unprecedented level. The actions of Jack Schaap have gone from inexpressibly vile to shockingly blasphemous: he has portrayed himself in the role of Christ at Gethsemane and made the unthinkable claim that God was a partner in his rape of a child. There is no sentence too long or dungeon too deep and dark for such a vile creature as Jack Schaap. Jerry Kaifetz, author of "Profaned Pulpit---The Jack Schaap Story."
Just letting everyone know that the Sentencing of JS will be on Wednesday March 20, 2013 at 10am. I just called the Federal Courthouse where JS is at and it has been verified. Doors will open at the Courthouse at 9am and they will be letting people in the courtroom around 9:30am on FIRST COME FIRST SERVE ONLY!!!
One is reminded of 1950's misogyny and Dr. Spock style family dynamics while sitting in most of these Fundamental Baptist churches. Another good reason to keep Christianity, as in the shape of the Good News Club, out of our public schools.
Considering the false sincerity of what Jack Schaap said here, we have to consider that every sincere sounding thing he said was also complete bull $h!t.
Not to excuse his conduct but the dude has one ugly wife. Perhaps he will reap some pleasure from the new friends he will undoubtedly make in the next few years.
His wife is sticking by his side. What does that say about her?
I attended HAC in the early 80's. I once tried to get some counseling from this guy (I was 18 and I am a guy), but was told ultimately (after re-scheduling many times) that he was too busy and too important to see a freshman. Jack was standing right in the doorway when she said it. He was the big man on campus as a young (25ish) teacher and married (or dating, dont rememeber) Jack Hyles' daughter.
I sincerely hope my God is 'too busy' to hear your cries in prison. I know that's wrong, and He is not 'too busy'... but that is the least you deserve.
Dave is Sick,
You are right about the misogyny within this type of fundamental Baptist Church. As for the good news club, Schaap's (anyone connected to First Baptist of Hammond and Hyles-Anderson) group of fundamentalist Christians will publicly and privately have nothing to do with CEF (good news clubs) because they aren't conservative enough!
It's about time his pompous a$$ got what he deserved. He has literally ruined the lives of young men who attended HAC and trusted his twisted guidance. He and his father-in-law are in the same category as murderers. One is a child rapist and the other was a womanizing home wrecker. These two dudes are just two in a long list of sexual predators/perverts in the fundamental/independent baptist churches. Is it any freakin' wonder why the movement has become a disgrace???
Just got back from the federal courthouse in Hammond, IN. Jack Schaap got 144 months (12 years), and 5 years probation after he is release from prison. He will also be teaching and preacher in prison.
What a joke. Teaching and preaching in prison? Teaching what? How to be a child predator and not get caught? Preaching about??? God's grace and how he's thankful he didn't get what he deserved. Who would even listen to him now? Disgusting. Everything about this is disgusting. He gets a 12 year sentence, the child got a life time sentence. Her life will no longer be the same, and now we make a mockery out of God by allowing him to continue his "ministry" in prison?
The elephant in the room: Why didn't God step in and protect this young girl from being raped by her pastor?
I have grown up an Independent/Fundamentalist. I attended a Independent/Fundamental College. This really makes me sick! I see it over and over again that men of "God" hiding behind the pulpit. I have known several personally that have sexually molested girls/women under "God". I will NEVER again trust a pastor of any faith. They are men just like anyone else and should not try and make themselves any better than the man that sits in the pew...I am glad that Schaap got prison time, but also sad that he didn't get the full term of 25 years and 5 years probation is certainly not enough for this man....
@austinfilm: God is not presently running this world; we are. There will be a time when God will intervene and put an end to sin and give judgement. But this is not that time - yet. For now, God is giving us time for some to repent of their sin and accept his salvation. When He steps in, it will be to end ALL sin and banish ALL unforgiven sinners to a lost eternity.
Dave, this isn't Christianity, this is a departure from it. If anything, this is a reason Good News clubs should stay. Good News clubs teach kids to read the Bible. Had this girl been taught to search Scriptures for herself, she never would have fallen for his lies. Scripture prohibits everything he did, so why would taking Scripture (which when actually readacts as a safeguard against this kind of behavior) put of the schools*possibly be a good thing? Your logic is not good.