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Pastor Jack Schaap's profile has been removed from the web site of the First Baptist Church.
CHICAGO - The former pastor of an Indiana Baptist megachurch is being investigated for sexual relations with a teenage girl, and the church is cooperating with authorities probing whether any of the behavior was criminal, a church official said Thursday.
Jack Schaap, 54, pastor for 11 years at the First Baptist Church of Hammond, confessed to having sex with a member of the church when she was 16, said Eddie Wilson, director of public relations for the church.
The church, located in the Chicago metropolitan area, has 40,000 members and typically has 15,000 people in church on any given Sunday, Wilson said.
Adultery is grounds for dismissal under the church's bylaws, and Schaap was fired on Monday following an internal investigation, Wilson said. Schaap and his wife are trying to reconcile their marriage, he said.
The age of consent in Indiana is 16. FBI became involved because Schaap is accused of taking girl across state lines to Illinois -- where the consent age is 17 -- when she was 16, NBCChicago.com reported.
"It was starting to be a difficult decision, but when we found out the facts, we had no choice. We had to do what was right," the NBC affiliate quoted Board of Deacons Chairman Jerry Duff as saying.
The deacon's board reported the information to Lake County Sheriff John Buncich first thing Tuesday morning, Wilson said. Buncich was not immediately available for comment.
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Schaap, who could not be reached for comment, had been employed by the church and associated Hyles-Anderson College for about 30 years, Wilson said. Wilson said the ex-pastor was "in seclusion" with his wife, Wilson told Reuters.
Schaap's wife is the daughter of Jack Hyles, the pastor who built the church, NBCChicago reported.
Trisha Kee, who said she is a victim advocate for people abused at Independent Fundamental Baptist churches and had attended Hyles-Anderson College, told Reuters that Schaap's behavior was discovered accidentally at a youth conference last week.
More on this story from NBC 5 Chicago
She said Schaap left his phone on the pulpit. A deacon found it, and a text came through from the girl that revealed the relationship, said Kee, who runs a Facebook group for ex-congregants.
One parishioner told NBCChicago that while he was heartbroken he would not hold a grudge against his leader.
"I know God put him in that position for a reason and what he did is a mistake, and God will forgive him," parishioner Jesus Perez said.
Reuters and NBC News staff contributed to this report.
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Gotta love these Talibangelicals.
This has been commonplace among preachers since the 1800's. Preachers are persuaders. They become powerful in their positions and this happens all too often. Check the records of the Southern Baptist Convention for the number of preachers who have had to leave their pulpits because of this exact thing. I personally know of at least six in the last 20 years. Most of them never get into the news unless they are 'megachurch preachers' like this guy.
Sadly just another example of two faced conservative religious or political leaders in a sex scandal.
DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO.
Same response to follow. Wife stand next to them and I have asked god for forgiveness and he has given it. Then let the money train continue.
If you're offering your view that what he did was wrong, then why don't you speak out against what he did? Is it only wrong for some people, just the religious ones perhaps, or is it wrong for everyone? If it is only wrong for religious folks to commit adultery, then morals are relative and there are no grounds to condemn this man. But, if morals are absolute then he did something wrong and so does everyone else who commits adultery. It's funny how this site works. They only make a big deal out of the "religious zealots" who are hypocritical, but never people who don't believe in absolute morals and commit the same act. Right is right and wrong is wrong, correct? Is that only applicable if you teach it? From your standpoint, there can be nothing said as the words that come from your mouth only have relative meaning to you. The only choice is to be silent.
It's ALWAYS the pastor, isn't it? These leaders of mega churches wearing their Bling, driving their Bentleys to their private jets, having sex with young girls (or boys), humiliating their "loyal" wives and all the while screaming for more money "for God". Yet, they are the first to denounce everyone else for their interpretations of Christianity. I'm so terribly weary of these 2-faced hyyporcrites and their ignorant followers.
The almighty penis. Way to go Preacher man
Wow, wonder what baby jesus and dad think of this? Oh wait its just myths.
i know all about the baptist, there are a few people with good intentions, but most are the most hypocritical people i ever met…..they are programmed to believe to accept jesus and your lord and saviour and you will go to heaven….thats a dangerous idealogy to live by….you have no fear of god to keep up your rightous responsibilities….i have seen many examples of this…as humans we are created to evolve in life, not revolve…..this is the end product of the baptists….this is why you have pastors and priests always breaking the rules….if the had a real fear of god in thier lives they would not be commiting these evil acts….
Please inculde the catholic molesters and woman haters
It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.
Or perhaps everyone breaks the rules, not just pastors and priests. They just get thrown into the exclusive news because it establishes the points that people want to hear. Everyone does bad things, including Christians. That's what Jesus taught.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
Transq
Shame on you for trying to make a joke about a 54yr old having sex with a minor.
Obviously you seem to get a kick out of the thought. Get HELP
Just quoting scripture, geque. "He that spareth the rod hateth the child". By the way, WTF kind of name is geque anyway.
We are all human. I make no excuses for his behavior. He is a leader of a church and should have known better.
Mega churches are tbe biggest scam in AMerica. When will people figure it out?
Never.
When we increase our education of sciences, and start to realize as a whole that religions are myths.
Tom, these Thieves like Olsteen, Creflo, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, etc should be ashamed of themselves but the miracle is that they get away with legally stealing peoples hard earned money out of their pockets saying that G*d is going to enrich their lives financially since you are enriching mine. The answer is NEVER, if anything they will grow larger and larger as long as someone see's the profits that are being made.
Even Corporate America has to be looking at the profits these bum's are making.
"god put him in this position"
uh-huh. god.
has ANYONE EVER seen a sign from a so-called 'god' in the HISTORY of the world? EVER?
didn't think so.....
at least catholic priests raping young boys is off the news for a bit - go catholics!!!
NEXT!
THANK YOU GREG, these are just the scum that have been caught so far. Some will never be caught or exposed by their congregation and handle it internally, when will people wake up and stop giving their hard earned money to these THIEVES? For this powerful man to take advantage of a 16 year old (it doesn't matter what she looked like) is just more of the same.
Money and power corrupts and these ministers convince you that they hold the keys to your salvation and that you must shower them with riches to be in favor with G*D, he won't do any prison time because of course he is suffering some type of made up mental condition all of a sudden.
Praise G*D but be careful who you praise him with.
Now that the Catholic Church is cleaning house the media has to focus on other sources to discredit Christianity.
The lion-feeders have always relied upon scandal, ignited by the weak few, through the ages to accomplish their mission.
Go lions!
You have to be kidding. The pope himself was active in covering up the molestation of children.
The Pope has probably molested a couple of kids himself, it's a badge of honor in the Catholic Church. It's 10:00am, do you know where your Choirboy or Alterboy is?
Now that the Catholic Church is cleaning house the media has to focus on other sources to discredit Christianit
First, Christians are doing a pretty good job of that themselves.
Second, I guess you would prefer the media to bury stories about Pastors who do this huh? Kind of like covering it up right?
Third. You do realize that the media, did not create this story, just reported it don't you?
he'll just say he gave in to temptation, ask for forgiveness, and start where he left off. Why is this news?
This is a good example of why we cannot trust the Bible interpretations of many of the leaders of churches: most of them have clay feet. I have heard many, many times of how what these leaders say is "directed by God" and therefore it is the word of God. These leaders/priests/whatevers are supposed to be the official word of God...or at least that is what the leaders say! Now isn't that self-serving?
I'm sure that most of his followers will rationalize his behavior away, just like that naive member did, since most people just can't stand it if their chosen leader they idolize and idealize turns out to have clay feet. While this pastor may now be "forgiven", let's think about what he was telling his flock while he was screwing around with the 16yr old. Do you think what he was saying was "the word of God" or perhaps it was being dirtied up by you know who? In other words, most people would say this man was led astray by the devil. If so, don't you think the devil may have influenced him in other ways? Well, I do, but I doubt if many of his followers do.
As far as mega-churches go, I see most of them of examples of how we like entertainment more than real spirituality. The messages of many of those churches are helpful for the most part, otherwise they would not stay in business. However, that is just what this is: business, mega-business. Talk about the rich man not being able to get into the gates of heaven, these people love money and often are just con men and woman with a smooth tongue and charisma who know what to say to part people from their money. And most people love to be parted from their money if good entertainment is in the offing. Look at our sports "mega-churches" (we call them "teams"). The new opiate for the masses.
As I've said before, this divisiveness created by the extreme right wing churches is bad for America and I would not be surprised to find that in someway China was encouraging it. If these are indeed the beginning of the End Days, I think Mega-churches and their mega-sins and divisiveness are part and parcel. I cannot watch hardly any of their "shows" (they are much like Las Vegas style tawdry shows for the most part) without feeling nauseated. I really don't feel much of God or Jesus in any of them, just a massive hand asking for money. From my own perspective, many of them are intrinsically sinful. Since I am a "white male priest", then what I say must be correct, right? ( I say "correct" instead of the "word of God", since I would not sully God's words with my own opinion, but I still think you get my gist. I think it the ultimate hubris of white male priests who say they "know" the word of God. I think most of these people are getting messages from "down under" and I don't mean Australia...)
The sad thing is that pastors having illegal relations with minors doesn't even surprise or faze me anymore.
One thing these holier-than-thou "good" Christians and pastors love is.. a good excuse! Every time.
Never fails. Same reasons. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Mega-church: A place to go and be seen!
Mega Church pastor has sex with a minor....NOT news. Haven't we grown to expect this as "normal" for these operations??? Come on, who could be surprised??
I'm sure there are more out there...they just haven't been caught yet...like the old saying...I think you protest to much...
it's a well known that Jesus was a loving caring person...that he didn't need a large building to to talk to the people...it seems today it's all about the money...Jesus didn't live in a 100 room mansion or get paid millions of dollars...when you tell people what they want to hear so easy to get money out of them...Look at the GOP...
you should know that you can talk to God on your own and not have to pay someone to do it for you...
So, there was a reason that God made him do this ... and he will be forgiven. How nice! ....... wait! Doesn't that give one the license to do whatever they want? Aren't there ethical and moral standards we should uphold no matter what our relationship is with God? Especially someone in a leadership role??? These stories are disgusting.
Why would God forgive him? For anyone who believes in a "just" God, it should go without saying that justice goes along with just. If the married pastor is guilty of sexually abusing a minor, he should not be forgiven. Quite the contrary. Given that he apparently hasn't been practicing what he preaches, he should be given a taxpayer-funded, long term lease on half of a prison cell, where his cellmate can practice on him.
{"I know God put him in that position for a reason and what he did is a mistake, and God will forgive him," parishioner Jesus Perez said. } A "mistake" .... a MISTAKE!!!! No. A mistake is when you program your DVR to record a show at 8PM, and the show is really at 7PM. This is not a MISTAKE. This is a CRIME and should be punished to the full extent of the law. Oh, and I hope his wife takes him to the cleaners in the divorce, too!
God bless him. Surely this was God's plan. And all that other happy horse sh*t.
Too bad God forgot to tell him not to cross state lines.
My skin just wants to crawl away in disgust every time I see one of these places. Around here we refer to them as "King of King's Island" or "Six Flags over Kingdom Come". If these people actually read and understood what they preach, these abominations wouldn't exist.
back in the bible times guys were bagging out 16 year-olds all the time, old enough to bleed old enough to breed was the motto.
LMAO, dinsmo. You get a beer and a cookie for the best comment!