Menu Close

The Mesmerizing Appeal of Jack Hyles

jack hyles 1973
Jack Hyles, 1973

Jack Hyles was pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana from 1959-2001. For many years, the church was the largest congregation in America. The church held a Pastor’s School and Youth Conference each year that brought thousands of people to Hammond to see first hand what God was doing through Dr. Jack Hyles. (See post The Legacy of Jack Hyles.)

In the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement, no one was bigger than Jack Hyles. IFB churches and pastors measured success by:

  • Church attendance
  • Offerings
  • Souls saved

In these three areas Jack Hyles and First Baptist Church were the king of the hill.

jack and beverly hyles statute
Jack and Beverly Hyles statue

Like most IFB churches, First Baptist Church was owned and operated by Jack Hyles. No, Hyles didn’t literally own the church, but there was no doubt about one thing, this was the house Jack built. Hyles had unlimited power to rule the church as he saw fit, and even when caught in an inappropriate sexual relationship with his secretary, he was able to wiggle free, and remained pastor of First Baptist Church until he died on February 6, 2001.  A statute of Jack and Beverly Hyles can be found in the church courtyard, an ever-present reminder that First Baptist Church owes its existence to Jack Hyles.

People not raised, schooled, and indoctrinated in the IFB church movement often have a hard time understanding how Jack Hyles could wield such power over people.  It seems so “cultic” to them, and truth be told, there are elements of IFB belief and practice that are “cultic.” While the IFB church movement is not a cult in the classic sense, it does have beliefs and practices that are harmful to people emotionally and mentally. Because it is a movement built on a foundation of anti-intellectualism, pastors are given an inordinate amount of power over people. The pastor becomes the resident intellectual, even though he is likely no more educated than the people in the pew. The pastor is considered God’s chosen man, the man of God who speaks on God’s behalf. He is uniquely called by God to the ministry and he is to be obeyed. Failure to obey will bring judgment from God, at least according to IFB preachers. (Sermons on pastoral authority are quite common in IFB churches.)

Jack Hyles was considered a god in IFB church circles. He was also revered by many outside of the IFB church movement. People read his sermons in the Sword of the Lord, and cassette recordings of Hyles’ sermons made their way around the globe. He was the Big Kahuna, and when he spoke everybody listened. It is important to understand how popular Hyles was.  People would drive hours to hear him preach at a Sword of the Lord Conference. They would hang on his every word. After all, look at the size of his church. This is PROOF that Hyles and God were on a first name basis.  When it came time for the invitation, hundreds of penitent Baptists would stream down the aisle to the altar and prostrate themselves before Hyles, praying that God would forgive them of their sins and give them Holy Ghost power to do whatever Hyles was telling them to do.

It is hard for me to admit, even to this day, that I was a part of this; that the  churches I pastored participated in this. (I left the IFB church movement in the late 1980s.) It is hard to admit that I was caught up in a religion that encouraged worshiping men as gods. Hyles, like Bob Jones, even had a college named after him: Hyles-Anderson College.

Granted, any time a group of people gather together under a common belief or ideal, there is the tendency to elevate certain people to god-like status within the group. IFB churches do it, Evangelicals do it, and yes, even atheists do it. Look at the typical Atheist/Humanist conference and you see the same speakers over and over. To some degree, it is human nature to fawn over those we think are in some way unique, successful, or who have some sort of special insight.

It has been thirty years since I heard Jack Hyles preach. I heard him preach many times during the heyday of the IFB movement — the late 1960s to the late 1980s. I would attend Sword of the Lord conferences whenever I could . Sometimes, I drove several hours just so I could sit at the feet of great IFB luminaries such as Jack Hyles, Lee RobersonLester Roloff,  Bob Gray of Florida, Curtis HutsonJohn R. Rice and Tom Malone. (Malone was the President of Midwestern Baptist College, the college I attended from 1976-79. Lester Roloff was accused of promoting child abuse, and Bob Gray of Florida was arrested for molesting children.)

the captain of our team jack hyles
A poem written by a devoted follower of Jack Hyles

What was it about Jack Hyles that drew people to him (and God is not the right answer)?

Jack Hyles was a superb orator. He knew how to use words, cadence, volume, and inflection to deliver sermons that most preachers could never deliver. As oratorical specimens, his sermons were flawless.  His sermons rarely had much Bible in them since he typically preached textual or topical sermons, but his sermons were perfectly scripted, with each point and sub point in perfect harmony. When Hyles chased a rabbit down the rabbit trail, he did it on purpose. He was methodical and disciplined in his preaching.

Hyles told a lot of stories about himself, his mother, and his feats as a pastor-god. His stories often made up the bulk of his sermon. Young preachers such as myself hung on every word, every story. Here was a man mightily used by God. It was many years before I could divorce myself from my worship of Jack Hyles enough to see his sermons for what they really were; grandiose brag sessions of a narcissist. I also came to see that the stories Hyles told were often lies or distortions of the truth, though I am inclined to think that Hyles really believed his own narrative.

The IFB church movement prides itself on being anti-cultural. The movement is known for what it is against and not for what it is for. In his sermons, Hyles would rail against Southern Baptists, The National Council of Churches, Evangelicals, pants on women, alcohol drinking, sex, and any other ill he deemed “worldly” or contrary to the received truth of the IFB church movement.

hyles baptist church
Yes, there really is a Hyles Baptist Church in Chesterfield, Virginia, pastored by Ron Talley.

When Hyles would preach against these things, his words elicited deep emotional and physical response. People would shout or say Amen or Preach it, Brother Hyles. People would stream down the aisles to confess their sin, their disobedience to God. The Sword of Lord would report the “number” of people  who came forward. (The IFB follows a corporate model, dominated by numbers.) If you want to see how the numbers racket works, read Bob Gray of Texas’s blog. A Hyles disciple, trained at Hyles-Anderson College, he knows exactly how many souls have been saved under his ministry. He is the ultimate IFB bean-counter.

When preaching at a conference, Hyles would often have an afternoon Question and Answer time for preachers. Young, aspiring preachers, along with old struggling preachers, could ask Hyles questions about building a great church. I can’t tell you the number of times I saw Hyles eviscerate a preacher because he asked the wrong question. One time, a young preacher asked a question about how to choose a good youth director — not that Hyles would know since his son, serial adulterer, David Hyles was the youth director at First Baptist. Hyles asked the young man how big his church was and after the young preacher told him, Hyles belittled him and accused him of being lazy. The young preacher should have felt humiliated, but he more likely felt that “God” was speaking to him through Brother Hyles. Hyles, like many top shelf IFB preachers, could be a bully.

Hyles liked to give off an air of invincibility. His illustrations made him seem like a man who could charge into the flames of hell and come out without one hair singed on his head. He told illustrations such as:

There were two men playing tennis and at the end of the game, the loser graciously shook the hand of the winner.

Bro. Hyles, how do you handle losing (code for failure)?

Hyles would thunder, I don’t know, I’ve never lost.

And then he would preach forcefully and loudly about not being a loser, a quitter.

When you take all these things together, it is easy to see why Jack Hyles was, and still is, worshiped. Some consider him the greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul. I understand how people become mesmerized by the Hyles mystique. However, when a person puts some distance between himself and the IFB church moment, he starts to see that the movement is a man-centered, man-worshiping religion. Are their good, decent people in IFB churches? Sure. For whatever reason, they cannot or will not take off their blinders so they can see things as they really are. IFB-preachers-turned-atheists such as myself have little influence over them because they see us as traitors and God haters.

I wonder what it will take to finally bring the IFB house crashing to the ground? Evidently, sexual scandal won’t do it. Maybe it is too much to ask for. After all, the Roman Catholic Church has pedophiles running amok, yet faithful Catholics still show up for mass and give their money to the church.  It seems that we as humans quite easily ignore what is right in front of us.

Shrine built after Jack Hyles died, as always bigger than life.
Shrine built after Jack Hyles died, as always bigger than life.

For further information:

Read Andrew Himes’ book, The Sword of the Lord, The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family.

Read Bryan Smith’s Chicago Magazine article, Let Us Prey: Big Trouble at First Baptist Church

Read the Legacy of Jack Hyles

Read the 1980s Biblical Evangelist story on the Jack Hyles scandal

During the uproar over Hyles’ illicit affair, loyal Hyles followers wore “100% Hyles” buttons to show their support for Hyles.

071816

37 Comments

  1. Avatar
    April G

    Just wow…funny how guys like Hyles, no doubt HATED the Catholic church. I know my ex-fundamentalist pastor hates it and did sermons on ALL the things they are doing wrong. A couple came to mind with this, 1-Catholics don’t study the bible, only doing what the church says. Yet my xpastard used to preach for his flock to not to worry about studying the bible, that was HIS job. huh?? (in other words just take his word for it and turn off your brain) — 2-the Catholics worship the “Pope”. Well, I’m not a Catholic anymore, but at least they have a hierarchy. Unlike Hyles and those of his ilk, a fundy dictator preacher. I eventually called them Protestant Popes. YES, those fundamentalists certainly worship their pastors. Makes me sick 🙁

  2. Avatar
    Karen the rock whisperer

    I grew up Catholic. We never worshipped the pope, though he was certainly deferred to as someone who knew what he was talking about in terms of theology. It is true that we didn’t study the bible, but used sections of it as lessons. The Catholic service always has two readings, one from anywhere in the bible BUT the gospels, and one from the gospels. And the readings are always presented in context — Catholics don’t quote out-of-context bible verses at you. The priest or guest preacher is expected to address the readings in his sermon. I guess your experience was different.

    The only semi-deity I was taught to revere other than the trinitarian God was Mary, and that was by my mother. But the official church line is that all the Saints (including her) accomplish works on this earth by interceding with God on the behalf of a prayerful believer. Older Catholics like my mother were raised to believe that they were unworthy of addressing God directly, and must funnel prayer requests through saints. Sounds so Medieval-court-ish, doesn’t it? You don’t get in to talk to the king/queen directly, but if you can chat up the right courtier you can get your issue resolved.

    But unworthiness is unworthiness. The Catholics say you can arrange for an intermediary; the Protestant fundagelicals emphasize that you’re a dirty rag but God will listen anyhow… and he’ll even send you a wonderful preacher to help make you feel like crap!

    As one Dark Ages king must have said to another, you make your peasants miserable your way, I’ll make my peasants miserable my way.

  3. Avatar
    April G

    Hi KarenTRW, apparently I didn’t make myself clear… I got the impression from your comment that you think I believe that stuff about the Catholics?? No, I said those were things my expastor taught and believed about the Catholic church. I never believed my family or myself ever worshiped the pope. I was trying to explain that many fundamentalists (like Jack Hyles) point out supposed errors in doctrine, and calling the Catholics as being deceived, when they themselves teach the exact same things, with their own demented twist to it. My experience with fundamentalists is that they like to point out how every xian group is doing bible religion wrong, except for their particular group.

    Actually my experience being a Catholic was quite benign & I actually have some pleasant memories of it compared to the abuse of the Calvinist/Primitive Baptist Fundamentalist KJV only bible cult.

  4. Avatar
    Monty

    Ha ha! I was a member of Hyles Baptist Church from 2002-2008. Of course, the church was lined with pics of Roloff, Rice and nother heroes of the IFB faith, and of course a HUGE pic of Jack. Talley is alright tho…very indoctrinated but still somewhat decent.

  5. Avatar
    JoAr

    Hah! So many IFB Pastors STILL make such ridiculous claims to this very day! Just recently I have heard one from Charleston, WV say he got the entire insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield to stop decorating for Halloween and he was able to do this by speaking to 1 employee at a local branch. He also claimed he was at a large Manufacturing Factory and was the only person there who wasn’t an atheist. Unless he was there after hours, I can’t see the probability of that being true. Knowing it very well could be a policy of Blue Cross not to decorate for any holiday, I went one step farther and asked my father who retired from Blue Cross. Needless to say that claim was also false.
    I can’t help but wonder if there were as many IFB churches, Pastors, and “Boarding Schools” in the Hyles and Roloff times as there are today. There are so many today that the ones that do get shut down for child molestation or any other reason do not effect their continuation, and that’s pretty scary, for me at least.

  6. Avatar
    JR

    That poem to Jack Hyles (picture in the post) is awful. Laughably bad.

    The cult of personality is a powerful thing. I used to think that Jesus must have been God otherwise why were so many taken in? Posts like these show humans are blind to the truth about people they worship.

      • Avatar
        Rod Rogers

        You say, “And critics can tell the truth too”. I’m not sure anyone even questions that. What is the question is, “Can you as a critic contradict “a man of God” when he “sticks to God’s word”?

        The sad part of you to me is that if you were ever a true IFB you would have to also believe now that you were NEVER a saved man. That is what is sad to me.

  7. Avatar
    Rod Rogers

    Yes, but you now claim that you are not a christian and therefore you never were a christian, right? You have painted your self into a corner. Either you were a liar for years or you are lying now; but you have to choose. My point is that God is always God or there never was a god. You have claimed both. Very sad.

    rod

    • Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      All I am saying is that I once was a Christian just like you, and now I’m not. That you can’t square that with your theology is your problem, not mine. Whether God exists is a completely different question.

      No corner here. Each aspect of my life must be judged in its context.

      You might find these posts helpful: https://brucegerencser.net/why/

      • Avatar
        Rod Rogers

        “Each aspect of my life must be judged in its context.”

        Ok, YOU said you were a Christian, said you were a preacher. In that context, were you preaching the truth or preaching a lie? Preaching a lie makes one what?

        “All I am saying is that I once was a Christian just like you, and now I’m not.”

        And all I am saying is that by your own admission you believed in once saved always saved. Now you don’t believe in God at all. By you own theology you yourself believed either you were not saved to begin with or you preached a lie. You are in a corner.

      • Avatar
        Rod Rogers

        Bruce, you don’t go from preaching God’s word, studying and praying daily and then wake up one day and say God never existed. That never happens. Somewhere you came to a place where God didn’t meet your expectations. I don’t know where that happened but it happened.

          • Avatar
            Rod Rogers

            I’m 64 years old and have met a lot of people and you are the only one who claims to have lived at the foot of the cross and woke up one day and renounced it. Sorry, I don’t believe that.

            I also have a hard time reconciling all the churches you pastored/associate pastored and could have been successful in any of those. It takes time to build relationships. Your all inclusive advice you want to give is to find one thing and do it well. Pardon me but that’s like someone having been divorced 20 times and then being a marriage counselor.

  8. Avatar
    Brian

    Very strange obliteration of basic logic, to suggest that Gerencser was never in the club, must never have been because he isn’t now. It displays the harm done to people in belief. One could as easily say that Rod was never a reasonable fellow because now, as a believer, he displays such a lack. People choose, don’t they… Rod is happy, perhaps, being a slave and knowing how truly rotten he is inside without his master to tell him what to think and do in life. Sad. One wonders what hurts people so badly in their earlier lives that they choose IFB abuse.

      • Avatar
        Rod Rogers

        Where’s Brian when you need him, It’s like saying, I’m divorced now, so that means I never was married”? Talk about skewed logic. This would only be true if you believed that marriage was for ever, like you believed salvation to be, duh!

        • Avatar
          Bruce Gerencser

          Again, your theology is getting in the way of you understanding any viewpoint but your own. You assume that I always believed that once a person was saved they never could lose their salvation.

          My theology evolved over the years. I left the IFB movement in the early 90s and rejected the bastardized gospel preached by Hyles and other IFB luminaries in the late 1980s.

          Rather than this continued back and forth, I encourage you to read the posts on the WHY page. You’ll find most questions answered there.

          • Avatar
            Rod Rogers

            Bruce, it doesn’t matter what happened when. The only thing I am assuming is that you are telling the truth when you say that you were an IFB. If you were ever IFB then you believed in OSAS. You just don’t want to admit the truth. Your comment, “It’s like saying, I’m divorced now, so that means I never was married”?”, has nothing to do with my comment; its Non Sequitor.

  9. Avatar
    Rod Rogers

    Scripture gives you two options:

    Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

    Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
    Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

    Either you never were a child of God or you still are.

  10. Avatar
    Brian

    Rod feels a strong need. He feeds the need his logic and quotes scripture to back up his expression of great need. What is lacking is nuance or as Gerencser puts it, imagination. Rod, marriage is forever, lifelong according to the commitment stated in the vow, if the vow is taken. Most marriages in the past took the vow, ’till death do us part’, even if about half of them ended in divorce. The example used is very apt in your case and yet you laugh and toss it because it does not serve your great need. Nevertheless, it stands as quite apt in my view. Sorry I cannot stand with you in your laughing about it. You simply have no idea how lacking your statement sounds to me: “Either you never were a child of God or you still are.” At the beginning of the marriage, the one loved the other with all their heart, with everything they were….Some time later, they did not. Therefore, they never did. The phrase ‘tight-ass’ comes to mind. Do you often assault people with this sort of judgmental talk: You have two choices! What you mean Rod is that you do not care about actual human communication and insist on defining, no, make that, reducing all things to your capability. I hear you, Rod. You see only two choices.

  11. Avatar
    Rod Rogers

    You know, while on vacation I saw a guy with a T-shirt that said, “I can explain it to you but I can’t understand it for you”! I’m in good company though, Jesus told the pharisees in John 8:43 “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.”

    • Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      I am not ignorant of what the Bible says, Rod. I plan on going to your mythical with my eyes wide open. You are not saying anything that hasn’t been parroted countless times by your cousins. Not sure what your point is, other than to hear yourself talk.

    • Avatar
      Michael Mock

      Yes, yes, we know: it’s our own fault that Christian teaching make no sense to us. It’s absolutely not that those teachings don’t match the world we see around us or our experiences in that world, and it’s absolutely not that those teachings don’t hang together particularly well, and it’s definitely not that no two proponents of Christianity seem to have the same understanding of exactly what those teachings are. And we definitely, none of us, have ever spent any time trying to understand it, praying for some revelation that would cause it to make sense, or researching it to the best of our abilities.

      Oh, no, it isn’t any of that: it’s absolutely just that we are willful, or rebellious, or perhaps just deliberately obtuse. I mean, who are we supposed to believe? You? Or our own lyin’ eyes?

  12. Avatar
    HRosenski

    We moved to join the church wehn I was 3 so 1983 and was pulled out of the church in 1995. At age 11 I was molested by a guy my older sister dated that attended Hyles-Anderson College. Do to the fear that church puts in you and many parents become abusive I didn’t tell anyone and even though he gave me mono which turned into Epstein-Barr noone figured it out. When I was 13 we went to wait outside of Pastor Hyles office after church as he would talk to people for so long giving counsel or whatever needed. I was taken to meet with him due to my rebellious behavior. After my parents told him this they were told to leave the room so he could counsel me. Instead I was molested and threatened by Hyles. I was the same age of his granddaughters and he knew we were in the same grade. She was rude, snobby, narcissistic and got everything she wanted. Her and her friends whose parents where high up in the church.
    The rules are strict and they use corporal punishment. You have to wear certain undergarments, straps can’t be showing, they have to be a light color you can’t see a bra or slip through the dress or blouse and skirt. They do surprise checks and call all the girls out of class make them kneel in the hallway and check the length of skirts and dresses. They also make sure its high enough up top. Then they take the girls into the bathroom to check their undergarments. They also have strict rules for girls and boys about hair. If you fail the guidelines on a class room check or they see you in that hall and want to check you and you fail you get swats with a big wood paddle,demerits and you have to sit in the nurses office until your parents bring you clothes. The classes you miss or are late to because of the violation are unexcused. You get swats and demerits for saying the word butt, if you were standing in the cafeteria and weren’t getting food or cleaning your tray. It was more like a cult. You had bible class and most ofvyour grade was if you went soul winning on Saturday and worked onnthe buses on Sunday.
    A guy reported that a girl had sex. In chapel it was announced she needed to meet with the principal afterwards do to the accusation. So everyone in the jr high knew. She was suspended, absences where unexcused until they got the doctors report. She had to taken to see the doctor to prove she was a virgin. The doctor said that he believed she was but there were scratches on the hymen which could of been caused by a tampon or fingers but the hymen was intact. The principal read the results of the doctors note in chapel infront of everyone. Due to the scratches they were going to expell her but her father came in caused a big scene and pulled her out of school first. The jr high principal was Mr Thomas Vogel. It came out a few years later that she had been molested. That girl was me. However, only my adoped grandparents knew the pastor molested me until know. That principal should of been arrested for mental and physical abuse.

  13. Avatar
    HRosenski

    That place is a cult. They worshiped a man Jack Hyles. He would walk out and people would stand up and clap for him. He would mention something he liked from a certain dessert to expensive suites and people would make him the food and desserts and buy him things he liked. Every summer they had a Jack Hyles conference for teens where they would get preached at for a week for 8 hours a day. Getting an hour for lunch. At the end of the week he would throw a big concert, with games and food that of course you had to pay for. One year the shirts everyone got said Jack Hyles never smoked a cigarette with a big picture of him. I always wondered why people treated a man like God. Years later they raised money to build a statue of Jack Hyles and his wife. She was completely against it. The statue was against the 2nd commandment. 3 days after they started building this statue he had a heart attack. 3 days after they finished he died.
    The only thing that saved me were my adopted grandparents. I hadn’t met my real grandparents til I was 16 they lived in different states.one grandpa passed before I was born. The couple that treated my parents like their children and us kids like there grandkids were loving and not judgemental. They passed when in my early teens. Dr and Mrs Evan’s adopted me as their granddaughter. I metbthem when I was 3 because we moved next door to them. They were in my life until I was pulled out of the church. I was able to take to them a couple times when we first left but I knew it wasn’t their choice. They made sure i knew that and grandma Evans who collected red birds gave me a set of her redbirds and a hug. She wrote her favorite bible verse on the underside of on and signed the other. It reads “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me” Grandpa Evans ran Hyles Andersen College. Everyday after school I took a bus to the college as my mother worked their. I went to their offices everyday. Grandma Evan taught me so much in words and actions. She always treated my grandpa with the utmost respect. If he called her or came to her office she stopped whatever she was doing and he got her full attention they were so inlove. They didn’t agree with all the rules ofvthe church and they never judged me when my opinion was different. If it wasn’t for them I probably wouldn’t be alive today. I was able to go to them and let them know when I was 11 what the guy was doing to me. They responded my wishes and kept it between us but they also made sure it never happened again and he got expelled from the college. It wasn’t until I talked to them that I knew what he was saying and doing wasn’t right. They explained to me what it was and that is wasn’t my fault. They stood by me, protected me, taught me, loved and supported me unconditionally and without judgement. When Jack Hyles molested me I went to go talk to grandma Evans the next day. When it was something serious after we talked we went and saw grandpa told him and we all talked. That day she wasn’t at work so I waited and came back the next day but found out she wouldn’t be in for awhile due to her cancer. Blinking back the tears I went to grandpa Evan’s office his secretary said he was busy I ask her if she could just tell him I was here. He walked out of his office and started to tell me he was really busy until I looked up and he saw my eyes. He told his secretary to take messages and not to disturb him unless it was grandma. I told him what Pastor Hyles did and what he said to me. He knew he couldn’t tell my parents as he knew how they would treat me. He was so mad I had only seen him upset like that 1 other time with tears in his eyes. He gave me a hug held me while I cried and made sure I knew what he did and said wasn’t right and it wasn’t my fault. He asked if he could tell grandma and I said yes. He told me to go his house after schoold the next day and see grandma. He asked if he could confront Pastor Hyles. I didn’t want him to cause I was scared due to the threat he assured me that nothing would happen to me I would be safe. He called him and went off on him for what he did. He had the call on speaker phone but told me to be quite. Hyles asked if he would send me to his office Sunday so he could apologize. Grandpa said no that he was not going to have me near him ever again and that his apology meant nothing. He also told him that if he hears that he ever tried to come near me that he would take the taped copy of the phone conversation to police. He use to sit on the stage behind Hyles as he preached. After that conversation he never sat up their again. Every church service until we left the church I sat with them at church. I was excused from youth group, going soul winning and bus duty. They made sure my time was limited in that church but when I had to go to serves I was with them safe and protected. They use to buy me patch the pirate tapes which I loved and wish I could find today.I’ve heard people say bad thing about Dr Evans but he was not the man I heard them describe he was my grandpa since I was 3. Him and his wife didn’t have to take me in as their granddaughter but they did with unconditional love and acceptance. They saved my life. I knew with them I was always loved and safe. When grandma Evans passed away years later from cancer I went to the funeral in my pants with my head held high like she taught me.
    Whomever wrote this article did a great job.

    • Avatar
      Grammar Gramma

      HRosenski, What a tragic story! I’m sorry all that was thrust upon you. I checked Ebay and found this:
      Good luck.

    • Avatar
      Jeremy A Lape

      Wow. Just wow. I was there at HAC in the mid-late ’70’s. Worked at the Bus Barn for that psycho, Jim Vineyard, before moving over to the college campus and living on campus and working for the grounds crew. I also was room mates with Schaap. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. Spent some time with Dr. Evans, and it’s nice to hear how he treated you. Hard to believe he actually stood up to Hyles, but after what Dave did to his daughter, I think he had had enough. That would also have been around the time Dr. Helton left the school. Fortunately, I ran into him a few years later, and I was totally wrecked with PTSD. Max spent many hours in his office deprogramming me, for which I am eternally grateful.

      I hope you are healed up as much as possible. That place was nothing but a whited sepulchre, full of dead man’s bones.

  14. Avatar
    A.s.

    Jack Hyles was a seriously flawed man with an ego bigger than life. I think he encouraged the hero worship. One thing though, his people really loved him, and there had to be something they felt that he loved them. I was a pastor and my people REALLY loved me. I never encouraged any kind of hero worship or told stories about myself etc, i truly cared about them and they loved me as much as fbch people loved hyles. I guess i said all that to say, maybe he really did love them.

Want to Respond to Bruce? Fire Away! If You Are a First Time Commenter, Please Read the Comment Policy Located at the Top of the Page.

Discover more from The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Bruce Gerencser