What about Hyles-Anderson Christian College?

Not sure if that's the right name, but it's the school founded by lengendary Independent Baptist, Jack Hyles.

Talk to many fundamentalists and they'll tell you it's the greatest school around. They even brag about not being accredited.

When I tried to direct a pastor to DegreeInfo to learn about accreditation, he laughed in my face. The fact that Hyles' name was on the school was all that mattered.

Interestingly enough, I haven't seen many discussions about the school here. Perhaps it's not on the same level as Bob Jones University?

Any thoughts.

Roscoe

 

Does it have its own website?

I've never heard of this school until now. It seems to be an in-house educational effort within a self-segregated sect.

http://www.baptist-city.com/not_like.htm

...We do not fellowship with liberals, but instead take a strict separatist stand from the world and apostasy.

Apparently these people perceive the United States as if it were pagan Rome, and the rest of their neighbors as being under the spell of Satan. Their response is to isolate themselves from contagion.

In these circumstances, I don't think that they would find secular accreditation a positive thing at all. Not only is it irrelevant to what they do, they would probably see it as akin to sacrificing to Caesar.

To them, their distinctiveness is precisely their lack of compromise with our larger world.

The tension generated by being in the world while believing themselves not of it is pretty obvious with these guys.

 

Jack Hyles once had one of the fastest growing churches in the U.S. He wrote books and articles for Sword of the Lord.

Before his death a few years ago, he and one of his sons were wrapped up in some type of scandal. Someone even wrote a book about it.

BTW, I read somewhere that before his school would hire anyone, the applicant had to be a great soul-winner. Even the staff today, I'm told, must win a certain number of people to Christ to keep their jobs.

Roscoe

 

Buses

Uncle J,

Oh my. I though you were exaggerating about the buses. According to the faculty list, every member of the faculty has experience as a bus captian, bus leader, bus worker or some other kind of bus official.

http://www.hylesanderson.com/prospective/cat20032004/personnel/faculty.htm

 

Janko,

You're right about the buses. I remember reading in the 70s that the bus ministry was key to their church growth. He also wrote books that.

Roscoe

 

Hyles recounted the story of his sister, who, while experiencing a vision of hell, saw their father enduring the horrors of such a place. This became the catalyst for Hyles' lifelong endeavor at reaching the unchurched.

 

Hey Russell,

Thanks for sharing this. I just read about this part of his testimony the other day somewhere. Can't remember the source.

Roscoe

 

Buses and Bad Memories

In the early 60s I attended a large independent Baptist church in San Diego. The youth pastor, a grad of BJU [the senior pastor also was of BJU] was a really nice guy!

The youth pastor took a group of teens into mexico, Rosarita Beach, to do missionary stuff each summer for a week. He drove the bus.

Jerry was at times not a careful driver. This time he fell asleep at the wheel enroute over the border. The bus veered off the road and rolled over. Jerry was knocked out. He was taken to a Mexican jail.

Of course as soon as he awoke he asked about the kids. He was told that while all were a little bruised only one had been killed. She had been thrown through a window and the bus had rolled over her. Grieved Jerry asked her name. It was Jerusha Ann..his own sweet daughter.


Jerry kept his faith and position. Last I heard, at about 65, he was the oldest youth pastor of which I've heard.

 

Re: Buses and Bad Memories

Inspirational, Bill. Thanks for sharing.

 

While the bus ministry was and is a big part of it, the real philosohical and doctrinal distinctive of the school is its really extreme KJV only stance. The KJV as the preserved and inspired Word of God in English is the foundational issue from which everything else in this school is generated. They can get a bit odd. One of the stranger rules is that students can't date "in cars" or see "Hollywood" movies--meaning, one might ask, if they can date on motor bikes and watch French films. Seriously, though, a like minded, but I think better school is Landmark Baptist, down in Florida, if you are looking for a school of this ilk. (they have a website that says they would not take the "worlds" accreditation if it was offered--which is unlikely) But I have seen some of their course work, and if you want to learn a very KJV slanted approach to the universe, it looks solid and challenging. Of the extreme fundamentalist schools, IMO, only Pensacola Christian can rival Bob Jones. Though eccentric, to say the least, both schools have really impressive academic records as regards post graduate standardized testing (GRE MCAT)

Blessings, Craig

 

I dunno, Roscoe. Once I finally found the faculty page, the credentials are laughable--perhaps one or two FT with earned doctorates. Most of the website is devoted to the glorification of certain personalities connected with the school--not even schools prone to the cult of personality (you fill in the names, my china) usually go as far as this outfit.

One thing that struck me as funny was their list of vocations for which study at this school would prepare a person: pastor, assistant pastor, bus director, missionary, etc. They are big on their buses. I remember when I was working in inner-city Chicago one of their buses came around and "took" one of our kids (from right in front of our church, as it happened). Since they hauled the kid across state lines and had no parental permission, there was holy hell to pay when Li'l Wormy finally got redelivered.

The iconography of the home page is interesting. At the top are portraits of the Holy Trinity: the pastor of the sponsoring church and the president and co-president of the school. Beneath that is a photograph of the American flag with water spraying on it from fountains. Off in the corner is a college "crest" of parodistically poor quality.

The list of good works attributed to Messrs. Hyles and Anderson is breathtaking. Perhaps this is the sort of thing that "sells" in the skinny-necktie segment of fundamentalism, but it appears remote from anything resembling fundamentalist scholarship, and close to idolatrous self-congratulation. I can readily believe that there are certain circles in which the very name of the founder and late chief oracle would assume positively papal prestige. Unlike the actual pope, however, one would not look for a book on Edmund Husserl among the late Mr Hyles' doubtless worthy publications.

How this compares to BJU I leave to others, but I would find it difficult from what little I know of BJU to place this school on anything close to the same level.

 

"Perhaps it's not on the same level as Bob Jones University?" Roscoe
"but it appears remote from anything resembling fundamentalist scholarship." uncle janco
"...I would find it difficult from what little I know of BJU to place this school on anything close to the same level." uncle janco


Hyles-Anderson is miles from Bob Jones, and even quite a distance from Pensecola (although it shares the KJV onlyism with Pensecola). At the risk of being stoned in this forum, I will confess to being of a fundamentalist persuasion (and Baptist to boot), but only the extreme of the extreme fundamental Baptists (what I call "hyper-indy-fundy) would want to get within miles of First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN (the church behind Hyles-Anderson), or the college. They (along with some others I could but won't mention) are a disgrace and a blight to a fundamentalist and Baptist cause!
I would certainly think they are very weak academically, being in intellectual isolation and hibernation. They are the type of school that would prefer to do the students thinking for them rather than have the students think for themselves.

Avoid this one like the plague!

 

Thanks for giving some input on this. Do you know about the controversy involving the daughter-in-law of Jack Hyles. As I recall, it had something to do with Playboy or some other men's mag.

Also, did Jack actually split with the Sword of the Lord crowd in Mufreesboro, Tenn.?

BTW, nothing wrong with being a Baptist or a fundamentalist. Extreme anything can be dangerous.

Roscoe

 

I lost an interest in following closely the Hyles insanities back in the mid-to-late 80s when there was an alleged big scandal involving Jack Hyles and a lady in the church (a deacon's wife), so the thing with his daughter is news to me. The original scandal (whether truth or fiction) would have caused the original distancing between the SwordOTL and the Hyles camp.
Someone mentioned the "soul winning" of the Hyles movement. Their approach has been very easy believism/quick prayerism, with high pressure and salesmanship tactics. The actual true conversions are anyones guess, but my guess would be that they were/are a very small percentage. Many of those folks could sell a discman to a deaf person.
Also Hyles and his followers are very authoritarian/dictatorial in their leadership styles. All this is besides their KJV onlyism, their women in skirts onlyism, and many other oddities.

 

Don't know anything about a sister but there were numerous allegations of pedophilia by many in the Hyles churches. There was a huge scandal many years ago (North Sharon Baptist Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan--a Hyles affiliate). Other Hyles affiliated churches with similar scandals were in Alabama, California, Texas, Louisiana and his own church in Hammond, Indiana. Also, Jack's son, David, had many allegations against him concerning adultery. Physical abuse against church members was also reported. There was mention on here about the bus ministries. Many of these bus drivers were were accused of sexually molesting children.

 

Hyles-Anderson allegations

I have tried repeatedly to post this over the past several hours on the other thread and get "web site not responding". Hope this gets through.
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Mind you, I have no use for the outfit which is the subject of this thread. I sure hope that these statements can be substantiated or at least backed up with press reports. Those are grave charges--and horrible crimes.

Having seen the hideous effects on children of such things, and having also seen the tragic effect on persons innocently accused, these statements call for both caution and confirmation.

Given the extreme sensitivity of some folks when past, um, creativities are mentioned, perhaps equal caution should be observed in the instance of this bizarre outfit.

 

Nor do I consider H-A a degree mill. The school basically serves the academic needs of a small segment of fundamentalists, in the training of their ministers/laity.

I have often taken issue with Steve's subjective categorization of religious schools. The NIFI criteria does indeed include some warning signs of less-than-wonderful schools, however, more than a few of the criteria apply to some RA schools as well.

 

Y'all may be surprised to hear this one, but I have long considered Hyles-Anderson to be a legitimate college. Granted, they are somewhat cultic and nowhere near the league of Bob Jones or Pensacola Christian in terms of quality, but H-A is certainly not a degree mill. For those of the Sword of the Lord mindset, and within the limited scope of their mission (a word I use loosely here), they are one of the classic separatist Fundamentalist schools.

That said, my only significant complaint about the school is that their faculty is somewhat ugly. Face it, Fundamentalist guys can be hot looking - and they're not bad in bed. Perhaps the gay community could arrange a bus tour to Hyles-Anderson to convert some of their students to homosexuality. They do, after all, have a thing for bus ministries.

None of this, of course, should be taken as a recommendation of Hyles-Anderson. Within the limited scope I've outlined, they're not a degree mill. But I'd hardly want to spend four or less years there.

 

Another reason I need to get my hands on NIFI.

Thanks, Russell.

Now, does anyone have a photo of Steve?

Roscoe