Jack Schaap Asked For Reduced Sentence – The Devil Made Him Do It

January 5, 2013 By 6 Comments

by Calulu

Apparently IFB pastor Jack Schaap is asking that he receive a special reduced sentence below the federally mandated minimum of ten years. Why? Because he’s claiming that the stress of running his mega-church First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana combined with falling financial resources  put him in a depression that led to him to preying on a sixteen year old he was supposed to be counseling.  He’s also claiming that his many years as a pastor should count for something against his sentence.

Let’s see if we can follow that logic. Old Jack boy violates a tenet of his own profession by preying on a defenseless sexual abuse victim, going against just about every supposedly sacred thing being a pastor is supposed to be, but because he’s been a pastor for some years we’re supposed to say, “Oh you naughty boy!”,  smack his hand, ruffle his hair and send him on his way to pastor again. It’s arrogant beyond belief that Jack Schaap thinks he is just that special that he thinks federal law should be ignored and he be treated so specially.  It speaks volumes about the state of the heart.

Schaap obviously has learned nothing and now puts off his actions as something he wasn’t responsible for. His depression did it.  Which is sickly funny considering many fundamentalist churches say depression is merely demonic oppression. The Devil made him do it! Who does he think he is? Flip Wilson? (if you’ve too young to have seen Flip Wilson as Geraldine screaming out that the devil made her do it take a peek at YouTube)

Jack, Jack, Jack, take responsibility for your actions and make amends. Stop blaming your actions on others, stand up and be a man, a real Christian man, admit what you did and take responsibility for it! Do your time, the time your lawyer negotiated you to do and be grateful you’re not doing  a heftier sentence.

Everyone is responsible for the poor decisions they make, even mega-church pastors.

What would happen if this was say, a psychologist or psychiatrist caught diddling patients they were treating for sexual abuse? At the very best they’d be stripped of all professional credentials and not allowed to practice any longer in that field. Plus there would likely be huge fines and jail time involved. Even if the jail time was suspended the perpetrator would likely be on probation forever and have to do a long stint of community service.

What about the victim in all of this? She’s going to have to live with what happened for the rest of her life. That is her sentence. Don’t tell me that being sexually abused while seeking counseling for previous sexual abuse isn’t going to impact her. It will stay with her the rest of her life. I hope she does take the opportunity to give a victim impact statement at the sentencing. Schaap’s buddies all took the opportunity to write letters to the court asking for no sentence or a light sentence for him.

Perhaps the federal judge will rule that the court-filing asking for a lighter sentence violates the plea agreement and decides to sentence Schaap to the maximum length of time.

ABC News – Court filing details ex-Hammond pastor’s problems amid teen sex scandal

The Daily Mail - Jack Schaap: married mega-church pastor blames his health and financial woes for sexual relationship with 16 year old girl

NWI.Com – A tale of two Jack Schaaps

Chicago  Sun-Times – Pastor sentencing may be delayed so victim can make a statement

and there are more basically saying the same things that are in all four of these news articles.  Google “Jack Schaap News” to peruse the entire list. The whole thing makes my blood boil.

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Read everything by Calulu!

Calulu lives near Washington DC , was raised Catholic in South Louisiana before falling in with a bunch of fallen Catholics whom had formed their own part Fundamentalist, part Evangelical church. After fifteen uncomfortable years drinking that Koolaid she left nearly 6 years ago. Her blog is Calulu – Roadkill on the Internet Superhighway

The Spiritual Abuse Survivor Blogs Network

NLQ Recommended Reading …

‘Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment‘ by Janet Heimlich

‘Quivering Daughters‘ by Hillary McFarland

‘Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement‘ by Kathryn Joyce

 

Filed Under: Accountability, Adultery, Alienation, Anxiety, Any Cause Divorce, Beautiful Girlhood, Believing Illness Caused By Stress or Not Being Right With God, Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, Big Happy Family Vision, Botkin Syndrome, Boundaries, Bounded Choice, Child Abuse, Coercive Religious Groups (Cults), Complimentarianism, Confession, Control, Controlling Emotions & being cheerful always, Covenant Breaking, Demonic Influences, Depression, Divorce & Remarriage, Drinking the Koolaid, Elitism, Father Worship, Fear, Fear Based Theology, Fear of Hell, Fear tactics, Formulaic Religion, Fruit of the Spirit, Fundamentalism, Gender Equality, Group Think, Hot Topics, How Did I Get In This Mess?, Hyles-Anderson College, Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches (IFB), Isolation, Issues, J.O.Y (Self Denial), Jack Hyles, Jack Schaap, Judgementalism, Learned Helplessness, Legalism, Like-Minded Fellowship, Lusting, Maintaining Appearances, Manipulation, Markers of a Cult, Marketing "Biblical Family Values", Mega Churches, Men are Visual, Mental / Emotional Health, Mutuality, NLQ Miscellany, NLQ Open Comments, Patriarchy, Perfectionism, Personal Autonomy, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Psychoactive drugs for depression, Quiverfull & the Bible, Quiverfull Counterculture, Quiverfull Discernment, Quiverfull in the News, Quiverfull Leaders, Quiverfull Ministries, Quiverfull Topics, Recovering from Spiritual Abuse, Rock Star Pastors, SASBN, Self-Loathing, Self-Preservation Factor, Self-Righteousness, Sexuality, Shame, Shunning, Spiritual Abuse, Spiritual Abuse & Recovery, Spiritual Abuse Survivors, Spiritual Issues, Submission, The Godly Woman, The Spiritual Abuse Survivor Blogs Network, Triggers, Umbrella of Authority Tagged With: , , , , , 6 Comments
About Suzanne Calulu
  • http://www.facebook.com/lucrezaborgia Lucreza Borgia

    He tripped, fell, and landed into the arms of a 16 year old girl he was counseling. That could happen to anyone! *rolls eyes*

  • Nightshade

    That’s the logical extension of the male attitude that it’s up to the women to protect purity, both their own and any man who happens to look their way, the man isn’t responsible for his reaction, she is. So here we have another way for a man to avoid responsibility for his own actions. ‘She made me do it’…’the devil made me do it’…how much difference really is there?

  • http://www.eaandfaith.blogspot.com Hannah Thomas

    This man is truly sick.

  • http://amnottheonlyone.com Maureen O’Danu

    I’ve always referred to it as ‘special snowflake’ syndrome. He’s special and different, just like every other snowflake (privileged white male). The justifications they come up with are seriously mindboggling.

  • Meggie

    The sad thing is he doesn’t show any sign of remorse. He is saying I’m such as good Christian, I’ve done all these wonderful things in my life, it was because I was depressed but he has not got as far as “and it was a really bad thing I did and it hurt someone”. Years of actions that helped society are something I might consider were I on a parol board and the person showed that truly understood the severity of what they had done. I don’t see that here.

  • http://judahslion.blogspot.com/ Rick Frueh

    Look, I was a faithful bank teller for decades, and then I became depressed and embezzeled funds. I am not like those other embezzelers who just did it for the money!
    or
    A bank teller even has a higher standard.