For those who didn't attend HAC/FBCH

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RAIDER

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I realize that a few posters on the HAC forum never attended HAC or FBCH.  As you look through the threads and read the stories (some fact, some possible fact, and some just not true) you have to wonder what kind of a crazy place we were in.  I can tell by your posts that you are thinking, "Why would these people stay in a college or church that had these issues?"  Possibly we can take this thread and shed some light on the situation. 

Keep in mind that many of us were at HAC/FBCH during different time periods.  HAC started in 1972 as a college to train full time IFB Christian workers.  I believe HAC now has over 7000 graduates.  Some of us were college students.  Some were children of staff members.  Some just attended the church.  Everyone had their own perspective of what went on at the college and church.

Hacker Nation, let's use this thread to give a glimpse of why we were at HAC/FBCH and why we stayed.  I believe it is very important to only share what we knew at the time we were there.  Feelings that we have developed since we left should not be a part of this thread.  Let's do our best to enlighted our non-Hacker brethren.
 
My parents arrived in 1973 where I grew up in the system from 2nd grade through college. Both of my parents were on faculty/staff at the college the entire time I was there. Though I realized there were some "quirks" I never really understood (and in some cases blew off alleged rumor) of the stuff that was going on at the time. About my sophomore year of college, being from a family on the "inside" I started to see things. The two greatest impact items on me were when the Dave Hyles rumor had been confirmed and when I found the bugging device outside my dad's office. At that point I realized we weren't in Kansas.
 
I attended HAC from '79-'83.  I felt the Lord wanted me to go into full-time Christian work.  My parents received The Sword of the Lord in the mail.  HAC would have full page ads explaining what they believed and their mission.  My parents always said, "RAIDER, this is the type of college we would like you to consider". 

I took a couple of college trips to TTU, BJU, and PCC.  Most of my friends attended these colleges.  My parents took me to visit HAC.  Compared to the other colleges, everyone was so friendly.  I attended Johnny Pope's class.  Who wouldn't love that?!!  The chapel service was so much more exciting and alive than the chapels at the other colleges. 

We attended FBCH for the first time.  Wow!!  It was a service like no other that I have ever attended.  The preaching was practical and alive.  The singing was loud and encouraging.  People were getting saved and baptized.  Chairs were being set up in the aisles.  I had never witnessed anything like this.

Knowing that I wanted to be an IFB in full-time Christian work, I knew this was the place for me!  The practical training that I would receive here blew the other colleges away.  I chose HAC.

While I was a student I never heard any criticism of Dr. Hyles.  His preaching and teaching was fantastic and I truly felt loved by him.  It seemed like he did everything the right way.  Dave Hyles was the youth director.  I never heard any rumors about his "messing around".  Dave taught Church Ed at HAC and was very interesting and a great speaker.

The teachers at HAC were soul winners.  Many of them worked bus routes, taught Sunday School, or worked in other ministries.  Some were very good teachers; others tried but it was not their calling.  I am embarrassed to say this, but Joe Combs was a fantastic teacher.  He did have a touch of arrogancy, but students flocked to his classes.  During my time at HAC I never heard one negative thing about his character.

My sister came to HAC a couple of years after me.  She wanted to be an unaccredited teacher in an IFB Christian school.  HAC has never hid the fact that they want to train full time IFB workers to serve in IFB churches.  They have never hid the fact that they are unaccredited.  They have never hid the fact that they are training young people to pastor churches of like belief to FBCH.  I knew ALL OF THIS going in.

No, I did not agree with every rule.  Yes, I broke my share of the rules of which I did not agree.  :)  No, I did not agree with every process and policy, or even with some of the people in authority posititon.  Yes, I made it to graduation.

Bottom line for me - I never saw or heard anything that would make me question Dr. Hyles, Dave Hyles, or any staff member's character.  HAC was where I chose to go, and HAC is where I chose from which to graduate.  These were my thoughts and views while a student at HAC.   

 
 
My sister attended a few years before me. She had a nursing degree and wanted to go to a Christian college ( I am sure it was to find a man!!) She married a good guy (still married today, two children, one Grandchild with three more on the way....yes, daughter is having twins!!) She took a lot of crap from the nursing staff, and she was a dorm sup for a year or two-saw a lot of stuff. Her and her husband left in 82 (went to work for Steve Froeke-who now works for alumni at HAC) I came in fall of 82. Had great roommates my freshman year, loved the bus route. Not really sure what kept me there, I wanted to leave a couple times, but was afraid I would be out of God's will and be a quitter. Between my sophomore year and Junior year I stayed for summer school, my dad broke his back, was going to come home, but my mom said to stay. Then I started dated my future husband about that time, so that kept me at school.
 
I was a country kid from Colorado who grew up in IFB churches, but none of them had as strong an emphasis on soul-winning visitation and bus routes as FBC. We listened to Brother Hyles on the radio, and I was in my last year of high school when HAC opened up for the 1972-1973 school year. Many of my friends in my Christian high school went to BJU, but four of us came to HAC in 1973. My reasons for choosing HAC over BJU included the Gospel emphasis and the size of the school. In my mind at the time, BJU was way too big for a country boy like me. I majored in Secondary Ed, worked UPS, filled my schedule with summer school, and graduated in three years. Then I got my master's my fourth year. Smellin Coffee's mother taught my literature, and his father was in several of my classes. I was involved in bus route for three years and Fisherman's Club my last year. I did my student teaching at the academy at Baptist City the entire spring semester of 1976, all the while still working nights at UPS in Chicago. Some of you who were academy students at that time may remember my difficulty in staying awake during high school chapel. I would have to stand up in the back to stay awake because I was only getting 3 hrs of sleep each day. During the four years I was there, 1973-1977, I did not agree with everything I was taught, but I did not see or hear of any of the immorality that became known later.

The education I received prepared me for my teaching career which spanned 22 years. In those years I taught at every grade level from 1st grade through college. I taught in six different ministries, and I can honestly say I loved each one, from the one room school house to the Bible college. Just as surely as God called me into education, He moved me out 14 years ago. In my 58 years I have always attended IFB churches, and only two of them, for a total of 7 years, have been what are commonly called IFBX churches.

Why did I stay at HAC? Because I did not have a reason not to stay. I was too busy with my studies, work, and ministries to see the inconsistencies and problems that became evident to me several years after I was gone from there. From the time I graduated from HAC I have never gone back and I doubt if anyone on staff there now would remember me.

My 5 children have all gone to Christian colleges, and my oldest son is working on his PhD at Clemson. Not once did I consider sending any of them to HAC. Knowing what HAC has become, I would not go there myself now, but as Raider has said, this is a different time period. HAC of the mid 1970's was a much different place.

 
I stayed because the word "quit" was not in any dictionary on campus. 

I attended HAC from fall of '82 until graduation in '86.  I stayed because I knew that's what God wanted me to do.  I remember being somewhat disgruntled for part of my junior year.  Smellin's story about finding the bug in his dad's office reminds me that we were convinced Raider's CF had our dorm rooms bugged - or at least certain dorm rooms.  We'd even joke and laugh, and hold out hands, asking our friends to repeat some things as though our rings had little listening devices in them.  I guess we had junioritis. 

I do not remember hearing much bad during that time.  I remember wondering why the Evans and Godfrey daughters attended TTU, but then I also realized God doesn't call everyone to HAC (or any other single place).  I do remember during my junior year (that junioritis again, I guess) hearing that DH was "caught in the act" in Texas, and I dug my "Purity" sermon tape out of my cassette tape collection to throw it away!  It made me sick to think about it.  I also remember feeling very bad for Paula.  She had made an impression on me the one Youth Conference I had attended when I was 16 years old.

I knew by about 1994 that my own children would likely never attend HAC - at least not under my recommendation.  It had little to do with the scandals of around that time and a little before. I will not bore you by giving my reasoning. However, had any of our children decided to and convinced us that it was God's will for their lives, we probably would not have forbidden their attending, but I also knew it was highly unlikely that would ever be an argument. 
 
I went through the public school system and I had never been to a Christian college. I couldn't wait to really attend a Christian college my youth pastor recommended me going at least one year. I came in the fall of 1974 and loved every minute. I started working on Buckets and Bows cleaning classrooms and bathrooms. I wanted to be able to teach my children. I was a Elementary Education major and would go on to teach First Grade for 19 years. I met my husband in 1976 and we married in 1977. We have been married 37 years. He is my best friend. We left the college in 1983 to work in south Florida. We have been here over 30 years. We have a wonderful church and friends. My husband worked on security at the college/church...and that is another story 8)
 
My husband worked on security at the college/church...and that is another story 8)
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I look forward to hearing that story.
 
These are very good.  Thank you all for sharing.
 
Baptist City Holdout said:
And so far everybody has stayed on topic!
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I notice you haven't testified yet.  :)
 
I did not attend HAC (besides some online courses) nor FBCH.... This is very interesting to me your experiences, as I have often wondered why some would stay and put up with it.
Let me give you a somewhat unique look at how I saw FBCH as an outsider...
I remember seeing the busses, and how they would act. It all seemed a little phony to me. Also the way the women dressed we always thought was odd. We always considered FBCH to be a cult, it was VERY obvious that there was brainwashing going on. I remember we could pick out FBCH people from a crowd they just stood out.
I also remember them seeming to be aggressive and not wanting to take no for an answer, even going as far as bribing you to come with them, which as a kid was creepy. Heh, I remember when I saw them coming door to door one day I went to my room and put on Slayer and turned up the volume full blast I stood at the top of the stairs and waited.... AS soon as the door bell went off I RACED down the stairs ripped open the front door and screamed "WHAT??????!!!!!"... They started their spiel and I screamed "WE ARE SATAN WORSHIPERS!!!" and slammed the door in their faces... I will never forget the look they had when I said that, to this day (20 years later) you will see them walk down the street and go right past the house.... I saw them a few weeks ago and said something to my stepdad, and he said "No... they never come by they always pass us for some reason".... Then I told him that and he got a good laugh.
But back to the main thing, as an outsider the whole FBCH world was like an alien race here, they all seemed off to us. Even the adults would talk about Hyles and his thing there.
 
Techmedic, I am sorry you felt we were phony. But most of us were sincere with our desire to serve the Lord.  And you are right, looking back it would look like a cult.
 
kaba said:
Techmedic, I am sorry you felt we were phony. But most of us were sincere with our desire to serve the Lord.  And you are right, looking back it would look like a cult.
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Total agreement. Dr. Hyles even preached a message once about being a cult.  (but at least we weren't rock-music loving, Satan worshipers like those people on that one street.  ;)  That's funny story, Techmedic.)
 
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