Voyle Glover

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Voyle Glover, private attorney and former Deputy Prosecutor for the State of Indiana in Crown Point, IN is the author of Fundamental Seduction: The Jack Hyles Case,[1] the book which, more than any other, gathered and presented evidence that corruption and sexual immorality existed in the single most powerful church in Christian Fundamentalism in the 1970s and 1980s.[citation needed]

Glover's book, self published, followed Vic Nischik's memoir, Wizard of God[2], which documented the affair that Nischik alleged his pastor, Jack Hyles, had conducted with Nischik's wife Jennie. Where Nischik's book is a personal account, replete with evidence he had gathered to bolster his own story of suffering the loss of his wife's affections to Jack Hyles, pastor of the mega-church First Baptist Church of Hammond Indiana, Voyle Glover's book is much broader in scope. Glover detailed numerous incidents of deception, manipulation, self-serving sermons, sexual sins, and violence that he alleged had occurred at the church or had been committed among the elite of the church and hidden by Jack Hyles. Glover's book includes testimony from survivors of manipulation and intimidation, court documents, personal interviews with experts and investigators, and the reasoning of an accomplished attorney.[citation needed]

Glover, a Sunday School teacher in the church for almost 20 years, gives a brief account of the process he underwent in becoming convinced that things were amiss at First Baptist Church of Hammond. But his book, overall, is a global look at a pattern of the abuse of authority at First Baptist Church.[citation needed]

Glover joined Evangelist Robert Sumner and Vic Nischik at times to speak in favor of insisting upon purity in church office. He was also the narrator who provided the introduction to the Preying from the Pulpit documentary, produced by Detroit news station WJBK, when it was released on videotape[3].

Glover's extensive research and expertise in matters of church crimes resulted in the commercial publication of Protecting Your Church Against Sexual Predators in 2005,[4] an even handed book of legal advice to churches on how to prevent and, if necessary, deal with charges of child molesting, legally and ethically.[citation needed]

Yet, in spite of his achievements as an author, or even as a lawyer, Voyle Glover is best known as the champion of victims of clergy abuse in Christian Fundamentalism. Almost 20 years after the publication of Fundamental Seduction, Glover has ably championed the cause of alleged victims and also has acted at times as mediator between disputing factions of Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. To his credit, he is often considered a friend even to those people who continue to support the authoritarian style of church rule that Glover condemned in his book.[citation needed]

Yet it is Glover himself, along with Vic Nischik, who created the current schisms that have fragmented Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. His work has been followed up by many others, including James Spurgeon[5] and Jeri Massi, and most recently by the Baptist arm of SNAP[6][7], the once exclusively Roman Catholic organization designed to advocate for victims of clergy abuse. The reformers of Christian Fundamentalism continue to act in the model set by Nischik and Glover, creating a populist, grass roots movement made up of self published books, mostly memoirs of abuse, and direct address to victims, with calls to clergy to impose more stringent rules of accountability across Christian Fundamentalism.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Voyle A Glover. Fundamental seduction: The Jack Hyles Case. Schrerville, In. : Brevia Pub., 1990
  2. ^ Victor Nischik. The Wizard of God: My life with Jack Hyles. Buchanan, Mi.: Sychar Pub. Co., 1990
  3. ^ Audio of this documentary, for which extensive permissions search was conducted, is available at http://www.jeriwho.net/audio/audio.htm, in five parts
  4. ^ Voyle Glover. Protecting Your Church Against Sexual Predators. Grand Rapids, MI : Kregel Publications, 2005.
  5. ^ James Spurgeon. The Texas Baptist Crucible: Tales from the Temple. PublishAmerica. January 30, 2006.
  6. ^ http://www.snapnetwork.org/
  7. ^ http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm