Baptist Anatomy

When my younger son was still in elementary school, years into my exceedingly strange life, my pastor decided that the best time to have a series of Wednesday night services devoted to the topic of spiritual warfare was during the summer time, when the elementary school age kids did not have their own classes to attend but instead were sitting in the main auditorium with the grown ups. Just when my younger son had gotten comfortable being home alone for short periods of time, along came these Wednesday nights filled with lectures about the supposed demonic activity that the true believers need to watch out for. This was not a call to pray about the pride, greed, or selfishness in your life, to strive to become a better person - instead the foe was Satan and his manifestations not unlike those found in popular Hollywood folklore. In fact, it now makes me wonder how much of this material was gleaned from those very Hollywood movies that were often mentioned in unfavorable ways as something worldly to avoid. All of a sudden bad dreams weren't just bad dreams anymore, but rather the dark side working in the believer's mind.  Sinful thoughts were put there by a cheerful little demon who had been watching a particular Christian and now was making his attack chess move to destroy this person along with his or her godly testimony. There were voices to be heard and lies to be believed, dark motives and supernatural events. Reading your horoscope in a magazine became equal to opening the door for Satan, along with countless many other equally ludicrous ideas about Yugioh cards, Pokemon, Harry Potter and other equally harmless things. This  went on summer week after week. One particular Wednesday night the holy man of God went so far as to tell his captivated audience (after all, when you can't endulge in Hollywood movies, hearing these stories had to make up for lost entertainment value) that he once witnessed how a possessed human being's head spun around on his neck in a complete 360 degree circle. "Yes, it doesn't seem possible but I saw it with my own eyes, you can believe it or not." We sat there and took it in. Sure, I was upset about the timing of this topic, as my son no longer was willing to stay home alone or even spend time in the basement by himself any longer. I felt it was inappropriate to speak of these things with children present, but we took it in without questioning. I now look back on this particular episode and I cannot explain why we did not simply walk out at this point. The impossibility of a head doing a complete turnaround was not awakening us to the fact that we were wasting our lives on a bunch of nonsense. I have since mentioned this instance to a few of my former fellow church members and one responded by pointing out that most of what was said made sense though, so as to simply overlook this ludicrous statement. I take issue with that. A preposterous statement as this is an indicator of the level of insanity found in the teachings of this man. I would not entrust myself to the care of a doctor who makes one severe, obvious, outrageous mistake because he doesn't make them all the time. Here we were, taking our kids to church on a summer evening we could have spent on recreation, instead making an effort to "be where we need to be" - to expose them and us to a lie? During a message that warned us of the lies of Satan?? Another member just pointed out that she was going there because she loved the people. Again, I don't love anyone so much as to expose my children to this lunacy. So why were we not walking out? I know it wasn't for love or mercy towards a pastor with bad ideas. Why didn't we walk out when our first pastor said from the pulpit that the gays needed to be put into the closet and a match be struck? A match be struck?! Then I still had the sense to question the man after the message, but he refused to back down from his remark and I stayed. His church is no longer open, thankfully, and we left there eventually, but I was very fearful of what might happen to us until we found another place of equal insanity where we could raise our family away from the perceived dangers of the world. The pastor of the spinning heads also recommended we subscribe to the "Revival Fires", a monthly publication of sermons in print. One of their articles pointed how AIDS could be caught from a toilet seat! That ended my subscription to that particular publication. Later on, after Matt Jarrell, one of the preachers within the circle of Revival Fires committed suicide in a jail cell where he was held for rape, the paper published a eulogy that only mentioned him as a worthy man of God (see below for the text of the eulogy). I believe Matt Jarrell to have been a serial rapist. He carried a rape kit in his truck. I have forgone including a link to news articles about the man as you can easily google them by yourself. The more I read about Matt, the more I became aware of a long pattern of deceit. We had met him once years earlier at Mt. Salem Revival Grounds where he preached a message. My husband talked to him after the preaching and walked away from the short conversation stunned, realizing there was something deeply wrong with the man. This never seemed to have become obvious to those that invited him to preach and spent more time around him. When we heard about Matt's death and the situation he had been caught in, we had already left the independent fundamental Baptist teachings behind.
In short, there were indicators that we were not in good hands. I mentioned only a few of them yet. They should have been enough to send as running. My mother who for years visited us yearly had no problems spotting them and pointing them out. I would not listen. I had bought into the fear of the world, the belief that we needed the church's protection from it. It was very much a lifestyle of fear we had come to accept as the right way.


Here is the text of said eulogy:
My heart is heavy today in the loss of a dear friend, Pastor Matt Jarrell. There is a lot of unsolved mystery concerning the last few days of his life. Rather than try to solve mysteries, let me mention what I know to be facts. He was a preacher whose messages were greatly used of God to encourage, challenge and inspire folks to serve the Lord and keep on keeping on, even when times are tough. He loved his wife and children dearly and spoke almost non-stop about them when we were together. He was one of the most generous and compassionate men that I have ever known and went the extra mile to be a blessing to me, as well as many other people, more times than I can count. He had a tremendous burden for church planting and was actively involved in the establishment of several local churches. Every place that he served he built something rather than tearing something down. He labored to win souls, to salvage marriages, to recover backsliders, to grow new converts to maturity, to build a great work with high standards, and he took a very strong stand against sin and corruption at every level of society, including government. Everything I have seen and known to be true only elevate my respect and deepened my friendship with him. I, along with many others, will miss his friendship and fellowship, and the cause of Christ will feel the impact of his absence. Please join me in prayer for his precious family, which includes his wife and four children, all of whom I know well and love dearly. They are a godly, close-knit family. Please also pray for his parents and other family members who will feel his loss keenly. If you would like to be a blessing to the family, please contact me through our office. Revival Fires! P.O. Box 245, Claysburg, PA 16625 (814)239-2813″