More on Robert Hymers

A friend of mine read my blog entry about the weird church in LA (entry titled Freaky Phone Calls), and told me that she too had a similar experience. In fact, she has gone to their church once. Like I was planning to do, this friend of mine (I will call her Jane to keep her anonymous) went to one of their events with her friend.

Basically, she regrets going because it was a complete waste of time. Apparently, they make girls wear dresses and little hats and make guys wear suits. They had her guy friend change his clothes into suits when they got there. The service, in Jane’s opinion was kind of cultish.

Prior to her going, Jane told Mrs. Hymers that she didn't want to go anymore especially after being told that she couldn't bring her cell phone. Then Mrs. Hymers responded angrily saying something like, “I’m sick and tired of you guys lying and making up excuses!! You told you’d go right?! WELL, then you lied to me. Did you or did you not lie to me?” and so forth. Mrs. Hymers made Jane feel bad, so Jane said she’d go.

Couple days after Jane went to their “party,” Mrs. Hymers called Jane again, and told her that she was expecting Jane to come again. Jane responded politely saying that she was already going to a church. Then Mrs. Hymers raised her voice and started talking rudely. So Jane tried to fight back, but she said she should have just hung up. I don’t know what Mrs. Hymers told Jane, but Jane said she’s never been talked to in such a way by anyone in her life, especially from a pastor’s wife, and for telling her that she already had a church to go to.

So, thanks to Jane for saving me trouble.

I did a quick Google search on Robert Hymers again, and found a recent blog entry of of someone who had been part of the “church” a while back. Apparently, as everybody had expected, according to this blog entry, Hymers is a cult leader, or at least he used to be a cult leader in the 70’s. Some people may remember him for this incident in 2003:

In Los Angeles, R.L. Hymers Jr., the pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle called on his 400 member congregation in a prayer for the death of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennen, Jr. because he supports a woman's right to have an abortion. He also ordered up an airplane to circle overhead trailing the message "Pray for Death: Baby-Killer Brennen." "I think it may be that we're on the avant garde: we're doing something that others will do later," said pastor Hymers.

I think I’ve heard of something like this before. Well, he wasn’t the only one who did something like this though. According to this blog I found, Hymers’ group recruits at UCLA (and probably on other campuses) during finals week, “exploiting the emotional vulnerability of students during this stressful time.” I guess that’s what they were doing to me few weeks ago. It was in fact finals week when I met that guy who I gave my phone number to.

So watch out everybody! Especially during finals week! Don’t give your number to some stranger inviting you to a “party.” If you want to be sure, ask the person if they are part of Baptist Tabernacle or with Hymers.

If you ask me, I actually don’t regret giving my phone number (despite the uncomfortable talk with Mrs. Hymers), because this was such a learning experience. I don’t think I would have ever been exposed to a real cult otherwise. I’m also grateful that I didn’t actually go to their “party,” thanks to my friend Jane.

If you want to read more about Hymers or the blog I found, just Google the paragraph about Brennen (copy and paste the entire passage). The author of the blog had some interesting things to say, since she lived with the cult for two years when she was a teenager.