Maybe, one of the biggest memories that any young believer may have had was Chick Publications. Some people may have picked up a Chick Tract such as This Was Your Life and got saved. Unfortunately, what came with it was the story of the late Alberto R. Rivera Sr. I believed the story for more than 10 years. I conveniently ignored the signs that Rivera was indeed a fake. Some of my alternatives were (1) a Christian minister got misled by fake information, (2) the Jesuits mastered some wonderful scheme (and that’s how the Alberto series’ comic books do it), and (3) there must be a well-cloaked Jesuit coadjutor or infiltrator somewhere.
I was reminded of the late Tony Alamo who was engaged in severe sexual misconduct. Rivera Sr. held a six-day seminar. I tried to listen to his sermon. It was very powerful indeed. So powerful I felt, “Could this guy be a fraud? No way he could is a fraud. He sounded so sincere.” I felt the charges against Rivera Sr. were Jesuit-made schemes, maybe someone in the bank was a Jesuit plant made to make fake charges, the policemen were instructed by the Jesuits, etc. Researching about Jesuit conspiracy theories left me paranoid–that’s why I stopped entirely. Both Alamo and Rivera Sr. tried to use the Jesuits to defend their innocence. Rivera Sr. was also documented to be a false accuser aside from his used-to-be well-hidden adulterous lifestyle.
The same can be true for the late Dr. Jack F. Hyles and the late Robert “Bob” Gray Sr.–both of who had charges of sexual immorality. Hyles was staunchly anti-Catholic. That’s why I think Hyles as a Jesuit spy or Opus Dei wasn’t real. However, what can’t be denied was the First Baptist Church in Hammond and Trinity Baptist Church were all involved in cover-ups. Since I used to read Chick Publications a lot–I wanted to believe that the stories were just Jesuit schemes. I used to believe that the victims who testified against them were paid for by the Jesuits. I felt it was just another nasty Jesuit scheme to ruin Baptist churches like how Rivera Sr. described it. Yet, Rivera Sr., Hyles, and Gray Sr. were all pastors who were far from blameless. They should’ve been disqualified from the office because of their immorality.
Some wolves in the Baptist circles would even falsely accuse people of being Jesuits-in-disguise or Jesuit agents! Rivera, while he was a Baptist pastor, also did the same thing especially when his credibility was questioned. There’s also Baptist pastor, Eric Jon Phelps, who wrote Vatican Assassins who does the same thing. Many times, the evidence is often flimsy or superficial. I admit that I graduated from a Catholic university but that doesn’t make me a Vatican shill. A person can even graduate from a Jesuit-founded university and not be a Jesuit. The evidence can be rather shaky. Even worse, when questioned, these fools will tag the person as a “Jesuit coadjutor”. The credibility is shaky at best.
Right now, I don’t want to focus on the Jesuits like I used to. Chick Publications caused a significant amount of damage to my well-being via its materials. The same can go for the very Hylestic site, Jesus-is-Savior, by David J. Stewart. These conspiracy theories are a waste of time. As Pastor David Cloud of Way of Life Literature says–we should just ditch conspiracy theories together. I even want to blame conspiracy theories as to why some Baptist circles engaged in cover-ups just like the Vatican does.
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