[Morgana]

Except for one thing. I know many of the girls who went to New Bethany and they all say the same thing, this shit did happen. I’ve met a lot of adults who went to schools like these. Sad part is? A lot of them are atheists now. It makes me cry sometimes. This is why I posted this story, it needs to get out.

[Wallace T.]

While I agree with independent fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) on most doctrinal matters, it has been my observation that IFB churches and institutions tend to legalism. Technically, like all Protestants, they believe we are saved by grace alone and not by works. In practice, however, many IFB pastors and churches are works oriented. The focus is not on grace, but on publicly living a clean lifestyle, which becomes de facto works. An old joke a conservative Presbyterian once told is that if a young woman went for an abortion and if she drank a beer to steady her nerves before the baby was killed, the IBF pastor would be more upset at the beer drinking than the killing of the baby. While this is an exaggeration (as IBF churches are now anti-abortion), the focus on rule keeping has the effect of denigrating the role of grace.