I grew up as a PK/MK in a southern/independent baptist church. my parents were very strict with my siblings and I (I’m the 2nd born of 4), we were not allowed to talk, sleep, or play during church. We had to sit in the front row, where my dad could see us while he was preaching. Being pastors kids there was a certain standard we had to maintain, we could not be normal kids because “the pastor’s kids are supposed to be the example for other kids.” I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior at age 4 (I did not use the KJV Bible then), was baptized at age 6, and was called to preach at age 10. I lived my whole life desperately trying to please my dad, if I did anything wrong I felt as if I was not a Christian any more. My dad moved from Southern Baptist (after seeing much legality and tradition there) to the IFB world when I turned 13, During this time my older sister was diagnosed with Lupus, and spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals. Being fairly new in the IFB movement, we actually had some pastors say she had gotten sick because my dad was in sin, while it was simply all part of God’s plan. During this time my dad met some pastors in the IFB movement, we began to go to the youth conference held in Hammond, Indiana every year. When my dad learned of Hyles-Anderson College, he began pushing me to attend, and because I was living to please my dad I decided I was going to go. Until the moment I began to attend Hyles-Anderson, everything in the IFB movement, the preachings the “fire and zeal” for God was all appealing to me. After being given a list of rules that I had to follow (some of which I thought were very sexist and had no biblical principals whatsoever), I began to question some things in the IFB movement. One of the rules the college had was that the men had to be clean shaven, to bring glory and honor to God, something which I had a problem with. Christ had a beard, so did that mean He was not being honoring to God? Preachers would say from the pulpit that women in pants were in sin, and some even insinuating that a woman wearing pants was either a lesbian or a prostitute. I heard some pastors say that if a church did not give a love offering then either that pastor or the entire church was in sin. What really started my journey away from fundamentalism was that one day a lady in the college saw a non KJV Bible sitting on a counter, and made a face as if she had just seen the Devil himself, she picked up that Bible, said it was a piece of garbage that no one could be saved with, and then she threw it in the trash. If one could only be saved through the KJV Bible only, then none of the disciples, Paul, nor any of the heroes of the Bible would be saved and in Heaven. I heard one of the church bus captains use curse words on various occasions, and saw things in the “Christian” college that I think should never have happened. I believe we are all sinners saved by grace, and that the IFB movement is very hypocritical. Since getting out of Hyles-Anderson, my dad has noticed things in the IFB movement that he is also not in agreement with, and now many consider our church a liberal and sinful church, but want nothing more that to tell the world we are just that, sinners saved by grace, desiring that the whole world come to the saving knowledge of Christ. Thank you pastors for what you are doing, keep up the good work, and God bless y’all