In case you missed it, my friends and readers, there’s been a whole lot of um, stuff hitting the fan this week in the Christian world because of some not-so-new but recently re-publicized and not particularly pleasant made by old school yet influential Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson, a man who shaped the SBC into what it is today, and who is currently the president of the Southern Baptist Southwestern Seminary. It seems Mr. Patterson believes a Christian woman should stay in an abusive marriage and submit to her husband rather than seek a divorce.
It comes down to, once again, someone in the church putting the sanctity of MARRIAGE over the sanctity of a HUMAN BEING. Namely, a woman who is being abused by her husband. And it is quite simply, wrong.
The comments made by Patterson in a 2000 speech were published last week on the Baptist Blogger. This Washington Post article summarizes them well, but here’s a fun screenshot from the Baptist Blogger as well.
In an audio clip also published on the Baptist Blogger, Patterson goes continues with a troubling anecdote. The Washington Post says,
He goes on to tell the story of a woman who came to him about abuse, and how he counseled her to pray at night beside her bed, quietly, for God to intervene. The woman, he said, came to him later with two black eyes. “She said: ‘I hope you’re happy.’ And I said ‘Yes … I’m very happy,’ ” because it turned out her husband had heard her quiet prayers and come for the first time to church the next day, he said.
Is is just me who finds that story kinda GROSS?
Naturally, Patterson has posted some “That’s not really what I meant” non-apologies since then. I read them as well and wasn’t overly impressed. I’d say he’s #sorrynotsorry.
For-tun-ate-ly, some other evangelicals have come out to say, “Um, hey, actually, we don’t advise women to SUBMIT to being abused and stay in an abusive marriage.”
Like my girl Beth Moore, for instance: