I’ve read that anyone in the Southern Baptist Convention that disagreed with Patterson doesn’t LAST REAL LONG, so it is heartening to see that Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, the SBC’s publishing and retail arm, bravely tweeted this week:
The ongoing discussion over recent comments by fellow Southern Baptist Paige Patterson remind me we live in a politically charged environment, both in our nation and in our convention. Any statement is almost immediately construed to be a statement of political posturing. Such is neither my intent nor my desire. However I cannot be silent on the issue of abuse of women. My silence becomes a reverberating echo of indifference at best. There is no level or type of abuse of women that is acceptable. We have been called by God to show honor and respect to all women and girls. They are our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters, and our wives. We thank God for them. And I stand with all who say ‘no’ to any type of abuse of women at any time and under any circumstance.
And of course, Christian marriage expert Gary Thomas wrote one of the most popular articles EVER published on this very website, saying:
“If the cost of saving a marriage is destroying a woman, the cost is too high. God loves people more than he loves institutions.”
When recounting abuse that a woman he counseled had suffered at the hands of her porn-addicted husband, in her abusive marriage, he said, “This is monstrous and vile. This woman needs to be protected from such grotesque abuse, and if divorce is the only weapon to protect her, then the church should thank God such a weapon exists.”
Y’all I am SUUUUUPER pro-marriage. I only have eighteen years of ups and downs to prove it, but I am married to a loving man, not an abuser.
The church must STOP using the institution of marriage to imprison women in abusive situations. It must stop shaming them for seeking help when they are being constantly degraded.
God made women in His own image, and marriage to be a picture of Christ’s love for the church. Let’s stop helping his daughters be degraded. YES, save marriages! YES! But save PEOPLE first. No one should have to endure black eye after black eye in the name of “submission.” That is not love, and that is NOT Christian marriage. Pretending that it is, will only drive already broken women farther and farther away from a God whose children have smeared His name.
Yes, my fellow women, we love our husbands, we honor our husbands, but NO, my sisters, we do NOT submit to abuse.
Of any kind.
