Christianity is a nuanced worldview.
The scripture is sometimes vague and difficult to understand.
For example:
“If a brother or sister sins against you, petition the Southern Baptist Convention with your grievance; and if they repent, continue to criticize them for being part of the ongoing problem of misogyny. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them but never let them forget their wickedness. Also…accuse others of the same sin by virtue of their gender or position. – Lk 17:3–4
Passages like that are why we have upheaval among evangelicals.
Here’s the headline from WaPo:
“Prominent Southern Baptist leader removed as seminary president following controversial remarks about abused women”
You can read the whole article but that’s what hateful bigots do.
Compassionate people get all they need to know from headlines!
I’m compassionate.
So, I’m applauding the removal of Paige Patterson as president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I sympathize and I agree with the victims, the majority of whom say that until yesterday…
…we hadn’t even heard of Paige Patterson.
But we saw his name appear in a sentence with the word abuse.
Thank heaven there was a petition!
Petitions are the Biblical method for administering church discipline.
(Look it up. I can’t do all your research for you.)
Thom Rainer, President of Lifeway, which gives him the seat opposite Jesus next to God, said:
“We pray that this moment will be powerful and pivotal for all of us to stand boldly with all women who are victims of any form of abuse, and to stand together as the body of Christ saying ‘no’ to any type of abuse of women at any time and under any circumstance.”
Hmmm….
No to ANY type of abuse at ANY time under ANY circumstance.
Give me a minute.
Can I think of ANY situations where that position might itself be used to abuse someone…?
Could it be problematic to renounce the word “abuse” while leaving it completely undefined?
Let me think…
…
Nope!
This is a great idea.
J.D. Greear said:
Abuse can never be tolerated, minimized, hidden, or ‘handled internally.’ Those in leadership who turn a blind eye toward abuse are complicit with it and must be held accountable.
Not bad, but in my humble opinion, this should be stronger.
EVERY leader is complicit in ANY circumstance where ANY woman claims ANY type of abuse.
Now we’re talking!
Statements like this fall right in line with scripture:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone but do not shy from punishing a brother who says something that offends you in a sermon. – Ro 12:17–18
For the sake of love and unity, let’s torch abusers like Patterson.
Can you feel the healing starting?
One Response
I’m a hateful bigot – I read the article.
What a stupid witch hunt!
I remember how hard it was for Penn State to get around to firing Joe Paterno after he had raped young boys for decades.
This revered, elderly conservative has said things that have been said for ages. He’s not PC, and some of his advice not so great – but to pillory him in public like this is stupid, and brings to mind why the Lord says not to do things this way to fellow Christians. Very hypocritical that the staff is talking about him and fired him publicly; and then turn around and toss out a student for tweeting about him. The gossipy council says it wasn’t right for the student to discuss it in public. (?)
I’m a woman. Only a couple of things he said are annoying in the way an old fart says something without thinking. I consider this bunch of self-righteous, hysterical snowflake, PC drama queens to be acting just like their non-Christian, militant, nasty counterparts, and are being waaaay more abusive to him than he (n)ever was to them.
Sad…