Patterson’s crimes against feminism.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Christian feminist lynch mob went after Dr. Paige Patterson for multiple crimes against feminism.  From what I have found, there are three specific charges.

Charge #1:  Objectifying women.

Patterson’s first crime against feminism was caught on film. The video is short and worth viewing:

Charge #2:  Not assuming an accused man is guilty. 

From the Washington Post Southern Baptist leader encouraged a woman not to report alleged rape to police and told her to forgive assailant, she says:

She said she had been dating the man she alleges raped her and had allowed him into her apartment the night she said he assaulted her. The two were kissing when he forced himself on her, she said. She said she reported it the next morning to the administrator who handled student discipline. That administrator then reported the incident to Patterson, she said, and she was required to meet with Patterson and three or four male seminarians she said were proteges of Patterson’s. She said she doesn’t remember the specific words Patterson used but that he wanted to know every detail of the rape.

…

The woman said she was put on probation for two years, but she doesn’t know why, saying it was perhaps because she was with another man alone in her apartment, which was against seminary policy.

We only have the woman’s account of the story.  However, from her account it sounds like Patterson took the complaint seriously but after carefully listening to the details wasn’t convinced that it was really a case of rape.  Not assuming that an accused man is guilty is itself a crime against feminism, no matter how ambiguous the circumstances.

Charge #3:  Offering biblical instead of Christian feminist counsel to wives with abusive husbands.

Charge number three stems from Patterson’s comments here (alternate link):

This one is a bit more complex than the other two.  First, there are multiple parts to this.  For women who aren’t facing serious abuse, Patterson said he counsels wives to pray for their husbands and to remain submissive as much as possible.  For serious abuse he counsels that wives separate but not divorce.  Patterson is on solid biblical ground here on both counts (1 Pet 3 1-6, 1 Cor 7 10-11), but this doesn’t matter to the very mob he helped create.   His advice is heresy against their true religion (feminism), and that heresy cannot go unpunished.

The other reason I find this last charge more complex is that something is very off in the story he tells to illustrate his point that 1 Pet 3 1-6 can actually work.  Here is a transcript of this part of the audio from a critic of Patterson:

I had a woman who was in a church that I served, and she was being subject to some abuse, and I told her, I said, “All right, what I want you to do is, every evening I want you to get down by your bed just as he goes to sleep, get down by the bed, and when you think he’s just about asleep, you just pray and ask God to intervene, not out loud, quietly,” but I said, “You just pray there.” And I said, “Get ready because he may get a little more violent, you know, when he discovers this.”

And sure enough, he did. She came to church one morning with both eyes black. And she was angry at me and at God and the world, for that matter. And she said, “I hope you’re happy.”

And I said, “Yes ma’am, I am.” And I said, “I’m sorry about that, but I’m very happy.”

And what she didn’t know when we sat down in church that morning was that her husband had come in and was standing at the back, first time he ever came. And when I gave the invitation that morning, he was the first one down to the front. And his heart was broken, he said, “My wife’s praying for me, and I can’t believe what I did to her.” And he said, “Do you think God can forgive somebody like me?” And he’s a great husband today. And it all came about because she sought God on a regular basis.

And remember, when nobody else can help, God can. And in the meantime, you have to do what you can at home to be submissive in every way that you can and to elevate him.