Paige Patterson out as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President
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https://religionnews.com/2018/05/23/if-paige-patterson-were-tim-cook/
But after weeks of inaction, the board’s decision feels more like a celebrated send-off than a stiff censure. While they dismissed Patterson to save face under overwhelming pressure, he was also offered a pile of consolation prizes. Patterson will be honored with the title of president emeritus of Southwestern, for example. Both he and his wife, Dorothy, have been named theologian-in-residence. The couple will receive compensation from the school, and they will be allowed to live in the luxurious and spacious retirement residence they were building for themselves on campus.
Talk about a soft landing.
Imagine for a moment that Paige Patterson were Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple. Instead of being president of a conservative Christian seminary with the mission of training church ministers and missionaries, Cook runs a for-profit secular business with the mission of selling products to consumers. He and his employees are not required to sign a statement of faith and they do not claim to live by a strict moral code found in an ancient sacred text like the Bible.
Imagine if it were discovered that in 1997 Tim Cook joked to a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that when it comes to women, “Everybody should own at least one.”
Imagine that at public Apple events, he argued that if women were abused, they should avoid divorce and “submit to their husbands in every way.”
Imagine that audiotapes emerged of Cook telling stories of advising a woman under his authority to return to her abusive husband and when she received two black eyes, Cook commented that he was “very happy.”
Imagine that The Washington Post reported that a female Apple employee had come to Cook in 2003 to report being raped on the corporate campus. Cook responded by making the woman recount the details of the rape to a room of male colleagues, instructed her to keep quiet and not report the details to the police, and then the victimized woman was reprimanded by human resources.
Imagine that, in response, 3,500 female Apple employees called on the board to remove Tim Cook from his position, and that all of these events were reported in major news outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate and The Washington Post.
It is incontrovertible that Apple’s board would have responded more swiftly and harshly than did the Southwestern board in this situation.
Cook would not have been allowed to stay in his position for nearly a month, and he certainly would not have been able to preside over the annual Apple expo as Patterson did at the Southwestern graduation.
Cook would not have been able to claim he had nothing to apologize for and issue a statement saying the whistleblowers had been fueled by “hatred.”
Cook would have been terminated immediately. He would not have received compensation or honorary titles or a plush retirement residence in Silicon Valley. Let this sink in: America’s most prominent tech company has a stronger ethical compass when it comes to the dignity of women than America’s largest Protestant denomination.
But this is, of course, not a statement on the moral fortitude of the tech industry. The same would be true for an advertising executive on Madison Avenue, a hedge fund manager on Wall Street, a prominent actor in Hollywood or a politician inside the Beltway of Washington, D.C.
Which is to say that many of the secular communities in America that Southern Baptists have painted as evil possess more moral courage than they do. Consider that for a moment and it will tell you all you need to know about the current state of America’s largest Protestant denomination.
http://tomascol.com/the-southern-baptist-convention-today/
Southern Baptists of various stripes, all of whom are avowed inerrantists (including not a few who are reformed or at least reformedish in theology), have had a failure of nerve to assert and defend what the Scripture teaches about receiving accusations, making judgments, stewardship of authority in home and church, repentance, forgiveness, slavery, and handling offense, to name but a few of the pressing matters that have been publicly debated in recent months. What is worse is that some of the leading inerrantists and reformed types appear to be driving the train in this failure.
Perhaps someone can explain something. Sexual sins are different than “regular” sins (1 Cor 6:15-20). Clear enough. What is not so clear is why people seem to be suddenly reacting so strongly to how we respond to those sins. Where is the objective, Biblical data to condemn those who do not respond to those sins in the ways that people now expect you to respond? Because sexual sins are different, then perhaps these sins require more careful and more discerning responses than other sins. What bothers me is the sudden condemnation of those whose responses do not fit what other people think those responses should be. How far do we let our ungodly, hypocritical culture determine what our responses should be? Are we responding based on Biblical principle or are we responding based on fear of how we will be treated and perceived? Food for thought.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
[WallyMorris]How far do we let our ungodly, hypocritical culture determine what our responses should be?
When the ungodly, hypocritical culture has something to teach the ungodly, hypocritical church about morality, the church should listen and learn.
I am struck by the fact that this angle you take Wally is eerily similar to the one taken by fundamentalists (and others) who did not like that the “ungodly, hypocritical” culture was trying to force them to allow African Americans to enroll in their schools five decades ago.
My comments have nothing to do with past racial problems. Please do not associate me with that. I am simply asking legitimate questions that many are now asking about this entire issue. You seem to be accusing Patterson and SWBTS of being “ungodly” and “hypocritical”. Just because their responses and actions were not characterized by wisdom does not mean they are ungodly and hypocritical. Who decides that what the culture says or does is right? Who decides what we should “listen and learn” from the culture? How do you decide that on a specific issue? Greg, you singled out 1 sentence from my comments but didn’t answer any of my questions. Your response was “When they have something to teach us”. OK, how do you objectively decide “they have something to teach us”? I am simply asking questions and asking for objective Biblical data to answer those questions. All you gave was hyperbole and mischaracterization.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
… we’ve now discovered yet another topic that is never profitable to discuss online!
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
[WallyMorris]My comments have nothing to do with past racial problems. Please do not associate me with that. I am simply asking legitimate questions that many are now asking about this entire issue. You seem to be accusing Patterson and SWBTS of being “ungodly” and “hypocritical”. Just because their responses and actions were not characterized by wisdom does not mean they are ungodly and hypocritical. Who decides that what the culture says or does is right? Who decides what we should “listen and learn” from the culture? How do you decide that on a specific issue? Greg, you singled out 1 sentence from my comments but didn’t answer any of my questions. Your response was “When they have something to teach us”. OK, how do you objectively decide “they have something to teach us”? I am simply asking questions and asking for objective Biblical data to answer those questions. All you gave was hyperbole and mischaracterization.
I think you know full well Wally that I was not associating you with the past racism in fundamentalism. However, I said your approach to this where you show your bias that the world is evil and hypocritical and can’t possibly have anything to teach the church is the exact same way certain leaders defended their racism when the church was behind culture on that issue.
There are a few things that I find somewhat indisputable:
1) If you research the SBC and this issue much at all, you find plenty to suggest that there is evil and hypocrisy in abundance. Furthermore, when you step back and look at the big picture over the past few years, it is hard to see how anyone can look at the church at large and not see rampant hypocrisy.
2) The church has been on the wrong side of cultural issues multiple times over the past century or at least it is has been behind the curve and had to be dragged kicking and screaming. This is one of those issues. I think the reason why is because the conservative church tends to resist changes in culture, assuming them to be bad. Thus, when culture actually improves in some ways, the church is left behind. And there have unquestionably been a lot of positive changes in culture over the past century. Sadly, the church has been on the wrong side of some of them, especially the conservative church.
Again, the bias against progress in culture that some are exhibiting is getting in the way of the church cleaning up its act on this issue. That was my point.
[Mike Harding]Kirk,
The author of that book is a long time Southern Baptist. He frequently comments on SI. The fact that his book was endorsed by Patterson who was a well-known, highly respected leader is irrelevant to this situation. Whatever the hysteria going on recently about Patterson, you should not fault a man for having his book endorsed by him years ago before these recent allegations were made. I am sure that Patterson has endorsed many books.
Mike, I would agree. As a side note though, for those deeply involved in the Seminary and the SBC, there have been problems with Patterson for a long time. Mostly missteps in what he says, but he has raised eyebrows for a long time.
I just had breakfast with a good friend of mine this morning who is also a long time friend of Patterson, and we talked at length about various problems that have been present for a long, long time.
Perhaps this should be a new thread but let me ask the the SI family for their collective wisdom. In light of all this, what will you do with 1 Peter 2:18 - 3:17 or 4:19? Would you interpret or preach it differently next Sunday than you would have a year ago?
Donn R Arms
Regarding Greg’s comment, I would agree 100% that the church is behind the ball on how we approach sexual assault and abuse. That said, I am also a Michigan State grad who is watching the Larry Nassar/gymnastics debacle with a great amount of dismay, and I’m seeing other cases at USC, Arizona, and other schools. So let’s not speak too highly of “the world” here, because they’ve clearly got some huge issues, too.
That noted, if we pay attention to people like Boz Tchividjian and get our act together, we can get right up there with the Boy Scouts in terms of how we handle these crimes. We can actually lead.
BTW, update on the situation; the BOT admits Patterson was wrong about Nathan Montgomery and states he complied with reporting laws. Since the victim was an adult, I don’t believe that means anything under Texas law, which has mandatory reporting only for crimes against minors. The BOT also claims police reports were made, something that the Washington Post reporter has not found.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’ve always handled it this way -
1. Christians will suffer for being Christian.
2. Expecting to suffer for Christ’s sake isn’t the same thing as tolerating criminal assualt / abuse or when we make mistakes that invite accusations of hypocrisy and a double standard.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
I can’t find a list of 75, but here’s a list of about 25 Hyles associates—including but not limited to HA graduates—convicted of sex crimes. Notice that Jack Hyles and Jack Schaap are not included in the list.
Regarding the Australian cases Joe mentions, I believe this is it, and I also find a pastor at Hillsong guilty of overlooking domestic abuse, as well as a series on Anglican priests guilty of varying degrees of abuse. Notice in that article that Baptist churches of New South Wales have responded, appropriately, with independent investigations. They recognize, rightly, that incidents demonstrating that the systems have broken down need to be handled by someone from outside the system. Here’s another on the subject.
Can we afford to defer to local church “autonomy” on this, or do we need to follow the New Testament model of outsiders writing letters to churches about these kind of issues?
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Bert Perry]But weren’t the New Testament authors inspired by God to write the Scriptures? Do we have any outsiders today who are inspired by God to give instruction to churches? If not, then I don’t see how you can make the comparison. I’m not saying things don’t need to be looked at. I’m just not seeing your claim of a New Testament model for it.Can we afford to defer to local church “autonomy” on this, or do we need to follow the New Testament model of outsiders writing letters to churches about these kind of issues?
https://baptistnews.com/article/paige-patterson-unrepentant-after-semin…
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s new president emeritus offered no new apologies in his first words to the campus community since his removal as the school’s president.
“We are of course hurt, but we did not compromise,” Paige and Dorothy Patterson said in an email hours after Tuesday’s marathon trustee meeting precipitated by a backlash to his previous comments about women. “What matters in all this is not the lives of a couple of old soldiers, but your bright futures for Christ.”
Discussion