Evangelicals are having their own #MeToo moment

Jim
Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism
Paige Patterson
#MeToo
Evangelical Protestantism, thank God, is experiencing its own version of a #MeToo moment. Paige Patterson — head of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and icon of conservative Baptist belief — is being called out for a story he told in 2000. An abused woman had come to him for counseling. Patterson recommended prayer. Later, the woman returned with two black eyes. In Patterson’s telling: “She said, ‘I hope you’re happy.’ And I said, ‘Yes . . . I’m very happy,’ ” because the woman’s husband had heard her prayers and come to church the next day. This, presumably, is Patterson’s version of a happy ending: A wife gets battered, but the church gets a new member. God works in misogynist ways. A number of prominent Baptists have risen in criticism. Thom Rainer, president of the Christian publishing house LifeWay, tweeted, “There is no type or level of abuse of women that is acceptable.” Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, added: “Any physical abuse on any level is completely unacceptable in marriage. The church should immediately step in & provide a safe place for the abused.”
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Discussion

Profile picture for user Bert Perry
Bert Perry
Fri, 05/11/18 3:42 pm

OK, this is getting off track, but there’s some interesting things to be looked into here. With regards to Piper’s comments, I’m going to walk something back a bit. Specifically, when Piper says a “night” of physical abuse, that would seem to be at least compatible with blaming a woman for walking out after a couple of punches were landed. Not what I intended.

Regarding the best way to handle cases of domestic abuse, the simplest—though by no means simple—is clear physical abuse, including domestic rape. In such a case, you do what you can to keep someone safe and encourage them to involve others. The trouble is that psychologically, a lot of victims value the relationship A LOT, and going to the police, filing divorce papers, or even moving out is not something they’re ready to do. A lot of persuasion even in the “easiest” cases, and a lot of times, the abused person moves back in for various reasons.

A bigger quicksand is non-physical abuse. It’s hard to fake a black eye (very typical injury BTW, it’s often a crime of dominance and humiliation), but how do you figure out who’s in the right? It takes some doing to figure out the verbal and nonverbal cues that someone is lying or deluded, and even more to show them what they’re doing. My brother in law and his wife are in such a situation, actually. Who do you believe? Who do you censure?

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.