Southern Baptist professor says "a submissive wife might be forced to "suffer wrong."

madfloridian

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Thu Dec-31-09 10:42 PM
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Southern Baptist professor says "a submissive wife might be forced to "suffer wrong."

A professor at Boyce College, Southern Seminary's baccalaureate arm, was speaking to a group of women at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in November. I was stunned when he said to them that a woman is to let the church decide if she is free from violence in a marriage.

He also said that "a bad marriage is "not an excuse for sin." That seems to lay blame on the woman.

From the Associated Baptist Press:

Bad marriage 'not an excuse for sin,' speaker tells seminary women

A Boyce College instructor told women at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary that a bad marriage is "not an excuse for sin," and in a worst-case scenario a submissive wife might be forced to "suffer wrong."

..."Sometimes when we are horribly mistreated by a spouse, by your husband, your flesh screams to get mad, get even or just get out -- I just want to get out of this thing. I'm going to leave," he said.

He said a wife in a crisis relationship should turn to her church.

..."You need people to evaluate if you are safe, if you are safe from violence in the case of abuse, if you're safe from disease in the case of adultery," he said. "You need people to help you do that."

"The first step is not, 'Well, I'll just take it. I'll just take bad treatment,'" he said. "It's never the step to endure a dangerous situation, to endure a situation where you are being abused and hurt. You need to get help immediately in that situation."

After engaging and getting help, he said, "Only then are you willing to suffer wrong."

What a pathetic summation he has. He as much as says there is not a scenario in which the wife does not share some blame.

He said that while it is possible in a "worst-case scenario" for a wife to do nothing to contribute to her husband's sin, "I can tell you this: I have never in my life -- whether as a pastor, as a counselor or just as a human being that knows people -- I have never met a victimized spouse who responded perfectly to their spouse's sin against them, who's always been righteous in their response, who's never sinned in their response to the sin of the spouse. I've never met that person."

A year or so ago, another Southern Baptist professor was preaching just about the same thing. These are seminaries training pastors to go out and preach the gospel. This kind of teaching is treating women as inferiors.

Bruce Ware went so far as to say that women who don't submit to their husbands may be to blame for domestic violence.

One reason that men abuse their wives is because women rebel against their husband's God-given authority, a Southern Baptist scholar said in a Texas church recently.

Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, said women desire to have their own way instead of submitting to their husbands because of sin.

"And husbands on their parts, because they're sinners, now respond to that threat to their authority either by being abusive, which is of course one of the ways men can respond when their authority is challenged--or, more commonly, to become passive, acquiescent, and simply not asserting the leadership they ought to as men in their homes and in churches," Ware said from the pulpit of Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas.

Ware said God created men and women equally in God's image but for different roles.

Even Southern Baptist women are teaching that philosophy to their fellow Baptist women.

The Southern Baptist Convention amended its articles of faith in 1998 to urge that "a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband." And that position found nothing but agreement here at the conference, in contrast to the teachings of many other churches and secular groups that male authority is demeaning and potentially abusive of women.

Kassian said she had to unlearn ideals of feminism she said were embedded in her education when growing up in Canada and still permeate the entertainment industry through depictions of "butt-kicking females who knew how to demand their rights, take control and put men in their place."

From Alternet:

As Kathryn Joyce once said when she spoke about Rick Warren's Saddleback church's belief on women.

What is a good enough reason for divorce? Well, according to Rick Warren’s Saddleback church, divorce is only permitted in cases of adultery or abandonment -- as these are the only cases permitted in the Bible -- and never for abuse.

As teaching pastor Tom Holladay explains, spousal abuse should be dealt with by temporary separation and church marriage counseling designed to bring about reconciliation between the couple. But to qualify for that separation, your spouse must be in the “habit of beating you regularly,” and not be simply someone who “grabbed you once.”

“How many beatings would have to take place in order to qualify as regularly?” asks Jocelyn Andersen, a Christian domestic violence survivor and advocate, author of the 2007 book Woman Submit! Christians and Domestic Violence, an indictment of church teachings of wifely submission and male headship. As she sees it, by convincing women that leaving their relationships is not an option, these teachings have laid the ground for a domestic violence epidemic within the church.

Saddleback Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

It's only abuse if it is done regularly? One must consult with the church leaders to determine if it is abuse?

That is the kind of thing that makes this recovering Southern Baptist more determined to distance from them.