Southern Baptist Leader Told Student It Was ‘Good’ She Was Raped
JUNE 3, 2018 BY MICHAEL STONE
Paige Patterson, former president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, tells student it was a “good thing” that she was raped.
Patterson, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, was fired as president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary last week after disturbing facts came to light about the religious leader’s over-the-top misogyny, and his deplorable treatment of sexual assault victims.
According to reports, Paterson lied about his treatment of a rape victim, and tried to isolate another rape victim from police so he could “break her down.”
The fired Southern Baptist seminary leader who wanted to get an alleged rape victim alone to “break her down” also said it was a “good thing” she had been raped and that her future husband wouldn’t care if she was a virgin or not…
Paige Patterson, a giant in the Southern Baptist world, was fired from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth on May 30 in response to his handling of sexual assault allegations. He had been pushed to president emeritus May 23.The three alleged assaults took place in October 2014 and April 2015 and were reported in August 2015. The alleged assailant, according to the victim’s attorney, Stuart Cochran of Dallas, was a Southwestern student and employee.“I am told he said it was a ‘good thing’ my client had been raped and that her future husband wouldn’t care if she was a virgin or not,” Cochran said of Paige in a statement to the Star-Telegram. “He threatened to sic lawyers on her [mother] for questioning his leadership at the school when she asked why the assailant was allowed on campus.”
That’s right, Patterson wanted to be alone with a rape victim so he could “break her down” before the police could talk to her. In addition, he also told her it was a “good thing” that she had been raped and that her future husband “wouldn’t care if she was a virgin or not.”
This is not the first time Patterson has made headlines for being a misogynistic pig. Earlier this year reports surfaced that Patterson claimed that it’s “always wrong” to support a woman seeking a divorce, even if that woman is being physically abused by her husband.
In a recently released tape first reported on by the Texas Statesman, Patterson was asked what he recommends for women “who are undergoing genuine physical abuse from their husbands, and the husband says they should submit.”
It depends on the level of abuse to some degree. I have never in my ministry counseled that anybody seek a divorce, and I do think that’s always wrong counsel. There have been, however, an occasion or two when the level of the abuse was serious enough, dangerous enough, immoral enough that I have counseled temporary separation and the seeking of help. I would urge you to understand that that should happen only in the most serious of cases. . . More often, when you face abuse, it is of a less serious variety.
Later in the tape Patterson says he would give this advice to women being abused by their husbands:
you have to do what you can at home to be submissive in every way that you can and to elevate him
That’s right, Patterson’s advice to a woman being beaten and physically abused by her husband was “to be submissive” and to “elevate” her abuser.
In yet another example of the depraved misogyny and immorality at the heart of conservative Christianity, Patterson argued that it is “biblical” for adult men to lust after underage girls.
In a recently uncovered sermon Paige is caught joking about lusting after a “very attractive young co-ed” who he noted “wasn’t more than about 16.” Commenting on the underage girl, Patterson tells his large congregation:
Mmmmmm… Let me just say, she was nice.
In the sermon, the Southern Baptist leader went on to suggest that lusting after the teen was “just being biblical.”
Bottom line: Prominent Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson tells women being abused by their husbands that divorce is not an option, justifies pedophilia as “just being biblical,” and once told a student that it was a “good thing” that she was raped.
