‘We are shocked’: More than 1,000 Southern Baptist women denounce leader’s ‘objectifying’ comments, advice to abused women

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey May 7 at 10:39 AM

ore than 1,000 Southern Baptist women have signed an open letter to the trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary that says they are “grieved by the dangerous and unwise counsel” that the group’s president, Paige Patterson, has given by telling abused women not to divorce, and are shocked by his comments that “objectify a teenage girl.”

“These comments are damaging, sinful, and necessitate a decisive response,” the women wrote in a letter published Sunday afternoon.

These women, who include several influential writers and speakers, are not pushing theological boundaries within the Southern Baptist Convention. The letter says they affirm Southern Baptist views that only men are allowed to be pastors and that women are to submit themselves to their husbands.

Patterson, whose comments from 2000 went viral last weekend, doubled down on his remarks after the seminary’s commencement ceremony Friday, telling The Washington Post that he has nothing for which to apologize. He could not be reached immediately Sunday night for comment about the letter.

The women highlighted comments he made in a sermon in which he described a 16-year-old girl walking by, saying that “she was nice.” One young man commented, “Man, is she built.” A woman scolded him, and Patterson said he responded to the woman, “Ma’am, leave him alone. He’s just being biblical.” The audience laughed. In their letter, the women especially highlight the “inappropriate nature of his own observations of her body.”

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