Paige Patterson, SBC, #churchtoo, Sexist
Have you seen this yet? This is Paige Patterson, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, preaching. Yes, I said preaching. Would you tell me what he is preaching here? This clip is less than 2 minutes long. You cannot make this stuff up.
This is from the same man who gave the convocation at Southwestern’s J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston on January 22, 2018. (Source: Havard students exhorted to live by the Word, resist worldly temptations).
Pastors have a unique role in the lives of their congregation, Patterson said. Pastors serve others during some of life’s most significant moments: birth, salvation, marriage and death. With such an important task, pastors must guard against worldly temptations.
Then reading from Romans 13:14, Patterson concluded with a warning to “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Patterson said the problem is not always the devil’s lies or temptations, but one’s own persistence in “making provisions for the lusts of the flesh.”
“Wherever there is heat in your heart to have something that God has not chosen to give, then it becomes lust,” Patterson said. “And God says that ought not to be true.”
::::::heavy sigh:::::
Update 5/5/18: I was notified that I wrongly interpreted Patterson in the video. As a result, the title has been changed. The previous title incorrectly stated that Patterson was objectifying the teen. I apologize for the error. -Julie Anne
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Well done, JA! Glad you are headlining this evidence that #PaigePatterson believes that men are entitlement to treat women as objects. Sex objects. Hunks of meat.
The evidence is indisputable: Paige Patterson is a male chauvinist pig. And he teaches teenage boys to be male chauvinist pigs.
He must be stripped of all leadership positions and perks. And he must put out of the visible church until he profoundly and wholeheartedly repents.
If the Southern Baptists do not do that, they will go down in history as a denomination that became a laughing stock among all true Christians.
Want to join the synagogue of Satan, abusers? Head off to the Southern Baptist Convention. They will let you devour your target victims as much as you like!
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Don Hennessy, who has dealt with over 2000 male perpetrators of domestic abuse, says the goal of men who abuse their female intimate partners is to get their sexual needs met without having to negotiate.
To have that mindset, the male offender must have an entitlement mentality in which he sees women as sexual objects not people deserving of respect and dignity.
This video shows that Paige Patterson has a male sexual entitlement mentality.
Please note: I’m not saying I think that PP abuses his own wife. But the spectrum of male sexual entitlement affects a broad range of men. And the fact is, some of those men DO abuse their longterm female intimate partners.
Here is my Don Hennessy Digest for those who want to learn more.
https://cryingoutforjustice.com/2018/02/06/don-hennessy-digest/
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This gave me flashbacks of independent Baptist preachers from my youth who would regularly caricature older women as nosy, gossipy biddies and younger women as sex objects. I hadn’t actually watched Patterson preach till this recent controversy, but he seems way too much like an independent Baptist to me, in every way. That’s no compliment.
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It’s gross.
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When I watched the video, I saw a suit and tie “hanging” on a cesspool, appearing to be a man.
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I’m reminded of a time when I, then a teenager, made such a comment about a young lady, and my father made sure I knew that saying that sort of thing said a lot more about me than it did about her. And it was a d**n bit of foolishness on my part, especially since this particular young lady was always pretty good to me. She’d done nothing to deserve that. Thank God only my dad and I were in the room when I said that, and thank God Mr. Patterson wasn’t there to “correct” him.
There is a not so subtle difference between realizing that a person is attractive, and describing their beauty/handsomeness in sexualized terms. Scripture does the former, but the latter is reserved for, as far as I remember, prophetic rebukes (some might add Song of Songs). We should take a hint.
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This is so gross I don’t even know where to start.
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I was thinking about that – seems the Bible reserves that sort of talk for the marriage relationship. It is also telling that, despite his supposedly complementarian view, he completely demeans her authority in front of her children. Complementarian pastors (perhaps all pastors) shouldn’t be telling children that their parents are wrong, right in front of the parents, unless it’s an area where the parents have clearly overstepped their bounds.
I’m sure that Mr. Patterson would be greatly offended if a fellow pastor called out some theological error of his in front of his congregation.
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It is a sad moment, once again, that people in the audience are laughing. He is strongly belittling the woman in his story. Then he objectifies a young women. People are laughing! If he were the first man in a pulpit doing this, or if he were the only man in a pulpit doing this, it might be confusing for people, allowing for laughter.
He chooses to keep the listeners untaught about the truth of Scrupture. I listened to these lies for decades. Now, having a discerning ear makes it extremely upsetting to hear 2 1/2 minutes of this. This is NOT the voice of Amighty God.
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Having watched this, my personal opinion is that Paige Patterson is mentally ill and morally corrupt and that anyone who’d give credence to anything the man says is a fool. Unbelievable that the man, who appears to be rather touched, could climb so high within the ranks of the SBC. This is a sign that they no longer care one whit about Jesus, the Bible, the truth. Sickening that that little man could speak for five minutes without someone dragging him off the stage.
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I was born and raised in the Southern Baptist Convention and my grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher. It has always been an organization run by and full of child raping, daughter raping, wife beating, misogynistic, racist, perverts, and rubes.
My father, grandfather, and the majority of men I went to church with lusted after and said sexually demeaning things about underage girls. It is infuriating that people act like this is new news or shocking. This has always been them; dumb, gross, abusive perverts.
And notice how men like Paige Patterson and Doug Wilson think women and teenage girls have to look good but they can be as gross, ugly, and fat as they want to be.
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I think what you’re missing Mark, is the ‘her’ part of it. He counters a woman’s advice to her male son. Is that surprising in a man who thinks so little of women?
This is so ‘boys will be boys’ that I can’t handle it, but here you had a woman trying to teach her son to be respectful to women, and her male pastor says ‘nope’. And then he thinks that’s such a cool story bro, he’ll tell his whole congregation that it’s ok to reduce women to nothing but their looks. And to tell a woman not to raise her son to be respectful.
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Mark, you’re right that the Bible reserves this type of talk for the marriage relationship….well, almost. My one quibble is that I see the mood of Song of Songs as a great tenderness as the couple rejoice in each other’s physical attributes, and Patterson’s mood is more “hubba hubba.” That’s more along the lines of God’s rebuke to Israel when they are committing spiritual adultery with pagan paramours in the Prophets, I think.
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that was truly disgusting. And what could he possibly mean by “your son is just being biblical”? Jesus said “let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and you’re ‘no’ be ‘no’, the rest is anathema.” I would have called him out again, in front of his congregation. Or I would have slugged him. “Cast not your pearls before swine” but then I insult pigs. He looks like he has dementia, and he sounds it too. what kind of an a$$h*** would say those things out loud?
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Paige (same initials as Pontius Pilate) Patterson will be the lead speaker at the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas this summer. Ravi Zacharias will be another speaker. I am astonished at the staying power of these old boys. Scandal after scandal and they keep rising.
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Bike Bubba – I think you are spot on.
If the apostle Paul had been preaching, he would have told the boys to ‘treat the younger women as sisters, in all purity’.
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First, a pertinent link:
_Roy Moore Allegations Prompt Reflections on Fundamentalist Culture in Which Some Christian Men Date Teens_ – on Washington Post site
I’m a conservative.
But you know, other conservatives – (I’d assume Patterson considers himself one) – really need to stop throwing rocks at liberal feminists or secular culture, or at least, also call out their own side regarding these things.
Other conservatives need to stop constantly condemning liberals and feminists or the secular world for being too sexually permissive, and blaming them for the rise of STDs, abortion, and so on, when some of them are condoning or participating in the very same types of sexual sin they say they are against or that the liberals or secular culture supports.
Just a few threads ago on this very blog, a member, KAS, was blaming liberal feminists out the ying yang for being tawdry or bringing about rape in American culture – really now, when we have guys like this self professing Christian, Paige Patterson, openly sexualizing a teen-aged girl?
You really want to turn a blind eye to the sins in your group (Christians, Baptists, Protestants, Republicans, conservatives) but only criticize those outside of your group (feminists, Democrats, liberals, etc.)? And I don’t mean just KAS here specifically, but there are thousands of KASes out there online who do this very thing.
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Another relevant link:
_One Group That Thinks Grown Men “Courting” Teen Girls Is Natural? Fundamentalist [Christian] Home-Schoolers by R. Graham_ – on Slate
Really, conservatives and Christians need to reprimand their own side, instead of always criticizing liberals or feminists over sexual sin.
Some conservatives like to paint their preferred sexual sin (example: older men dating or having relations with teen girls) as being “biblical.”
That may be one of the few differences between the secular / liberal / feminist side and the conservative Christians: the conservative Christians take God’s name in vain by saying God approves or condones their preferred types of sexual sins.
At least the secular feminists and liberals don’t usually hide behind God or religion to defend or support their sexual habits or peccadilloes.
You can’t on the one hand argue that you’re okay and find with older men dating or sexualizing teen girls, and claim that is all godly and biblical, but then turn around and complain that secular feminists are to blame for the sexual degradation of American culture.
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Christianity hurts said,
Add Mark Driscoll and Pat Robertson to that list, and probably 99% of all Baptist and Protestant pastors or Christian personalities.
When some guy (a preacher I think) had an affair on his wife, Driscoll blamed the wife for “letting herself go.” As if that excuses or justifies a man cheating on his wife.
BTW, I find it amusing that Driscoll these days himself looks chubby and unattractive, a bloated Kewpie Doll.
Driscoll has some nerve, being the chubbo schlub he is, to lecture any woman to stay hot looking for any man.
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@ Daisy
Mark Driscoll never looked thin to me and he dresses like a five-year-old. He is not attractive in any of the ways a person can be attractive. How convent all these men have concluded they don’t have to look good.
Men who actually think and care can be attractive even if they are short and overweight. The character on Games of Thrones (Tyrion Lannister) is in my opinion, the most attractive male character on the show because he is such a hard thinker and he seems to have empathy.
Mark Driscoll and his ilk are unattractive in more ways than just physical. Their rhetoric screams: sexually sadic insecure man here. Explains why they need brainwashing and intimidation to keep women in their lives.
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Celeste, “People are laughing!”
Yes, this is disgusting. I went to a conference where the pastor said that children who didn’t participate in family worship ought to be denied food until they participate. The response was laughter. However, we have to keep in mind that these pastors preach week after week and they know how to set the audience up for the punchline, when it is delivered. You can listen to the progression and the tone, and figure out that there is going to be something funny at the end.
Lea, “I think what you’re missing Mark, is the ‘her’ part of it.”
I’m not missing it. I’m saying that he is contradicting even complementarian views of authority. Comp. authority says that you always back the authority over the subordinate. For example, I have yet to figure out how to get a principal to call out a teacher for breaking school policy when it has to do with the teacher’s relationship with a student. The principal will 100% affirm whatever stupid thing the teacher has done in front of the parents and student, and then when we’re gone, they have a talk (perhaps) and things change a bit.
So, if he was being consistent, he would not have used her correction of her sons as a springboard for squashing her authority right in front of them, but perhaps would have taken her aside later and explained how (in his mind) her sons got it right.
Daisy, “Really, conservatives and Christians need to reprimand their own side, instead of always criticizing liberals or feminists over sexual sin.”
How much of ‘C’hristian sermonizing today is telling the audience exactly what they want to hear – that “we” are good people at heart and “they” are horribly broken and in need of salvation? I think one of the downsides of the institutionalized church is that there is always a budget in the backs of the minds of these pastors. If they point out the elephant in the room, aren’t people going to leave, and where will their next paycheck come from? So, there is this conflict between teaching about sin and causing sinners to leave that apparently ends up being resolved by preaching about sin outside the body.
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I think you’re still missing it. Men like Patterson view even teenage boys as higher than women. Even a son higher than a mother. That’s how far gone they are.
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And he thinks of himself like as a ‘minister’ as higher than a parent in many situations. A female parent? No contest.
His behavior towards the male parent would have been different.
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I’m not familiar with Pastor Patterson’s teachings and seeing of short the video clip was I don’t know what to make of it. Is he saying God designed women to be attractive and it’s biblical for males to be attracted to pretty females and make comments about her figure? I personally don’t have a problem with teenage boys saying a female is built, fine, hot etc because that’s just typical behavior of young adolescent males and even grown males are the same way. There are also plenty of women and teenage girls who will say the same about attractive to men that he’s hot or a hunk and all. I have a problem saying that it is biblical, he’s stretching a bit there. I think there is nothing wrong with finding the opposite sex attractive and desiring them in a reasonable way and in many of the very conservative Christian circles seem to shame and guilt people for having such feelings in the belief that is just dirty lust. I think Christians need to embrace their sexuality as natural with all the physical attraction to the opposite sex, having sexual desires in a of course healthy. The only time it becomes cheap dirty and unhealthy among believers is when men desire women’s bodies as nothing more than mere objects and pieces of meat just of the sake of sexual self-gratification and vice versa. God Bless.
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Patterson and his ilk were the ones who defended the blasphemous, lying, woman objectifying vulgar Ergun Caner until far past the point of absurdity, and then went strangely silent.
Not terribly shocked here, just sickening though.
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Lea and Mark – I think you are both right and are actually maybe not disagreeing with each other.
On the one hand, Lea is right that many (or some) complementarians will consider a little boy as “more authoritative” than even a, say, a 50 year old woman.
On the other hand, a lot of complementarians do espouse this ‘you should respect authority at all costs no matter what,’ type view that Mark was discussing.
Complementarianism is itself chock-full of inconsistencies, which is why you are both correct, but perceive each other as being wrong, I guess. It’s not either one of you, it’s the nature of complementarianism.
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Curious Thinker
I kind of agree with you in that a lot of Christians try to shame people for finding other people sexually attractive, but, I don’t want to hear a 60+ year old man with white hair such as Patterson discuss teen-aged girls in a sexualized manner.
It comes off as skeevy. If he feels the need to discuss the topic in public at all, maybe he could have found a more tactful way of doing so?
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Daisy, yes, I know self-proclaimed comps who would have the 14-year-old son pray for dinner over the mom, but I’d put them in the patriarchal camp. I mean the same kind where the wife would say that she can follow her husband’s decision, even if she feels she would be sinning in doing so because it’s “on his head”.
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