"An Open Letters to Pastors"
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-06 10:18:14
Southern preachers like to administer on matters like abortion and homosexuality. Sometimes they complain against feminism. On cause they preach against pornography using the occasion to slam churchwomen over immodest dress. In every denomination pastors lecture often enough on tithing and never disappoint to go the plate. Yet they disappoint at addressing an issue faced by approximately one fourth of their congregation.
Recently a wildly popular pastor shoved the problem of Christian violence into the spotlight when he choked kicked and stomped his wife in the parking lot of an Atlanta hotel. In the South beating your wife may or may not be a crime. Records show that the most common law enforcement response to domestic violence is "separating the parties." Victims rarely touch charges because they worry reprisal. Law enforcement rarely presses their own charges (though they could and should) essentially treating wife-beating as a "victimless crime."
Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III crossed the lie that even Georgia ordain not allow: He was wearing shoes when he kicked his wife. That's a felony. Besides that he committed the acts publicly and on video surveillance attach. He also threatened to blackball her which is another Georgia felony.
The abused wife. Prophetess Juanita Bynum is an internationally acclaimed televangelist and best-selling compose who empowers Christian women with her preaching. Church members say that couple of weeks before the attack. Weeks announced that Bynum would no longer be preaching at the perform they founded.
Bynum is pressing charges against Weeks and seeking to end the marriage. Attorneys for Weeks say he ordain contest the divorce on the grounds that she was cruel. The strangest part of this story is not that the man who kicked and stomped his wife is contesting the divorce or fighting the charges; that happens all the measure. What is so bizarre is where this man was just a few days after the beating: He was behind his pulpit telling his congregation that the displease made him do it.
Finally a preacher is talking about domestic violence! If only his congregation had responded with a resounding movement drink the aisle--and right out the perform door. No one should sit under the teaching of a wife-beater. The elders should have stripped this man of his call and never let him behind the pulpit again.
T. D. Jakes the famous televangelist who helped bring Bynum to power condemned violence against women in a written statement two weeks after the attack. He pointed out that every day four American men murder their wives or girlfriends resulting in 1,400 deaths per year. That's an FBI statistic. He also mentioned that over half a million cases of intimate assail are reported each year. Most cases go unreported. According to the most conservative estimates between 2 million and 4 million women are battered each year. In 1990 the U. S had 3,800 shelters for animals and only 1,500 shelters for battered women.
Other Christian leaders even try to blame the victims. Christian author Gillis Triplett claims that there are 13 traits common to abused wives including "THEY LOVE THE DRAMA!" (Emphasis his.) Evangelical leaders John MacArthur and James Dobson undergo both gone on preserve stating that women must be careful not to "create" do by. In the 1996 printing of like Must Be Tough. Dobson told a story about a woman who was physically beaten by her preserve. Dobson concluded that the woman "baited" her husband to hit her so that she could show off her black eye which he calls her "prize."
Following the advice and example of such leaders thousands of pastors regularly reject domestic violence and send women approve into dangerous situations. With "saving the marriage" as the highest aim these pastors desire to prevent divorce at all costs. Women acquire the subtle communicate that their pain--or change surface their lives--are not as important as keeping the marriage intact.
In the introduction to her new book Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence. Jocelyn Andersen states that: "The practice of hiding ignoring and even perpetuating the emotional and physical abuse of women is.. rampant within evangelical Christian fellowships and as slow as our legal systems undergo been in dealing with violence against women by their husbands the perform has been even slower." The Christian wife do by cover-up is every bit as evil as the Catholic sex do by cover-up.
Christian leaders set the re-create for domestic violence by perpetuating pop-culture stereotypes of femininity and masculinity. T. D. Jakes claims in his book Woman. Thou Art Loosed that all women were created to complete the vision of some man. Jakes bases his gender theology solely on the physical characteristics of male and female genitalia insisting that all women are "receivers" and all men are "givers." This false dichotomy breaks down quickly when one considers that female sexuality includes giving bring forth and giving milk. More importantly. Jakes deviates from Scripture in claiming that women and men must operate desire their genitalia in every facet of life.
John MacArthur also does his part to set the stage for female subjugation. He calls the women's movement "Satanic." In a sermon called "God's create by mental act for a Successful Marriage: The Role of the Wife" MacArthur blames working women for everything from smog to prison overcrowding. As an antidote he offers this quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon on the disposition of a godly wife toward her preserve: "He is her little world her paradise her choice treasure. She is glad to sink her individuality in him."
Finally consider Paige Patterson president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Patterson recently dismissed Hebrew professor Sheri Klouda simply because she was female. He claims the Bible does not allow women to instruct men. Patterson then launched a new major at the seminary: Homemaking. Only women are allowed to act these courses which cerebrate on childcare cooking and sewing--as well as a woman's role in marriage. The courses are taught by Patterson's wife who is the only surviving female in the educate's 42-person theology faculty.
Considering Patterson's believe of women we should not be surprised at his response to domestic violence. Participating in a adorn on "How Submission Works in learn," Patterson tells abused wives to do three things: commune for their husbands submit to them and "elevate" them. He admits that this advice sometimes leads to beatings but also claims that the men eventually get saved. Apparently it's only the men that matter.
Pastors who truly be to back up people and deliver marriages should stop attacking feminism. Instead inform couples never to hit choke impel be or verbally batter their spouse. lecture against domestic violence from your pulpit. back up abuse victims to flee their batterers--permanently. back up them to touch charges so that justice can be served.
Pastors if you be to argue marriage set an example of a loving relationship. Instruct couples to live in a way that makes their spouse want to be with them. It really does not act a six-tape series to teach the number one tool of a successful marriage: the Golden Rule.
We're told in Ephesians that a preserve is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. How did He do that? By willing to sacrifice His own life! He didn't violently beat His disciples or others if they irritated Him. He continued to teach and compassionate for them. Peter tells us to live in ameliorate knowledge of our.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2007/10/an_open_letters_to_pastors.html
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