Longtime Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson, embroiled in controversy over past remarks about domestic violence and his descriptions of women, has issued an apology.
“I wish to apologize to every woman who has been wounded by anything I have said that was inappropriate or that lacked clarity,” said Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in a Thursday (May 10) statement titled “An Apology to God’s People.”
“We live in a world of hurt and sorrow, and the last thing that I need to do is add to anyone’s heartache. Please forgive the failure to be as thoughtful and careful in my extemporaneous expression as I should have been.”
The statement was the latest attempt by Patterson or his seminary’s officials to contain the reaction to an audio clip from the year 2000 that emerged two weeks ago, in which Patterson said he considered it unbiblical to recommend divorce, even in cases of domestic abuse.
In that clip he told a story of instead advising a woman who was physically abused by her husband to pray quietly on her knees while her spouse slept. In a 2014 video he describes a 16-year-old walking by as “built” and notes that the Bible uses similar language (“beautifully and artistically” made) to describe the creation of the first woman.
In the first sentence of his apology,…
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