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Friday, August 10, 2007

Nothing Surprises Me Anymore

posted by on August 10 at 10:48 AM

Not even this: Seminary To Offer Women A Degree in Homemaking.

Southwestern Baptist, one of the nation’s largest Southern Baptist seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its president calls biblical family and gender roles.

It will offer a bachelor of arts in humanities degree with a concentration in homemaking. The program is open only to women.

The program will offer female seminary students classes in meal preparation, “textile design,” and “clothing construction” (seriously?). Its purpose, according to seminary director (and former head of the Southern Baptist Convention) Paige Patterson, is to reinforce the “Biblical” model for the family, in which the husband leads and the wife obeys. “We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God’s word for the home and the family,” Patterson told the Baptist Convention earlier this year. “If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed.”

Less radical Baptists than Patterson have expressed horror at the idea that female seminary students have no higher calling than serving as unpaid household domestics for their husbands. However, they shouldn’t be surprised: Patterson’s views on women have been remarkably consistent over the years. In 2004, when he took over the seminary, Patterson said explicitly that women would not be allowed to serve as pastors, because the Bible says women must follow, not lead:

“It means voluntarily to line up in the right order that God has given, and the husband is loving his wife sacrificially as much as Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, so that all the husband can think of is, ‘Honey, what can I do for you? What can I do to serve you? How can I make your life better?’ And all the time she is submitting herself to her husband and saying, ‘You just lead and, honey, I’ll follow.’ Would you tell me how any kind of fight could develop in that situation? It will just be heaven on earth. That’s all. God knew it and He wants the church to be an example of it. That is the reason He said ‘no’ to a woman having a ruling or teaching position over a man.”

More recently, Patterson lamented that too many women are going to college, “threatening the family” by getting an education. Seen from that perspective, Patterson’s just doing his part to make sure Baptist women stay ignorant, knocked-up, and submissive.

RSS icon Comments

1

I would think that single income families are less desirable to a church since the church relies on tithes in order to operate. They may be shooting themselves in the foot.

Posted by D. | August 10, 2007 11:04 AM
2

This really shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm sure there are plenty of Christians that don't feel this way, but they sure are quiet. Most fundies believe women belong in the home.

Posted by Dianna | August 10, 2007 11:06 AM
3

"female seminary students have no higher calling than serving as unpaid household domestics for their husbands."

Don't forget their other calling: sperm spitoon for their husbands...

Posted by Mike in MO | August 10, 2007 11:20 AM
4

Hmmm....when I think of Biblical women, this comes to mind:

"Extolled above women be Yael,
The wife of Heber the Kenite,
Extolled above women in the tent.
He asked for water, she gave him milk;
She brought him cream in a lordly dish.
She stretched forth her hand to the nail,
Her right hand to the workman's hammer,
And she smote Sisera; she crushed his head,
She crashed through and transfixed his temples.
At her feet he curled himself, he fell, he lay still;
At her feet he curled himself, he fell;
And where he curled himself, let it be, there he fell dead."

Posted by Gitai | August 10, 2007 11:27 AM
5

I'd be offended if it weren't a southern baptist seminary we were talking about. As long as they keep the crazy in their crazy schools it's fine by me. I'm all about to each their own. In America we're all supposed to be able to live however we want (hopefully that line of thinking will start benefitting the homos more soon.) That being said any woman stupid and subservient enough to buy that kind of shit deserves what she gets.

Posted by JessB | August 10, 2007 11:38 AM
6

Future Singles Ad:
Wanted: SWF for Marriage. Homemaking degree req'd, 18-25 y.o. w/ wide hips preferred.

Posted by Mike of Renton | August 10, 2007 11:47 AM
7

i can't wait for some pioneering guy to sue the school in order to take the class and ruin the whole thing for everybody.

of course this really isn't surprising. this bent of christianity has been all about controlling women for who knows how long.

Posted by douglas | August 10, 2007 12:19 PM
8

Yahwey is Dead

Posted by Fred (nietcshe) Scooby | August 10, 2007 12:19 PM
9

I guess the thing I find fascinating about your reaction to stuff like this is that, basically, you worry about it at all. I mean, let's be clear about something: these people are a pack of loons. The whole reason they do stuff like this is because their value system is so counterintuitive that it has to be codified in order to be communicated in any capacity. It's kind of like the Amish, who are cool in a lot of ways but are not so much with the gender equality: you don't go around worrying about a cultural outbreak of Amishness. You don't worry about a cultural outbreak of the Nation of Islam and all their crazy-ass attitudes towards gender. Because their belief systems are so fantastically inorganic that only a certain kind of deeply committed, deeply crazy or severely damaged person would ever maintain it for any period of time. There only so many of those people to go around, but they will always seek out the crazy club to join -- and if they can't find one, they'll start one. So, you know, why worry about it?

Posted by Judah | August 10, 2007 12:30 PM
10

Given the context, shouldn't that degree more properly be described as a "bachelorette of arts"?

And douglas @ 7, I think it would be even funnier if a woman sued the school because by "homemaking", they DIDN'T mean a program focusing on the building and construction trades.

Posted by COMTE | August 10, 2007 12:33 PM
11

yes comte, that would be awesome as well.

judah, these loons have a lot of money and sway, i.e. the president, and they are on a cultural mission to take us all back to a fantasy era that never existed in the first place. they are active with this shit. so yeah, everyone who doesn't want their kind of nonsense should be worried and should sound off about it.

Posted by douglas | August 10, 2007 1:34 PM
12

Someone refresh my memory - why didn't we let the southern states secede, again?

Posted by Geni | August 10, 2007 2:28 PM
13

I was required to take "home economics" — sewing, cooking, etc. —in public high school (not in the South) in the '70s. Boys were required to take "shop" (woodworking, mechanics, print shop, etc.).

Most of it was insipid, but some of the home ec lessons have really stood the test of time. Hell, I think boys AND girls need home ec!

But I could have used some shop classes to keep me afloat after getting my useless liberal arts degree...

Posted by sara | August 10, 2007 2:36 PM
14

time to revoke the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.

PAST time.

@4: i know someone named Yael - & she's SMOKING HOT.

Posted by maxsolomon | August 10, 2007 2:56 PM
15
But I could have used some shop classes to keep me afloat after getting my useless liberal arts degree...

Yeah, 'cause the metal shop, wood shop, and print shop classes I took in high school in the '80s were so helpful when I was looking for work in the '90s. Why, I remember the day I got my first job as a typesetter in a printing company. I handed in my application, the boss looked at it and said, "By gum! You took an entire year of graphic design in high school! You say you can use an offset press and silk screen a t-shirt? You're hired!"

Then, later on, I was a welder and a carpenter.

Except, actually, none of that happened. I ended up washing dishes and making pizza and I didn't even have the benefit of knowing how to use a fucking sewing machine to patch the jeans I couldn't afford to replace.

Posted by Judah | August 10, 2007 3:25 PM
16

And all the research showing that well-educated women make better wives and mothers than less-educated ones means nothing at all to this guy, I see.

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17

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18

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