The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) on Wednesday announced it had removed its longtime president amid a petition signed by thousands of women demanding the ouster of Paige Patterson, The Washington Post is reporting.
In a seven-paragraph statement it released Wednesday, SWBTS did not mention the uprising against Patterson, only that the board "determined to move in the direction of new leadership for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary" after 13 hours of discussion.
The board appointed Dr. D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the seminary's school of theology, to the position of interim president, while Patterson will become president emeritus.
Patterson, 75, had come under fire recently for taped comments he made between 2000 and 2014, including:
Female seminarians must work harder to look attractive.
Women who are victims of domestic abuse should stay with their husbands.
Telling a women she should not report an alleged rape against her but should forgive her assailant.
Thousands of Southern Baptist women subsequently signed a petition demanding Patterson's removal, the Post reported.
"The tide has shifted so strongly on these issues of sexual harassment and assault, all I can think is: Enough leaders knew they’d really be condemned and look terrible if they stood up for him at this point,” R. Marie Griffith, director of the John Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University, told the Post.
"There are an awful lot of people who believe in female submission but don’t counsel people to stay with abusive husbands. His view will turn out to appear extreme," Griffith told the Post.
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