Evangelical Protestantism, thank God, is experiencing its own version of a #MeToo moment.
Paige Patterson — head of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and icon of conservative Baptist belief — is being called out for a story he told in 2000. An abused woman had come to him for counseling. Patterson recommended prayer. Later, the woman returned with two black eyes. In Patterson's telling: “She said, ‘I hope you're happy.' And I said, ‘Yes . . . I'm very happy,' ” because the woman's husband had heard her prayers and come to church the next day.
This, presumably, is Patterson's version of a happy ending: A wife gets battered, but the church gets a new member. God works in misogynist ways.
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