Not as bad as Paige Patterson

When someone sent me this photo of former Southern Baptist president Paige Patterson, he sent it with a caption that said, “Paige sings for you … I did it... MY... WAAAAAAY!!!" ♪♪♪

I laughed.

But the more I looked at the photo, the more I stopped laughing. I couldn’t stop thinking about all those college girls and young women who tried to tell Paige Patterson about sexual abuse and assaults by Baptist pastor Darrell Gilyard.

The women and girls got no help from Patterson.

So pastor Gilyard went on to reportedly abuse many, many more women and girls -- at least 46 that we now know about -- and probably many more.

At that time, Patterson was the president of Criswell College, a school connected to First Baptist of Dallas, and so the female college girls were students under Patterson’s charge.

But Patterson turned a blind eye to Gilyard’s reported abuses and a deaf ear to the young women who tried to get some help.

Finally, after two decades of do-nothingness from Patterson and other Baptist leaders, the law put a stop to Gilyard when it convicted him of molesting a 15-year-old in Florida.

For two decades, so many people were hurt and so little of nothing was done by Paige Patterson.

Yet, Paige Patterson puts on a military camouflage shirt to talk about “taking the hill” for Christ at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he is now the president. According to the Baptist Press, Patterson “stormed the stage” in a fast-attack vehicle and then fired off a round of blanks from a .50-caliber Browning machine gun.

So I guess he looks tough? Is that the idea?

But where was that toughness when it came to protecting kids and vulnerable young women against a Baptist preacher-predator?

Standing next to his attack-vehicle, Patterson talked about the “courage to act” on witnessing opportunities. But where was his “courage to act” when college girls under his charge asked him for help in dealing with a Baptist minister’s sexual abuse?

Yet, this tragi-comic character is someone Southern Baptists are proud of. Paige Patterson is a longtime Southern Baptist leader. He’s now the president of a Baptist seminary that trains the next generation of Baptist leaders. Scary, huh?

If I lived on that hill, I’d turn and run if I saw any of Patterson’s troops on my street.

Despite all the times when I sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” in childhood, I now find the militaristic view of evangelism to be offensive. It makes sharing the message of Christ into a conquest, and it turns neighbors into “targets.” But I digress. View the “taking the hill” video and decide for yourself.

Here’s the other thing that photo of Patterson reminded me of. It was almost exactly a year ago when I had a troubling conversation with a Dallas reporter. He had sent an email intended for his boss, explaining why he wasn’t going to cover SNAP’s media event in front of the Baptist General Convention of Texas . . . except the reporter plugged in the wrong address and accidentally sent his email to a SNAP leader. So we got to see what the reporter said to his boss.

His stated reason for not covering the event was this: “In my view, the Baptist General Convention of Texas has done more than any Baptist group to deal with clergy abuse.”

I decided to blog about the reporter’s comment because I think it reflects a common misperception about moderate Baptist groups such as the BGCT. After all, if the Catholic Diocese of Dallas kept a confidential file of priests who had been reported for child molestation but didn’t take action to responsibly assess the reports, didn’t remove the priests from ministry, and didn’t even bother to warn people in the pews, would reporters be content to say “The Dallas Diocese does more than any other Catholic group”?

That’s what’s happening with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Perhaps they don’t call clergy molestation survivors “evil-doers” like Patterson did, but they’re just like Patterson in that they don’t actually do anything about reported preacher-predators.

I sent off an email to give the reporter a link to my blog posting and to let him know about his mistake in sending the email to SNAP instead of his boss.

I didn’t name the reporter in my blog posting, but I think he was a bit embarrassed anyway. He called me and tried to explain. He’s a super-nice guy, but in truth, I thought his explanation only made things worse.

“I think you know what I meant,” he said. “After all, people at the BGCT aren’t as bad as Paige Patterson.”

“Not as bad as Paige Patterson.”

Is that the standard?

As long as Baptist leaders aren’t “as bad as Paige Patterson,” then I guess we’re all just supposed to be grateful and keep quiet?

Is that how it works in Baptist-land?

It’s a pretty low standard, if you ask me.
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Update: Because the "taking the hill" video has been removed from the seminary's website, I'm adding this link to the Baptist Press article about it.