SBC Seminary President Replaced after Rape Comments

Paige Patterson, who has been under fire for weeks over his past advice to women concerning marital abuse and rape, has been quietly replaced as president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Patterson has been on the defensive since allegations surfaced that he once counseled women who suffered marital abuse to pray for their husbands. The Washington Post on Tuesday also reported an incident in which Patterson allegedly told a woman who said she had been raped to forgive her assailant rather than report the incident to police.

"After much prayer and a more than 13-hour discussion regarding challenges facing the Institution, including those of enrollment, financial, leadership and institutional identity, the Board determined to move in the direction of new leadership for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary," the Board of Trustees said in a statement early Wednesday.

The board said it voted to appoint Patterson as "President Emeritus with compensation, effective immediately, which he accepted." In his place, it appointed D. Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the school of theology at the Fort Worth-based seminary, as interim president.

The decision to remove Patterson, 75, came after an open letter signed by more than 2,000 Southern Baptist women expressing shock over Patterson's statements and warning Southern Baptist Convention leaders not to allow "the biblical view of leadership to be misused in such a way that a leader with an unbiblical view of authority, womanhood, and sexuality be allowed to continue in leadership."

Days after the letter, Patterson issued "An Apology to God's People" saying he was sorry "to every woman who has been wounded by anything I have said that was inappropriate or that lacked clarity."

"We live in a world of hurt and sorrow, and the last thing that I need to do is add to anyone's heartache," Patterson said in the statement. "Please forgive the failure to be as thoughtful and careful in my extemporaneous expression as I should have been."

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