Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Voddie Baucham is Sexist

And I bring this up now for a reason far more personal than urinating men who can't seem to hit the inside of a toilet in the women's bathroom during a conference listening to Voddie Baucham vilify feminists and pretty much all women. (Whew, what a long sentence. I hope you can make heads and tails of it. If not, perhaps this blog post can help you Complementarian Men Symbolically Urinate on Women)

It is far more personal to me than even the story at the above link, and I will explain why.
Voddie Baucham is speaking at the Iron Sharpens Iron men's conference in Springfield, Illinois. And guess what? Men in my church are going to that conference on March 24th. My desire to leave my church just keeps increasing.
Anyway, as proof of Voddie's blatant sexism and Bible twisting to control women I will link the transcript to a CNN 2008 interview. Voddie was concerned with Sarah Palin running for Vice president and thought that if she, or any other woman, ended up leading this country, this is a bad thing, and in fact, judgement from God against our Nation.
Link, here:

Portion of transcript in question:
*****
PHILLIPS: Well wait a minute. What about the Old Testament and the prophet Deborah? She was a political leader, she was a wife, she was a mother. She was one of the biggest forces in the book of Genesis, so that is the gospel right there.

BAUCHAM: She certainly was, and the fact that something happened doesn't mean that it's normative for the church. In Isaiah Chapter 3, for example, one of the signs that a culture is under judgment is that women are in leadership in their nations. So Deborah was actually a sign that things were very bad in Israel. Not a norm for the church.

PHILLIPS: Margaret, I am curious to see what you think about this and what the reverend is saying.

FEINBERG: I think that that is a fair perspective, Voddie, but I think we also need to look at Ephesians 5, which describes -- it is saying that husbands are to lay down their lives for their wives, just as Jesus Christ laid down his life for the church. And in the same way, I think Todd has done an incredible job opening up the opportunity for Palin to use the gifts and the
talents and passions that she has been given in order to make a difference in her community and possibly in our nation and world on a significant political landscape and affect. PHILLIPS: Margaret, does the reverend sounding a little sexist, or is it just me?

FEINBERG: I would have to say the reverend is sounding a little questionable there. But in the sense that I believe that everyone, despite gender, has an opportunity to serve, to give and
to play a role in making a difference in their communities, in their churches and around the world.

PHILLIPS: Reverend, this could be an exciting time. This could break through. We are becoming progressive in so many ways. We're seeing a black man possibly winning the presidency, we're seeing a woman here that -- on the Republican ticket -- that's rousing up evangelicals, possibly to think twice about the woman's role in the church. This is fascinating times.

BAUCHAM: They are fascinating times. And they are also frightening times. When you see Margaret Feinberg use Ephesians Chapter 5, which clearly says that a husband is head of the wife, in order to justify somehow with this slight of hand that Palin's husband is laying down his life by allowing her to do that, No. 1 she is playing fast and loose with the text. And secondly, she is also ignoring the fact that Palin's responsibility as a wife and mother is governed by scripture, not by whether we feel it is progressive about our culture.

PHILLIPS: Margaret, final thought there?

FEINBERG: Well, Voddie, I believe that is a narrow interpretation and a boxy interpretation of the text, as well as the role of women who in today's working families -- many families in the United States need both the man and the wife in order to work outside of the home in order to support the family. And to put that kind of burden on the family, whereby a woman must stay at home, I just don't think that translates into many working class families today.

BAUCHAM: Well, my job is not to translate into working class families, my job is to be honest with the text. And the text says, in Titus Chapter 2, verse 5, the woman is to be to the keeper of her home. Now I will not violate the teaching of the text in order to somehow sound more appropriate for the culture. I am a herald of the truth of the gospel and my job is to teach the gospel according to what the authors have said, not according to what I think the culture wants to hear.

*****

Yep, there is no denying. Voddie is the one playing fast and loose with the scriptrue. He is also sexist boardering on misogynist. Sexist and misogynist men love to go listen to him and urinte their displeasure concerning women in women's bathrooms all over the floor and where ever else they want to show their displeasure like puppies who need a newspaper taken to their backsides. Unfortunately, men who don't lean in the direction of sexism can pick this up. And I fear that is what will happen to the men in my church. All I want to do right now is run for the hills and become a hermit, far away from men and their hatred of women and teaching other men to do likewise.

Jeremiah 9:2 Oh that I had in the desert
A wayfarers’ lodging place;
That I might leave my people
And go from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.

[Voddie pulling out an obscure verse in Isaiah 3 and making it God's will for all time is nothing short of treacherous. It is no better than for me to pull a verse out of Psalm 116 that says that all men are liars and making that a case against all men for all time. We do not need such treachery in our pulpits, men who adulterate the word of God, making it line up with their own prejudices rather than rightly dividing it. People are bringing the arrogant Mark Driscoll down. They need to do the same with Voddie Baucham.]

13 comments:

Andrea Grace said...

Baucham's insistence that nothing matters outside of the bible is definitely one of the most frightening aspects of all this ("My job is not to translate into working class families"). To him, "Love God and your neighbor as yourself" takes a back seat to "all Scripture is inspired by God." His interpretation of the bible is a million times more important to him than loving the people around him. People can suffer and die for all he cares, but put one finger near his holy scriptures and you are really in for it.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in the bible. But no way should a book ever be more important than a person.

Mara Reid said...

Very well put.
Voddie has made and idol out of his personal interpretation of God's word.

The Two Greatest Commandments and the Golden Rule, written in red, uttered by the Word Incarnate Himself...
They are sacrificed on the altar of Voddie's masculinity idol.

Oh the treachery of men.

Bridget said...

Mara -

Did you notice how Bauchman transitioned the Titus 2 reference into the truth of the "gospel." I can't stand how many of these men turn everything they want into the "gospel." The Gospel is the Good News of Christ's birth, life, death, and ressurrection to glory and how our belief in this Good News makes us heirs with Christ. The Gospel is not about women being keepers of their homes. These men are not telling the truth about the Gospel.

Mara Reid said...

Preach it Sister!

They make secondary issues and instructions that Paul gave to specific churches for specific times into salvation issues.

Oh, the treachery of men.

P.S. Dirty little secret Voddie doesn't want you to know:

The word translated "keeper" there in Titus would be better translated "Despot" or "Ruler". It carries way and above more connotation of "Ruler" than "Head" in Ephesians 5 ever could.

But these guys don't want you to know that. It would upset their little hierarchy scam they have going.

So... Shhh...NOT!

Keep preaching it!

Lin said...

"BAUCHAM: She certainly was, and the fact that something happened
doesn't mean that it's normative for the church. In Isaiah Chapter 3, for
example, one of the signs that a culture is under judgment is that women are in
leadership in their nations"

Mara, If you have not read Bushnells God's Word to Women, please do. She does an indepth exegesis from the Hebrew on why this was translated wrong.

We must educated ourselves because they are prooftexting like crazy. The text actually refers to something akin to 'tax gatherers' or something like that.

Mara Reid said...

Ah, Bushnell.

She is so on my list of people to read.

I sure didn't know about the tax-gatherers thing. Definitely something to look into

But you know, you can just read the story of Deborah and see that God BLESSED the nation of Israel during her time as a Judge. There is nothing in the story that even remotely hints that her time as a judge was a curse on any level.

Men, like Voddie, who make this false claim are only fooling themselves and trying to fool others to support this false view of the nature of God.

So... Let me repeat this for Voddie and any other misogynists who run hell bent into this false teaching.

DEBORAH WAS A BLESSING TO ISRAEL.
SHE WAS NEVER, EVER, EVER A CURSE.
SHE WAS ONLY A BLESSING.
SO GET, FREAKING, OVER IT, VODDIE.
YOU ARE DEAD WRONG ON THIS ONE AND NO AMOUNT OF TWISTING AND FALSE SUPPORT CAN CHANGE THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER THAT DEBORAH WAS A BLESSING.

Clear and straight forward enough?

Sal in the City said...

I only know about this man because a former friend of mine from high school posts links from his page all the time. I am always appalled by his commentary. He is definitely sexist (bordering on misogynistic)and a bigot. He turns my stomach.

Mara Reid said...

Unknown, you know it, I know it.
The problem is, not enough other people know it.
But they need to know it. This sort of toxin has no business mixing in with Christianity, and yet men like him work tirelessly to make Christianity toxic. It's no wonder people aren't interested in drinking from the well.
Thanks for your encouraging words.

Texas guy said...

agreed. below is a post from his blog

in this post he says all sorts of horrible things about education (mind you he went to Rice and has a phd). but apparently he hates education.


"Here's a little scene I like to play out for my kids to illustrate the folly of many educational choice:

Mr. and Mrs. Christian, we here at 'Ivy League' University are philosophically opposed to virtually everything you stand for. We are among the most liberal, Darwinian, Secular Human, neo-Marxist, Feminist bunch on the planet. However, if you give us $250,000.00 we'll take your daughter off your hands for the next four years and make a man our of her. Between the money you've spent on her prep school, private tutors, and college education, she'll be put in a position where devoting herself to being a wife and mother would be a criminal act. Therefore, she'll put off marriage as long as possible, have no more than one.... maybe two kids, pay someone else to raise them -since she'll start off her career up to her eyeballs in debt-but don't you worry... She'll always be the most impressive person in the room when she mentions the fact that she was indoctrinated by us... So how will you be paying?"

the line about turning your daughter into a man!

Mara Reid said...

Men like Voddie are so full of themselves.
I could go into a long tirade about it. But it's late. I'm tired. And neither myself nor Voddie will be any better for it.
I just wish the scales would fall off his eyes so he could see how deceived he and his patriarchy bunch really are.
But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that.
Those who place themselves into positions of authority with a scripture twist here and a 'thus saith the Lord' there are not easily dissuaded from their crooked paths and perverted power grabs.

Ship wreck said...

You are attacking this man for telling you the truth. You have been taught to think from a human secular world view.The public school curriculum is written by Atheists and Feminists. This means that you as a female are most likely single with no intention of getting married or having children. You have had at least 1 abortion, you have slept with 10 or more men. You are on birth control. Your parents are divorced and you were never properly disciplined as child.you are addicted to something and suffer with anxiety, depression, or ADD. You are fighting the wrong enemy!it's not flesh and blood. Read Ephesians.The entire book in one sitting!

Mara Reid said...

Ship Wreck, were you having a bad day back in April or are you this off-the-charts unhinged all the time? You make an awful lot of assumptions and reveal an insane amount of prejudice in so few words concerning women who don't swallow the patriarchy Kool-Aid. In fact, concerning myself, every single one of your assumptions are so far off the mark they are too hilarious for me to be offended. I probably should have not published your moderated comment. But your inane words were entertaining and reveal just how ridiculous Voddie lovers can be.

Mara Reid said...

Conan, you tried three times to leave your comment.
I admire your perseverance. Not being snarky.
However, I'm not going to let your comment through.
You add nothing to the conversation but your personal opinion that Voddie's interpretation is the right one.

Sorry. It's not right just because you and Voddie say so.

Now, if you want to link to an actual, scholarly, logical, non-fallacy based argument. I might go look at it. Might even let the comment go through if it's any good and not just the rantings of a preacher with an agenda.