In yet another example of the divide between religious fundamentalism and reality, Soutwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson claimed that those who belive that it is economically necessary for women to work outside the home are “ignorant.”
The statement comes as part of an interview with Reuter’s about the Bachelor of Arts degree in Home Making that is now available at one of the Baptist colleges. True to standard Southern Baptist form, the course is open only to women and has a goal of readying a woman “intellectually and in her basic skills” to accept a life of domestic servitude.
Patterson further displays his near-schizophrenic disconnection with modern society when he tries to tie divorce and domestic abuse to a lack of housekeeping skills. Several of the requirements of the degree program, such as years of Latin and classical Greek, have no practical application in the real world and even less of one when confined barefoot and pregnant in the house.
It’s decisions like the one to offer this degree program that exemplify why I am a former fundamentalist. Sure, it was bad enough to be seen as a second-class citizen because of my gender, but the idea of turning an institution of higher learning into a place of indoctrination into one’s inferiority is an unconscionable travesty.