Southern Baptist leader replaced amid allegations of counselling women to stay in abusive marriages and forgive rapists

Paige Patterson will still remain on the payroll of the seminary after an open letter signed by 2,000 women

(Screenshot/YouTube)

A prominent leader in the Southern Baptist community has been relieved of his duties after allegations of marital abuse and rape.

Paige Patterson was replaced as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, this week. The Board of Trustees said in a statement: "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”.

Mr Patterson allegedly counselled a rape victim not to report the crime, but instead pray for and forgive her attacker. In another incident reported by NPR and the Washington Post, he reportedly counselled women who were in abusive marriages to stay and pray for their husbands.

The institution also said in its statement that it "affirmed a motion stating 1) evidence exists that Dr. Patterson has complied with reporting laws regarding assault and abuse, 2) the Seminary stands against all forms of abuse”.

However, the 75-year-old still remains as a “president Emeritus, with compensation” of the seminary.

Mr Patterson will keep getting paid despite an open letter 2,000 Southern Baptist women that warned they did not want "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”.

In the days following the open letter, the former leader wrote one himself, titled “An Apology to God’s People” in which he apologised "to every woman who has been wounded by anything I have said that was inappropriate or that lacked clarity”.

“Please forgive the failure to be as thoughtful and careful in my extemporaneous expression as I should have been," he had written.

Mr Patterson has also given controversial speeches over the years in addition to his counselling of these women.

In 2000, he relayed the story of the woman he told to pray for her abusive husband. "Returning some days later with two black eyes, the woman said, 'I hope you're happy,'" Mr Patterson said.

"'I said, 'Yes, ma'am, I am happy. What she didn't know when we sat in church that morning...'was that her husband had come in and was standing in back, first time he ever came,' " he said during the sermon.

The decision by the women to sign the letter comes amid a large movement centred around the #metoo movement, where victims and survivors of sexual assault, harassment, and gender discrimination are speaking out.