Bruce Ware

Sometimes, Christian fundamentalists really scare me. The asshole in the picture is one such fundie. His name is Bruce Ware, a professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Another is the president of said seminary, Albert Mohler. They’ve abused both their educations and the Christian Bible to support the most abhorrent theological conclusions. Their beliefs make them downright sexist and possibly even racist.

First the sexism. Like most evangelicals, Ware believes that women should be submissive to their husbands. That is, of course, because the Bible was written at a time when women were considered inferior and were expected to be submissive to men in all instances, so there are plenty of verses to support that theological conclusion.

Ware takes an already sexist belief to extremes. First, he blames the victims of domestic abuse. Basically he claims that non-submissive wives force their husbands to react one of two ways: to become a wimp or to beat the crap out of her.

“And husbands on their parts, because they’re sinners, now respond to that threat to their authority either by being abusive, which is of course one of the ways men can respond when their authority is challenged–or, more commonly, to become passive, acquiescent, and simply not asserting the leadership they ought to as men in their homes and in churches”

Creative Commons LicenseThe above image of the jackass was created and is licensed by these other jackasses.

Do you hear that wives? Assert yourself and don’t be surprised if you get beaten. Blaming women, even partially, for their own abuse is as abhorrently sexist. It’s just as bad as believing victims of rape were “asking for it”.

It gets even worse. Ware’s seminary promotes something called full-quiver theology. Basically, the idea is that married couples should have as many children as possible. This means that people should marry early and have children early and as often as possible. Of course, this also means no birth control in any circumstance. They describe not having children as rebellion against God’s design, that any couple not matching their cookie-cutter mold for how every relationship should be is sinning. It seems that the religious right isn’t only out to control homosexuality, they are out to control heterosexuality as well.

Setting aside the Malthusian catastrophe it would create, this disgusting theology demotes woman even further from ‘submissive’ to ‘breeding slave’. They want to return to a pre-birth control world were women often quite literally die from having so many children. It’s tough to be politically active to protect your rights if you are pregnant and taking care of several kids most of your life. Safe and legal abortion would disappear, pay discrepancies would increase, few protections for domestic abuse would result, woman would be kept out of the armed services, etc. In short, woman’s liberation would disappear in a generation if the full-quiver theology became wide-spread.

While not racist on the face of it, it seems to be in rhetoric and practice. Albert Mohler, president of the seminary, has said, “We are barely replenishing ourselves. That is going to cause huge social problems in the future.” Yet both America’s and the World’s population is growing. There is only one ethnic group in decline: whites. That’s right, the full-quiver theology is in part to make sure whites are not out-breed by other ethnic groups.

This contemptible theology needs to be called what it is – white-male supremacist theology – and opposed everywhere it is confronted. Thankfully, other, more ethical Christians have done just that. Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics at Denver’s Iliff School of Theology, has called full-quiver theology “white-supremacy code language advocating for the increase of white babies.” He’s the one who first brought up the racial implications of Molher’s statement.

Keith Herron, a Kansas City Baptist minister describes the theology as follows.

“Over the years since the takeover of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the ickiest viewpoints about sex and procreation and pleasure have been lurking in the theological minds of the President and professors who teach there. Once a viable center of creative and respectable theological thinking, now we are subjected to the strangest of sexual obsessions that focus on the means and motives of sex slimed by the notion they claim to represent the viewpoints of the God who created sex.”

He goes on to attack Ware and his ideas about spousal abuse directly.

“Dr. Ware needs to have his head examined. He and the others who share these views need therapy and should be banned from teaching the next generation of ministers who sit at their feet learning about God, about human pain and suffering.

Warning signs should be posted at the entrance of the seminary: “Warning! Sexual Obsessions Abound Here … Enter at Your Own Peril!””

I love to see rational responses no matter what quarter they come from.