A Baptist pastor writes a daily piece in our newspaper. This pastor is big into manly macho things. In fact, recently his church held a series of power lunches where retired sports figures, a retired Houston weatherman, and Mattress Mac (a well-known respected businessman) were invited to speak. It was billed as a Power Lunch for men, but women could attend also if they so desired.
I glance at his daily writings just to see what he is up to, and the one today caught my attention. It was titled “Diary of a Dog.” The first paragraph spoke for the dog and chronicled every time he ate, went for a walk, went to the vet, etc.
He then made the comment that dogs are always content. They are always in love with their master. This pastor then says “If you don’t believe me, throw your dog and your wife in the trunk of your car. Drive around the block. Then open your trunk, and see which one is happy to see you!”
I wrote the following letter to the editor of our newspaper.
Not funny, Pastor. In the first place, you are not the master of your wife. I suggest sensitivity training which can be found in Luke 6:31.
I knew that I was pushing my luck as I have already had a letter to the editor in this paper this week. I ended that article which was about Texas women not getting the right to sit on a jury until 1955, with this sentence “Countries and religions should be judged by how they treat their women.”
When the newspaper appeared today, my letter was in it. I expect that this pastor will apologize to his congregation Sunday, but I won’t ever hear about it. There has been increased visits to my website today.
This week I had a letter to the editor published in the print edition of the Baptist Standard, and two letters to the editor printed in my local newspaper.
I work hard for women’s equality. I hope you are doing the same.
bWe Baptist Women for Equality's Blog 
Wow Shirley – talk about insensitive. The comparison between the dog and the wife is so out there I can’t even comprehend how people can think like that.
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I doubt that he even gave it a thought that women might take offense to this. This is the pastor of a big church. He is big in Baptist denominational life.
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The thing is, people *do* think like this–“comedians” still make comments like this they think are funny. Funny how much some pastors’ attitudes sound just the same as what I hear outside of the church, what with the amount of time these same pastors spend railing on “secular” culture. But they never seem to notice that.
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I don’t really think it’s a matter of who loves him more, his dog or his wife. It’s a matter of who is smarter and who can tell what disrespect, disregard, bad behavior, and flat abuse are.
You kick a dog and it will come back to you.
Is he suggesting that wives should be the same, act like a whipped pouch?
What does he want, a partnership or a pet?
If he wants pet instead of a wife, stick with the dog and leave women out of it.
His abusive attitude towards women will not be tolerated.
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Way to go, Shirley! Don’t let up.
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