David Hayward speaks out on the widespread problem of woman-blaming.

May 21, 2013

“Let’s blame women for what men do”
Referring to the most recent outrageous comments by television evangelist Pat Robertson, who said in essence that it’s a wife’s duty to keep her husband from committing adultery and to appreciate his other qualities if and when he does cheat on her, David Hayward uses one of his cartoons to call attention to widespread woman-blaming. In his Naked Pastor blog on Patheos, Hayward says, “I suggest that Robertson is just the most obvious presentation of a prevalent, deep-rooted attitude towards women. We see it every day in the news where women are blamed for rape, sexual harassment, and abuse.”  Related reading. See also this report on Robertson from the Huffington Post, and the commentary by EEWC’s own Kendra Weddle on the Ain’t I a Woman blog she co-writes with Melanie Springer Mock.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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