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The Comedy of Elena Carlena




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The Misogynistic Pastor



It has been brought to my attention that Pastor Paul Chappell of the Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, seems to have a little problem with women. He gave what has become something of an infamous speech, posted on YouTube on November 14 of this year, now known as "the filthy dishrag sermon". I am herewith calling him out on the inaccuracies and illogical and religious fallacies of that speech.

Since the first refuge of a scoundrel is, "I was taken out of context," then in the interests of full disclosure I have transcribed the entire text of his speech from the post on YouTube, so that you can judge for yourself if you like (since you probably don't want to listen to this claptrap yourself, but there's the link if you prefer). I have provided the entire transcription of his speech in the yellow box at the end. Here, I'll place quotes in italics with my comments below.

"One wonders whatever happened to purity?... Whatever happened to the days when girls said, 'I'm not going to be touched by every guy, I'm not going to walk down the aisle like a filthy dishrag on my wedding day'?"

I'm pretty sure those days never existed. I'm pretty sure young women never thought of being a dishrag as an option. If you were a dishrag, you'd have a hard time walking down the aisle. Do filthy dishrags grow feet?

Of course, most women still have no desire to be "touched by every guy". Women are selective. This is a dangerous idea of the right wingdings, that they think a woman who has sex outside of marriage might be available to "every guy".

I'm not sure what the Pastor thinks of sex before marriage for young men. Maybe he's planning a sequel sermon, boys "walk down the aisle like a filthy doo rag," or something.

In speaking about sexual purity, the misogynistic Pastor quotes Titus 1:15:

"To the pure all things are pure, but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled."

If you say so, Pastor. Except that in context, Titus 1:15 isn't referring to sexuality at all; it's referring to church leaders! Much like him! This is part of a letter from Paul to Titus; it's interesting to read the characteristics Paul describes in defiled church leaders:

"full of meaningless talk and deception,... teaching things they ought not to teach... for the sake of dishonest gain,... liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons,... detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good".

That's from Titus 10-16. Not a word about "impurity" in the context of sexuality. It's these church leaders of whom Titus 1:15 says, "their mind and conscience is defiled".

Be careful of the context of what you quote, Pastor. It might come back to bite you.

"I don't want to sound weird tonight".

Too late, Pastor.

And then it got weirder:

"There is a standard in this church that the dresses are going to come down to the knee when a lady stands up here".

Then he asks himself why? And his answer surprised even me. You see, at its core, it's not about the ladies. It's about the gentlemen!

"I've counseled too many men to know that if we don't have everything covered just right, they're not going to be thinking about the wonderful grace of Jesus.... We're just trying to keep the focus on Him".

Oh, so women could wear whatever we wanted if only the men could just keep their thoughts on the Lord in the presence of women's flesh. Not only do we need to be covered, but we need to be "covered just right". Poor, uncontrollable, animal men's urges. How insulting to men. But where have I heard this before?

Burqas, anyone?

I have a feeling that the misogynistic Pastor would say that Christian religious extremists are in no way similar to Muslim religious extremists. Surely the above is proof to the contrary.

"I get so sick and tired of going to weddings and... here's some Jezebel with hardly any clothes on strutting around the wedding.... You go to a funeral and unsaved women do the exact same thing."

Wow, what wild assumptions. It's the current fashion for women's clothes to show off her figure and show some flesh. The vast majority of women will wear what is fashionable. How dare this pastor think he has the right to judge women if their clothes happen not to meet with his approval?

For someone who likes to quote the Bible, he seems to have forgotten the words of Jesus such as in James 5:9: "Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged".

And finally, see the very scary photograph below. If you thought he's an irrelevant fundamentalist creep in what must be a tiny church in a small town in California, then you'll be as surprised as I was by this photo of his church:

Lancaster Baptist Church
Lancaster Baptist Church, photo by Jeremy Lofgren


How can so many people sit there and listen to someone who is so wrong-headed and the only audible response is merely "Amen"?

As promised, here is the entire transcription of his speech, for those who want to examine context. If you've had enough of the misogynistic Pastor, please feel free to skip the lavender box.

One wonders whatever happened to purity? Whatever happened to that? Whatever happened to the days when girls said, "I'm not going to be touched by every guy, I'm not going to walk down the aisle like a filthy dish rag on my wedding day"? Whatever happened to that day? I speak no ill against someone who has had difficulty and sin in their past, but from this day forward. It's not wrong when a couple of hundred teenagers got up here a few weeks ago and made a purity pledge. That's a wonderful thing. Titus 1:15: "Under the pure all things are pure". Now you listen very carefully, that pure Mom and Dad out there when those kids were up here, you know what they were saying, "That's great, praise the Lord". Because "to the pure all things are pure, but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled". I don't want to sound weird tonight. There's a reason when ladies come up here to sing, that the rule, if you want to use it, the standard, call it, I don't care what you call it, call it legalism, call it control, I don't care what you call it, there is a standard in this church that the dresses are going to come down to the knee when a lady stands up here. I've been here long enough now, you can call me every name you want to call me, I mean, just fill my name in the blank. They call me old fashioned, okay, say why, Pastor? I've counseled too many men to know that if we don't have everything covered just right, they're not going to be thinking about the wonderful grace of Jesus. Some of you men want to help me with this tonight? We're just trying to keep the focus on Him. I get so sick and tired of going to weddings and it's the bride's day and here's some Jezebel with hardly any clothes on strutting around the wedding. Lookit, you come to a wedding around here, show some respect to the bride. You go to a funeral and unsaved women do the exact same thing. You come to the house of God, it ought not to be a flesh show, it ought to be a place where Jesus is lifted high and His holiness is remembered. Well, Pastor Chappell, you know, you're in California, and this kind of message is just whooo... (gesture going over his head). It doesn't matter where you live, the Bible is the same, folks.

Parts of the above were also published at Daily Kos here and here.



© Copyright Elena Carlena November 29, 2014. Updated December 14, 2014. All rights reserved.