Mary Winkler's lesson for the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Curriculum (content and hyperlinks updated; bumped up from 21-Aug-07)
Right-wing wishful-thinking about women: Homemaking concentration [required courses], Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary [Fort Worth, Texas], online at college
I think we all remember Mary Winkler, the pastor's wife in Tennessee, who last year shot her husband in the back following an argument over home finances. According to Winkler's in-court testimony, for which she offered no corroborating evidence, her husband – the Pastor – had abused her throughout their marriage, including forcing her to wear white platform shoes and a black wig during sex. The case illustrates some of the difficulties that are found in some marriages. The case also illustrates that some people are ill-equipped to deal with those difficulties. Which makes me wonder: If the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary wants to train women in Godly homemaking skills, why doesn't the homemaking curriculum include courses in home finance and marriage and family, in addition to courses in the womanly arts of cooking and sewing?
UPDATE, Saturday, August 9, 2008: Mary Winkler is the Tennessee Pastor's wife who killed her husband – Matt, the Pastor – and then served only 12 days in jail and 55 days in a mental health facility for the crime. Compounding that injustice, last week a court granted her full custody of the couple's three children, who have lived with their paternal grandparents since their father's death (Attorney: Winkler takes custody of 3 children [04-
Does it seem like Mary Winkler got away with murder? That's what I think.
News reports don't explain the court's reasoning in awarding Mary Winkler custody. But her attorney claimed, "It should be seen as a sign that the family is healing... It's a good thing for everyone."
I doubt it.
•Is it a good thing for Matt Winkler? who Mary Winkler shot in the back while he slept in bed? After "involuntarily" shooting Matt, Mary unplugged the phone, rather than giving him aid or calling 911.
•Is it a good thing for the children? who will always know their mother killed their Dad? News reports say the children have not expressed a desire to live with their mother again.
•Is it a good thing for us? to forgive a crime and then act like it never happened.
Here's what Mary Winkler teaches us:
•An accusation of abuse trumps the absence of corroborating evidence.
•A man's life means relatively little when it's taken by a woman.
•Given a difficult set of family circumstances, a mother's biological relationship with her children is all we need to know.
Those lessons are hard to accept. But, they're no more difficult to understand – I believe – than the homemaking curriculum that first led me to discuss Mary Winkler.
The homemaking curriculum at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) remains what it was a year ago, when it was first offered to students – and garnered open-mouthed incredulity from the world at large (despite the curriculum's having been anticipated by the satirists at Landover Baptist Church). I pointed out at the time that the Winkler tragedy suggests more education is needed about the emotional and financial aspects of marriage and family – but those aren't the classes the SWBTS curriculum includes.
That the SWBTS curriculum continues to only promote the cookin' and sewin' dimensions of family-life represents a perverse repudiation (or is it a denial?) of the lives we all live. I can't help but think that Mary Winkler (and her unfortunate custody victory) is of a piece with the careless fundamentalism that likewise gave rise to the SWBTS curriculum.
Posted by 3Dsound at Saturday, August 09, 2008 8:24 AM 
Categories: men, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist, curriculum, Christian fundamentalism, homemaking, women
Categories: men, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist, curriculum, Christian fundamentalism, homemaking, women
Comments