The spankings were to satisfy self-styled Reverend Howard Curtis’s “desire for power and sexual satisfaction,” Croydon crown court heard.
Former pastor Curtis, 73, from Wallington in south London, ran the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship as a cult, prosecutor Toby Fitzgerald said.
The father of three ordered one woman, a student nurse, to strip naked before putting her over his knee to slap her. He continued the beating when she collapsed to the floor. One of the dozen sessions took place in front of her husband.
He introduced the woman to his version of “Christian domestic discipline”, following Bible teachings of keeping women in their place. Her “offences” included untidiness and “lacking femininity”, the jury was told. Mr Fitzgerald said: “She trusted him completely as a man of God.”
Note, he did not do this once, but had a dozen sessions with just one of his many victims, one of which was in front of her husband … WTF!
Belief: Women should know their place
This is not just him, there is a prevailing and widespread belief within evangelical (and also other) circles that advocate that women need to be subservient, silent, obedient, and basically stay at home and cook for the men. Having once been a part of such groups, I can indeed verify that this is very much a factual observation, but I do need to add that it is generally not taken to the degree of craziness that Mr Curtis went to.
If you doubt the very existence of such thinking and the inspiration behind it, then let me introduce you to “Biblical Gender Roles“, a website created under an anonymous pen name, and let me be clear, this is not a satire site, the author is earnestly serious, and blogs on a regular basis.
His guidance is that women need to … (get a bucket ready, you will need it to throw up into) …
- Be meek and quiet
- No gossiping
- Marry, have kids, and look after the house
- No sex unless married
- Must dress like a women and must be modesty dressed (whatever that means) … and yet strangely enough, I don’t see any guidance on how men should dress.
- Must submit and accept the authority that men supposedly have over women [Well, I did warn you to keep that bucket handy]
- Must not be independent, but instead must look to men to provide her needs
- Women are the weaker vessel
- Her Husband is not her equal partner, but her master
- She must pressure other women to conform to this mode of thinking
- Her primary goal and mission in life is to be at home
… and he backs all this up with direct quotes from the bible, so it just must be true … right?
Meanwhile back in the 21st century
The decline and demise of this archaic mode of thinking is destined to fall into decline and to fade eventually from memory. It was perhaps once a very common view and would have been accepted socially, but it no longer is.
When you embrace such thinking as “truth”, then it does have consequences.
For example we once had as a consequence of such thinking the idea the rape within the context of a marriage did not exist and that resulted in a considerable degree of abuse and suffering that was covered up and ignored. Thankfully that has changed within many nations, but a considerable degree of progress is still required.
Individuals who place themselves into a context that requires them to submit like this and reject the concept of equality, open up a considerable scope for abuse to be ratified. Over at the Gender Roles website we have some guidance on what husbands should do if their wife says “no” …
- Rebuke her (which I take to mean basically yell at her) … in front of witnesses.
- Cut her off financially
- Bring it up in church and get others to yell her back into submission and threaten to expel her from the church if she still refuses
Well, way to go, that is the guaranteed way to win hearts and minds … not.
It should of course not be a surprise for you to learn that the divorce rate for the religious is far higher than the non-religious, and perhaps now you have a small insight into why that is the case.
I do also wonder if the anonymous author behind Biblical Gender Roles is married. I suspect if he is, then his seriously screwed up attitude will ensure that it will not last.
As for Pastor Curtis …
Well, that also illustrates the potential consequences of such thinking. He felt it appropriate to demand that a student nurse should strip naked to be spanked multiple times, she willingly went along with this BS, and her husband also was there once so was also buying into it all.
However, this is now the 21st century, so belief does not get a free pass and we no longer turn a blind eye to it all. Instead he goes to court and gets put on trail form dishing out sexual abuse, and that is the way it should be.
His trial is expected to continue for four weeks at Croydon crown court.