Burnett Robinson is no longer a senior pastor of Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) following nine years of service. SDA communications consultant Kevin Lampe confirmed that Robinson has been removed from the denomination following his controversial remarks about men raping their wives. On November 13 during a sermon, the New York City pastor told his congregation, "Gentlemen, the best person to rape is your wife."
A day after Religion News Service published a story on the pastor who called on husbands to "rape" their wives, the Greater New York Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church ordered Robinson to be placed on adminsitrative leave. On Wednesday, November 24, the conference announced that Robinson had resigned. Lampe confirmed that Robinson will no longer be allowed to serve a Seventh-day Adventist church.
"The Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists recognizes many have been deeply harmed by the sentiments expressed by Robinson," a statement from the denomination read, as per the Christian Headlines. "The views he expressed are wrong and not accepted by our church. Rape and sexual assault of women are crimes and should always be treated as such."
The statement concluded, "We will continue to educate and counsel all pastors, seminary students, and staff to fully understand that this type of rhetoric is abhorrent and unequivocally unacceptable."
During Robinson's November 13 sermon, which was captured in a video and published on YouTube, the New York pastor preached about a passage from the New Testament's Letter to the Ephesians, in which Paul the Apostle advised, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
Robinson took this instruction quite literally, telling women in the congregation that "once you get married, you are no longer your own. You are your husband's." He then went on to recount how he saw on television a woman who filed a case against her husband for rape charges. The pastor said, "I would say to you, gentlemen, the best person to rape is your wife." He then lamented that rape has been "illegalized."
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 32.3% of New York women and 33.5% of New York men experience physical violence or sexual violence at the hands of intimate partners. In 2013 alone, New York City law enforcement responded to 284,660 domestic violence incidents in the city.
Domestic violence is also not limited to adults, as 12.1% of high school students in the state of New York reported having been physically hurt (excluding sexual violence) by a significant other in the last 12 months, while 11.8% reported experiencing sexual dating violence. In 2013, the number of domestic violence homicides increased by 16% from 2012.
Nationally, 1 in 3 women in the United States have experienced some form of physical violence in the hands of an intimate partner. Across America, intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime. On any given day, domestic violence hotlines receive about 21,000 calls with an average of 15 calls every minute.
