(RNS) — The pastor of a New York City Seventh-day Adventist church who said in a sermon earlier this month that husbands may rape their wives has been placed on administrative leave.
Burnett Robinson, senior pastor of Grand Concourse Seventh-day Adventist, a church located in the Bronx borough, was preaching on Nov. 13 about wives submitting to their husbands’ leadership, when he said,
“Gentlemen, the best person to rape is your wife.”
Now the Greater New York Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church said it has placed Robinson on administrative leave.
“Pastor Robinson deeply regrets the statement and knows it caused injury and has given an unqualified apology,” a statement from the New York Conference said.
In addition, the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church issued a statement saying:
“We wholeheartedly condemn any form of behavior or rhetoric that perpetrates any type of violence against women — or any person. This is not what the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes.”