Pastor Bobby Leonard's recent sermon, where he suggested that rape suspects should be acquitted
if their victims were shorts, has sparked intense backlash and condemnation. Despite the
outcry, his subsequent apology, displayed on a sign outside the church, has
been met with skepticism. The sign, bearing a simple message of regret,
falls short of addressing the deeper issues raised by Leonard's remarks. Critics argue that
such a passive response fails to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and the need
for meaningful accountability. As protests continue and voices demand more than mere words,
Leonard's apology via signage serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing struggle for justice
and recognition of survivor's experiences. This story is from The Charlotte Observer by Mark
Joe Marussak on February twenty six, twenty four. And this is just so
infuriating, So infidel, let's hear from you first. Now, I was
raised in a sect where pants were a sin for women, So forget shorts.
This idea she was asking for is something unfortunately not new at all.
I will say, though, that one thing that really struck me beyond absurd
was because a man's a man. What kind of excuse is that? What
does that say about Pastor Bobby Leonard? You know I've mentioned before that we
can tell a pastor's porn preferences by what they rail against. Well, I
have to wonder what's going on inside a pastor Bobby Leonard's mind that makes him
think that sexual assault is something that can so easily be excused, and not
only excused, but essentially dismissed as not sexual assault because he didn't just say
that they were asking for, but that he would vote to acquit them.
To me, that's almost like saying I hold somebody's arms down because whether they
were wearing shorts. It's just a complete level of dishonesty. But then again,
maybe not just us at all, because really this is just what we
call purity culture now, but it's without all the polish and spit and the
right words and the guise of normalcy that we see a lotted to purity cultures
so often. Unfortunately, though, I will say that, as you mentioned
the apology on the billboard, that's a pretty weak way to apologize. You
would think that if you really realize you said something wrong. You would do
a little better than have somebody else go out and put something up on a
billboard. But this isn't new. This is just another example of what we're
seeing as an additional attack on women's rights and women's right to control their own
body, because, after all, men will be men. A man's a
man, and with that, I have a lot more to say, and
none of it very good, at least not for a pastor Bobby Leonard.
So I think it's time that I go ahead and say, Kelly, what
did you think about this? Yeah? You know, yeah, A man's
a man, and I guess it's a woman's a woman. So it's okay
to assault them because they're wearing shorts, because you know, woman's a woman,
right. What kind of excuse is that? That's ridiculous? You know?
And you know what I hear when I hear this guy, when I
hear Pastor Leonard say this, what I hear is is that I would acquit
this guy because this is something I would do. This is something that I
think I would be guilty of if I when I see women with tight shorts,
that's what I want to do to them. So why should that be
a bad thing? I'm doing it, I'm a pastor. Why is that
a bad thing? You know? And that's what really I think bothered me
the most about this, because that's kind of the way I heard this weighing
out from his talk, and I hear from theis all the time. We
all have that you don't believe in God, So where are your morals at?
You must be out there murdering and raping people, And I always have
to seriously wonder is that what they would be doing? Is that what they
would be doing if they didn't believe in God? And when you hear somebody
like Pastor Leonard say something like this, you really really really have to wonder
would you be out there, Pastor Leonard? Would you be out there raping
if you didn't believe in God? Would you be I kind of have a
feeling that you might. And I think the only way to keep you in
check is your belief in God. So please, please, please keep believing
in your God. Richard. Do you want to take it? Well,
I'm going to kind of go a little sideways from you, Kelly and say
that I think part of it the problem is his belief in God. I
don't know that he can do anything about it short of leaving his religion or
having some major reform, since Biblical Christianity is so misogynistic that he will make
similar mistakes over and over again. Take for example, one Timothy to eleven
fourteen. I quote, I permit no woman to teach or to have authority
over a man. She is to keep silent end of quote. And then
we have Genesis nineteen six through eight where a lot takes a man into his
house who's being chased by some people. They want to grab him, do
whatever they want to do to him. Does he send him out? No,
he sends out his two daughters, virgin daughters, and they get ravaged.
Basically, what the Old Testament says is women are property, and so
a women's a woman. These people have this belief in the back of their
heads. You know they're going to think and they so. For people who
think the Bible is an errant and the word of God and they must follow
it, they are objectively misogynists, and they're going to think that doing stuff
like that's okay. Onward, Dickie, where are you well, what is
you going to say to that you were you were quoting First Timothy there,
and I want to rewind a little bit, and I want to go to
a couple of verses before what you're reading. If we look at First Timothy
two nine through ten, right, they say likewise also that women should adorn
themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self control, not with braided hair and
gold or pearls are costly attire, but with what is proper for women who
profess godliness with good works. I wonder you're saying some people follow the Bible.
I wonder if he really does believe in that, because I'm thinking that
he wouldn't be voting to a quit if the woman was wearing braided hair and
gold or pearls or costly attire. I'm wondering if he's being biblical enough.
I mean, but Infidel, you were talking about purity culture, right,
and it's purity and modesty and all of that kind of balled up into one.
We don't just see this in Christianity too. There's other parts of the
world where throwing acid in a woman's face is okay because she was being quote
unquote immodest by daring to not cover up her face with a veil in public.
I mean it, it's treating women as property, like we were saying.
And I want to take a before I pass it back off to Infidel,
because I know you're chewing at the bid here trying to get some more.
But I want to look at his apology here. Okay, So he
put a sign on the or he put an apology on the church sign,
and he did say I was wrong. I got to give him credit for
that. Okay, he did say I was wrong. It wasn't It wasn't
a very robust or believable really apology, but he did at least acknowledge that
he did something wrong. I looked up on the web here Taylorcounselinggroup dot com.
They say they have five properties of an important apology, or of a
good apology, and a good apology, according to them, expresses regret.
And so maybe he expressed regret here. He did say that he did something
wrong, and that's the second step there, accepting responsibility. Okay, making
restitution. I think he's got a ways to go on that. Okay.
I'd like to hear him talk about the way that he should have been talking
about women. I want him to talk about how what he said was wrong
and why is it wrong and what we should do instead. That's the third
step. The fourth step, of course, is generally genuinely promising change.
Okay. So that's kind of the a key step in an apology that's not
really you know, it's not really brought up that often. You know,
apology you want to express regret, you want to say you're sorry, you
want to try to make things better, but you also want to commit to
making a change in the future. And I'm hearing nothing of that from uh,
from you know, pastor I want to say, Pastor Ricky, Bobby,
Pastor Bobby Leonard. And then of course the last thing is requesting forgiveness,
okay, And so that's he wants. You need to make amends with
the population that you've harmed and this definitely is causing harm. And so you
know, I'd like to see a little bit more out of that. If
he wants credit for being apologetic, then I think he's going to have to
step up his game a little bit. Infidel, what do you think.
I think that Pastor Bobby Leonard is more concerned about being wrong for getting exposed
and the net get a publicity. He's gotten definitely more than it is yes,
rather than I've actually done something wrong. And that does go back to
what Richard said earlier, because at the end of the day, the Bible
is extremely misogynistic. And as I had mentioned earlier, I was raising a
church where women couldn't wear pants, couldn't wear a makeup, nobody could pierce
their ears, couldn't even cut your hair, not even triming. So with
those types of you couldn't bread it woo, that's crossing the line. That's
I guess they were getting a little modern. They were getting a little too
modern. But when it comes down to it, it really is. It
does come back to this. Women are property. Women should be silent and
heard and not heard, but they should they should listen and obey their husbands.
You know, that's the regular routine. And that is what this guy
believes. And so I don't care how many signs he puts up there.
And the truth is is, you know, an eighty year old guy didn't
go out there and put and put up the sign outside of his church.
He told somebody else to. So that's just another level of having somebody else
go out there and put your apology in letters in front of your church that
that that's even less of an apology. At least you could go out there
and do it yourself. But also on the flip side, I'm going to
go out and gamble. I'm going way out on the limb here and say
that not a one of us here in this panel has ever set out in
the parking lot at the outlet mall and sat and launch and counted the number
of people wearing shorts, our skirts, our pants or whatever. And if
you are, and I'm not speaking to us, but if you're that type
of person, my advice is go seek counseling because there is a problem there.
There is something wrong with your view of the world. If you think
that you need to verify and legitimize your view by well, what were they
wearing? If that ever comes up in a conversation, then you've already lost.
And that is something that for me, I can't get around. So
if anyone ever thinks that, go ahead, figure something out, because the
problem is not the person wearing the shorts. It's not the person who you
think is wearing something too sexy for your eyes to view. The problem is
right there in between the ears. If you want to look in the mirror.
Yes, you found the problem. It's you. So with that,
Kelly, you said it was a problem if you were out there counting.
Is it okay if you're not counting. Look, I don't have any problem
with you. Hey, if I got it, I honestly I did not
realize how much lustiness was exuded by braided hair. I'm like, totally freaking
out. I don't want to kink shame the ancient Hebrews, but I'm just
freaking out on that knowing fact there. So one of the things I really
liked about the article was the one protester that like them, that likened all
the protesters to fruit inspectors. You know, I got to chuckle out of
that. You know. I guess it was the idea that they were inspecting
the pastor and he was a fruit. That that means so And I'm just
thinking that was so close. I mean, you were right there, you
almost had it right. And and I'm thinking I was thinking, to myself,
at least the protest did one thing. If it didn't actually make him
understand what he had done wrong, it at least shamed him. And I
don't think that was enough. That's one of the things I wanted to ask
everybody if they thought that was enough, and if not, what is something
else that this that pastor Bobby can do they make up for it. I
know, Scott you kind of mentioned some things that some ways to make up
for it, but what are some specific things do you think that he could
do to make up for it? Richard, Well, one of the things
I wanted to respond to was the was it five or six points that Scott
mentioned? You know, you know what's missing in that list getting to the
source of what caused the problem. You cannot make a change if you don't
know where the problem's coming from. And that's why I talked about the Bible
stuff, because that's in his head. He's got, you know, eighty
years of women's property, so he's got a lot of work to do.
The other thing that I thought was really interesting about him saying if he was
in court, he wouldn't he would think. You know, about forty years
ago I started being a lawyer, and back then you could talk about that
stuff in court, but about ten years in most of the courts that I
know of, particularly in California and the more you know, sort of liberal
states, you cannot mention when a woman was rearing again in a rape trial.
It's not allowed. You can't go after her personally. That's irrelevant,
you know, it's it's prejudicial. And so that guy is way behind.
Even with the way he's saying, he would let him get out of it,
because in most courts you wouldn't know that it would not even be brought
up. So it's just it's just an interesting thing. And the other thing
thing, I'll guess I'll close up with here and send it back to the
next person Scott, is that to none of these guys that he's associated with
and he's talking about have any self discipline. I mean they just see a
woman have to you know, I mean, well men or men, Well,
you know, I don't have that problem. I don't need your So
what's wrong with these guys? I mean, you know, it's it's almost
like I don't know, it's just it's sad. And the last thing is,
you know, if his all the guys in his church believe this way,
maybe the list of them should be put up on the street corner with
the list of sexual predators with a sign saying women beware, because these guys
if you wear shorts are coming after you. Yeah, I've been able to
make it well over half a century, and I believe you have too.
You look like you're younger and I am Richard, but I believe you have
too. And I don't think you learn one of us have had the desire
to go assault the woman just because she was wearing shorts. Right, No,
I would never do that, So Scott, Yeah, yeah, Kelly,
you were asking about what would need to what would what should he do?
Right? How should he? How should he fix things in it?
And I think that if you listen to what he says, and even if
you read through the article. As I was reading through the article, I
was like, they're not addressing the problem, right, they're not. He's
blaming he's he's uh shaming women for the way that they dress, you know,
saying men are men like they're just like the men are the victims here.
And that's a ridiculous thing. That's it's just utterly ridiculous for him to.
Yeah, I mean he needs to if he wants to have any kind
of restitution or wants to show any kind of genuine intent of changing, he
needs to talk to the men in his congregation and saying, no, you
are the problems. It's not a question of what somebody is wearing or how
they're acting. What matters is you and your self control. Okay, if
you can't control yourself around other people, you're the problem. You need to
you know, get a little bit of self control or remove yourself from the
situation. Okay. And so it's it's you know, they're kind of softball
in here saying oh, we got it. You know he's this minister said
something naughty. Oh no, but he did put a sign up. You
know, we need to you know, point things at at you know,
at what the problem is. And so if unless I hear Pastor Bobby Leonard
started talking about that kind of thing, you know, to me, he's
just falling well short of having a legitimate apology or making any kind of positive
change. He even said to his congregants, he was like he knew as
soon as he said it that he that he struck a nerve there because he
was like, well, I you know, I know you're upset with what
I said, but I'm right, And he said, I don't want you
going home to I don't want you to be all depressed when you go home.
I want you to go home empowered and and what seriously, No,
I'm going to go home and never come back. That's what's happening because you
aren't part of the problem. And so unless he wants to change that,
you know, it's just all going to fall short. But I wanted to
touch on a little bit of what Infidol was saying about h sitting at the
sitting at the outlet mall. I thought that was kind of funny, but
it was. It was a little bit of funny, right smack dab in
the middle of a lot of creepy. And so here's the quote that that
was from he said. And this is uh, this is quoted from a
recording of his sermon that the Charlotte Observer got. He said, I told
my wife, this is the kind of preaching we need. I told my
wife, Mama, when we go to Pigeon Forge, to the outlet mall
here and sit in the parking lot, you'll find more women going to have
shorts on than pants and dresses put together. Well, first of all,
yeah, like like we've said, sitting at aola, that's your vacation.
Time you go to an outlel you sit a lot and counting people with shorts.
I mean, come on, but he calls his wife mama, and
to me, that just rubs me the wrong way. And you know,
I've called my wife mom before it, but usually it's like in the context
of when we're having a discussion with the kids or something like that. I
might be like, well, mom, and I think this, and you
know, things like that. But he was saying that he was he was
using that as his normal reference to his wife when he was talking to his
congregants. You know, they're not in part of his family. I don't
know. It just seemed kind of creepy. And it especially especially because it's
nestled right in the middle of a big steaming pile of misogyny. Right.
He's dehumanizing and he's objectifying women, and at the same time, he's using
phrases like he might as well just go straight to calling her breeding vessel.
I mean, you know, why take the shortcuts here? So you know,
to close out my little bit here, I do have some advice for
missus Bobby Leonard, and this is I'm going to paraphrase the words of musician
Glenn Danzig. Here he says, Mama, tell your children not to walk
his way. Tell your children not to hear his words. What they mean,
what they say, Mama, And so follow that advice, Mama,
infidel you know, one minute, real quick. Yeah, One thing that
I want to say is I found the little irony in the fact that he
ignored the fact that and I don't agree with this scripture, but Jesus said
that, you know, if someone views a woman with luss that he's already
sinned in his heart. So does that negate the sin because they were dressed
in a certain way. But I do have a suggestion on solving this problem.
Now, I'm sure that more than a few of you have heard of
Oedipus. Well, not the part with his mom, but the part with
poking is poking his eyes out. Maybe maybe that's a solution for Bobby Leonard
and people like him. Go ahead, go ahead and poke your eyes out,
and Kelly take us away. There's another solution that a urologist can take
care of, the Bobbitt solution, right, is that what you're talking about?
No, a little lower eliminate the testosterone, right right, right,
right, Well, yeah, I appreciate everybody being here that it's been a
great conversation and you, our dear viewer, you should go to tiny dot
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