Stewart-Allen Clark, 55, a preacher at the First General Baptist Church in Malden, Missouri is under fire for a February 21 sermon that many critics are calling “sexist” and “misogynistic.”
In the Sunday sermon, Clark targeted the females in his congregation, telling them to practice “weight control” to keep their husband’s attention because men only marry women for sex.
“Now look, I’m not saying every woman can be the epic, epic trophy wife of all time like Melania Trump. I’m not saying that at all,” Clark said while a photo of Melania appeared on screen. “Most women can’t be trophy wives, but you know, maybe you’re a participation trophy. I don’t know, but all I can say is not everybody looks like that. Amen! Not everybody looks like that. But you don’t need to look like a butch either. To him, you should look like the most beautiful woman in the room.”
“Don’t give him a reason to be looking around,” Clark continued. “Don’t let yourself go.”
Clark also recalled his days as a marriage counselor telling the congregation that a woman lost 100 pounds after being called “a fat bitch” by her husband.
“If you were sitting in my office, here’s the first thing I’d say to you, and boy I’d hate to say it — this is why I don’t do marital counseling anymore — and that is “weight control,”‘ he said.
“I have a friend. He has put a ‘divorce weight’ on his wife—that’s how important this is,” Clark said. “One little boy asked, ‘Why do girls wear make-up and perfume?’ Because they’re ugly and they stink. You don’t want to be ugly and stink.”
Later in the sermon Clark implored the congregation to understand that men can’t help but feel a strong attraction to “beautiful women” and to look at other women because “God made us this way,” adding sexual attraction is the “main reason” that men marry women. “It’s the truth. Men have needs.”
The video of Clark’s sermon was deleted from the church’s website but a female member of his church recorded and posted it online with the caption: “On this lovely Sunday morning I spent my time getting ready listening to a head pastor in Malden who so nonchalantly decided to exercise pastoral abuse towards women. He fails to use Bible verses to back up his nonsense,” she wrote. “He objectifies women, antagonizes them, and practices sexism, all while acting like it’s hip or cool.”
“General Baptists believe that every woman was created in the image of God, and they should be valued for that reason. Furthermore, we believe that all individuals regardless of any other factors are so loved by God that Christ died for them,” the church said in a statement on Facebook. Clark is taking a leave of absence and will be seeking professional help.
