Church Worldwide: Domestic Violence Moves Up on Christian Social Justice Agenda

For the last decade, progressive evangelicals have rallied around social justice issues like poverty, racism, and human trafficking. A recent gathering of Christian leaders brought another cause to the top of the agenda: domestic violence.

Instead of viewing it as a personal or family concern, the Sojourners Summit zeroed in on domestic violence as a human rights issue, hoping to shine the spotlight on a problem little talked about in many Christian circles.

A study commissioned last year by Sojourners and IMA World Health, an international, nonprofit health care service, found that most Protestant pastors greatly underestimate sexual and other violence against women. Worse, conservative pastors who teach “male headship” and submission of wives to their husbands may do more harm than good when counseling couples or individuals.

“Experts identify a link between masculine ideals of power and control and violence against women and girls,” said Carolyn Custis James, an evangelical theologian and author of Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World.

James, who spoke at the summit, added: “A theology based upon patriarchal notions that empowers men over women—who are expected to submit—establishes a relational system that can easily lead to violence and others forms of abuse.”

Taking the issue of domestic violence out of the personal realm and making it a justice issue is necessary, the study concludes, because it requires the full force of the legal system as well as social institutions, including faith communities. Without this attention to the issue, victims will continue to feel isolated and lack support systems.

Eight in 10 pastors recognize that they need to know more about protecting victims of sexual and domestic violence and wish they had more training and resources. Most had received no training in seminary or other pastoral preparation.

“It’s time for our Christian leaders to stand up and say that women, made in the very image of God, deserve better,” said Jim Wallis, Sojourners’ president and founder. “And it’s time for us in the faith community to acknowledge our complicity in a culture that too often not only remains silent, but also can propagate a false theology of power and dominance.”

A majority of pastors surveyed say they have responded to sexual or domestic violence by providing marriage counseling, a potentially dangerous or even lethal response for the victim, who is then not separated from the perpetrator.

By raising the visibility of gender-based violence in the U.S. and addressing it as an issue of social justice, Christian leaders hope to bring help to those women who have too often felt isolated or abandoned by their own faith communities.

For resources, including those for pastors, please see Safe Church Ministries and The Rave Project.