The Church's Response to Domestic Violence

Abuse is hiding in our churches.

Our women and children are being wounded and even dying in their homes by those who have committed to love and protect them. Domestic violence is present in families you would never suspect from the most-respected to the least noticed, even the family sitting near you in church. Women are told God hates divorce, learn to submit, pray more, turn the other cheek, look at the plank in their own eye first, forgive 70 times 7. By giving such advice to women living in abusive relationships, well-intentioned church leaders are sending women and children back into dangerous, possibly deadly situations. In The Church's Response to Domestic Violence, a guide based on scriptural truth, church leaders will learn - the complexities of the dynamics of domestic violence

• who abuses and who is abused
• the effects of violence in the home
• the dangers of couples counseling
• how to respond to disclosures of abuse
• why she keeps going back

• why she doesn't just leave

  We need our clergy and church leaders to reject the false ideologies that put God's children at risk and equip the Church to be the clear voice of hope and healing for families.