Rebecca Small
It is mentioned in the introduction of Jerome R. Koch and Ignacio Luis Ramirez’s 2010
study that Conservative Christian beliefs have a negative correlation with habits that lead to
Domestic Violence, such has drinking and drug use. In the Journal of Religion and Abuse, Lisa
Jeanne Battaglia states that a study done on the subject in 1999 (Ellison) had drawbacks, such as
limited information on Domestic Violence. Researchers then turned their heads to
fundamentalists and they found that those in the group were more likely to endorse corporal
punishment (Bartkowski 1995) and researchers are in a debate over what the findings could
imply (Koch and Ramirez, 2010). Domestic Violence Researcher Nancy Nason-Clark (2002)
argues that the use of force, corporal punishment and authoritarianism legitimizes male violence
in fundamentalist communities. Koch and Ramirez propose that “authoritarian and patriarchal
norms emerging from a fundamentalist faith ultimately makes violence more likely.” (2010)
The term “fundamentalist” has become a negative term lately, due to it being correlated
to terrorism. Those who may otherwise share most, if not all of fundamentalist beliefs may not
label themselves as such. Instead, many who believe in the fundamentalist ideals identify as
protestant, commonly Evangelical or Baptist. Fundamentalists are most notably known for a
belief in the inerrancy of the bible and the belief that the remedy for sin lies in obedient
submission to God’s plan (Bartkowski 1997) . Their religious practices and beliefs are defended
militantly and steam from a literal interpretation of the bible, which can leave women
disadvantaged when misogynistic and patriarchal passages in the bible are interpreted literally,
such as I Timothy 2:11-12.
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
Who should have the authority is not a debate within most Christian circles, however,
how authority and submission are exercised and interpreted is heavily contested. According to
Bartowski’s analysis of popular Christian marriage and family manuals (1997), there was an
undebated agreement that men run the household and are responsible for making decisions.
However, none of the authors he analyzed discouraged men seeking the assistance of their wives.
In fact, some opposed the use of oppressive authority. The founder of Focus on the Family,
James Dobson had said that “I don’t attempt to justify men who oppress their children or show
disregard for the needs and wishes of their wives. That kind of nineteenth-century
authoritarianism is dead and may it rest in peace.” (1982). However, Bartowski noticed that none
of the manuals obligated men to ask for their wives’ counsel. Other Christian authors and biblical
feminists propose the idea of “mutual submission.” Submission in Debi Pearl’s “Created to be
his help meet,” (2009) is interpreted into something dangerous.
“Your husband will be selfish. He will be unkind. He will not respect your rights. He will
be foolish. He may be cruel, and that son of Adam may actually walk in sin. But he cannot
victimize you unless you react outside of the wisdom of God. You can decide to be in a constant
state of anger and bitterness, or you can ask God for the wisdom to live each day in a state of
honoring your man for God’s sake.” (54-55)
The author asks her female Christian audience to tolerate abuse, and even goes as far as
to blame the victims for their suffering. Then brings scare tactics in to dissuade her readers from
the idea of divorce by insisting that they would only live on the brink of poverty. Rhetoric like
this is damaging to a group of women who are already less likely to leave an abusive
relationship. Religious Women have stated in a study that they felt as though they were pulled
between the perceived teachings of their faith and their personal safety (Nason Clark 2009).
Nash (2006) noticed that clergy depend on the intactness of family groups. Church Leads may
minimized or “spiritualized” the problem of domestic violence. which may lead the women to
not seek help thereafter. Nason-Clark views the spiritualization of the social problem as
detrimental to the awareness of domestic violence. The women are encouraged to be more
submissive and dutiful, as in the case studies done by Shondrah Tarrezz Nash in 2006, others
stay in “sacred silence” and hope for their spouse’s change and eventual reconciliation, which is
encouraged by most clergy. Some clergy men even refer abusive men to intervention programs,
according to studies done by Nason-Clark (2004).
These abusive men who were referred to programs either had religion to support their
abusive behavior, or challenge it. A majority of these abusive religious men experienced
violence in their own homes as youths and had similar drinking habits and criminal history to
men in secular programs. Of the over 1,000 cases analyzed by a faith-based intervention
program, the men tended to be white, older, had post-secondary education and white collar jobs
(Nason Clark 2004). . Other studies have shown that abuse can be a learned behavior for young
males. Boy who witness abuse are more likely to show more aggressive behavior when playing
and are twice as likely to beat their partners when they are grown. A 1994 study in the The
Journal of Clinical and Counseling Psychology shown that 56% of men who shown more
deliberate, as opposed to emotionally fueled, methods of abuse had experienced violence in their
homes as children.
In an interview that I conducted, this was exactly the case. My interviewee, who I will
call “Jane” and her currently ex-husband “Tom” are citizens of Central Pennsylvania. Jane grew
up in a “religiously liberal” brethren household. She is a mother of two and does not have a
religious affiliation currently. She met her ex-husband through a blind date, and she fell for his
romantic nature quickly. When she got to know his parents, she became fond of his mother but
felt disgusted by his “fundamentalist” father. Jane later on learned that her Mother-in-Law once
left her husband shortly due to his abusive behavior. Jane’s parents felt equally disgusted by Tom
as Jane was by Tom’s father. They felt that he was misogynistic and felt disturbed by his
fundamentalist beliefs regarding the authority of man and the obedience of women.
Despite her parent’s objections, Jane married Tom at the age of 19 and shortly after she
had her first child, Tom proven to be negligent. Tom left cleaning and nursing care to his wife,
believing that was the woman’s duty. He instead became the bread-winner by day and by night,
he sated a drinking habit he acquired in high-school. About a year after his first’s birth, Tom’s
drinking resulted in him injuring the baby.
As the years gone by, Jane grew discontent with religion and she ceased attending
church. Jane was persuaded into leaving work after the birth of her second child and the rest of
her marriage became isolation and abuse. Once Jane sought advice from her mother in law after
being beaten for not doing dishes to Tom’s standards, she was labeled a “Drama Queen” and her
Mother-in-Law continued on to say that “if they weren’t done right, they weren’t done right.”
She was told to appease Tom by obeying, and Tom didn’t relent his verbal and emotional abuse.
Nor did he relent his drinking that fueled his physical abuse of Jane and mistreatment of his
children. Jane left her husband at the age of 33 with her two children after nearly 15 years of
marriage and sought marriage counseling. On their first session, Jane was addressed as “Tom’s
property.”
When asked why she didn’t leave, Jane said that she was fearful that she wouldn’t have a
place to stay or money to support her children with. Due to her lack of financial stability, she
worried that her husband would keep sole custody of her children. She also feared for her
children’s well-being. She felt keeping the family together was the best option over-all and she
longed for a life-long marriage commitment and she longed desperately for her husband to
change.
Shondra Tarrezz Nash conducted two interviews with women from the Bible-belt and
their experiences dealt more with submission. Her first interviewee, Kenya, was taught to be
passive in regards to her husband’s abuse. She was also told that “Jesus demonstrated anger,
Christian wives cannot.” Her second case study and interviewee, Denise, found herself in a
fundamentalist group through a friend who was going through abuse as well. The church taught
her of submission and obedience, however it did not help her marriage. Both women eventually
left and revised their interpretations of scripture, leaving their faith intact.
Domestic Violence exists in every religion, every race, and every socioeconomic level.
However, it has been hard to trace in Christianity due to silent women. Those who do speak up
sometimes aren’t taken seriously. In 1984, the founder of “Focus on the Family,” James Dobson
also had to say this regarding women who have faced physical abuse.
“I’ve seen situations where the wife, I think wanted most ot be beaten up. There is a
certain moral advantage that comes from having been hit by this man. Then you’re in charge,
you’re self-righteous, you can leave, you have your exist. You want out, you can’t find a moral
way out because the bible says marriage is forever, and if you can just push that guy until he
turns around and blacks your eye, then boy the whole world, God included, can see that you
were the one that’s right and you were the one that was taken advantage of, all of a sudden
you’re a martyr.”
Some women on the battlefront for their well-being do become “martyrs”. Statistics
range from 33% to 45% of female murder victims were killed by their partners. 500,000 women
are stalked by their partner annually and one in four have experienced or will experience some
form of relationship violence. Of the women who do leave, it took them nearly 7 assaults by the
same partner to make that choice, and 60% of those who have been denied housing from a
women’s shelter have returned to their abuser, 27% remained homeless and 11% resided in their
cars, according to NNEDV. The most common reason women were rejected service was due to
reduced government funding. Other reasons included not enough staff, budget cuts from private
funding and reduced donations.
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Submission: Lessons Learned from a Southern Baptist Ladies' Bible Class." Qualitative Sociology
19 (1996): 173-92. Web.
Nason-Clark, Nancy. "Christianity and the Experience of Domestic Violence: What Does Faith Have to Do
With It?" Social Work and Christianity (n.d.): 380-90. Web.
Cooper-White, Pamela. "Intimate Violence Against Women: Trajectories for Pastoral Care in a New
Millennium." Pastoral Psychology 60.6 (2011): 809-55. Print.
Koch, Jerome R., and Ignacio Luis Ramirez. "Religiosity, Christian Fundamentalism, and Intimate Partner
Violence Among U.S. College Students." Review of Religious Research 51 (2010): 402-10. Web.
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Family Commentators." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 36.3 (1997): 393-407. Print.
Nash, Shondrah Tarrezz. "The Changing of the Gods: Abused Christian Wives and Their Hermeneutic
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