These women disclosed domestic abuse to their church leadership. Here’s what they were told.
I recently tried to raise awareness with a group of people that there are women at their church on Sunday who are hiding in the bathroom crying because their husband is smiling and chatting with everyone in the lobby and everyone thinks he’s just great. But she knows that the image he portrays at church […]
Continue reading31 Things Christians Need to Know About Domestic Violence
Sometimes I post in-depth articles on a certain aspect about domestic abuse. Today I want to give a general overview of 31 things Christians need to know about domestic violence. Each of these points deserves elaboration, which I will not do for sake of brevity. However, I hope they will spur your thinking and motivate […]
Continue reading3 Ways the Church Can Care Well for Victims of Domestic Abuse
I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that many churches do not do a great job of supporting domestic abuse victims. Even those who express a desire to help have often failed to accomplish that. (I wrote a guest post for my friend Rebecca Davis that explores some of the reasons […]
Continue readingWhy I Have a Problem With Most Christian Marriage Books
I can be pretty hard on a lot of Christian marriage books, blog posts, webinars, etc. (Note: I’m not here to be hard on the author himself/herself. I assume that an author has good intentions unless there is proof otherwise. Critiquing the content is different than critiquing the person, and it’s the content I’m here […]
Continue reading5 Myths Marriage Authors Believe that Harm Abuse Victims
The market for books and conferences on the topic of marriage is incredibly popular. This is true in the secular world as well as in the Christian sphere. Many authors and speakers share ideas couples can use to communicate with each other more effectively and encourage couples to invest their time and energy into strengthening […]
Continue reading“I Would Never Let Anyone Abuse Me”
I have often found in conversations about abuse that some people express the sentiment, “I would never let anyone abuse me.” This sentiment can quickly devolve into a lack of sympathy for the victim. It almost seems to the bystander that it is the victim’s fault because she allowed herself to be treated that way. […]
Continue readingWhy Every Christian Should Care about Domestic Abuse
As someone who has not personally experienced domestic abuse, I’ve been asked why I care so much about this topic. My answer is how can I ??? care so much? Must something affect me directly before I can care about it? The pattern I often see played out in conversations about abuse is baffling to […]
Continue reading7 Reasons Victims Miss Red Flags of Abuse
Sometimes people show a lack of compassion toward abuse victims because “they should have seen the red flags.” I’ve been observing this on some social media posts recently. It’s almost a “Well you got what you deserved because you were too stupid to avoid it” attitude. (First of all, do you realize how heartless that […]
Continue readingWhy Pastors and Churches Can’t Stay Neutral In Domestic Abuse Cases
Many abuse victims have experienced their churches overtly taking a stance against them, even when the abuse was undeniably present. This would include throwing statements at the victim such as: “God hates divorce!” “It takes two to tango!” “You made your bed, now lie in it!” “God wants you to suffer for his glory.” If, […]
Continue readingWhy Most Christian Marriage Advice is Harmful to Abuse Victims
We live in a world where information is available everywhere we look. Books, seminars, sermons, social media — there are so many avenues for speakers and authors to reach their audience. Authors and speakers who offer marriage advice for Christians are numerous, and they use all of these channels to spread their message. Some are […]
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