The abusers within our churches

In the last year or two domestic violence has loomed large in public discussion. No-one seems to know quite how prevalent it is, but we know that 2 women die each week at the hands of their partner and that surveys consistently show up to 1 in 4 women over the age of 15 have experienced at least one episode of violence from an intimate partner.

1. Family violence is overwhelmingly a male problem.

Certainly there are men who are victims of domestic violence, but the proportion of men who report having experienced violence from a partner are vastly lower than those reported by women, and some research suggests that a large proportion of the violence committed against males is by women who are fighting back after extensive periods of being victims of violence.

This suggests that we men need to take responsibility for our violence and encourage a culture in which men know how to use power. I remember, for example, child psychologist Steve Biddulph commenting in one of his books that it was important for fathers to wrestle with their sons, for it taught their sons how to place restraints around the use of physical force. From our earliest days we men need to learn how to negotiate our way in the world gently rather than coercively.

2. Churches have three ideological tendencies that exacerbate the likelihood men will act with violence or coercively

Patriarchal gender ideologies
I was shocked a few years ago to see the results of a survey of participants at the Evangelical world’s largest gathering of leaders, the 2010 Lausanne conference. Asked about their attitudes to women in the pastorate over three quarters of delegates said they believed women could serve as pastors. Yet the figures reversed when it came to spiritual leadership in the home. More than 75% of delegates said they thought men were to be the spiritual leaders in the home and over 50% also agreed that wives must always obey their husbands. The figures didn’t break down much differently when separated out between traditional cultures and the industrialised world.

I respect my friends, both male and female, who argue for male leadership and female submission. I have only known them to be generous, kind, and gracious, but I have little respect for the notion that God intends men to be leaders in the church and home. We have an epidemic of violence against women and I cannot see how this does anything other than set up the conditions that make it more likely that more women will be victims of violence. My friends try to explain that God calls men to be servant leaders, but they have a dramatically underdeveloped doctrine of sin. I think the argument is incontrovertible that if you create unequal power structures those with more power will be more likely to misuse it. It may all be very well for the highly functional, emotionally self-aware male who feels fulfilled in life to argue that leadership need not be domineering, but try telling that to the relationally dysfunctional, emotionally unaware and socially marginalised man.

High valuing of the institution of marriage
Protecting the institution of marriage is one of the great passions of conservatives. But it strikes me that we often protect the institution of marriage but not the people within the marriage. I know of too many situations where women have confided to their pastor that they are being subjected to physical or emotional abuse and they are counselled to remain in the marriage.

Often this advice is offered on the assumption that the Bible only permits two grounds for dissolution of a marriage: adultery and desertion. I find this interpretation quite baffling. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus seems to allow no grounds for dissolution of marriage; in the Gospel of Matthew sexual immorality is cited as an exception; and in the first letter to the Corinthians the apostle Paul recognises desertion by an unbelieving partner as dissolving a marriage. Attempts to turn these references into a law in which we seek the threshold grounds for dissolution of marriage seems rather misguided. The point surely isn’t to lay to down at a set of parameters under which marriage can be dissolved, but to recognise that despite the desire to maintain our relationships, there are circumstances in which the behaviour of one partner constitutes such a fundamental breach that the relationship is broken. Domestic violence is surely one of those situations.

An ideological predisposition to sacrifice and suffering
At the heart of the Christian gospel is a message that Christ suffered for us and calls us to follow in his footsteps. This is no doubt a culturally distinctive framework that Christians do well to embrace, but when placed within the context of relational structures in which women are kept subordinate and with a high prioritising of the institution rather than the relationship of marriage, the call to sacrifice and suffering becomes a tool of oppression.

It is almost certain that every church has households in which domestic abuse is occurring. We don’t see because rarely do abusers appear as monsters. They present as very respectable people. I remember a woman once telling me of her experience of repeated abuse at the hands of her husband and the counsel of her previous pastors that she simply continue in the marriage. I never once saw a glimpse of the violence in my dealings with her husband. When in church meetings and gatherings he was the most gentle, considerate bloke you’d find. I think every church member and every church leader needs to remind themselves that it is almost a certainty that violence is occurring in some of the households in their congregation and the perpetrators will present publicly a decent  people. In these situations our obligation is clear. To stand with the oppressed and brutalised, preferencing their well-being over and above everything else.

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Susie
Susie
7 years ago

HI Scott, what may shock you is someone you thought of as a faithful Christian has abused me for 24 years (and I have only been able to face it after a lot of counselling). I finally understood what the DV counsellors were telling me when my middle child copied his fathers behaviour and I experienced a reaction which becasue I hadn’t been exposed to it for a while I both physically and mentally recognised as an abuse reaction. HAving been subjected to it for so long being treated like that became normal I couldn’t recognise it, I thought it… Read more »

Kim Burwood
7 years ago
Reply to  Susie

Hi Susie, I don’t know you but I read your post and I feel deeply sorry for your experience. Sadly you are not alone. I was a child in an abusive household. My father was a deacon, Sunday school teacher, worship leader and helped out at the sound desk. He was also instrumental in setting up the technical side of Radio Rhema. He would “punish” us with his fists, shoes and buckle ends of the belts. He hated us crying or laughing. The females of the house were to serve him. He never, ever helped with the children or around… Read more »

Kim Burwood
7 years ago
Reply to  Scott

Hi Scott, I didn’t know that you admired me. Thank you for telling me. It is an ongoing struggle to not let feelings self doubt and inadequacy to rule my life which I know to be a consequence of the trauma of my upbringing. I appreciate the encouragement. Thank you for your very practical help in using your considerable skills and knowledge to help bring about change. People don’t often like change, especially those in positions of power but change is happening, very slowly but change all the same. Thank you for taking a stand.

John
John
7 years ago

Hi Scott,, aren’t all power structures unequal, by definition?

John
John
7 years ago
Reply to  Scott

Agreed, but I’m still not clear on exactly what it is about power structures that you think leads inevitably to abuse. Are you saying the authority should always be plural, e.g. Elders in a church?

Scott
Scott
7 years ago
Reply to  John

Hi John,
My argument is that relationship structures in which men are seen as responsible for leadership and women to be submissive to that leadership are conducive to abuse. I don’t mean that every man who is in such a system will be abusive but that the system will work to reinforce the mentalities that lead some to abuse rather than counter them.

John
John
7 years ago
Reply to  Scott

Thanks for raising this series issue Scott. It is an indictment on the church that DV has sometimes been covered up and ignored. I’m not disagreeing with you, just trying to understand where you think the problem lies. Submissive is a rather archaic term but surely all authority is open to abuse, by definition? What do you think it is about men that makes them more likely to abuse authority (in the form of DV) than women? (Again I’m not disagreeing that this is the case just wondering why.) Is it just that men tend to be physically stronger? Or… Read more »

Chris L
Chris L
7 years ago

Hi Scott, Great reflection. I have been interested for a long time in which narratives we emphasise in both Testaments and what they say about our image of the masculine. As my favourite Stanley says, “We are story formed people”. Far too much Samson, David and Goliath, etc.

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