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Articles
Edwin
A. Shei
Edwin A. Shei (BMEd, VanderCook College of Music; MDiv., Alliance
Theological Seminary; DMin., Asbury Theological Seminary) has been
married to Vickie for thirty-six years. He has been ordained with the
Christian and Missionary Alliance for fifteen years and served as a
pastor for eleven. He was a workshop presenter for Peace and Safety in
the Christian Home (PASCH). His dissertation “Persuasion and Church
Ministry as It Relates to Woman Abuse: An Evaluation of No Place for
Abuse on the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior of Asbury Theological
Seminarians” is accessible via
http://www.asburyseminary.edu/dmin/current_students/research/dissertations/shei_e.pdf
Review of No Place for Abuse
by Edwin A Shei
Woman abuse in the United States is a crisis that tends to set secular
caregivers at odds with local churches. Citing patriarchy and
subordination as the “seeds of wife abuse,” R. Emerson and Russell Dobash maintain, “This structure and ideology [patriarchy and
subordination] can be seen most starkly in the records of two societies
that provided the roots of our cultural legacy, the Romans and the early
Christians” see Dobash and Dobash pp. 33-34). More and more Christians are supporting this
premise. For instance, Alsdurf and Alsdurf state, “The connection which
many battered women make between their ability to suffer violence from
their husbands and their Christian commitment reflects, we believe, what
is widely taught within evangelical churches about the submission of
women in marriage” (see Alsdurf and Alsdurf p. 82). In view of the claim that churches
are part of the problem, the chances may seem slim that churches can
become part of the solution in eliminating woman abuse.
Kroeger and Nason-Clark argue that not only can churches play a role but
churches also have a responsibility in stopping woman abuse. Recognizing
the complex nature of woman abuse and reflecting on the evangelical
Church, through No Place for Abuse, Kroeger (a church historian) and
Nason-Clark (a sociologist) challenge Christians to stand in opposition
to woman abuse, to promote nonviolent family living, and to work in
tandem with secular caregivers to eliminate woman abuse. Along with
sociological evidence revealing the prevalence and severity of woman
abuse, including a penetrating look at woman abuse in Christian homes, a
primary contribution of this work is its discussion of various doctrines
in relation to woman abuse, such as the patriarchy and subordination
cited by Dobash and Dobash.
The first four chapters of No Place for Abuse address the prevalence of
woman abuse in the world and churches at large while the last nine
chapters of the book present a biblical basis for and a discussion of
relevant theologies in condemning woman abuse. The last chapter
challenges churches to take their rightful place among secular
caregivers in spreading a message of hope and healing to female victims. The final 20 percent of the book is a compilation of six appendixes:
(1) God Speaks Out against Abuse: Scripture Passages &
Principles
(2) Scriptures That Condemn Abuse & Offer Comfort to Victims
(3) Intervention Resources for Pastors
(4) Educational Resources
(5) Bible Studies for Groups
(6) Resources for a Congregation
Reading No Place for Abuse can be painfully convicting. Utilizing global
statistics the authors clearly demonstrate the sorry phenomenon that
woman abuse is no small matter around the world, including woman abuse
in the United States. Compounding the pain is the reality of woman abuse
in evangelical homes. According to Kroeger and Nason-Clark, though no
multinational studies providing specific statistics on the prevalence of
woman abuse among evangelical believers exist, evidence that woman abuse
occurs in evangelical homes is all too common. In support of this
premise and operating under the belief “that once people of faith and
church leaders have been confronted with the wrenching reality of the
prevalence of violence, they will want to do something about it,”
the authors provide examples throughout the book of woman abuse in
evangelical settings. Along with the prevalence of woman abuse,
topics such as why men abuse and why women remain in abusive
relationships, how churches might respond (including a list of unhealthy
responses) in caring for abused women, along with confronting
perpetrators make up the first two chapters of the book.
Readers under conviction for churches’ failure to minister to abused
women are encouraged in the third chapter to learn that contrary to a
number of woman-abuse studies, pastors actually do more than pray with
victims and then send them back to their homes. Also a factor involving
churches that is insightful and significant for the elimination of woman
abuse is data that clergy are one of the few groups who report having
counseling access to male perpetrators. In short, churches have a
prominent role to play in preventing and eliminating woman abuse, but at
the same time churches need to come to terms with the reality of woman
abuse in Christian homes and the reality that the problem is too big and
too complex to be tackled by churches alone. Consequently, along
with an inventory for “Ensuring Care and Compassion in the
Congregational Setting,” chapter 4 seeks to build bridges between
churches and secular caregivers in eliminating woman abuse.
Reading No Place for Abuse can also be doctrinally challenging. As with
the abolition of slavery, woman abuse challenges churches to examine
certain doctrines. Comprising nine of the book’s thirteen chapters, the
theological discussions housed in chapters 5-13 make up the book’s
primary contribution to churches, in particular, and to woman-abuse
literature in general. For churches to minister effectively to
abused women and to become a dynamic force in stopping woman abuse, they
need to be aware of relevant doctrines and understand their effect.
Of first importance is the knowledge that siding with the oppressed, God
opposes the oppressor. Not only is the female victim hurt by the
perpetrator’s abuse, but the perpetrator himself is adversely affected
in his relationship with God and others. Furthermore, woman abuse,
having a generational component to it, harms the couple’s children. Marriage, affording the most intimate of human relationships, is in
God’s economy intended to be a lifelong male-female relationship between
equals, characterized by mutual respect and sharing. Thus along with
marital rape, not always viewed as part and parcel with sexual abuse, is
the use of manipulation or coercion (common in Christian homes).
A common misinterpretation of Scripture having devastating effects for
victims of woman abuse is the teaching that a wife’s suffering brings
her husband to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In reality, the
thinking that suffering domestic violence is redemptive serves to keep
women in abusive relationships while enabling their abusers to carry on
in their sin. According to Kroeger and Nason-Clark, rather than an
exhortation for wives to endure abuse, submission in 1 Peter 3:1-4
“involves scrupulous fulfillment of all legitimate obligations of
marriage while upholding freedom to serve Christ. The aim is not
subordination but conversion, not by enabling what is wrong but by
persisting in what is right" (see Kroeger and Nason-Clark p. 95). Also of interest here is the authors’
comments on Sarah’s obedience to Abraham (1 Pet. 3:6) and Jesus as the
Christian’s example (see chap. 7).
Challenging to the family nostalgia popular in America’s Christianity is
the revelation of God at work in some of the most dysfunctional families
imaginable, including separated and divorced families. Piggybacking the
Christian’s fascination with the ideal family is the reality that
denying, ignoring, or minimizing woman abuse for the sake of holding a
family together obstructs the work of the Holy Spirit. “The Scriptures,” Kroeger and Nason-Clark
maintain, “offer the hope of healing for troubled families, but it
requires honesty, faith, hard work and the support of the believing
community " (see Kroeger and Nason-Clark p. 101).
In the context of America’s quick-fix society, some elements of
forgiveness and repentance that will undoubtedly be disturbing but
nevertheless needful considerations in the context of woman abuse are
the realities that forgiveness is a hard road, and forgiveness does not
necessarily mean reconciliation. Forgiveness, rather than a simple act
of human will, is a gift of enablement from God. Repentance is the
reality of a changed lifestyle. According to Kroeger and Nason-Clark,
“Too often Christians demand that others forgive immediately, before it
is appropriate or advisable, before there can be adequate contrition,
reflection or amelioration.” Besides rushing
forgiveness, five other errors commonly associated with woman abuse are
(1) denial
(2) concealment, secrecy and silence
(3) presuming on God’s protection
(4) discouraging a victim from finding shelter
(5)
boycotting available resources.
Amid these challenges is the good news that abusers can change. Therein,
however, the reader discovers yet another challenge, that is, change for
perpetrators of woman abuse does not come easily. Though tempting,
helping abusers escape the consequences of their sin can be
counterproductive. To date, group therapy and tough love are the most
productive means for the transformation of attitudes in perpetrators of
woman abuse. Violence is not to be tolerated. Abusers cannot properly
hold church offices, and Christian perpetrators unwilling to change are
to be excommunicated (Matt. 18:17).
Finally, churches are faced with the challenge of divorce as it relates
to cases of woman abuse. Though divorce is clearly the least desirable
option, divorce is, nevertheless a biblical option that may be necessary
in wife-abuse cases. While the first half of Malachi 2:16 reports the
Lord’s hatred of divorce, the second half of Malachi 2:16 reports the
Lord’s hatred of “a man’s covering his wife with violence as well as his
garment.” Common in cases of wife abuse, seven other things the Lord
hates according to Proverbs 6:16-17 are “haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family” (NRSV). Insightful and crucial to
the divorce issue are the authors’ discussions of the breaking of the
marriage covenant and the meaning of Jesus’ use of porneia (translated unchastity) in
Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 (NRSV).
Summary
Though at times painfully convicting and doctrinally challenging,
reading No Place for Abuse can ultimately be rewarding, as the closing
statement of the book contends:
The Bible consistently pronounces God’s judgment on those who use their
power to inflict suffering on others. Conversely, great blessing is
promised to those who use their power to alleviate the oppression and
suffering of others. How will we respond to the challenge? (Kroeger and
Nason-Clark 143)
Great reward awaits those willing to rise above the pain of conviction
and meet the doctrinal challenges presented in this book in relation to
woman abuse. The testimony of Mary Nella Bruce, whose small church rose
to the occasion by establishing refuge houses for abused women and their
children, is a case in point:
The Jubilee House and the WellSpring House helped us grow in our faith
as a local church. We could see in visible and dramatic ways the results
of our standing with the oppressed, abused, widows, and orphans. We
heeded the words of James, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before
God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their
distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27, NRSV),
and we discovered that when you set yourself on the side of the weak,
God makes you strong (see Bruce, p. 173).
In overcoming the pain and wrestling through the challenges presented by
No Place for Abuse and to keep from becoming defensive or entertaining
the notion that evangelical bashing is occurring here, the reader does
well to remember the preface, which notes that this book was born out of
a request before the Women’s Commission of the World Evangelical
Fellowship (WEF):
The Women’s Commission of the WEF was asked to form a
task force on violence against women and to consider how the evangelical
church worldwide could offer compassion and healing to [woman abuse]
victims. What is the extent of the problem of abuse? How are
evangelical churches responding to the suffering caused by violence in the
home? What theological principles can help the church offer hope in the
midst of crises, to families both inside and outside the fold? (see Kroeger
and Nason-Clark p. 8)
My only regret in reading this book is the same I have in reading
woman-abuse literature in general, that is, the imago Dei, the most
crucial of doctrines in dealing with human abuse, is but a mere mention
in the space of the book’s two hundred pages. Essentially the whole of
the imago Dei doctrine is contained in a single sentence where Kroeger
and Nason-Clark write, “In the creation story, male and female are made
equally in the image of God, as woman is drawn from the very substance
of man, to share his dreams, his intellect, his emotions, his
spirituality” (see Kroeger and Nason-Clark p. 85). This description is much too short as the imago Dei
is the prima facie theology supporting non-abusive human relationships
(see Clines 53; Henry 546; Matthews 164).
WORKS CITED__________
Alsdurf, James, and Phyllis. Battered into Submission: The
Tragedy of Wife
Abuse in the Christian Home. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1998.
Bruce, Mary Nella. “Creating Healing Environments for Abuse Survivors.”
Women,
Abuse, and the Bible: How Scripture Can Be Used to Hurt or Heal. Eds. Kroeger
and Beck. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996, 161-74.
Clines, D. J. A. “The Image of God in Man.” Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968):
53-103.
Dobash R. Emerson, and Russell Dobash. Violence against Wives. New York:
Free, 1979.
Henry, C. F. H. “Image of God.” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Ed.
Walter E. Elwell. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984. 545-48.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989.
Kroeger, Catherine Clark, and Nancy Nason-Clark. No Place for Abuse:
Biblical and
Practical Resources to Counteract Domestic Violence. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001.
Matthews, Kenneth A. The New American Commentary: Genesis 1:11:26. Vol.
1A.
Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996.
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