we both wake up so dry

that no more tears can leave us

 

Octoberis Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

 

Thestatistics are staggering. So many people are affected.

 

All too often the church is complicit in this form of violence. Worse though, the church is not merely complicit in this violence, often the church is active in legitimating a particular form of domestic violence.

There are biblical injunctions that the woman should be subordinate to a man. To see how this patriarchal injunction gets played-out in a patriarchal society read this 10/15 Burlington (Iowa) Hawk Eye article.

 

Mr. Youngblood's words are violent, whether he and the church disavow such violence now or not. These words display an assumption that a woman should stand in fear of her husband and always acquiesce to the husband's opinion.

 

These words are tragic.

The worldview these words promote are archaic.

The violence these words sanction are real for too many women.

 

 

There are other voices. Mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz writes: "But perhaps what makes violence such a destructive force of oppression is that the suffering violence inflicts, both physically and psychologically, is so devastating and all-encompassing, that the possibility of such violence becomes an ever-present threat coercing us day in and day out."

 

Thankfully there are theologians addressing these issues. Thankfully there are church (and secular) organizations dedicated to caring for people affected by domestic violence.

 

Isasi-Diaz takes time to analyze violence as a form of oppression so that faithful followers may actively work against such oppression. You see, for Isasi-Diaz the liberation of oppressed people is a theological injunction.

In other words, followers are called to look critically at the structures that keep God's people oppressed. Obviously the threat of violence is a structure that keeps far too many people oppressed. Obviously the assumption that a woman should have no individuality, no voice and no opinions is a form of oppression.

 

However assumptions about violence and women are sanctioned by institutional Christian leaders, true followers are called to speak out and work against these forms of oppression.

 

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Biblical depictions of violence to women are troubling. Part of being aware of domestic abuse is to admit the ways our faith tradition has sanctioned such violence, and then to work against this violence.