Rev. Rogers: Domestic violence is the Church's problem, too
One of the greatest sins infecting society is domestic violence. Clearly, most in the church are quick to denounce the sin of domestic violence with the understanding that nobody should be unsafe in their own home. Yet, the reality is that there are occasions when the church has become an unwitting promoter of domestic violence. As Christians, it is vital that all who profess Jesus Christ are aware of the unintentional ways that Christianity has failed victims of partner abuse and clandestinely encouraged the dehumanization of people suffering from physical, emotional, sexual, spiritual, and psychological violence in their own home at the hands of abusers from whom they should expect to receive love, protection, and safety.
At the heart of the Church’s unwitting promotion of domestic violence is a gross misinterpretation and sinful perversion of God’s word in Scripture. While the Bible calls for wives to be submissive to their husbands and appoints the husband to be the head of the household, it never calls for wives to be subject to sinful, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Rather, the same scripture that calls for female submission also commands the husband to love the wife with the same sacrificial and unconditional love illustrated in Christ. In other words, the husband is required by God to serve his wife and offer his very life for her, making every effort to present her as holy and undefiled before God. The only behavior to which she must “submit” is behavior modeling Christ’s love for the church. Domestic abuse does not model that love.
Sometimes the Church blindly promotes passive acceptance of marital suffering as a “refining fire” or “God’s will” for one’s life as a clandestine means to sinfully justify unholy treatment in the marriage. While it is true that “all things work together for God’s purpose for those who love God,” this does not make evil and sinful behavior in the marriage acceptable or justify the demonic sin of domestic violence as God’s will for one’s life. An authentic Christian faith demands believers live in the fullness of faith in ways that enhance life, promote love, and encourage the full humanity of all people. When a spouse lives in fear of a domestic partner, when one’s presumed “love” manifests manners of control, shaming, blaming, degradation, and anxiety; it is not Christianity, not Biblical, and not of God. When a man presumes that, as the Biblical head of the household, he has the right to degrade, berate, punish, or isolate his spouse, he is not a Christian but rather a demonic agent of evil coopting God’s word for his own sinfully narcissistic desire for power, control, and authority.
For far too long, God’s word has been weaponized against victims of domestic abuse. Spouses and partners have been brainwashed by a perversion of the Bible to think that if they question the behavior of their authoritative abuser, speak out against the dehumanization with which domestic abuse perpetuates its demonic control, or even think of asserting their own God-given dignity, they are somehow dishonoring God by disobeying the authority of the husband and violating Biblical faith. This is a bold-faced lie and one that the Church must expose as the sin that it is.
Domestic abuse is nothing new and it is not something that the church can simply pray away or whitewash by pretending that it is not the Church’s problem. In order to end the sin of domestic violence, the Church must not only preach against it, but take a hard and prayerful look inward to see how its own doctrines, misguided Biblical interpretations, and traditional assumptions have served evil as opposed to God’s will for a genuine equality of spouses in the marital bond.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Rev. Rogers: Domestic violence is the Church's problem, too
