MAR. 12, 2007

SOCIAL ISSUES

Religious leaders respond to domestic violence

Women who experience domestic violence have not always found compassion and help in their houses of worship. Some pastors, referring to a Bible verse, said women should submit to their husbands. Others likened women’s suffering to that of Jesus’ on the cross. Some counseled forgiveness or suggested that a marriage must be saved at any cost.

Now a growing number of faith leaders from a wide variety of traditions are trying to make sure those days are over. Clergy are joining longtime advocates in saying that religious institutions have a moral and religious responsibility to answer and eliminate domestic violence. The increasing number of statements by denominations and organizations reflects that. One of those statements, the National Declaration by Religious and Spiritual Leaders to Address Violence Against Women, has been signed by more than 2,000 clergy and religious leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Baha’i traditions, among others.

What’s behind the new push to address domestic violence within the framework of faith? Nancy Nason-Clark, a professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick who has written widely about religion and domestic violence, says the change is a result of a number of factors – the increased boldness of victims who are part of faith communities, more training opportunities for faith leaders and greater understanding among the public that religious leaders should be a part of a community’s response. The shift in attitude is important because Scripture and religious teachings have sometimes been used to justify, excuse or ignore the physical and emotional abuse of women.

Domestic violence cuts across economic, ethnic, racial and faith lines, and religious traditions. Advocates are creating organizations that offer training for clergy, resources for victims and campaigns to increase awareness of the problem.

Why it matters

Religious teachings have sometimes been used to justify the abuse of women and others. Now more leaders are stepping up to insist that religious groups must address domestic violence by offering victims safe haven, support and counseling and assuring them that religious teachings never justify abuse.

Jump to:
Religious organizations
National sources
Background
Religious groups' statements on domestic violence

Religious organizations

CHRISTIAN
• Peace and Safety in the Christian Home is a coalition of academics, professionals, clergy and laypeople alarmed by domestic violence in the Christian home. Its 2007 conference, “Setting the Captives Free: A Christian Theology for Domestic Violence,” will take place May 17-19 in Portland, Ore. Read a report on its 2006 conference, “Domestic Abuse in the Church? Really!” Contact co-founder and president Catherine Clark Kroeger, an associate professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, at 508-896-3518, catherine@peaceandsafety.com.
• The Task Force to Stop Abuse Against Women was formed in 1997 by members of the international World Evangelical Fellowship to educate evangelical clergy and to reduce domestic violence. Contact chairwoman Winnie Bartel in Shafter, Calif., at 661-746-4748, wit270@lightspeed.net.
• The Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute trains clergy in the black church to recognize and respond to domestic violence. It is located in Atlanta. Contact the Rev. Aubra Love, founding executive director, 770-909-0715.

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
See a Feb. 23, 2007, article about a program from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help victims of domestic violence. It’s posted on the church’s Web site.

JEWISH
• The Awareness Center is the Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, an international organization that addresses sexual violence in Jewish communities. It has a certification program for rabbis interested in working with victims of sexual violence. It based in Baltimore. Contact executive director Vicki Polin, 443-857-5560, info@theawarenesscenter.org.

Jewish Women International is an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., that promotes safe home environments for Jewish women and girls. In March 2007, the organization will hold its third annual international conference on domestic violence in the Jewish community. Contact Lori Weinstein, executive director, via Alix Fried, 800-343-2823.

MUSLIM
• The Muslim Women’s League is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the status of women in the American Muslim community. Part of its mission is to create awareness about domestic violence within the American Muslim Community. It is based in Los Angeles. Contact spokesperson and past president Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, 626-358-0335, lalmara@aol.com.
• The Peaceful Families Project produces workshops nationwide on domestic violence from a Muslim perspective. The organization is based in Great Falls, Va. Contact Farida Hakim, faridahakim@hotmail.com.

MULTIFAITH
• The FaithTrust Institute of Seattle, formerly the Center for Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, is an interfaith organization that works to prevent domestic abuse in the Islamic, Buddhist, Asian and Pacific Islander, Jewish, Latino, black, Anglo, indigenous, Catholic and Protestant communities. It is sponsoring the National Declaration by Religious and Spiritual Leaders to Address Violence Against Women, a petition that has attracted almost 2,000 signatories from the spectrum of religious faiths. Contact executive director Kathryn Jans, 877-860-2255, info@faithtrustinstitute.org.
• Sakhi for South Asian Women is a community-based organization in the New York metropolitan area committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin. Contact executive director Purvi Shah, 212-714-9153 ext.101, purvi.shah@sakhi.org.

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

GOVERNMENT
• Mary Beth Buchanan is acting director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. It offers funding for faith-based initiatives. Contact 202-307-6026.

CHRISTIAN
• The Rev. Dr. Sharon Ellis Davis is a United Church of Christ pastor in Chicago who teaches seminary classes on sexual and domestic violence at area seminaries. She is co-founder and senior pastor of God Can Ministries as well as a police officer and police chaplain. Contact 708-757-5550, revellis@ameritech.net.
• The Rev. Marie Fortune is the founder of and a senior analyst at the FaithTrust Institute, and she wrote Keeping the Faith: Guidance for Christian Women Facing Abuse (HarperSanFrancisco, 1995). Contact via Kate Roberts at Douglas Gould & Co., 914-833-7093, kroberts@douglasgould.com.
• The Rev. Aubra Love is executive director and founder of the Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute in Atlanta. She is a United Church of Christ minister. The institute sponsors This Far by Faith conferences on domestic violence for church leaders. Contact 770-909-0715.
• Catherine Clark Kroeger is an associate professor in classical and ministry studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., and co-founder of Peace and Safety in the Christian Home. She has written about the Christian concept of submission and its relation to domestic violence. She has also written numerous books about domestic violence and Christianity. Contact 978-468-7111.
• Al Miles is the author of Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know (Augsburg Fortress, 2000) and Violence in Families: What Every Christian Needs to Know (Augsburg Fortress, 2002). In March 2007, he will be on a panel titled “Re-Examining our Efforts to Address Domestic Violence in the African-American Community” at the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. He lives in Honolulu. Contact through Rebecca Pollard, public relations, Queens Medical Center, 808-547-4975.
• The Rev. Bruce Kittle is a United Church of Christ minister and chaplain for the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women. Contact bruce.kittle@doc.state.ia.us.

JEWISH
• Carol Goodman Kaufman is a psychologist and author of Sins of Omission: The Jewish Community’s Reaction to Domestic Violence (Westview Press, 2003). She is based at the Haddassah Institute at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Contact cgk@brandeis.edu.
• Rachel Lev is the author of Shine the Light: Sexual Abuse and Healing in the Jewish Community (Northeastern University Press, 2002). The book has a Web site. Contact info@shine-the-light.com.

MUSLIM
• Salma Abugideiri is co-director of the Peaceful Families Project and a licensed professional counselor in private practice in Sterling, Va. She is the co-author of What Islam Says About Domestic Violence: A Guide for Helping Muslim Families (Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help, 2003). Contact 703-430-2002.
• Dr. Laila Al-Marayati is the spokeswoman and past president of the Muslim Women’s League, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to strengthening the role of Muslim women in society, including addressing domestic violence issues. Contact 213-383-3443, lalmara@aol.com.
• Farida Hakim is a task force committee member with the Peaceful Families Project, a nonprofit group based in Great Falls, Va. that produces workshops on domestic violence from a Muslim perspective. Contact faridahakim@hotmail.com.
• Summer Hathout is a prosecutor in the Los Angeles district attorney’s office and co-founder of the Muslim Women’s League. She has written about misperceptions of domestic violence within the American Muslim community. Contact via Muslim Women’s League, 626-358-0335.

OTHER
• Adelita Medina is executive director of Alianza, the National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence. She has said that advocates for women who have experienced domestic violence should take a woman’s faith into consideration when trying to help her. Contact 646-672-1404, amedina@dvalianza.org.
• Leila R. Milani is co-chairwoman of the Working Group on Ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and is the NGO liaison for women’s issues for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in the U.S. She is based in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-833-8990.
• Purvi Shah is executive director of Sakhi for South Asian Women, a community-based organization in the New York metropolitan area committed to ending violence against women of South Asian origin. Contact 212-714-9153 ext.101, purvi.shah@sakhi.org.
• Nancy Nason-Clark is a professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada. She has written about the interface between religion and domestic violence for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and is the co-author of Refuge From Abuse: Healing and Hope for Abused Christian Women (InterVarsity Press, 2004). She is one year into a four-year project funded by the Lilly Endowment called RAVE, Religion and Violence e-Learning, a Web-based system for assisting religious leaders in responding to domestic violence. Contact 506-458-7440, nasoncla@unb.ca.

Background

STATISTICS
• The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Data Resource Center, a project of the Justice Research and Statistics Association, keeps national and state-by-state data on victims and legislation.
• The U.S. Department of Justice posts statistics on “intimate partner violence” in the U.S.
• The Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute maintains a page of domestic violence statistics drawn from academic studies, the U.S. Department of Justice and other sources.

FEDERAL LEGISLATION
• The federal Violence Against Women Act of 2005 was signed into law in January 2006.

ARTICLES
• Read a January 2007 Sojourners article on evangelical resources on domestic violence.
• Read a paper by the late Sharifa Alkhateeb about domestic violence in the Islamic community.
• Read a Beliefnet.com interview with Lakshmy Parameswaran of DAYA about domestic abuse in the South Asian community.
• Read an essay by Marie Fortune for the April 13, 2006, Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the duty of religious organizations to support victims of domestic violence. The essay is posted on the Web site of Religion and Culture.
• The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Council on Family Violence jointly produced “The Faith Community and Domestic Violence,” a brochure for clergy about domestic abuse.

Religious groups' statements on domestic violence

Many faith groups have made statements about domestic violence. Among them:
• The Catholic Church’s National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the statement “When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women” in 2002.
• The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against domestic violence in 1979.
• The United Methodist Church passed a resolution on domestic violence in 1992.
• The Episcopal Church passed a resolution in 1994 at its 71st General Convention condemning violence against women.  In 2000, delegates at the 73rd General Convention called the church to address domestic violence within its own community.
• The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) crafted a policy statement on domestic violence at its 2001 General Assembly.