{"title":"“Today … Something Has Changed”","authors":"C. Andersen, Pastor Deanna Langle","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_04","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This dialogue sermon, based on Luke 4: 14–21, was preached on October 15, 2002, at daily chapel at Luther College, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in Decorah, IA, as part of a week-long series highlighting the theme of Domestic Violence Awareness. In writing and preaching this sermon in dialogue form, Connie had the opportunity to tell her own story, and Deanna had the opportunity to use her authority and voice as pastor to make public space for Connie to be heard. In this dialogue sermon, they preach the gospel together–inviting others to claim their voices and to tell their own stories of abuse and violence within the church; challenging the church to take seriously the voices and experiences of those harmed; and calling the church to hold accountable those whose unhealthy and violent behavior causes the harm. The process of creating this dialogue sermon models and teaches through words and action that the gospel is not about fear and keeping secrets but about freedom a...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132145163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“The Road to Forgiveness: A Journey of Faith”","authors":"Rabbi Diana S. Monheit","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_03","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT During my tenure in Atlanta I had the opportunity to work with the diverse community of my congregation and the greater Jewish community. It was during my first six months in Atlanta that a member of the Jewish community found her way to the door of my study and shared her story with me. Quickly, I found the resources and support for her at Shalom Bayit, a program at Jewish Family and Career Services of Atlanta. To my surprise, it was through this experience that I discovered my voice. Then, in the winter of 2003, I became involved with the Shalom Bayit conference on domestic violence and I learned that my voice and my story could help others. After great internal debate, I sat down to lunch in Jerusalem with my senior rabbi and mentor, Rabbi Alvin M. Sugarman. As we gazed upon the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem I told him that I was planning to share my story with our congregation on Yom Kippur morning 5763. He and the entire staff at The Temple were supportive and encouraging. Then, on Yom ...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114863864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Let My People Go","authors":"A. Stevenson","doi":"10.1300/J154v06n01_12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154v06n01_12","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The sermon was preached at Cottonwood Presbyterian Church in Holladay, Utah on Sunday, September 1, 2002, the normal Sunday morning 11:00 am worship service in a medium sized Protestant congregation. Texts used were the lectionary readings for the day: Exodus 3: 1–15, and Matthew 16: 21–28. The Exodus text speaks of the oppression of the Jewish exiles in Egypt. In verse 7 God said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.” As Sept. 1 was marked as “Societal and Domestic Violence” Sunday in the PCUSA calendar, and the Month of October 2002 highlighted Domestic Violence I was guided to the topic of Domestic violence in all its many shapes and forms for my sermon. The Gospel reading spoke of Societal Violence, as Jesus spoke to His disciples about the suffering he was to undergo in Jerusalem. It seemed to me that God had pointed me in the direction of preaching about Domestic Violence. My wife, Una, has been involved for some ...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122030607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Clinging To the Threshold of Hope","authors":"Kevin E. Frederick","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_02","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This sermon was preached on July 14, 2002 at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, NC, during a Sunday morning worship service after the Session (the governing body of the church) had approved a major policy paper on Domestic Violence. Included in the paper is a theological stand against domestic violence, an intervention plan when cases of domestic violence are identified within the community of the church, a training plan for church staff and key laity, and an educational strategy designed to include children from age 5 to adulthood. At present, we are educating parents and adults before we plan to teach our children this coming fall. This sermon is based on the Hebrew Scripture found in Judges 19, a highly unusual text, not just because it deals with the graphic violence of rape and murder, but because it seems to convey a message devoid of any hope or grace. Although the book of Judges is included extensively in the 3-year cycle of lectionary readings of scripture for Protesta...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131177508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Obstacles to Accountability","authors":"K. Jones","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_06","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Zion Lutheran Church, (ELCA) is a racially mixed, middle class, well-educated, active congregation on the South side of Chicago. Sunday morning worship attendance averages approximately 100. “Obstacles to Accountability” came to me after attending a prayer vigil last October. The enigmatic images of King David as both a perpetrator of abuse, and as a frightened shepherd boy fit well with my experience of many men in batterer's treatment. The parable that Nathan told David calling him to accountability was one of the first passages I ever translated from Hebrew into English. It holds a special place in my personal history and in my work with men who have been violent in their intimate relationships. In this text, David comes to understand his behavior by understanding the feelings of a victim. A problematic aspect of this text for me is that the victim is not Bathsheba but Uriah. The abuse is the stealing of Uriah's exclusive property rights over Bathsheba as a sexual object, although it is clear ...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126888788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Reflection: Must We Forget?”","authors":"Jan Goodwin","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_07","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This reflection has not yet been preached. As a Catholic laywoman, I do not have a place to preach directly to an assembly of the faithful, but as a lay member of the Order of Preachers, I answer the call to preach by writing. The texts are those for the 24h Sunday in Ordinary Time of Year A in the Catholic lectionary: Sirach 27:3–28:7; Psalm 103; Romans 14:7–9; Matthew 18:21–35. My approach is that of a Catholic feminist theology student; I combine close reading of the biblical text and commentaries, my own experience of abuse and healing and study of the literature of abuse and healing, and a critical approach to accreted meanings and underlying assumptions about key words in the faith; in this case, the critical examination is of the way forgiveness has been confused with forgetting.","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132359899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Take Up Your Mat and Walk","authors":"Jonathan M Specht","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_13","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Based on the scripture John 5: 1–9, the events and incidents of this story-style sermon are all factual. The names of the persons involved and enough small details have been altered to protect their identities should this be published. The sermon has been written for a mid-sized congregation of 500 (worship attendance of two hundred) in an urban/suburban setting, during a time when our community is trying to raise awareness of the many forms of domestic violence currently on the upswing here (we are located on the northern edge of Greater Cincinnati, in the rapidly growing area of Warren County). The population here is mainly upwardly mobile and still clings to the belief that: (a) domestic abuse and violence is a problem of those in lower social-economic classes and (b) never happens among good church-folk. Yet we who are concerned in our county know that these are myths with no basis in fact. Domestic abuse/victims, including spousal/partner abuse, elder abuse, child abuse, and date rape/abuse ...","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122177925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Code of Silence: Matthew 10 in the Context of Abuse and Ministry”","authors":"R. Clark","doi":"10.1300/J154V06N01_11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V06N01_11","url":null,"abstract":"Victims of domestic violence live with a code of silence. To speak out and share the truth brings pain, suffering, and rejection. The early disciples are reminded of this similar price for the truth in Matthew 10. The hope and comfort that Jesus provided the early Christians is similar to that hope, comfort, and courage that the church can present to victims of domestic violence. While the truth may set them free, it comes with a great cost. My wife Lori and I had presented an abuse workshop in Seattle for the Holgate Street Church of Christ and Bettie Williams-Watson of Project MIC on a weekend in October, 2002; the sermon was on Sunday morning.","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131961265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Whore of Babylon Metaphor–Permission to Erase Evil?","authors":"Joan M. Sakalas","doi":"10.1300/J154V05N04_02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V05N04_02","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Christian apocalypticism has found renewal among contemporary theologians and political figures. Within the narrative, the Whore of Babylon, (Revelation 17: 1–18, 18:1–8) is condemned and brutally destroyed as the embodiment of evil. The Whore of Babylon metaphor raises several questions. How liberative can a reclamation of this apocalyptic source be for women marginalized by their participation in sex trades? How does the critique of independent women sanction violence against women who do not comply with a docile model of womanhood? When the “good” are given permission to destroy “evil,” are notions of justice and self-determination lost? What gives United States' political leaders license to claim that they can identify “good” and “evil” with such precision that destruction at their hands rises to a level of a “divine mandate?” The article evaluates the positions of selected feminist and liberationist scholars and asks whether the permission to destroy given in Revelation is in fact dangerous.","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132760599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nancy Nason-Clark, Nancy E. Murphy, B. Fisher-Townsend, Lanette D. Ruff
{"title":"An Overview of the Characteristics of the Clients at a Faith-Based Batterers' Intervention Program","authors":"Nancy Nason-Clark, Nancy E. Murphy, B. Fisher-Townsend, Lanette D. Ruff","doi":"10.1300/J154V05N04_05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1300/J154V05N04_05","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in the role of faith-based services to meet the social and practical needs of the American populace. The research upon which this paper is based represent the first ever attempt to document empirically the characteristic of men who sought assistance from a faith-based batterers' intervention program in the United States. Analyzing closed case files from 1059 men who have been involved in the batterers' intervention program since its inception over ten years ago revealed a number of differences between faith-based clients and those who seek help from a secular agency. The implications for interventions with batterers are explored.","PeriodicalId":165629,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion & Abuse","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127463947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}