Consider It, Take Counsel, and Speak Up!

ABSTRACT The following sermon “Consider It, Take Counsel, and Speak Up!” was preached at the Sunday morning service of Unity Hill United Church of Christ in Trumbull, CT. The impetus for this sermon was the realization that more needs to be done to raise the awareness in congregations about domestic violence not only in the culture, but also in the church. Though many religious bodies are becoming savvy about Safe Church Seminars and Clergy Misconduct Training, there seems to be little understanding around the nature of domestic violence within church families and what a merciful and just response looks like. The scriptural text was the rape of a religious man's concubine in Judges 19. Particularly pertinent in my approach was showing how the same “sin” of substituting tradition for truth with regard to gender equality can create the same unjust response in the 21st Century as it did in antiquity. Finally, I believe that the writer of this passage was pained by the same conspiracy of silence that shadows ...