DaisyDeadhead: That is fascinating and wonderful! It’s from 1990; I can’t believe I didn’t find that in my own studies, but I’m glad that I know now.

The book explores the history of male dominated pastoral counseling methods, “wisdom,” Bibilical and theological interpretations to support the abused wife as living like Jesus on the cross. Meaning that women should suffer like Jesus–his broken, beaten body on the cross as a model for submission to God/Husband.

The stance that Brock and Parker take (Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker are the ministers/authors) take is that Christ died in a broken beaten state not because it was necessary and ordained by some cruel God, but rather as a consequence of living his life seeking justice for the prostitute, the outcast, the poor. It was not necessary that he die in a bloody pulp (as so many Christianst, see “The Passion of the Christ” for a gross example), but rather that sometimes when you seek justice, when you try to subvert the status quo and unend the hierarchy, good people die so others might stand up. To that end, they argue leaving a violent marriage is following Jesus’ example–it is fighting for the lives of the oppressed and it just so happens that in domestic violence, you are the oppressed. So rise up.

Its better than I just described, but that’s the gist. There’s also some good stuff, honest stuff, about abortion. Brock talks about her abortion in the early 80′s and leaving her own crappy marriage. I think its great when female clergy not only support abortion rights, but talk about their own abortions without shame (though, she does give it shades of gray because she had the abortion in order to appease her asshat husband). So many Christian women would use that as an example as to why abortion is wrong, but Brock just lays it out as more complicated than that.

The individual stories of abuse are hard to read at times, but the writing is good and I’d recommend it to anyone working with DV victims or at shelters. The fact is, regardless of one’s own belief (I am not a Christian), working with DV victims or recovering prostitutes (which I’ve done) the baggage of bad Christian teachings impact recovery work and if you can get the language and learn how to argue for other ways to look at “traditional” Christian teachings, it will help you and your clients in your work. Quite frankly, no matter your religion, we live in a country (those readers in the US) where Christianity is the presumed religion and most of us are at least aware of basic tenets of that faith. We’re already, in a way, fluent, so when you can help believers go from a down-right destructive view (suffer wives, like Jesus) to a more productive view (fight for justice, women) then you’ve made a dent.

Written by a man? I thought everyone knew better by now.

God Speaks through His Women

Period.

No. Not period. And absolutely NOT true. I really hate it when people tell me I can’t be both. Honestly, where in hell do you get off telling anyone that they aren’t feminist because of their Christianity?

Jesus taught love, compassion, understanding and justice. He protected a woman from a legal execution by stone because the law was unfair. He told another woman that it was fine for her cousin to sit at his feet learning God’s word instead of doing the “women’s work”. He befriended prostitutes.

I absolutely can believe in his teachings and be a feminist. The two ideologies mesh perfectly. Just because someone takes the Bible and twists it into a validation for their hatred doesn’t mean that there is no value in the stories.

Period.