THE CHURCH AND DOMESTIC

VIOLENCE: LESSONS FROM THE BYNUM-WEEKS INCIDENT

By Pastor Talbert W. Swan, II

Historically, the black church has been the rock of the black community, a place of refuge where important issues are addressed. But domestic violence has long been left off the agenda, ignored in a largely patriarchal system, even justified by scripture.

Now that one of the nation’s most visible female evangelists has taken up the mantle and chosen to become the self-appointed poster woman of domestic violence, the black church has an opportunity to do something it has been criticized for not doing before: speak out on the issue and figure out how to help.

With the rates of nonfatal, intimate partner violence on the rise among black females, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the need could not be more urgent. “It used to be that many ministers would say, ‘Go home and pray for them,’ said Oliver Joseph Williams, executive director for the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community at the University of Minnesota. “They’d tell her, ‘Go back and be a good woman, be nice and make peace with him,’ rather than saying, ‘You deserve to be in a safe place. What he’s doing is absolutely wrong,’” Williams said.

Atlanta-based televangelist Juanita Bynum is one of the country’s most popular female ministers, and has turned her national and international following into a multimillion-dollar business. She has gone public with allegations of domestic violence against her husband, minister Thomas W. Weeks III, who faces charges of aggravated assault and making terroristic threats.

Bynum accused Weeks of choking, kicking and stomping her in a hotel parking lot on August 21 after the couple failed to reconcile their five-year marriage. The 48-year-old has said she intends to file for divorce and plans to draft federal legislation pushing for tougher punishments for abusers.

According to a report titled “Intimate Partner Violence in the United States” released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, while the rates of nonfatal intimate partner violence decreased for black females between 1990 and 2003, the rate increased from 3.8 victimizations per 1,000 on persons age 12 or older in 2003 to 6.6 per 1,000 in 2004. Black females are victimized at a higher rate than white females, and black females report such incidents at a higher rate than white females -- 68.4 percent compared to 53.5 percent.

Those who did not report the abuse chose not to do so because they regarded the incidents as a private matter, were afraid of reprisal, or were trying to protect the offender. For many black women who choose to seek help, experts say that the black church, instead of a shelter or hotline, may be their first stop. But according to reports, women are not always met with the help they need. Often, those who are members of black churches, which tend to be conservative communities of faith, are referred to sacred texts and passages that are used to justify the subjugation of women.

One of the most popular examples of such texts is in the Bible’s book of Ephesians, which contains these words: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Unfortunately, this passage is often taken out of context and though the Bible declares that the man is the head of the household, people interpret it to mean that God condones male dominance.

Since religion often helps people identify right and wrong behavior, the church must play a role and have a voice in the struggle against domestic violence. The challenge we have in our community revolves around the selectivity of what is spoken from the pulpit. While homosexuality and abortion are often discussed, domestic violence takes a back seat to these more “important” hot-button topics.

Domestic violence, however, is not a woman’s “cross to bear.” “Praying over It’ is neither going to change the disposition of the problem nor change unhealthy relationships into healthy ones.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, wrote a statement condemning domestic violence in the wake of the Bynum-Weeks incident, which he called “a teaching opportunity.” “The church is the place where people can find redemption even when they have made bad choices or been victims by those who did,” Jakes wrote, but said that the church must do more than offer a place of refuge.

I agree with Bishop Jakes, we must be prepared to get the victim out of harm’s way even while we are working for a solution. What the church cannot do is to say to the victim, “Go home and believe that God will make things better.” Neither can we afford to lead them in prayer and leave them in danger. n