Why do pastors struggle with confronting domestic violence?
Author and blogger John Shore recently addressed the above question after hearing from a multitude of women who were told by their pastors to, “in one way or another, stick with their abusive husbands.”
Explaining that he personally had never known any pastor that would give such advice, Shore attempted to highlight six reasons why he and his wife thought “good, loving, well-intentioned men” might have done “such a terrible thing.”
First, Shore penned on his blog last week that domestic violence was fundamentally unbelievable and incomprehensible to most people – even pastors.
“When faced with a woman saying that her husband is abusing her, pastors must sometimes immediately and even instinctively assume that in some fundamental way the woman must be mistaken.”
Assuming that the wife’s perception was skewed, many pastors could subsequently feel that wives were “exaggerating, misunderstanding, rushing to unsupportable conclusions, too upset, or too emotional.”
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