The Church and its Response to Domestic and Sexual Violence

Monica Taffinder, a Christian counselor who specializes in trauma recovery, depression, anxiety, and sexual abuse recovery, argues that many pastors tend to be somewhat naïve when it comes to the probability that both victims and perpetrators exist within their church.

“I really think people don’t think that it happens in their congregation,” Taffinder told The Christian Post. “I mean, [pastors] know these people. They see these people. They go to dinner with these people. They worship with these people. I know they’re savvy enough to realize that there’s just as much as they don’t know people in their congregations as they do, but still.”

Abuse in church-going families is real. I’ve seen it firsthand. Sure, it’s excused as “headship,” and victimization is brushed aside as “submission,” but those are gross misinterpretations of Biblical concepts in order to justify the unjustifiable. God is not okay with abuse, and we Christians cannot condone such behavior with our silence.