When we speak of domestic violence, and the cultural factors that foment it, one crucial element missing from the discussion has been religion.
While it is generally agreed that inequality between the sexes can foster and cultivate environments where men seek to control or abuse women, in Australia there has been very little public debate about how this might impact people in male-led congregations and religious communities, especially those where women are told to be silent and submit to male authority. . . .
Is it true — as one Anglican bishop has claimed — that there are striking similarities to the church’s failure to protect children from abuse, and that this next generation’s reckoning will be about the failure in their ranks to protect women from domestic violence? . . .
This is a particularly sensitive point in the Sydney Anglican Church, which is known for its robust advocacy of male headship. . . .
Those who uphold “egalitarian” views of marriage in this diocese report being sidelined, overlooked for jobs and ostracised.
Some told ABC News they could not publicly state that they believed in equal relationships between men and women, for they would lose their jobs.
And as domestic violence advocate Barbara Roberts points out, in conservative churches women are often taught that desire to overthrow male authority is a sign of sin — thereby making feminism innately wrong.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/domestic-violence-church-submit-to-husbands/8652028
