Comments on: The monster in the back pew: Why domestic violence still happens in your church https://journeyonline.com.au/features/the-monster-in-the-back-pew-why-domestic-violence-still-happens-in-your-church/ Thu, 28 May 2015 20:29:29 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 By: Jason John https://journeyonline.com.au/features/the-monster-in-the-back-pew-why-domestic-violence-still-happens-in-your-church/#comment-2781 Thu, 28 May 2015 20:29:29 +0000 http://journeyonline.com.au/?p=20337#comment-2781 Thanks Dianne,
I’ve written a letter to the editor in response which I hope will get in, a very brief summary is I hope there are more letters to the editor outraged at these stats than the potential of gay marriage; that I hope Assembly spends more time critiquing the theology which helps perpetuate DV and theologising about gay marriage, and that I’d also take issue with the title for a different reason than Andrew: DV perpetrators aren’t in the back pew, they are in the pulpit and church councils too. I agree about monsters too, though I suspect you didnt pick the title anyway, that’s usually for editors.
Great to see this being addressed publicly, and with some stats.

]]> By: Andrew Demack https://journeyonline.com.au/features/the-monster-in-the-back-pew-why-domestic-violence-still-happens-in-your-church/#comment-2780 Thu, 21 May 2015 04:26:07 +0000 http://journeyonline.com.au/?p=20337#comment-2780 Good piece Dianne!

I did an article for Journey about this very topic around 1987 or so, and one of the aspects of this horrible and intractable problem that hit me hard during the reporting process was that men who perpetrate domestic violence are not so different from me. That the capacity for anger and violence certainly exists within me, and most people.

With that in mind, I’m uneasy about the headline referencing ‘monsters’, as it could be taken as meaning that the men who commit violent acts are monsters. I don’t think that sort of characterisation is helpful towards really understanding the problem. They are sinners, they are doing wrong, their acts might even be monstrous. But they’re not monsters.

Thanks for Journey’s ongoing commitment to working towards a church and society which values women, and men, in a more equal way.

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