At domestic violence gathering, NCC head says she, too, was abused

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders and advocates for victims of domestic violence met here Friday (Oct. 11) for an emotional interfaith gathering marked by personal disclosures about domestic violence and challenges to Scriptural admonitions for women to submit to their husbands. The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the general secretary of the […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Religious leaders and advocates for victims of domestic violence met here Friday (Oct. 11) for an emotional interfaith gathering marked by personal disclosures about domestic violence and challenges to Scriptural admonitions for women to submit to their husbands.

The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches, made a dramatic personal revelation: “I have lived with domestic violence,” she told the group.


Campbell, who is divorced, provided few details in her disclosure to the gathering, which included about 70 Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Mormon, Muslim and Jewish participants.

Campbell said she had hesitated for 20 years to reveal her story. Two weeks ago, while being treated for a back ailment, she said a nerve specialist noticed the scars of a broken arm.

“He said the only way that I know that people’s arm can be broken in that way is if someone twists it,” she recalled. “There is, of course, lasting evidence that I, like many, carry in my body, the scars of fear, the results of another’s insecurity.”

Drawing from her own experience, Campbell called for a change in the religious community.

“I urge the leadership of communities of faith to commit themselves anew to a respect for women, to an end of violence,” she said. “Let us be advocates for justice. Let us move toward a nonviolent society where women and children are safe and men are praised for sensitivity, for gentleness, for tenderheartedness, a society where mothers are proud that they have taught their sons _ not only their daughters _ these skills.”

Campbell was embraced by Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders who rose individually to comfort her as she left the gathering for another engagement.

“I think that the power of her words, her personal words, breaking the silence are just such a witness to all of us,” said the Rev. Marie Fortune, leader of an interreligious ministry on sexual and domestic violence, after the meeting. “Her courage is enormous. It means a great deal to women in the pew.”

Fortune’s Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence in Seattle sponsored the event, along with the National Council of Churches and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. President Clinton was the honorary chair of the event.


Fortune, who has been working on issues of violence against women for 20 years, said many religious groups have been involved for a decade. She hopes the event _ which was mirrored by similar gatherings across the country _ would prompt more involvement by religious communities. In the last week, the Mormon Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church addressed the issues of family violence and abusive men at their annual international meetings.

Campbell and other speakers called for greater cooperation on the domestic violence issue and warned that some interpretations of Scripture about submission can lead to assault. Many speakers specifically said that domestic violence occurs among people in their faith groups _ from Jews to Bahai’s to Catholics.

“Religion has been used very widely historically … as a legitimization for the abuse that women suffer,” said Riffat Hassan, a Muslim scholar who is chairperson of religious studies at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

“I have in my own life as a Muslim woman suffered many kinds of violence,” Hassan said, as she closed with a poem she had written about personal and general violence against women.

“I will never be a martyr. I will never be a victim. I will never be a loser,” she read. “I will always be a survivor. I will always be a winner. I will always be triumphant.”

Catherine Clark Kroeger, president emerita of the evangelical Christians for Biblical Equality, criticized situations where women in desperate need have been told by their church leaders to be more submissive to their husbands.


“Our first obligation to a battered woman is not bad advice but assistance in finding safety for herself and for her children,” urged Kroeger, co-editor of “Women, Abuse and the Bible” (Baker Books).

From each faith perspective, there were different approaches to the same problem.

Snjezana Akpinar, chancellor of Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Berkeley, Calif., spoke of refraining from automatically swatting a fly or mosquito as well as more violent actions.

“We allow an empathy to guide our anger,” she said. “We all agree that violence is and always will remain an act of despair … It is also … an act of a person who does not have the method or the tools to rise above anger.”

The meeting was unusual not only for the variety of religious groups represented, but also for the historic opportunity to bring them together with advocates for victims of domestic violence.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, in a keynote address to the gathering, urged greater activism within the religious community. Reno was instrumental in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, which called for tougher penalties for domestic violence and provided new resources for law enforcement officials and victim advocates.

Reno said police, religious leaders, doctors and others need to work together. She provided the gathering with copies of a U.S. Department of Justice “community checklist,” a pamphlet that advises houses of worship to become safe places for domestic violence victims and urges religious leaders to educate congregations about sexual assault from the pulpit.


“The answer is only going to be found when all of us are part of this effort and it is vitally important that the religious community be part of it,” Reno said. “One’s church, one’s temple may be the best way for people to open a door to a new world for themselves.”

She urged a different attitude in the future.

“We can’t just sew up the wound anymore,” she said. “We’ve got to sew up the spirit.”

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