In this post my focus is on Christ Church, a church in Moscow, Idaho, USA, pastored by Doug Wilson. His view on marital intimacy is that the husband is to be in authority and the wife is to be in submission, a view that opens the door to sexual abuse within a marriage.In this church community women are told they must defer to church leaders and cannot say "no" to their husbands, men are taught to strictly control their homes and those who speak out can be isolated and harrassed.
One of their members, Jean, was a student at New Saint Andrews, Christ Church's College. While at that College she met a charming, handsome upperclassman. His father was a deacon at Christ Church. By her second year, they started dating and soon he said he wanted to marry her. Within their first year of dating, he would get her drunk and refused her wishes not to have sex. They were eventually married by pastor Wilson. That is when marital rape began to take place. This took place for about a decade and has caused Jean to develop PTSD.from sexual assault. Years into her marriage, Jean reported to several pastors that her husband had been raping her. She was told "You are not to report it" and "You are wrong. A wife is not allowed to tell her husband "no."
Jean's husband's drinking increased. And so would his violent behaviour. He would hold her against walls, slam a lot of doors, pounded the walls, once pointed a loaded gun at her. Nevertheless the pastors told her not to go to the police and not to separate.
Jean did eventually divorce her husband and left the Christ Church community, knowing that she would just be ex-communicated if she stayed.
P.S. In my next post I will continue to focus on abuse in Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, USA, pastored by Doug Wilson.
Read Part Two HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment