Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out, 'Violence!' but I am not answered; I call for help, but there is no justice.

"Good people never pretend to be evil, but evil people pretend to be good. Sheep don't wear wolves' clothing." ~ Jeff Crippen

The job of defending and protecting the defenseless is given to us (Christians), and the buck stops here. ~ Jeff Crippen

Very few people know what abuse really is, though everyone seems quite ready to give advice to its victims. If you believe that abuse is physical battering, you have some learning to do.

Abuse is fundamentally a mentality. It is a mindset of entitlement. The abuser sees himself as entitled. He is the center of the world, and he demands that his victim make him the center of her world. His goal is power and control over others. For him, power and control are his natural right, and he feels quite justified in using whatever means are necessary to obtain that power and control. The abuser is not hampered in these efforts by the pangs of a healthy conscience and indeed often lacks a conscience.

While this mentality of power and control often expresses itself in various forms of physical abuse, it just as frequently employs tactics of verbal, emotional, financial, social, sexual and spiritual abuse. Thus, an abuser may never actually lay a hand on his wife and yet be very actively terrorizing her in incredibly damaging ways.

Abuse in any of its forms destroys the victim's person. Abuse, in the end, is murder.

"A Cry for Justice: Recognizing Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Church and Rendering Justice and Help to Their Victims." by Pastor Jeff Crippen and Anna Wood

The articles we write and post on A Cry for Justice are representative of our doctrinal understanding of the Scriptures, and of our application of those truths. Sometimes, for purposes of discussion and learning, we may invite a guest to post an article that presents some points we do not entirely agree with. Comments to the articles will also sometimes present positions we do not necessarily endorse.

We believe that marriage is a covenant, the terms of which are the vows. Habitual, unrepentant, violation of those vows destroys the covenant and entitles the wronged spouse to divorce, though does not require it. The Bible sets out covenant-destroying sins: desertion and abuse (1 Cor. 7:15) – abuse is a form of desertion because the evil conduct violates and repels the victim – and adultery (Mat 19, Mk 10). God doesn't hate the legal process of divorce; he hates the sins of desertion, abuse and adultery that cause marriages to break down. We believe that a wronged party, after divorce, is free to remarry, only in the Lord (i.e., another believer).

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