He wasn’t listening. He utterly failed to hear the complaint, the cry of injustice, the groaning of pain. All he heard was a female voice, and because of that, easily brushed off as full of inaccuracies. Lord have mercy.
“Women & Power” is a great book ... and it’s encouraging to hear a man say so!
But it’s true. Men don’t listen to women. I feel that and grieve it and could list a thousand examples ... and can only pray things will be different for my daughters.
In my experience (20+ years of advocating for victims of domestic abuse), many a pastor has brushed off women’s reports of abuse until his own daughter is targeted and victimised by an abuser.
Then peer pressure kicks in. If the pastor supports his daughter, and especially if he endorses her decision to (yikes!) divorce the abuser, the other men who have power in the congregation often persecute him. Often the church splits. Pastor looses his income and his ‘good reputation’ in the denomination.
Listening to women requires courage, humility and moral fibre.
All of which underscores the need for christians to scrutinise their doctrine of divorce to see whether it actually lines up with ALL of scripture. See my book Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion.
I wish it weren’t so, but I’ve definitely seen this to be true, well said (and applies whether the one listening is a man or a woman: “Listening to women requires courage, humility and moral fibre.”
“Women & Power” is a great book ... and it’s encouraging to hear a man say so!
But it’s true. Men don’t listen to women. I feel that and grieve it and could list a thousand examples ... and can only pray things will be different for my daughters.
I’m so sorry that you can list 1000 examples 😣. Praying the same for my daughter.
In my experience (20+ years of advocating for victims of domestic abuse), many a pastor has brushed off women’s reports of abuse until his own daughter is targeted and victimised by an abuser.
Then peer pressure kicks in. If the pastor supports his daughter, and especially if he endorses her decision to (yikes!) divorce the abuser, the other men who have power in the congregation often persecute him. Often the church splits. Pastor looses his income and his ‘good reputation’ in the denomination.
Listening to women requires courage, humility and moral fibre.
All of which underscores the need for christians to scrutinise their doctrine of divorce to see whether it actually lines up with ALL of scripture. See my book Not Under Bondage: Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery and Desertion.
I wish it weren’t so, but I’ve definitely seen this to be true, well said (and applies whether the one listening is a man or a woman: “Listening to women requires courage, humility and moral fibre.”