Getting Involved as Domestic Violence Services Fall Victim to Budget Cuts

Funding for domestic violence programs and services are decreasing in some states. 

These services are vital but do not absolve Christians from providing biblical, knowledgeable, and compassionate support to victims of abuse. 

It is wrong to depend solely on local and state services to help those within our spheres of influence. 

For many, like former pastor's wife, Susan Greenfield, author of, Would the Real Church PLEASE Stand Up!, domestic violence shelters and services play a vital part in her escape and were all she and her children had to turn to. Domestic violence counselors, instead of her "church family," were her only supporters as she navigated the terrifying minefield of domestic abuse. 

Let that sink in.

Christians, we must step up to the plate, and stop refusing to get involved in these horrendous situations. It is time to get out of our comfort zones. Lives may depend may on it. 

Know the local resources in your areas. Program them into your phones. Be ready to refer to them. Often that is the only safe solution. But what if there are no services in your area? What if there is no room in a facility for the one asking you for help?  

What is your church or group doing to gain understanding of the facts and dynamics of abusive and even violent relationships? Don't tell her to "just leave," and then turn your back on her. Yes it's frustrating. Yes it's frightening. But the Word of God commands us bear one another's burdens, and battered women who come to us for help, don't need to be sluffed off to the "professionals." Referrals and sluffing-off are two completely different things. Learn the difference.

Abused Christian women come to Christian friends, family, and spiritual leaders for godly counsel and emotional support. Are you prepared to give it? Are you prepared to put hands and feet to your prayers and advice? Does your group or church have a benevolence fund that includes helping battered women and their children? It should. 

Every month, not just October, should be domestic violence awareness month. As this is being written there are 17-days before domestic violence awareness month begins. In that 17-days, 51 women will die from a homicidal incident of domestic violence. And that does not count the number of children who die as part of these same homicidal incidences by the fathers, stepfathers, and boyfriends who murder the mothers.

It is time to learn how to respond biblically, knowledgeably, and compassionately to someone who may turn to you for help. My book, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, is a good place to start. It is available on Kindle Unlimited, and you can read the first chapter free at womansubmit.com.

 Author and speaker, Jocelyn Andersen, is an eclectic Christian writer. She is a Bible teacher who writes about many subjects including Bible prophecy and equality of the sexes. She is best known for her advocacy in domestic violence awareness. Her book, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, has been a staple in the library of resources on that subject.  

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