Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence
By Jocelyn Anderson
One Way Café Press. Auburndale, Florida
ISBN: 9780979429309
 

The first chapter of Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence is aptly titled

“I Should Be Dead, But I’m Not!”
 
This is the testimony of one person brutalized by long-term physical abuse from her spouse. One beating left her paralyzed on their bedroom floor. She bled from her eyes and ears, likely with a concussion and skull fractures. One arm and hand were useless. She went into shock. Because the abuser was afraid of legal retribution, he picked her up, placed her on the bed, and refused to allow her medical help. He removed all the telephones from the house. She lay there for 32 hours. 
 

During the injury and the first night, this woman prayed. Her husband replaced the phone, only after she promised not to call the police. He left and she called for help. She called her pastor, who had previously showed impatience or disgust with her complaining, but now rushed to her rescue. At the ER, physicians reported that Jocelyn Anderson suffered no fractures or internal injuries and she attributed this miracle to prayer, giving as evidence a supernatural peace she felt following her beating.
 

Abuse targets are bound to abusers by emotion, tradition, lack of outside help, and incorrect religious beliefs. Some are addicted to trying to make the abuser happy, like the addicted gambler’s creed: “Just one more chance and I’ll win!” I have been a counselor and educator, but became fully aware of the varieties of abuse only within the last 15 years. It is a perversion. I have known men, women, children, and pets that have died from abuse. It is a killer. Rules and regulations apply in the workplace, in school, etc., but not abusively. Abuse is inhuman. The rules “in the Bible” for marriage and submission are mistranslated from the Hebrew, because of changes in the English language, as discussed below.
 

Ms. Anderson traces abuse back to Adam and Eve. This is provocative and makes one think. She contends that Adam turned his anger on Eve because she was first to succumb to the serpent and it was “all her fault”, as abusers often state today, discussed in “Chapter 4: The Eve Syndrome.” The fifth chapter is “Church Sanctioned Oppression”, describing how churches have told wives to stay with abusive husbands and change these men with a wife’s good Christian example. Unfortunately, this does not work and many of these wives (or abused husbands) are dead. Perhaps the worst myth of all is that abused individuals ask for the abuse.
 

In related research, Frank T. Seekins shows that Jaweh is in the middle of Hebrew words for “man/husband” and “woman/wife” when the words are combined side by side. They are unified by God and God is in them. If you remove His Name, then all you have left are two of the same symbol that means two things: 1) fire and 2) strong teeth.* Thus, after the fall from grace in Eden, God was separated from Adam and Eve. This left the major interaction between the father and mother of mankind to be strife. In this light, Anderson’s proposition makes full sense.
 

There is also a language problem. Hebrew has retained its meanings for millennia, while English has changed. Thus, different meanings have been given to the original Hebrew. This helps to enable abuse. The word helpmeet/helpmate has been wrongly translated since King James, because the English language changed at that point. The Hebrew helpmeet means defender of the man.* The “help” is the identical help coming from the Lord — mountain-moving power, splitting the Red Sea power, calming the tempest, healing disease. It does not denote a submissive servant over whom a man should dominate.  
 

Sometimes the church tells victims to turn the other cheek; however, this does not mean take more punishment. ** In the culture where this phenomenon was written in scripture, turning the other cheek meant that the next strike would be backhanded and this act was officially cowardice, causing the attacker to lose face and be shamed. Turning the other cheek means to shame the attacker by his own actions, not to invite more punishment. ** It does not mean to set a submissive “Christian” example and accept abuse.
 

The church need not enable abuse and Ms. Anderson’s book shows how individuals and the church can help stop this perversion. She includes many interesting and vitasl aspects of the phenomenon and its more effective handling, with her own personal testimony at the end of the book.
 

Reading Woman Submit! can help save someone’s life — maybe yours.

*http://www.livingwordpictures.com
 

**http://www.worldharvestbiblecollege.com

 Links:

www.OneWayCafePress.com
 http://www.hungryheartsministries.com/id16.html