Network News: Dos and Don'ts of Church Politicking
From the Horses Mouth
Herstory
Foremothers
Domestic Violence and the Media, part 2
Emotional support of victims of abuse
Booknook

If you are a woman and you like having a credit card or a checking account, thank a feminist.

      Earlier this year, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State instituted project "Fair Play." Under this project, community activists will monitor local church activities during the fall election season to ensure that local churches are abiding by the federal election laws. If you have information that you would like to share with Americans United, they can be reached at 1816 Jefferson Place, N.W., Washington DC 20036 or by calling (202) 466-3234. The following lists come from AU publications:

Churches and Other Religious Groups May:

• Register people to vote in all political parties and urge them to go to the polls on Election Day
• Address issues of moral concern, such as abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, etc., either from a pro or con perspective
• Sponsor non-partisan "voter education" forums at which all candidates are invited to speak
• Inform candidates about the church's stand on political or moral issues

Churches and Other Religious Groups May NOT

• Endorse or oppose candidates for public office (i.e., recommend that congregants vote for or against a candidate)
• Give money to political candidates
• Give preferential treatment to certain candidates (i.e., allowing some candidates to speak from the pulpit but not others)
• Provide mailing lists to candidates, political parties or political action committees on a preferential basis
• Distribute partisan or biased campaign literature

e-mail: americansunited@au.org website: http://www.netplex.group.com/americansunited amerunited@aol.com

      "The primary responsibility for the provision of authority in the home has been assigned to men."       James Dobson of Focus on the Family, quoted in IFAS's Freedom Writer, Aug 1996, p. 7

      With a combined mailing list of 2 million, the Focus on the Family empire run by Dobson dwarfs Pat Robertson's religious right organizations. For insight into the thinking of the religious right and to receive a free copy of the Focus on the Family's Political and Legislative Guidelines for Pastors and Churches, call 1-800-232-6459. You will be put on their mailing list for a monthly newsletter. At least half of the newsletter is devoted to selling Christian religious materials. The other part is devoted to hyping other Christian organizations such as PK. I find the magazine an inspiration as I write these newsletters. Help Focus on the Family spend its money converting heathens, request your free subscription NOW.

hanged	June 10, 1692	Briget Bishop
5 hanged	July 19, 1692	Sarah Good, Sarah Wild, Susanna Martin, Elizabeth How, and Rebecca Nurse
5 hanged	Aug 5, 1692	John Willard, old George Jacobs, Martha Carrier, John and Elizabeth Procter
8 hanged	Sept 22, 1692	Martha Cory, Alice Parker and Ann Pucleator of Salem Town, Mary Esty, Margaret Scott of Rowley, Mary Parker of Andover, Wilmott Redd of Marblehead, Samuel Wardwell

Giles Cory, husband of Martha Cory, died under torture; he was pressed to death under a large load of stones

5) Giving reasons that "justify" the violence - dividing women into categories
      By dividing women into the respectable/not respectable (asexual/sexual/ or virgin/whore) categories, the message comes across that it is ok to victimize some women. Remember: none of us are free until all of us are free.
      Example: She had sex out-of-wedlock, proving she has loose morals. Since she is immoral, she is "rapeable," i.e., any man can have sex with her any time with impunity. (Is it ok to rape all men who have had sex out-of-wedlock?)

6) Giving reasons that "justify" the violence - excusing the perpetrator
      Example: He had a domineering mother. (So did a lot of women but we don't beat our husbands, rape our neighbors, etc.)
      He had a bad experience with a woman. (And women haven't been rejected by men? - That's life honey.)
      He is a social deviant. (Finally an accurate statement: wife- beaters and rapists are deviants; but that doesn't justify the battering or rape.)
      He was drunk. (So is it ok for drunken men to beat up or rape other men? If he can't handle liquor, he shouldn't use it.)

7) Making the perpetrator feel entitled to perform the action
      Example: Everybody does it.
      Example: "God appointed men to lead the family, to be the head of the household. Since men are responsible to God for the misdeeds of the family members, the man has the right to use any amount of chastisement (nice euphemism for "beating", don't you think?) necessary to save his immortal soul. Disobedience to the husband, like disobedience to God, is unacceptable and must be punished." (ed. note: I actually had a "tru-Christian" (tm) tell me that with all seriousness.)

8) Using the heinous technique of using religion to "justify" abuse (If there is a just and merciful God, many men will fry in hell for using religion to oppress women.)

      Women need to be controlled because Eve, which when translated from the Hebrew means Life, demonstrated her susceptibility to the influence of Satan by being the first in sin. All women, like Life, are more prone to sin than men.
      Men are entitled to chastise women because women are naturally oriented to the physical world while men are oriented to the spiritual world. Hence men know more about God than women do and should be the interpreters of God's will. God's will is that women were put on earth to serve men's physical, sexual, and psychological needs. Disobedience to man is equivalent to disobedience to God and must be punished.

      The following advice comes from Pamela Cooper-White in Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response (Augsburg-Fortress Press, 1995). Cooper-White is an Episcopal priest who spent many years working with women victims of violence in many of its forms.

      "[R}ecognize the signs. . . A battered woman many make oblique references to her partner's "anger" or "temper". . .[hoping others] will read between the lines. When with her partner in public, she may defer to him or be unusually quiet around him for fear of saying something for which she will be punished later. She is generally very protective of him with others, particularly those in authority. At the same time, the abuser may be verbally abusive in subtle or obvious ways, may make attempts to impugn her reputation or her sanity to the pastor, may show signs of unwarranted jealousy, or may engage in a custody war with the woman and even kidnap the children. . . .

      Talk about the violence straightforwardly and don't be afraid to ask. Do not refrain from asking what is really happening out of a mistaken notion of respecting her privacy or not embarrassing her. If she is being battered, she needs an opportunity to disclose in order to break the silence that perpetuates the abuse.. . .

      Believe her. You may be the first person to whom she has disclosed. . . .

      Remember her safety at all times. . . .

      Let her know this is not her fault. . . .

      Share with her the myths and stereotypes about battered women and the information you have learned. . . . suggesting readings . . . Gin NiCarthy's Getting Free, a workbook for getting out of an abusive situation and Marie Fortune's very concise and helpful Keeping the Faith, which addresses Christian battered women's theological and moral concerns. . . .

      Refer her to expert, specialized help. . . .

      Respect her right to self-determination.

      Do not use a couple counseling format. . . .
      It is important to remember, and to share with the family and the congregation, that it was the introduction of violence into the marriage, and not the divorce per se that broke the covenant between the couple.

      Regarding help for the batterer, let him know that you stand ready to support him with referrals to batterers' programs to help him stop his violence, but let him know that violence is wrong, period. . . .

      Let the congregation know that it's OK to talk about abuse. . . .       Assure the battered woman of God's love, and help her build a spiritual support community." pages 120 - 124

      During the witchcraze, between 100,000 and 9 million people, 85% of whom were women, were executed by governments as witches. The scholarly consensus is that "millions" of women died. These numbers do not include the women who committed suicide to avoid torture, trial, or execution. Yet these numbers belie the magnitude of this women's Holocaust for the witchcraze changed everyone's lives.

      The acquitted lead shattered lives: their health was destroyed by torture; their property was confiscated. Feared and shunned by relatives, friends, and neighbors, they were exiled from homes with their reputations destroyed, often unable to earn a living wage. Years later they would again be tried, and this time convicted, of being a witch. Their children, especially their daughters, carried the suspicion of witchcraft their whole life long.

Accused women were

• Unwanted by any man because she was outspoken, unattractive, ill, crippled, beyond her child-bearing years, too old to be economically productive, or just plain, not young enough.
  
• Poor and financially dependent on the community. As Barstow states: "The old woman was an ideal scapegoat: too expendable to be missed, too weak to fight back, too poor to matter."
  
• Intellectually or financially free of men
  
• Village healers or midwives, especially women who dispensed contraceptives, abortificants, or pain-killing potions during child-birth
• Lesbians (Gay men were favorite victims, too.)

Accused women had

• Husbands who wanted a cheap, easy, legal way to get rid of them in an age where there was no divorce.
  
• Husbands who other men tried to destroy thru them.
  
• Greedy heirs that wanted to quickly acquire their inheritance.
  
• Admitted wanting no more children, even after bearing 10, 12, or 15 children
  
• Dressed as a man. She was assumed to be trying to escape God's punishment on womankind by trying to pass as a man.
  
• Neighbors, family members with a grudge.
  
• Masturbated. She was having sex with the devil.

      And, of course, the church's perennial victims were considered witches: non-Christians, new converts, lapsed converts, the insane, the deaf, and the dumb.
      In short, almost any woman could be accused at any time by anyone of witchcraft for almost any reason. All women lived in constant fear of being called out on as a witch. The atmosphere must have been much like the atmosphere in Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia.

      Rebecca Nurse, reputed to be prudent and charitable, an accomplished wife and mother to 8 children, a devout church goer with an unimpeachable character, lived a very uneventful live until the spring of 1692 when she was accused of witchcraft. Almost completely deaf, Mrs. Nurse was questioned while in her sick bed regarding her association with witchcraft. Since Mrs. Nurse was deaf, she didn't understand the questions and her answers to the questions were unintelligible. She did however deny any connection with witchcraft. The commission investigating her decided that she did not take the charges against her seriously. Taken from her sick bed, she was questioned in court. Records indicate that she understood none of the court proceedings. Although forty persons at the hazard of their own lives testified to her character, she was convicted of witchcraft. A reprieve from the governor was voided by the church. After all, what better spokeswoman, what better seducer of the innocent, could the devil have than a pillar of the community who spent a long life in service to God and country, a devout, sick, deaf, old woman. At least, that's what the church said. At the age of 70, on July 19, 1692, Rebecca Nurse was hung.

            from Starkey's and Gage's books, see below

      I can recommend several books about the witchcraft trials:

      The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England by Carol F. Karlsen (Vintage Press, 1987) gives a detailed demographic analysis of the women who were accused and convicted of witchcraft in colonial New England. She concludes that women with no male protector (husband, adult son, brother, or father) where the population group most likely to be accused and convicted of witchcraft.

      The Devil in Massachusetts, A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials by Marion L. Starkey (Anchor Books, 1949) gives detailed discussions of the people and events of the Salem witch trials. Starkey gives each person, the accused, the accusers, the judges, and the prosecutors personalities and characters.

      Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts by Anne Llewellyn Barstow (Pandora, 1994) discusses many aspect of the European witchcraft trials: sexual and psychological torture, acts that constituted witch's behavior, community support for witch trails, life long effects of the accusation on the acquitted, . . .

      Woman, Church, and State by Matilda Joslyn Gage (1894, reprinted by Arno Press, 1972) discusses how the church and patriarchy benefited from the witch trials.

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