Black and Blue?

Our younger daughter, Emily, got us going on a family text message chat with this photo. It is the visual portion of a provocative ad campaign by the Salvation Army in Australia. It is about domestic violence and it cleverly picks up on "the dress," which some of you may have seen. That photo is of a dress which some see as black and blue and others see as gold and white. In the photo above the young woman is clearly in a gold and white dress, but she is "black and blue" as a result of domestic abuse.

Often religious organizations such as churches shie away from the dark secret of abuse. We rarely bring up the subject in worship and when my wife Ruth was a crisis counselor and outreach worker for a women's shelter she found that churches were often reluctant to have her come as a speaker. She was regularly embarrassed in case meetings where one of her co-workers would express frustration that a client was staying in an abusive relationship for religious reasons, and sometimes on the encouragement of a pastor of priest.

This is International Women's Day and it is an invitation to "see" women as equals in every way. It is also an opportunity to name issues of domestic abuse. We never know who is living through that nightmare in our congregations, either with family members or personally.

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