Domestic Violence

The scriptures instruct us to love one another – to create mutually respectful relationships in which there is shared responsibility, negotiation and fairness, trust and support, honesty and accountability.  When violence is present in a relationship, it is a violation against the image of God in which we all have been created.  Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior that one person uses to gain and maintain power and control over an intimate partner or ex-partner. This behavior includes sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse (a form of which is economic coercion).