Day 10: Collaborating for Justice

Collaborating for Justice

A Faith-Law Lens for Approaching Domestic and Family Violence. 

DR JENNY RICHARDS

Most of what we hear about coercive control focuses on how the criminal law may address this common form of domestic and family violence. Viewing it through the lens of its criminality may obscure a key truth: coercive control, like other forms of domestic and family violence, raises issues of faith as well as law. How can Christians navigate this twin reality?  

One answer may lie in the perspective we bring to how faith and law operate in this space. 

Collaboration between faith leaders and Domestic and Family Violence workers is seen as best practice in prevention and pastoral responses, and work targeting damaging theological beliefs which are weaponised against women to justify and minimise domestic violence is ongoing. 

What might it take for those collaborations to extend to questions of justice? 

My own research indicates that one key to a faith-law collaboration is to recognise that a justice response and a faith response to coercive control can be held together. They are not two alternatives between which women must choose. It’s easy to view them that way. It’s common to see the justice system as secular, located ‘outside of’ the church. It’s also common to view forgiveness as inconsistent with justice system involvement. 

After all, one might wonder, ‘how can I have my husband thrown in jail if I am supposed to be forgiving him?’ 

This question reflects two common misconceptions. The first is that the justice system centres on punishment and is thus inconsistent with Christian teachings about forgiveness. The second is that forgiveness can be disconnected from other teachings and itself encapsulates the ‘Christian’ response to coercive control.

Christians believe human beings are profoundly dignified in the humanity of Jesus. A view of justice which reflects women’s dignity as made in the image of God has immense potential for healing and restoration here. Theologically, justice is also a critical part of a Christian response to domestic and family violence. 

The Hebrew understanding of righteousness (tzedakah) holds love and justice together, and operates relationally. It calls people to treat one another rightly, requiring repentance and accountability. 

This affirmation is reflected in the justice system. When theological beliefs are used to minimise and condone domestic and family violence the denunciation of such violence inherent in the criminal law speaks volumes. Both faith and legal understandings of justice denounce all forms of domestic and family violence, recognising and vindicating women’s worth and personhood. Both allow relational considerations, rehabilitation, reparation and remorse to be considered also. 

A faith-law lens reveals:

• The Christian Gospel is profoundly with and for women in the face of the brutality, denial of personhood, and injustice of domestic and family violence. 
• Christian men are no less accountable for coercive controlling behaviours because of their faith. A Christian man’s wife is not the one person he can get away with treating badly.
• A Christian worldview doesn’t separate the ‘sacred’ and ‘secular,’ and women don’t need to either. This means the call from both the law and from God to respond rightly to domestic and family violence is on violent husbands, not their wives. Christian women do not have to bear up under violence and simply ‘pray more’. They are not the ones responsible to bring change and end violence. Nor do they need to view the justice system as an alternative or a last resort. 

A justice system response is not an alternative or parallel to a faith response. Instead, it’s a potential part of a Christian response to domestic and family violence and coercive control for women. There are many reasons women may decide not to engage with the justice system – it is certainly flawed - but care must be taken to ensure that believing it’s a ‘less Christian’ option is not one of them. 

Go Deeper

‘They have dressed the wounds of my people as though they are not serious. ‘Peace, Peace’, they say, where there is no peace’. Jeremiah 6:14

• What would theological justice require a perpetrator to do, in response to their own violence?
• Think about your local church context. What might be needed, to enable faith and justice responses to be viewed in a more integrated way?

For further reading: 

• Dr Jenny Richard' thesis , “Seeking Love, Justice and Freedom for All”: Using the Work of T. F. and J. B. Torrance to Address Domestic and Family Violence.
• Renew – an Australian Guide for Christian Women Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Dr Jenny Richards is a Lecturer in Law in the College of Business Government and Law at Flinders University, and former criminal lawyer. She is a member of the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide Domestic and Family Violence Working Group, and is a co-opted Board member of the Disability Rights Advocacy Service of South Australia. Her PhD, ‘Embodied Justice: An Integrated Faith-Law Response for Christian Women Experiencing Domestic and Family Violence in Australia’ (Flinders University, Jan 2024) considers ways in which church leaders can hold law and faith considerations together when addressing domestic and family violence.

About the Series

Confronting Coercive Control is Common Grace's daily blog series during 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, 25 November to 10 December 2024.
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The following Domestic and Family Violence support services are available:

• 1800 RESPECT National Helpline: 1800 737 732
• Women’s Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
• Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
• Lifeline (24 hour crisis line): 131 114
• 13 YARN (Aboriginal Mob): 13 92 76
• Emergency: 000