Rev. Green's Remarks at the Domestic Violence Awareness Rally
Glens Falls, October 13, 1006
Rev. Green was among the speakers invited to address
the attendees of the annual Rally in City Park, on October 13, 2006,
to raise awareness of
the issue of Domestic Violence. Rev. Green is a member of the
Warren/Washington County DELTA project on Domestic Violence Prevention
(a national initiative of the Center for Disease Control) and of the
Glens Falls area Clergy Workgroup on Domstic Violence.
Rev. Green's remarks were as follows:
What an honor to be asked to speak today. As many of you know, four years ago our secretary at First Baptist Church was murdered in an incident stemming from a domestic violence situation, and over the years our congregation has dealt with numerous cases that have (thankfully) not made headlines. Faith communities are not exempt from the concerns of domestic violence. And so the people of First Baptist join me in saying a heart-felt thank you to the organizers, the Domestic Violence Project, the Project's support group, the Northern New York Call 2 Men, the DELTA group, and others for making this important event happen.
We've all heard
there's no place like home.After all,Home is where the heart is.Home is where we want to kick up our heels or let our hair down. Home is where families gather to share the joys of children, of parents, of good food and friends. Home is where we most of all dream of sharing life and love, dreams and hopes, with those most dear to us. Home is supposed to be about intimacy and grace. It is for the sake of peace and prosperity in our homes that our public servants such as Kate Hogan work so hard on our behalf. It is for the sake of keeping the home-fires burning that we work so hard, strive so much. And it is to our home where we turn for help and comfort from the world's sorrow and pain. Home is where, above all other places, we long for peace: peace in body, mind and spirit.Unfortunately though, in all too many homes in our community and in homes all across the world, the reality is not so peaceful. In all too many homes, there is not peace but violence. In all too many homes, there is not friendship but fear. In all too many homes women and children experience not love but abuse. And whether that violence and fear and abuse comes as physical or psychological, as a person of faith, I am painfully aware that all too often, it comes with the tacit assumption that it is God who has made the world to be this way. All too often I hear the Scriptures of my faith quoted in justification of abuse and harm, when they were meant to provide God's grace for families like yours and like mine to fulfill their dream of peace. All too often, women who are seeking advice from their clergy or faith leaders have been told to go back, to put up with it, to be quiet and be more obedient, when what they should have been told was that their lives are precious in God's sight, and that the abuse they are experiencing is grievous to the heart of God. All too often, communities of faith have tacitly condoned the actions of abusers by their silence or worse yet have reinforced the patterns and cycles of abuse by defending the false sanctity of so-called
traditional family values.But God's intention for households of peace is given from the opening chapters of the Biblical witness, and is continued right through to the very chapters so often quoted from the Apostle Paul as justification for the subjugation of women: for in the same sentence where Paul so famously speaks of obedience, Paul commands:
Husbands, love your wives, and never treat them harshly.Friends, as we rally today in the awareness of the domestic violence that diminishes the integrity of men and women, and of our homes and communities, let us rally today, in the hope of domestic peace, and the assurance that it is never God's will that anyone of God's precious children, whether boys or girls, men or women, old or young - it is never God's intention - to use boy-friends and husbands as instruments of divine punishment or retribution. It is never God's intention that anyone live in fear in their own home. It is never the intention of God that anyone should live in captivity and fear. So let us rally in the hope of domestic peace, knowing that peace in our time is God's will. Let us rally in the hope of domestic peace, knowing that the kingdom of God is not reflected in notions about the home being a man's castle. Let us rally in the hope of domestic peace, knowing if you are a Christian, that Christ came to bring peace to you; knowing that if you are Jewish, that the peace of the house is the shalom of right relationships; knowing that if you are Muslim, that in Islam is peace; knowing even if you are not sure what you believe, or if do not believe, that there can be no justification, no excuse, no rationalization for harming those you have made a solemn promise to love.
Let us rally and march and work today in the hope of a true domestic peace. Let us give thanks for the courage of survivors, for the lives of the dead, for the work of the advocates and counselors, for the faithfulness of our public servants, and for the help of friends. And let us in every house of worship and family home, put an end to the reign of abuse and violence, so that the dream of no place like home may finally come true for us, for our children and for all God's children.
Updated: 2006-Oct-15