God’s Favorite Child Press

“Four million women per year are victims of violence perpetrated, in many cases, by men who vowed to love, honor and cherish them; approximately 1,200 women will be killed every year by those same men.” —US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In Partners at War in the Home, Sonia Martin highlights the problem of intimate partner violence to enhance awareness and to promote changes in church leadership. Countless women who have been victimized by intimate partners suffer from short-term and long-lasting emotional, physical, and financial consequences. They are vulnerable to developing psychological fear, PTSD, insomnia, anxiety, depressed mood, substance use/abuse, and many other serious physical health issues. So, what can be done about intimate partner violence? Professional leaders, including church leadership, must minister to the spiritual, psychological, and emotional needs of abused women. It is essential that church leadership and the congregations be educated on effective ways to hold abusive men accountable. The church can do more by offering a safe sanctuary, helping with formulating a safety plan, providing resources and interventions to aid in emotional healing, and facilitating empowerment for abused Black sisters. Hopefully, this research can be counted among the other resources that are available in the African American church community, and both clergy and laity will benefit from its existence in the body of literature on intimate partner violence.