(The Christian Post) A burgeoning cadre of secret online groups are educating and empowering emotionally abused spouses within the Christian community about their options to help them escape destructive relationships.
According to authors Gretchen Baskerville and Cindy Burrell, along with a woman who recently escaped an abusive marriage and spoke with The Christian Post on condition of anonymity, these online communities are providing a vital lifeline to spouses who are suffering in agony. Many have been taught in churches that the only grounds for divorce are adultery or physical abuse.
The women (and a few men) who are in these destructive relationships are often suffering from a variety of chronic health problems, and their lives and physical well-being almost universally improve once they’re able to leave. Most unfortunately, however, far too many churches that claim to hold high a view of marriage have failed to grasp the devastating impact of abuse that’s neither physical nor sexual.