[1] According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Men who abuse often use Ephesians 5:22, taken out of context, to justify their behavior, but the passage (v. 21-33) refers to the mutual submission of husband and wife out of love for Christ.
Although strong patriarchal tendencies have persisted in Christianity, the example of Christ carries the seeds of their displacement by a more symmetrical and respectful model of male–female relations.
[11] Christian conservative radio host Bryan Fischer said to the Huffington Post that it was a "horrifying trend – bizarre, twisted, unbiblical and un-Christian".
[16] The American religious news-magazine Christianity Today has published articles lamenting U.S. churches for possibly making domestic abuse worse "not in incidence, but in response" due to inadequate understandings.
In December 2017, academic W. Bradford Wilcox wrote for the publication, "Domestic violence is still present in church-going homes... some local churches, clergy, and counselors fail to address abuse head-on for fear of breaking up a marriage."
"[17] In the 1970s, when multiple programs were initiated to train church leaders about domestic violence, the response "But no one ever comes to me with this problem" often came up to frustrate efforts.
[18] In terms of regions of the United States, research has speculated that local societies with a general culture of violence and low socio-economic status, which may also be at least nominally religious, are more likely to produce abusive men.
[17] Differing viewpoints between husband and wife may be an aggravating factor in terms of abuse, particularly when women hold beliefs in contrast to more ideologically hardline men.