Life and Faith: Domestic abuse and the Church

For International Women’s Day in 2013, Justine Toh interviewed Captain Melanie-Anne Holland, who manages a Salvation Army women’s refuge, and Dr Lynne M. Baker, author of the book Counselling Christian Women on How to Deal with Domestic Violence, about the effects of domestic abuse and the relevance of this issue to faith communities in particular. Two years on, the interview is if anything even more relevant: domestic violence affects up to 1 in 6 Australian women, and – with Rosie Batty being made Australian of the Year, and recent stories about domestic abuse in Christian marriages in particular – there is a growing momentum behind efforts to tackle this issue head-on.