Kevin Giles - The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women: Are They Related In Any Way?

In this book, Kevin Giles shows how biblical texts on male headship have often been misinterpreted and used to perpetrate the abuse of women by Christians globally and especially in the developing nations. By means of descriptive statistics and vivid retelling of real-life experiences in Australia and in Africa, where he ministered with his wife Lynley, Kevin reveals how male headship can undermine the dignity of women and lead to their abuse. I highly recommend this book for use all over the world.

Diphus Chemorion , Associate Professor and Dean of Faculty of Theology,
St. Pauls University, Limuru, Kenya

Kevin Giles had clear reasons for writing this book. Married to a marriage counselor and active as a theologian, his concern has long been that our understanding of good theology encourages us into healthy relationships. But the converse is also true: bad or distorted theology can play into abusive relationships, and that is his subject here. Those of us who have worked long in this field know how difficult it is to bring the evidence to a wider Christian public. Yet it has to be done. Here it is done with care, biblical acumen, and compassion. I hope the book will become a seminary text, for the next generation of pastors, lay leaders, and counselors who must be given the biblical tools to help to turn the tide, and bring redemptive hope into many more intimate relationships.

Elaine Storkey , Newnham College, Cambridge University, author of Scars Across Humanity: Understanding and Overcoming Violence Against Women

Pastor and theologian Kevin Giles reveals how belief in the unbiblical doctrine of male headship often leads to physical and sexual abuse in the church and the home. Like a doctor who takes no pleasure in telling a critically ill patient of his diagnosis, Kevin shows the horrific outcomes of a belief in male headship and inherent male authority, two concepts that are contradictory to the teachings of Christ and the Scriptures. Every Christian in a position of influence or leadership should read this book before the next physical or sexual abuse scandal rocks your denomination like it did mine.

Wade Burleson , Pastor, Southern Baptist Convention, USA,
author of Fraudulent Authority

This small book is packed full of critical information, important truths, needed challenges, and helpful correctives as it relates to how concerned Christians should think about the topic of domestic abuse. It is a must-have for clergy and seminary students.

Nancy Nason-Clark , Professor Emerita, Department of Sociology,
University of New Brunswick

A nation, church, and family can be measured by its treatment of women. Despite gains made worldwide, women still encounter tragic levels of abuse even in Christian communities. With a long history of advancing the biblical basis for womens equal leadership, Kevin Giles turns his incisive mind to the #MeToo and #ChurchToo crisis. Given that more than percent of the world follow a faith traditionmost of which support male-authority, Giles critiques those with the greatest influencemale religious leaders. Those who speak for God require the greatest accountability. It is to them that this book is addressed. It is to all of us, that this book informs.

Mimi Haddad , President, CBE International

I warmly commend this book. I invited Kevin and Lynley Giles to Kenya and Uganda in 2018 to speak at conferences for clergy and their wives on marriage in a context where domestic abuse and violence is common, and sadly all too often in clergy homes. From the Scriptures, and from their over fifty years of marriage they ministered powerfully to those present. What they said and how they related to each other as equal partners in their marriage opened up possibilities hitherto not envisaged by so many clergy couples. What was so amazing was the number of men who recognized that their selfishness and determination to have their own way had resulted in a very unhappy marriage and it was they who needed to change for marital love to flourish. In his discussion of the abuse of women in the developing world, Kevin recounts this story.

Patti Ricotta , President and Co-Founder, Life Together International

I commend Kevin Giles for producing a well-researched and thoughtful book on how Christian churches need to recognize domestic and family violence and respond and refer appropriately. The history of discrimination against women in the churches has created generations of women and girls who have come to believe that they are beneath and inferior to men and as a consequence have accepted their marginalization and abuse in one way or another. Kevin Giles forcefully argues that church leaders today must take responsibility for this diminishment of women that all too often has allowed, if not encouraged, domestic and family violence. The persuasive interpretation of the Bible Dr. Giles gives promotes a liberating understanding of the position of women and girls and provides a charter for gender equity and the recognition of the potential of women as faith-community leaders. I very much hope that his book generates honest and open debate on domestic and family violence in our churches that results in church leaders openly opposing ideas that can result in the abuse of women.

Annabel Taylor , Research Professor of Gendered Violence, Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research

The Headship of Men and
the Abuse of Women

Are They Related In Any Way?

Kevin Giles

The Headship of Men and the Abuse of Women

Are They Related In Any Way?

Copyright 2020 Kevin Giles. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

W. th Ave., Suite

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-6138-9

hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-6137-2

ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-6139-6

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Giles, Kevin, author.

Title: The headship of men and the abuse of women : are they related in any way? / by Kevin Giles.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-7252-6138-9 ( paperback ) | isbn 978-1-7252-6137-2 ( hardcover ) | isbn 978-1-7252-6139-6 ( ebook )

Subjects: LCSH: Christian menFamily relationships. | Wife abuseReligious aspectsChristianity

Classification: hv6626 g55 2020 (print) | hv6626 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 06/16/20

Introduction

I said in my last book, What the Bible Actually Teaches on Women (Cascade, 2018 ) that it would be my final book. I was laying down my pen. This did not happen. Soon after saying this, I was asked to write several articles on things close to my heart and I agreed. Then the issue of domestic abuse and violence in evangelical and Reformed churches came onto center stage at the 2018 and 2019 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Conference in the US, and in 2018 at the annual synod of the Anglican Diocesan Synod in Sydney, Australia, two churches that are predominantly evangelical and Reformed in conviction and complementarian by commitmentthey believe men should lead and women be submissive in the home and the churchand for this reason women must not be ordained as church pastors and teachers. Men should lead churches. What precipitated this debate on domestic abuse and violence in these two churches was the exposure in daily newspapers by investigative journalists of the extent of abuse in their midst, sometimes by clergy.