VIOLENCE against women, inside or outside the home, is never justified.
This is the view of the Fiji Council of Churches as it denounced any form of violence — be it physical, sexual, psychological or verbal — saying it is sinful and often a crime.
FCC general secretary Reverend Simione Tugi said Christian churches taught that violence against another person in any form failed to treat that person as someone worthy of love.
Instead, he said, violence treated the person as an object to be used.
“When violence occurs within a sacramental marriage, the abused spouse may question — how do these violent acts relate to my promise to take my spouse for better or for worse?” Mr Tugi said.
“The person being assaulted needs to know that acting to end the abuse does not violate the marriage promises. While violence can be directed towards men, it tends to harm women and children more.”
Mr Tugi said in so many occasions, the council spoke out against domestic violence and called on the Christian community to work vigorously against it.
He said since then, many churches and organisations had made domestic violence a priority issue and he commended and encouraged those efforts.
In this response, the council expressed its desire to offer the church’s resources to both the women who were abused and men who abuse.
“Both groups need Jesus’ strength and healing. We focus here on violence against women since 85 per cent of the victims of reported cases of non-lethal domestic violence are women.”
