A Well-Trained Wife

I have just finished binge reading A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy by Tia Levings. I'm not sure this was the optimal week to read it, but it was sure enlightening read along the way.

I've had enough contact with conservative Christian patriarchy over the years and known enough women trapped in it to not be very much surprised at what the author has written. I have long suspected that more than a few Christian wives that I know are abused despite their smiling, happy exteriors. I have also always suspected that abuse of this sort and the dysfunctional attachment it engenders predisposes an entire population to the same type of gas lighting and abuse we see from the radical right. They are one and the same. 

If you want insight into why we are where we are right now and see a picture of what men in these belief systems actually think about women, read this book. Knowledge is power.

And to any woman who is caught in such a marriage reading here, I have a few things to say to you. It's not your fault and it never was. The love of God is broader and deeper and richer than you have been told and you and your children will not be condemned to hell if you leave your abuser. There is a whole world out here ready to love, embrace, and support you; you will not be left alone. God loves us for who we are and not what we do or whom we obey or for what rules we follow. You have a choice.