Ties That Bind

Interesting point and interesting questions, John, “What is sometimes called financial abuse is often a result of the couple not being on the same page for priorities in spending.”  Still, to see that woman so easily reduced to tears and to hear the desperation in her voice when she said “I don’t have anywhere else to go” indicated, to me, at least the possibility of a pattern of abusive behavior.  Now, easily, someone could counter, “maybe the wife was just a crier or overly emotional”.  That might be the case, but, I do not know if that mindset gives equal weight or room to places where there is, in fact, a problem.

I once heard an associate minister advise a wife that she and her husband needed to talk about their finances and to come to better joint-agreements on how to spend their money.  That sounds amicable enough, right?  But, what prompted this advice was the wife’s comment that she and her husband both worked forty hours a week, outside the home, and that she still had to ask him for lunch money, everyday, and that he would never give her more than $5.00 or $6.00.  So, as I listened to this associate minister assure this wife that everything would be solved with her and her husband just having the “money-talk”, I also heard the need for a deeper concern.  And, internally, I actually questioned how responsible it was for that licensed minister to throw a fix-all-talk-it-out solution at that wife, without first determining whether or not her husband had violent tendencies (the husband did not actually attend our church, so I do not know if the associate minister had ever even met him).

As another example, a former co-worker, who was also a church elder, was very proud of the fact that he provided well enough for his family that his wife did not have to work, outside the home, even saying, “I never wanted a working wife.”  Nothing unsettling at all about that, right?  However, I also noticed that whenever his wife or their teenaged daughter would do something that displeased him, he would remove all of the landline telephones from their home (this was in the early 90’s, before everyone had cellular phones), to “teach them a lesson”.  He would adamantly state, “I bought the phones, so I can take them out when I want”.  Again, that behavior seemed more about control, than about being a good provider.

So, John, I can agree with what I think is your stance that not every financial dispute is, at its core, financial abuse.  The point of this blog, however, was to open a dialogue in our churches to identify when it is, or, at least to ask deeper questions.

I really appreciate your input, Bev!  You brought up a good point about leader abuse and spiritual abuse, within the church.  Those are some other issues we need to talk about, as well.  Additionally, your comments on perception and our pass experiences, “…if you've experienced it, you can discern the control lingo that's been spiritualized (which becomes spiritual abuse)...” were also very valuable.