Domestic abuse is perhaps the most misunderstood and least recognized problem of our time and of the modern church.  Abuse is a comprehensive set of behaviors and attitudes designed to gain and maintain power and control over others.  An astounding 35% of women will be a victim of domestic abuse at some time during their lives.

Domestic abuse comes in many forms – emotional, verbal, financial, physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse.  But abusers are all very similar.  They are Narcissists, Sociopaths, and Psychopaths who share the same incurable, untreatable, toxic traits of lack of empathy, lack of conscience and lack of remorse.  They make ups 10-15% of the population and 85% are men.  They come from all walks of life, and from all socio-economic backgrounds.  They are doctors and lawyers, mechanics and plumbers, businessmen and millionaires, blue collar workers and paupers, pastors and CEOs, fathers and husbands. They share the double Jekyll / Hyde personality traits of being publicly charming and friendly, while privately cruel and abusive. They are predators who prey on women who are kind, naive, loving, trusting, forgiving, and invest themselves in relationships.  They hide in churches and synagogues, camouflaging themselves with a cloak of respectability, while being masters of deceit.

Those who have been caught in the web of the Narcissist, Sociopath, or Psychopath find it nearly impossible to escape.