Black and White Bible, Black and Blue Wife

A heart-renching story but brilliantly shared. I felt like I was on a journey with the author as she revealed some of the most intimate and deep parts of her life while looking at what the bible said about marriage and headship. This is well worth a read!

A gut wrenching memoir by professor and writer Ruth Tucker on domestic violence in the church. Married for over 20 years to a pastor who beat her on a regular basis, using biblical words to enforce his male headship and requirements for her submission, Dr. Tucker relates her own story interspersed with a little biblical hermeneutics on mutuality in marriage. Truly, this is a difficult book to read, but it's also a difficult one to put down. Like many first year Moody Bible Institute students, I was required to read her book From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, and I appreciated her thoughtful missional perspective. This book is highly recommended to Christian ministry leaders and those who've faced domestic violence in the name of Christ and biblical female submission. Her stark questions about complementarianism (which she deems as a "politically correct" term for inequality in marriage and in the church) are piercing, passionate, and worth a study.

Harrowing account where religion is used to justify abuse. This will stay with me for a while. Worthwhile read.

A powerful and often difficult-to-read book centering on the concept of "headship", defined in Ephesians 5:22-24: “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation . . . In fact, as the congregation is in subjection to the Christ, so let wives also be to their husbands in everything.”

Ruth Tucker's former husband was a pastor, who beat and terrorized her throughout their marriage, all the while tossing out bible verses on how she needed to be submissive to him in all things. Counseling, even Christian counseling, was out of the question because any counselor who disagreed with her ex-husband would be usurping his leadership. Unfortunately, there are Christians who firmly believe in headship, even if the wife is in a abusive relationship.

Tucker, a former professor at the Calvin Theological Seminary, offers a sound bible-based approach to refuting headship, along with personal stories of her abuse as well as other women's stories. This is an important book that needs to be read!

Awful, beautiful, and redemptive. For those of us who aren't counselors or therapists, Tucker exposes the horror and heartache of domestic abuse in the guise of biblical submission. I highly recommend this for pastors, social workers, and friends who suspect terror in the homes of their friends and congregation. A hopeful book.

This book was hard for me to read at times. While the abuse I suffered wasn't received from my Husband's fists, it was just as violent and sometimes I think, more damaging. There were many things that made me nod in agreement or want to sob in mutual sorrow, or shout "Yes!".
While I do not agree with 101% of the authors opinions I do think this book is a great resource! It was very much needed.

I was given this book by Net Galley for my honest opinion, I have given that here.