View the full Women of Action inaugural issue

Victims of domestic abuse often seek help first from clergy. Recognizing the religious community’s role in supporting, counseling and advocating for victims of abuse, JWI has launched the Interfaith Domestic Violence Coalition. Comprised of more than 20 national religious and community based organizations, the Coalition will amplify the faith community’s voice in national policy and legislative initiatives.  

More than 100 participants attended the Coalition’s inaugural briefing February 13 on Capitol Hill, which featured remarks by keynote speaker Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX), both former prosecutors and outspoken advocates for domestic violence victims. JWI Executive Director Lori Weinstein and religious leaders from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish community also addressed the group.

Senator Klobuchar called the FY09 budget proposed by President Bush earlier this month “especially punishing,” to domestic violence programs. Yet, she emphasized, we must “look at this as much as possible as a non-partisan issue,” noting the Coalition has friends on both sides of the aisle. 

The only member of Congress with a victim’s rights coordinator on his staff, Representative Poe underscored his commitment to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which provides funds for the immediate assistance of victims of crime. 

The Coalition shares a commitment to effect positive change and to advocate, with a collective voice, for national legislation and policies that protect all people from domestic violence, with particular concern for women and children.

“We must work together to lift domestic violence from a quiet whisper in our faith communities to a national voice imbued with the spirit, confidence. Together, we must call for national legislation and appropriate funding that helps domestic violence victims and their children in real, life-changing ways,” said Lori Weinstein, JWI Executive Director.

It’s a sobering statistic that one in three women is experiencing some level of abuse in their lives.

“I always reflect on [that] statistic,” said Coalition Member Linda Bales, program director of the Louise and Hugh Moore Population Project of the United Methodist Church.

“It surely means that we have women sitting in our churches, synagogues and mosques who are suffering at the hands of another. It surely means we have perpetrators sitting in the pews of our churches, synagogues and mosques, and we must be in ministry with both. If we, as people of faith, do not advocate for justice, we are complicit in the perpetuation of this crisis.”