Claim: Anglican church goers are more abusive than other partners.
Are Anglican church goers more likely to be domestic abusers?
Many news reports on a 2021 research article (not peer reviewed) claimed that Anglicans in Australia were more likely to be domestic abusers. This claim keeps being repeated; the survey itself does not support the conclusions.
According to the data in the report itself, Anglicans are in fact not more abusive; not even more commonly the recipients of abuse in fact, which is the only thing the survey could possibly claim considering that the questions in the survey did not ask if the partner was Anglican.
Problems with the report
Firstly they define abuse very broadly; anyone could claim to be abused under this definition:
Page 8
“IPV is defined as behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours.”
Secondly despite the press claiming that evangelical church attendees are more often abusers, the difference between church attendees in the survey is clearly stated in the report as not being statistically significant.
Page 12
When asked the direct question “Have you ever been in a violent relationship with any partner?” some 27% of church-attending Anglicans who had ever been in an adult intimate relationship said “yes”. This compares to 21% of other Anglicans (see Figure 2). This was not a statistically significant difference.
Thirdly only 20 people were interviewed. see page 6 (which indicates a limited budget)
Fourthly - the survey only indicates the abuse rates of Anglican recipients of abuse - they didn't even ask whether the abuse was from an Anglican partner (surprisingly, many Anglicans marry non-Anglicans), or from a partner before they themselves started attending an Anglican church. Also, despite claiming evangelical theology is to blame, the survey does not distinguish between evangelical respondents and liberal Anglicans either, in fact the sample size was way too small to do this. See page 13
Fifthly the rate among Anglicans in the past year according to the report is lower than the general population:
PAGE 11:
The survey was conducted in December 2019, so respondents were being asked to report on their experiences over 2019. In the 2019 NAFVP Prevalence Study, the prevalence of IPV in the previous 12 months was 18% in the general public sample, and 17% in the Anglican sample. Some 5% of the general public sample, and 4% of Anglicans, also reported having experienced spiritual abuse in the previous 12 months.
Sixthly it says 23% of Anglican men experienced physical violence from their partners, which is higher than the rate in the general population (17% of men according to the report) - this does not fit with the hypothesis that evangelical theology about headship is responsible. See page 13
Seventhly the survey was self-selecting rather than random, which means people who responded already had an interest in domestic abuse, and were most likely lay leaders or clergy. Perhaps those who had themselves been abused were more likely to respond? see page 14.
Theology of headship
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
I’ll just make a few points: Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. - Jesus would never abuse His church. Wives in a violent relationship do not need to submit to abuse.
The onus on husbands is far greater: to love their wives with the self-sacrificial love of Christ, who submitted to be crucified for His bride, the church.
Abusive behaviour? From whom?
An afterthought: Just as this report chronicles the abuse Anglicans suffered (rather than meted out) in their relationships, the reporting by the ABC and the SMH is actually part of a wider pattern of verbal abuse and vitriol perpetrated by the secular world today against Evangelical Christians.
Debunking
A good debunking of the article, which also goes into the theology of headship in marriage:
https://dailydeclaration.org.au/2021/06/18/are-you-more-likely-to-be-abused-as-an-anglican/
Questionable news reports:
The survey itself:
https://anglican.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NAFVP-Top-Line-Results-Report-NCLS-Research.pdf