hich required therapeutic intervention.
In contrast, Clark (1997) explored a number of Canadian studies dealing with domestic violence in evangelical subcultures and came to the opposite conclusion. She indicated that there is no evidence that these subcultures, even with an emphasis on wifely submission and hierarchical gender relations, increase the incidence of wife abuse. She noted that pastors and other evangelical women often encouraged abused women to leave their relationships, and many pastors were involved in counseling both parties in those situations. She did acknowledge, however, that the values of evangelical subcultures do lead to a serious underrecognition of the rate of wife abuse within the faith community. She also indicated that these values led pastors to support reconciliation as the ultimate goal, rather than marital termination, that the values may lead abused women to delay getting help, and that women may have the expectation that their churches will not care about their situation or be of help. Thus, while the incidence may not be greater, positive outcomes for the women involved may be more difficult to achieve.
In other words, there is more controversy here, this time about the role of religion in domestic violence. The intent in this study is to explore the ways in which religion affects, or does not affect, domestic violence. Some of the questions of interest involve differences between religions, such as domestic violence among Muslims in contrast to domestic violence among Buddhists, and differences among sects, such as differences between Protestant fundamentalists and Catholics. Does religion affect domestic violence at all? Does it create conditions in which domestic violence is inevitable? Does religion ultimately promote or alleviate domestic violence?
This study originated from an initial exploration of the literature which seems to assume that Christianity and Islam, at a min...