Social science affirms that woman's place in society marks the level of civilization.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1898

My studies at Bangor Theological Seminary come full circle with this thesis. My thesis readers and advisers Marvin Ellison and Susan Davies, along with Francine Stark of the Spruce Run Association and the legacies of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Christine de Pizan, guided my way to name and respond to oppression women face.

This ethical response to domestic abuse victims who kill arose from a tutorial on Domestic Violence and Theology that I completed in 2003, guided by Marvin Ellison. The only connection I thought I had with violence against women was to donate money to The Spruce Run Association and Rape Response Services. I saw myself as outside domestic abuse experienced by other women. I felt unworthy and confused about embarking on this study. But discussions and readings forced memories to bubble up.

I was shocked to realize that workplace oppression, which I had silently endured for several years, created an atmosphere similar to that experience by battered women, the elements of which are depicted in the Power and Control Wheel. This course opened my eyes to name my oppression.
That revelation inspired me to mine my own survivor knowledge in the context of other women's resistance against oppression and empathize with those women whose lives are defined by violence. I wanted to dig deep and examine the most extreme example of a woman's response to violence and oppression ­ the taking of another's life in defending her own. Realizing that both the church and state have prohibitions against killing, I had to know whether killing can ever be justified.

This thesis builds a case to support women who kill their abusers in self-defense. How we think about a problem affects its solutions, so reframing domestic violence as the public's problem, not simply a battered woman's personal pain, is a good place to start. Among other things, this study uncovers myths and half-truths embedded in society that negate women's full participation and erode their sense of safety, even in their own homes.

Discussion of the ecology of domestic abuse and historical and theological roots of violence against women in Parts 2 and 3 offers clues to the genesis of such behavior to the end of changing institutions in both church and state that maintain a patriarchal status quo that diminishes women's self-agency.

An exercise on how to do ethics presented in Part 4 aims to guide readers to evaluate their own views on whether killing violence can ever be justified.
Part 5 discusses the community's response to women's criminality and features a narrative derived from newspaper accounts of the case of Vella Pelletier Gogan, a battered Maine woman who killed and dismembered her husband in October 1999.

The good news is that hope lies in the struggle against domestic violence, the focus of Part 6. Making healthy communities is each resident's responsibility within secular institutions and the church to recognize our common humanity, not to push people aside or persecute them because their color, religious tradition, or sexual orientation is outside artificial, but powerful, established norms. We must resist violence by acting for justice and being present to one another.

Some sisters and brothers are already making their marks on how we think about domestic abuse and violence. A critique of a radical new book, Insult to Injury by Linda Mills, adds fuel to the fire of rethinking our responses to domestic violence.

Laura Fortman, Maine Commissioner of Labor, released a groundbreaking report in February 2004 that turns how we think about domestic abuse on its head. Rather than focus on the impact domestic abuse has on victim's work performance, this study is the first to look at the implications such abuse has on employers themselves, and on their bottom lines because of offenders' actions.

After the report was unveiled, Maine Governor John Baldacci pledged that his administration would address the issue in a comprehensive way that will involve several state departments. In that vein, Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe led by example as his own office adopted workplace rules and received training to better understand the implications of domestic violence as one of two big evils that plague our state, alongside substance abuse. He exhorted employers to implement domestic violence workplace policies and to consider such violence not as a private problem but a workplace hazard.

These initiatives, and others, encourage me to imagine a violence-free future, the focus of Part 7. We can push this image further by reframing community health concerns. For instance, after forty years of being pummeled with messages outlining the ill effects of smoking on smokers themselves, as well as the inherited damage others encounter from secondhand smoke, smoking and smokers have become the present-day pariah. Besides banning smoking from their businesses, restaurants are also taking note of their health-conscious customers' tastes and desires. Today's emphasis on low-fat, low-carb diets will no doubt be replaced with some new and equally persuasive campaign that mixes health-consciousness with economics.

I considered how the campaign against domestic violence could replicate the success of public policy initiatives that have changed the way people see themselves as keepers of their own and the community's good physical and financial health.

Anti-smoking and other health initiatives discussed here succeed through broad dissemination of information, which equip consumers to make good choices. Members of the feminist community have been working toward breaking the silence and making the private pain of domestic abuse public for decades. But justice work is always a work in progress. A woman centered theology of resistance can guide women to believe that their lives matter and help them to survive.
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I love and thank my husband David Priesing for giving me space, comfort and support during the year in which I wrote this thesis.

I thank Janet Gunn, an adjunct faculty member with the University of Southern Maine, for teaching me to activate empathy.

I am grateful to have learned the language of ethics from such justice workers as Marvin Ellison, Susan Davies and Francine Stark.

My teacher and adviser Marvin Ellison inspired my confidence that this project could make a difference.

Susan Davies guided me to discover myself as Mother God's beloved daughter.

Francine Stark taught me the true meaning of keeping a commitment against all odds.

The collective words and deeds of David, Janet, Marvin, Susan and Francine help me to remain hopeful that a peaceful life for all people is an attainable goal.