The image
of a woman who is battered for 20 years by her clergyman husband and who would forgive him, «because the Bible tells her to,» the image
of a young mother and father who can not understand why their three - year - old daughter was sexually abused in the day care center to which they had entrusted her each morning; the image
of a woman who was
sacked from the women's program
of her church because she refused to comply to the request
of the president
of the church that she and the other women vote for him in his election
campaign; the image
of a 14 - year - old migrant domestic worker who faces the death sentence on trumped up charges, because she would not give in to the sexual demands
of her employer; the image
of a male priest
of a church saying that every time he beats his wife she should thank him, because she is one step closer to salvation; or the priest who would make sexual advances on a woman who out
of vulnerability turns to the church for pastoral comfort... these are but a glimpse
of the many such images that are gathered
during the
course of this Decade.