PRAISE FOR
PRAISE FOR
black and white BIBLE, black and blue wife
Ruth Tucker’s historical and biblical scholarship has informed my own journey and that of countless egalitarians. In this book, however, her pedagogy is a story of abuse—her own. It is as powerful as it is personal, exposing the perils of a patriarchal reading of Scripture. Because Ruth’s experiences are all too common, Black and White Bible, Black and Blue Wife is essential reading for pastors, seminarians, counselors, NGO workers, and indeed anyone who believes God speaks to us from the pages of Scripture.
DR. MIMI HADDAD,
president of Christians for Biblical Equality
(www.cbeinternational.org)
I first knew Ruth Tucker as a colleague when she was much closer to the beginning of the story she recounts in this book. Ironically (or providentially), it was when she joined a team of women scholars working on a volume whose subtitle was Facing the Challenge of Gender Reconciliation. In Black and White Bible, Black and Blue Wife, she recounts the messy but also redemptive details of her own struggle with domestic violence—a topic that, one way or another, affects us all. This is a very courageous account that should motivate readers to action, even as it may disturb them.
MARY STEWART VAN LEEUWEN,
professor (emerita) of psychology,
Eastern University
This book could save the lives of women trapped by domestic abuse. By courageously reliving in print years of degrading violence at the hands of her “Christian leader” ex-husband, Professor Ruth A. Tucker exposes a problem of epic proportions that tragically exists unchecked behind closed doors within evangelicalism. Worse yet, she demonstrates how such violence is actually fueled by so-called Christian theology that empowers men with authority and privilege over women and children under the guise of “husbandly headship,” “servant leadership,” and calls for “wifely submission.” At great personal cost, Tucker drives a stake in the ground, insisting that abusive behavior is both unacceptable and indeed criminal. Her book is nothing less than a damning indictment of the church’s tendency to justify or turn a blind eye to abuses happening within our own ranks. It is a prophetic call to rethink our theology of male and female. The church belongs on the forefront in the battle to root out and end abuse, to provide safe haven for the abused, and to see to it that abusers are brought to justice.
CAROLYN CUSTIS JAMES,
author of Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the
Currents of a Changing World