AS THIS PANDEMIC rages on and people are isolated in their homes with their intimate partners, many are more vulnerable than ever to violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 10 men experience sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime. In addition, an average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States—more than 12 million women and men during a single year.
Odyssey Impact, an interfaith nonprofit that addresses social issues through storytelling and media, hopes to change this with a four-part Healing the Healers video series, directed by Kirsten Kelly, that features interfaith peer-to-peer conversations about domestic violence. It is scheduled for a January 2021 release on healingthehealers.org.
This is the second series under the Healing the Healers name. The first was a five-part video series that grew out of a pastor’s efforts in Newtown, Conn., to deal with the aftereffects of the Sandy Hook school massacre; it includes conversations with clergy, social workers, and first responders who have been on the front lines as different communities have dealt with traumatic events. The second Healing the Healers series on domestic violence likewise addresses a crisis by modeling honest conversation about a difficult topic across faith lines.
“It’s of vital importance that these conversations are happening now, because of the rise in domestic violence cases,” says Kelly. “This is an issue that no one talks about because of the shame, because of the stigma. Our faith communities need to be leading on this issue and we’re giving them a tool with this series to spread awareness and education.”
Rev. Tawana Davis leads discussions in the new series. She was in a seminary class on pastoral care when she recognized that she was a victim of domestic violence.
“I was 38 when I escaped from my domestic violence relationship,” says Davis. “That’s when I fell in love with myself.” She discovered that she didn’t need to carry around the shame and the blame, and that telling her story was the single most powerful thing she could do to build awareness and create change. At that point she began her own path toward healing and is now an advocate for other survivors and helps faith communities learn how they can be part of ending violence.
Kelly and Davis believe faith communities can learn to better support those affected by intimate partner violence by speaking out and taking a stand. But they need tools.
“Pastors and faith community leaders aren’t equipped to deal with this themselves,” says Davis, “so we want to give them a way to put language around it, and to help build a network of resources so that when domestic violence cases come up, they have a way to offer significant help and healing. We need to dismantle the current system of silence and shame, then build a system of healing.”
One of the most powerful conversations in this series is between Davis and Imam Mohamed Magid, who leads on this issue for Islamic communities. When asked how he handles cases of intimate partner violence within his own community, he says that the victims must always be believed and that communities must dismantle the silence. Magid and Davis agree that an antidote to this violence is storytelling and conversation—creating the space to speak fears and suffering out loud and listen to one another.
“Violence is so deeply rooted in our American culture,” says Davis. “We can either do nothing, because of this nation’s history, or we can do something. If everyone does something, if every pastor and faith leader learns about this and speaks about it in their communities, then these things can be addressed.”
“This is not a situation,” says Kelly, “where we don’t know the answers. We must create communities of trust and knowledge so that people can safely come forward, tell their stories, and seek healing.”
Healing the Healers models this work beautifully.
Stephanie Sandberg is an assistant professor of theater and film studies at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Her most recent work is Stories in Blue: A Pilgrimage to Heal Human Trafficking, which follows the stories of six survivors of sex trafficking.
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