Ann,
Wife beating is wrong and the bible says this about how husbands and wives should love each other:
Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
27 that He might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of His body.
31 FOR THIS CAUSE A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.
So the bible condemns any wife abuse in my opinion, God loves them and would not want them to be abused. Marriage does not give a man any right to harm his wife. It used to be called "the rule of thumb" that a husband could beat his wife with a stick as long as it was smaller around than the man's thumb, but that was something men came up with and attributed to religion. But it was not true, the bible never said anything to lead any reasonable person to think that. They made it up.
Bob |
