UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
***
My first email to Martha Peace, 20 Feb 2016
Hello Martha
I assume you mean well and want to help Christian women. I believe you are under-informed about the dynamics of domestic abuse, and as a result your teaching is harming many Christian women whose husbands are abusing them. I am sure you do not mean to harm victims of domestic abuse.
I co-lead the blog A Cry For Justice which is seeking to awaken the evangelical church to domestic violence and abuse in its midst.
If you are willing to learn more, I invite you to read this comment at our blog, and the few comments below it.
I also invite you to read this post at our blog: Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 groups — women influencing each other.
yours in Christ
Barbara Roberts
co-leader of A Cry For Justice
Martha’s reply, 23 Feb:
Dear Barbara,
I am not sure what you have been told about me, but I am a strong advocate for women who are being abused, even verbally. I will refer you to my book, The Excellent Wife, chapter 14, “Resources to Protect a Wife Whose Husband is Sinning.” I always tell a wife who is not safe to either get a protective order and/or call the police and press charges. I do understand the dynamics and the understandable fear and intimidation these wives go through. Our church has, at times, sheltered women and children. I am concerned that you have been told, perhaps by someone I counseled a long time ago, some distorted truths.
There is a new book out by Chris Moles entitled Domestic Abuse and I highly recommend it.
May God bless your ministry.
Thank you for reaching out to me.
Martha
My reply to Martha, 23 Feb:
Hello Martha
I still believe that you do not sufficiently understand domestic abuse.
What you said to me confirms my opinion. You said:
I am a strong advocate for women who are being abused, even verbally. I will refer you to my book, The Excellent Wife, chapter 14, “Resources to Protect a Wife Whose Husband is Sinning.” I always tell a wife who is not safe to either get a protective order and/or call the police and press charges.
This tells me that you think of domestic abuse as only physical violence.
It also suggests to me that you are naive enough to think that the police are always able to press charges in cases of physical violence. You are so wrong. In many many cases the police will tell the victim who makes a report: “It wasn’t serious enough to lay charges. . . there isn’t enough evidence. . .” etc. etc. Furthermore, police are often hamstrung by weak laws that define domestic violence in very limited ways. There is NO law in the whole of America that defines coercive control as domestic violence (and rarely in other countries, but England and Scotland have such a law ).
Coercive control is THE main feature of domestic abuse, and coercive control can be achieved without the use of any violence.
Here is our definition of abuse at our blog A Cry For Justice:
What is Abuse?
The definition of abuse: A pattern of coercive control (ongoing actions or inactions) that proceeds from a mentality of entitlement to power, whereby, through intimidation, manipulation and isolation, the abuser keeps his* target subordinated and under his control. This pattern can be emotional, verbal, psychological, spiritual, sexual, financial, social and physical. Not all these elements need be present, e.g., physical abuse may not be part of it.
The definition of domestic abuser: a family member or dating partner (current or ex) who has a profound mentality of entitlement to the possession of power and control over the one s/he* chooses to mistreat. This mentality of entitlement defines the very essence of the abuser. The abuser believes he is justified in using evil tactics to obtain and maintain that power and control.
* Sometimes the genders are reversed.
I hope I have nudged you to see that you do in fact need to learn more about domestic abuse.
I hope you will humble yourself and listen to those who are willing and able to inform and educate you.
Clearly you didn’t bother reading my email in any detail. My email gave a two links to testimonies from victim of domestic abuse who have been negatively impacted by your teaching.
Here are the links again, in case you change your mind and wish to read them:
I invite you to read this comment at our blog, and the few comments below it.
I also invite you to read this post at our blog: Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 groups — women influencing each other.
I am aware of Chris Mole’s work. You say you think his new book is good.
But it seems you are closed off to reading anything more — Why?
Far better than Chris Moles’ work is the second book my colleague Pastor Jeff Crippen has written: Unholy Charade: Unmasking the Domestic Abuser in the Church.
But if you think you don’t need to be educated on this issue, I have nothing more to say to you.
Yours sincerely
Barbara Roberts
~ ~ ~
Martha Peace has made no further reply to me.
* * * * * *
I think it is just too hard for people to get a fire in their belly on this issue unless it touches them personally at some level. There is a laziness and lack of serious interest otherwise. It is frustrating, but I think the floodgates are starting to swell open, and women are starting to stream out. Churches will have no choice but to address this because Christian women are not going to stand for it anymore.
The snow is melting. Aslan is coming.
— Natalie Klejwa
[….who used to blog at Visionary Womanhood [Internet Archive link]
is now Natalie Hoffman and be found blogging at Flying Free. Editors.]
A Cry For Justice 
Thank you for posting this correspondence. Many Titus 2 ministries like Martha Peace’s influenced me. Even though The Word was my ultimate standard, my state of confusion and sensing that I must be doing something wrong had me reaching out to such resources.
I kept trying harder to be the perfect wife who eventually would win her husband over without a word which is exactly what he has now acquired as we are non-verbal and he now doesn’t even profess a faith?
It’s taken ACFJ and others to finally make me realize that I had every right to be righteously angry at sin!
Many women are led to believe that it is only the men who can exhibit so-called ‘righteous anger’.
Oh, how I love that quote. The snow is melting indeed, and I long for Aslan’s arrival. In my home, while married to an abusive spouse, it was always winter and never Christmas.
Barbara, you are such an encourager, and this website has been a sweet shelter to a battered soul.
The Natalie Klejwa quote is spot on. So much hard truth, yet hope-driven and inspiring as well.
Did Martha Peace actually recommend Chapter 14 of her book The Excellent Wife for victims of abuse?
OH NOOOOOOO!
Chapter 14 of her book has very questionable advice that becomes downright horrific when applied to victims of abuse.
Reading through that book you feel that something is wrong but you can’t quite put your finger on it until you realize that she is trying to remove your ability to make personal decisions. Even God Almighty respects your ability to make choices to the point of allowing you the option to reject Christ and spend an eternity in hell—yet Martha keeps insisting that you can’t make your own decisions!
For example she teaches,
Can you imagine a victim of abuse reading that book and thinking that they cannot seek help or find safety without the abuser’s permission? While Martha does encourage battered wives to call the police, she spends most of the book ripping apart their self esteem while emphasizing, “Rebellion is a very serious sin. If you disobey your husband you are indirectly shaking your fist at God.” (page 181)
She doesn’t even give OBEDIENT women the benefit of the doubt when she writes, “Even if wives outwardly obey, they are often resentful and rebellious in their hearts.” (page 175)
Maybe Martha doesn’t understand the Biblical story of Abigail who was married to an abuser but saved the lives of her household by disobeying her husband. Throughout the Bible, God rewards the initiative of women — from Jael who kills the evil General Sisera to Esther who saves an entire nation from destruction. God wants us to “stir up the gift of God which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6) instead of trying to hide that light under a bushel. (Matthew 5:15-16).
For those that are interested, I’ve posted a full review of her book on Amazon (link to the review [Internet Archive link]).
Avid Reader’s review of Martha Peace’s The Excellent Wife [Internet Archive link] is EXCELLENT!
I encourage you to click on this link. It will take you to Amazon, where you can vote on the review.
Thank you so much for writing that great review Avid Reader..
It spotlights the many flaws of her twisted biblical perspective of women.
As you said, Barbara, Avid Reader wrote an EXCELLENT review of Martha Peace’s book, The Excellent Wife. Really, the title should read, The Enslaved Wife. Here’s just a sample of AR’s wisdom to expose Peace’s folly:
Wow! All that stuff in Ms. Peace’s book about the wife being “obedient” and the husband being an “authority” figure!
I hope this doesn’t come across as sounding too crude or graphic, but who would want to sleep with an authority figure? That’s just creepy. Really creepy. In fact it makes me want to vomit.
Very true Wary Witness, when one spouce is “dispenced” (through a FALSE TEACHING) a “hierarchy position over their partner” due to gender privilage, what results is a set up much like Hitler’s regime, insted of a true relationship built on mutual respect, honor and trust where love CAN grow.
No room for Love in that recipe.
Just undeserved power, dominance and unjust control. Very twisted.
Unfortunately, I am familiar with Martha Peace’s book “The Excellent Wife.” When I first became a Christian the book was recommended for me to read. In my former church books like these are held high. This type of teaching kept me in a cycle of confusion, despair, & abuse! The light bulb started going on when I read page 121 for the 5th time. Martha clearly puts the blame on wives when / if their husbands cheat on them. (Trigger warning if you read it). Wives are not responsible for satisfying their husband’s unquenchable sinful lust. Wives are not responsible for their husband’s sin period. In my opinion, Martha’s teaching lays heavy burdens on already weary shoulders.
Martha makes blanket generalizations in her book for marriage, not acknowledging that every wife’s situation is different.
Rosie,
Thank you for sharing. That’s a really good point about page 121. My heart goes out to you and everyone else who has suffered under this religious nonsense that is causing so much damage. It’s “having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof, from such turn away.” 2 Timothy 3:5
The “power” that they deny is the “power” that Jesus gives us in John 10:18
Jesus gave us the power to decide when it’s time to pick up the pieces of our lives and move on. With all the teaching out there denying you that power, we have to keep shouting from the rooftops “Stand fast in the Liberty where with Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
This gave me the chills. I think I felt the Holy Spirit moving in me. So comforting and hope instilling.
I read the review of her book, The Excellent Wife, and it sounds like she thinks wives ought not to do anything without their husbands’ permission. It’s a wonder if she doesn’t think wives should ask for permission to go to the bathroom.
Hi Debbie,
For your safety and protection, I have changed the name you submitted with your comment to the name you have used on the blog, as it appeared you might have submitted your real name when you submitted your comment.
Thank you for your comments regarding abuse. This month marks 10 years since my beloved daughter was murdered, by her boyfriend, in a mass shooting. She was the victim of domestic abuse. By the time she had decided that enough was enough, and she was going to move on without him, it was too late.
People, like Martha Pease, really make me angry. They want to try and make women feel like their man is supposed to go on to a golden pedestal and she is supposed to be doing everything while the man doesn’t have to do a darned thing. Women are supposed to live their lives making the man happy and women aren’t supposed to have a life outside of the home.
I knew a man at the church I used to go to who loved the Scripture about wives submitting to their husbands. He always made it sound like the wife has to do everything the husband tells her to do while he got off scot free. In the Bible, it also mentions that husbands are to love wives just as Christ loved the church.
My daughter spent years loving her boyfriend and supporting him. She worked 2 jobs while going to college to get her business degree. She busted her butt while he sat at home playing war video games. She believed they would marry someday. He repaid her by cheating on her multiple times and being the unforgivable scoundrel that he really was. I think she finally caught on to his wayward ways and that he was only using her and was tired of his abuse. In the end, my daughter and 3 innocent people died while her boyfriend chose suicide by cop. She was 24 years old.
I find it interesting, and sad, that Martha Pease is a counselor. Lord help those women who get her advice. It is, in my opinion, warped and self-serving. We must follow 2 different Gods as the God I follow is one of love, compassion and respect towards women. He would never expect women to put their husband’s / partner’s needs above theirs.
[Paragraph breaks added to enhance readability. Editors.]
Hi Sad And Angry Mother,
For your safety and protection, I’ve changed your screen name to Sad And Angry Mother, as the screen name you submitted with your comment might be too identifying. If you’d prefer a different screen name, please email me at reachingout.acfj@gmail.com.