| ABSTRACT.;Being Abused by Our Christian Husbands:;Violence against Korean American Women.;HeeSun Kim.;This dissertation is research of the abuse experience of Korean American Christian women. Using semi-structured, open-ended interviews of eleven Korean American Christian women in the Chicago area, I tried to illuminate the unique context of Korean American women as immigrants and as Christians, seeking the implications for pastoral care with a feminist perspective. As immigrants, Korean women in abusive relationships found it difficult to end violence due to multifaceted issues such as legal status, language barrier, lack of knowledge of available resources, etc. As Christians, Korean American women ask religious questions in order to understand and find a way out of their abuse experience. There are some particular factors such as Christian women tend to stay longer in their abusive marriages due to their faith. From data analysis, four main categories of study emerged: Religion as hindrances vs. religion as help, the meaning of suffering, divorce, and forgiveness. Special attention will be given to what faith meant to the women in my interviews, as well as some of the negative aspects of traditional Christian faith and the sustaining and healing messages they received at the time. Korean American Christian women in my interviews tried to understand their experiences of abuse through the lens of faith, asking the questions of why they had to suffer, the meaning of divorce and forgiveness as Christians. Those recurring themes and women's reflection on their church experiences were described and interpreted by providing some alternative reinterpretation of traditional Christian values with a feminist perspective. Along with reinterpretation, implications for pastoral caregivers, clergy, and domestic violence professionals were suggested in order to seek steps forward for the Korean American women and the communities of the Korean American church. |
