Abstract
The intent of this essay is to identify and examine one of the ways in which the Black Church replicates the psychic and emotional violence of intimate violence. At issue is concern over the destructive impact of sexist hermeneutics as transmitted during the preaching moment on a specific population of the congregation—Black women victim survivors of intimate violence. The term refers to male perpetrated rape, wife/partner battering, and childhood sexual abuse. The scholarship and witness of African-American women’s voices inform this discourse.