Tamar's Cry for Justice: A Timorese Women Homiletic for Preaching the "Texts of Terror" against Abusers

Twenty years ago, historian Dana Robert noted women’s majority status in Christian congregations worldwide, in contrast with a leadership imbalance strongly privileging man. The Gereja Masehi Injili di Timor (Christian Evangelical Church in Timor) is an exception to this rule, in that sixty-nine percent of its pastors are women, and its church attendance and lay leadership are predominantly women. However, this uncommon circumstance has not curbed domestic violence and misogyny. This paper honors these women’s faith by critically interrogating the corrosive notions of masculinity that underlie widespread spousal abuse in Timor and offering preaching that exposes injustice by exercising imagination. It describes the dynamics of abuse in the church and presents a Timorese homiletic for preaching the biblical “texts of terror” to confront gender-based violence. Drawing on postcolonial and trauma theories, I present an approach that will help women to imagine and construct futures free of violence and discrimination.