Some women are held in bondage by a misunderstanding of Scripture which is either taught by other women or used by controlling husbands. Consider the following:

• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, I am to submit in everything.
• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, he makes the decisions.
• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, disagreement is disrespectful.
• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, I cannot address his sin.
• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, I cannot share his sin with others.
• Because he is the husband and I am the wife, I must obey him.

That means I cannot have friends or relationships he disapproves of. I do not have the freedom to express personal views, preferences, or ideas that conflict with his. I am constantly under his watch. When he berates me and the children, selfishly hoards resources, strikes out in anger, embarrasses us in public, and guilts us in private, we are defenseless.

Compare that with Amnesty International’s Report on Torture (New York: Farra, Strauss, and Giroux), 1973 following the Vietnam War. Albert Biderman, a psychologist, studied the methods foreign armies used to extract false confessions from prisoners of war. You may be surprised at the similarities:

Method: Isolation
Effect and Purposes: Deprives victim of all social supports and of his ability to resist. Develops and intense concern with himself. Makes victim dependent upon interrogator.

Method: Monopolisation of Perception
Effect and Purpose: Fixes attention upon immediate predicament. Eliminates information not in compliance with demands. Punishes independence and/or resistance.

Method: Humiliation and Degradation
Effect and Purpose: Makes resistance more ‘costly’ than compliance. Creates ‘animal level’ concerns.

Method: Exhaustion
Effect and Purpose: Weakens mental and physical ability to resist.

Method: Threats
Effect and Purpose: Creates anxiety and despair. Outlines the cost of non-compliance.
Variants: Threats to kill, threats of abandonment/non-return, threats against family, vague threats, mysterious changes of treatment.

Method: Occasional Indulgences
Effect and Purpose: Positive motivation for compliance. Hinders adjustment to deprivation.
Variants: Occasional favors, rewards for partial compliance, promises

Method: Demonstrating Omnipotence
Effect and Purpose: Suggests futility of resistance

Method: Forcing Trivial Demands
Effect and Purpose: Develops habit of compliance

Instead, Jesus says,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

“If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. (John 8:35)

And there’s more:

through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)