wfn.org | Presbyterian Men, Presbyterian Women Sponsoring Conference

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

19-July-1999 
99241 
 
    Presbyterian Men, Presbyterian Women Sponsoring 
    Conference on Violence Against Women 
 
    Live Broadcast is Scheduled for Oct. 3 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A panel of experts assembled by Presbyterian Men and 
Presbyterian Women will address violence against women and what people and 
churches can do about it in a national teleconference scheduled for Oct. 3. 
 
    The live two-hour conference - "Men and Women Working Together to Stop 
Violence Against Women" - will be broadcast from Peachtree Presbyterian 
Church in Atlanta starting at 5 p.m. EDT. 
 
    The conference planners recounted the chilling statistics: 
 
    * Domestic violence causes more injuries to women each year than rapes, 
muggings and car accidents combined. 
    * Every 18 seconds, a woman is beaten. 
    * Three to four million women are battered each year. 
    * A woman has a 1-in-3 chance of being physically assaulted by a 
partner or ex-partner during her lifetime. 
    * More than one-third of women who seek treatment in hospital emergency 
rooms have injuries related to domestic violence. 
 
    The experts' panel at the teleconference will be moderated by the Rev. 
James N. Poling, a professor of pastoral care, counseling and theology at 
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. 
 
    Poling will be joined on the panel by the Rev. Marie Fortune, founder 
and executive director of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and 
Domestic Violence, in Seattle, Wash.; Ulester Douglas, co-executive 
director of Men Stopping Violence; the Rev. Aubra Love, program specialist 
for the Black Church Response to Domestic Violence of the Center for the 
Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence; and the Rev. Brian Ogawa, 
director of the Crime Victims Institute in the Office of the Texas Attorney 
General. 
 
    For a $10 registration fee, participants will receive satellite 
coordinates for the broadcast plus a packet of materials on family violence 
prepared by the denomination's Societal Violence Initiative Team. 
 
    For more information, contact Curt Miller, associate for men's ministry 
in Louisville, by phone at 502-569-5485 or by fax at 502-569-8263. 
 
 
       Anti-Violence Against Women Legislation Introduced in Congress 
 
    Meanwhile, legislation has been introduced in Congress to reauthorize 
the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which would extend funding for 
five years for such programs as victim services, shelters and the national 
domestic violence hotline. 
 
    The VAWA 1999 legislation supports new and expanded anti-violence 
programs, including legal services for battered women; additional funding 
for rape prevention and education; more attention to the impact of violence 
on women's work lives; supervised visitation centers for children; 
legislation on hate crimes prevention; and better protection for battered 
immigrant women. 
 
    If a reauthorization bill is not passed this year, funding for VAWA 
will run out in 2000. As of June 24, the legislation had bipartisan support 
from 120 co-sponsors. 
 
    According to the Presbyterian Washington Office, a weaker 
reauthorization package introduced in the Senate by Joseph Biden (D-Del.) 
and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) reauthorizes VAWA for three years rather than 
five years. 
 
    Guided by anti-domestic violence policies approved by several General 
Assemblies, the Washington Office is asking Presbyterians to: 
 
    * Call, visit, or write their U.S. Representatives, urging them to 
co-sponsor the VAWA reauthorization bill (H.R. 1248). 
    * Call, visit or write their U.S. Senators, asking them to support VAWA 
reauthorization for a full five years. 
 
    The easiest way to register opinions on this and other issues is to 
call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. 

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