Juanita Bynum, the Self-Declared Face of Battered Women

Juanita Bynum, the Self-Declared New Face of Battered Women

It has taken me quite a while to write this editorial on how I really feel about Juanita Bynum's bold declaration that she is the new face of the battered woman. While I deeply regret the way she was beaten at the hands of her husband, I must also question her sincerity, or lack thereof of making such a declaration. You see, since this was not the first time she was beaten by a husband, I am left to wonder why she had not made such a declaration before after her first marriage ended. I believe that her new platform, however ambitious, is motivated by financial benefits at the expense of women. It is a real shame that one must question the motives of our religious leaders today. Some are sincere, while others are in purely for financial gain, or simply, the prosperity gospel. The religious leadership in our country is under siege as many are now questioning their message and their motives. Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University, has been accused of mishandling money donated to the school to finance a lavish lifestyle. Many have been accused of sexual impropriety, such as the disgraced Ted Haggard and Paul Crouch of media empire TBN. It is a sad commentary that many of these religious leaders do not practice what they preach. On the one hand we are being told to marry for better or worse, in sickness and in health, when they are doing the opposite. Paula and Randy White have filed for divorce due to irreconcilable differences. All these people are fabulously wealthy, in part, on the backs of some poor and middle class people who are struggling to make ends meet, while seeking their piece of the prosperity pie the preachers have been dishing up for quite some time.