Yes, I get that. But how is moving out in divorce vs. moving out without a divorce somehow make it better for the abuse victim? I mean, you've been advocating outright divorce in such cases, right?
The whole point of an abuse victim getting away from their abuser is to
GET AWAY. Permanently.
1. Not all states offer
legal separation as an option. Even if they don't, and you move out of the house, you're still considered to be
married. That means that your abusive spouse would still be entitled to certain financial aspects, such as, depositing a joint tax refund into a joint account...and then closing that account, retaining the money for themselves.
2. If legal separation is offered, it still costs money to process, just as a divorce would. And, if later you decide to divorce, it will cost MORE money.
3. Like I said above, a legal separation doesn't dissolve the marriage. While you may be considered
legally separated, you're also still considered to be
legally married. An abuser can use that status to his advantage...and to the detriment of the victim.
No, it doesn't. You're right. What it means is that him committing adultery as the result of her simply wanting to remove herself from being physically harmed makes it so she can divorce the slob in good conscience before God.
Abusers are notorious for cheating.
Like I mentioned before, God is more merciful than we can imagine. He already knows that if most of us are in an abusive situation, we probably struggled for years about the 'sinful' nature of divorce, before deciding to do so.
Just like we are told, "Thou shall not kill", we also understand that there ARE times when 'killing' is o.k. Like you mentioned, self-defense.
As far as I'm concerned, if I divorce and abuser, I'm doing so out of self-defense. The letter of the law is important. But the spirit of the law can be equally important.
The spirit of the law is what Jesus was trying to teach us.