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Race, women and health · Claim record

A December 2018 study article, discussing a husband who 'might be extremely physically abusive, even to the point that she feels that her health or life is in danger', said that some Christians in that position have decided a separation is necessary but that 'other Christians in comparably difficult situations have not; they have endured and tried to work at improving matters'. The following paragraph gives the reason for staying and adds that those who remained 'can testify that doing so was worthwhile in a special sense when their mate became a true worshipper'.

Claim ID claim-attitudes-2018-some-have-enduredConcerns December 2018Explicit statement
Explicit statement · December 2018 Verified

A December 2018 study article, discussing a husband who 'might be extremely physically abusive, even to the point that she feels that her health or life is in danger', said that some Christians in that position have decided a separation is necessary but that 'other Christians in comparably difficult situations have not; they have endured and tried to work at improving matters'. The following paragraph gives the reason for staying and adds that those who remained 'can testify that doing so was worthwhile in a special sense when their mate became a true worshipper'. The Watchtower (study edition), December 2018

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The same body of teaching states that separation in such a case is a personal decision on which no one should exert pressure, and that a violent man may be expelled from the congregation.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower (study edition), “Honor "What God Has Yoked Together"”

December 2018 · pp.10-14 · pars. 17-18 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“He might be extremely physically abusive, even to the point that she feels that her health or life is in danger. He might refuse to support her and the family or severely endanger her spirituality. In such cases, some Christians have personally decided that, despite what he might say, the mate is not “agreeable to staying” together and that a separation is necessary. But other Christians in comparably difficult situations have not; they have endured and tried to work at improving matters.”

A study article on divorce and separation. It states that sexual immorality is the only ground on which a divorce frees a person to remarry, and then turns to separation where a husband is an unbeliever. The paragraph after the one quoted gives the reason for staying: 'Many loyal Christians have remained with an unbelieving mate under very trying circumstances. They can testify that doing so was worthwhile in a special sense when their mate became a true worshipper.'

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The full article was fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read; paragraphs 17 and 18 fall after the library's page marker for page 14. The citation line inside the document reads 'w18 December pp. 10-14'.

Corroborated by. src-wom-lv-2008-divorce-separation

Notes. Two details in the version of this article that circulates on secondary sites do not match the published text. The sentences 'What of her material and sexual needs? What about loneliness? Are there children to consider? Would a divorce make it harder to raise them in the truth?' are on p. 13 in paragraph 11, not on p. 12, and in the article they describe an innocent wife who has scriptural grounds to divorce an immoral husband and chooses not to, not a wife deciding whether to leave a violent husband — although paragraph 18 does refer back to them as 'challenges, as mentioned earlier'. The published text also reads 'tried to work at improving matters', not 'tried to work on improving matters'.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-wom-w-2018-1200-honor-yoked

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-attitudes-2018-some-have-endured/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.