Something was terribly wrong with a religion that condoned a husband beating his wife, that blamed her when he did.

Tranteegus Allen knew this in her gut but her husband always had a “good” reason to hit her, as he quoted Scripture and verse to justify it. Even when she sought the counsel of friends and family at her church, they defended him and blamed her.

Her story is one of many that have come to the attention of domestic violence experts who say that too often, houses of worship fail to protect women by not holding their intimate partners accountable.

“There are so many other women who share stories of how the church didn’t help them” said Cathy Willis Spraetz, executive director of the Partnership Against Domestic Violence. “They were advised to pray more, submit and be a better wife.”

Until the marital problems of Bishop Thomas Weeks and televangelist Juanita Bynum last year and the shooting death of the Rev. Matthew Winkler two years earlier spilled into the public arena, glimpses into the sometimes troubled lives of people of faith were rare.

In both instances, domestic abuse was blamed, exposing what some have called a “silent” epidemic not unlike HIV/AIDS.

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States. Last year, there were 55,000 reported cases in Georgia alone.

Just as places of worship have begun creating ministries targeting HIV/AIDS, Spraetz and others hope they will now mobilize against domestic violence as well.

To help stem the tide of violence, the Partnership Against Domestic Violence is expanding its reach to the faith-based community. The agency has asked places of worship to display information about domestic abuse and its warning signs, hold classes on the dynamics of abuse and to serve as a link between PADV and its members.

Spraetz said that domestic violence is often overlooked as a lovers’ quarrel or private family matter, but it is an epidemic that affects women of every class, race, sexual orientation and religion.

“Both pastors and abused women often mistakenly think if the woman changes, things will get better,” said the Rev. Aubra Love, executive director of the Atlanta-based Black Church and Domestic Violence Institute. “That is not true. Even the gentlest confrontation with a batterer can set him off and make things worse.”

No one knows this better, perhaps, than 36-year-old Allen.

At 17, she said, she was forced to drop out of high school and marry her pastor’s son.

“They controlled every aspect of our lives,” Allen said of the church. “All marriages were pre-arranged. We weren’t allowed to have friends outside the church.”

Because her husband was allowed to continue school, she said she believed he would understand her wanting to get her diploma, too.

The day she asked him if she could return to school, Allen said, was the day her husband began to physically abuse her, using Scripture to justify his action.

Even when he raped her, Allen said, he quoted 1 Corinthians 7:4, “A wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does.”

Love said that because houses of worship are a microcosm of society we can extrapolate from available data that domestic violence is as prevalent within faith communities as it is in secular society.

“Some congregations and denominations, however, have been slow to embrace societal values which support the dignity of women, adhering to gender-biased traditions of hierarchy,” she said.

Sheila Garcia, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Family Life, said her organization encourages church leaders to take a proactive approach to nonviolence in the home, to mention domestic abuse in their homilies, to post toll-free hotline numbers and keep a supply of pamphlets on hand to help women in violent situations.

“If she hears from the rabbi, the imam, the priest that it’s wrong [and] to seek help, it can make a huge difference,” she said.

Phillip Thomason, minister of outreach and pastoral care, has been at St. Mark United Methodist Church in downtown Atlanta for 11 years and has seen domestic violence touch people of every socio and economic stripe —- men and women, heterosexual and homosexual.

Thomason said he sees about a half-dozen people each year.

“I see a lot of other people with other issues, but somewhere in the bottom is violence,” he said.

Allen sought help from her in-laws and from her mother and sister. They called her a Jezebel, an evil woman who fought against everything God represented.

For the next six years, Allen said, that was her life.

“I couldn’t even choose what color I wanted to wear,” she said. “If he wore purple, I had to wear purple, too.”

The couple had two children but even then the violence never waned, Allen said.

Finally, she said, when her husband left for work one day, she decided to call her father. She had not seen him for 15 years but she knew his name and she knew he lived in Atlanta.

Allen found James Clark in the telephone book.

Do you have a daughter named Tranteegus, she asked.

“My father was my hero that day,” she said.

Clark rescued his daughter, but her mother would soon track her down and force her to return to her husband.

Allen fled a second time to a hotel, where a maid handed her a business card for the Partnership Against Domestic Violence.

“I don’t know who that woman was or how she knew what I was going through but I’m thankful that she was there,” Allen said recently.

Her life hasn’t been the same. In 2003, she got her GED and now runs a day care center for other victims of domestic violence in Lawrenceville, where she lives.

She cried remembering her own struggles and hoped aloud the tears wouldn’t come in October when she is scheduled to share her story for the first time with the public.

Allen said she isn’t bitter and she still believes in the work of the church.

COMING UP

Silent No More Candlelight Vigil

6 p.m. Thursday. Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, Visitors Center, 450 Auburn Ave., Atlanta. Info: 404-870-9605, www.padv.org.

COMING UP

Domestic Violence Survivor Speak-Out

11 a.m. Oct. 23. Gwinnett Justice and Administrative Center, 75 Langley Drive, Lawrenceville

For more information: Call 404-870-9605