Social Economic Classes Research Articles

Challenges encountered by parents from urban, lower social economic class in changing lifestyle behaviors of their children who are overweight or obese

BackgroundParents from urban, lower social economic classes often encounter unique challenges in their lives, which shape how they work with their children who are overweight or obese to change their exercise and eating behaviors at home. The present study took an initial step to address a gap in the literature by describing the challenges that parents from lower social economic classes in an urban city encountered in changing exercise and eating behaviors of their children who are overweight or obese.MethodsA conversational style semi-structured interview with prompts and probes was conducted to 44 parents whose child is overweight or obese. Inductive content analysis and constant comparison was used to analyze the data. Data trustworthiness was established by using a variety of strategies.ResultsTwo major themes with eight sub-themes emerged from the data: Challenges to promote a healthy active lifestyle, and challenges from their child’s development and lifestyle behavior. Eight sub-themes were: (1) Need for effective strategies for a lifestyle behavior change, (2) monitor and promote healthy choices, (3) money, time, and dangerous neighborhood, (4) scientific knowledge to promote a healthy active lifestyle, (5) developmental changes of adolescence, (6) unmotivated and lack of persistence, (7) sneaking eating, and (8) peer pressure.ConclusionThe challenges, from economic to parenting, are certainly of importance, and understanding these challenges will be crucial to help school-based professionals develop interventions. Those identified challenges should be clearly placed within family-school collaboration practices.

Study of a Fuzzy Production Inventory Model with Deterioration Under Marxian Principle

The basic concern of the Capitalistic approach of manufacturing industry is to minimize costs and to maximize profit. Through uncontrolled rate of exploitation, the manufacturer creates large quanta of social surplus. This ultimately results in the economic injustice and inequality among social economic classes. This current article makes an initiation to develop an economic production quantity model with deterioration under Marxian approach of socio-political economy. Here, two Marxian economic production quantity models are developed aiming at the minimization of exploitation rate and reduction of social surplus. The notion of marginal profit is considered here to reduce the social surplus (Net profit) incurred in the production plant itself. Fuzzy system has also been studied to get the variability of the exploitation in the model. Sensitivity analysis, graphical illustrations are made to validate the model.

An Appraisal of Poisoning Patterns among Adolescent Patients Admitted into Tertiary Care Hospitals in Nigeria

Background: Poisoning is a common medico-social problem globally that results in significant morbidity and mortality. The extent of the problem differs among age groups, social-economic classes, and country to country. However, there is a dearth of information on the pattern of poisoning in adolescents in Nigeria. Objective: The study aims to assess the poisoning pattern among adolescent patients admitted into Tertiary Care Hospitals in Nigeria. Methods: In this study, a critical, constructive analysis of relevant literature on the subject areas of poisoning cases in tertiary care hospitals in Nigeria was carried out. Published cases between the periods of 2000 and 2019 were analysed. Results: The study showed that 24 patients made up of 13 females and 11 males were involved in poisoning cases during the studied period (2000–2019). About 85% of the patients were aged 10–15 years, while 12.5% were aged 16–30 years. Most of the poisoning cases (83%) occurred at home. Accidental cases were 29.16%, while 70.8% of the cases were intentional. Among the 17 intentional cases, 28.6% were ingested for the hallucinating effect and 17.6%) were suicidal cases. The agents used for poisoning included organophosphates, plant extracts, alcohol, drugs, food, kerosene and herbal mixture, among others. Some reasons for poisoning or suicidal intent observed in the study include peer influence, edgy relationships in the family system, disagreement with parents, failure in examination, and clashes with the boyfriend. Conclusion: There is a need for the government to establish poisoning control centres in each region of the country for proper profiling of the poisoning epidemic. Furthermore, parents and guardians are strongly advised to closely observe their teenage children and educate them about the dangers of any poisoning. Also, schools should provide friendly and accommodating environments to minimize and possibly eliminate suicidal intentions in youths and adolescents.

Mortality by socio-economic class and its impact on the retirement schemes: how to render the systems fairer?

Many OECD countries have addressed the issue of increased longevity by mainly increasing the retirement age. However, this kind of reforms may lead to substantial transfers from those with shorter lifespans to those that will live longer than the average, as they do not necessarily take into account the socio-economic differences in mortality. The contribution of our paper is therefore twofold. Firstly, we illustrate how both a Defined Benefit and a Notional Defined Contribution pay-as-you-go scheme can put the lower social economic classes at a disadvantage, when compared to the actuarially fair pensions. In contrast to that, higher classes experience a gain. This is due to the fact that mortality rates per socio-economic class are not considered by either scheme. Consequently, we propose a model that determines the parameters for each scheme and class which would render the pensions fairer even when no socio-economic mortality differences are considered.

Evaluasi Produk Multivitamin Baru Berdasarkan Penilaian Responden

In order to lead in the market, companies should have an innovation product. Before the innovation product lauch to the market, the marketing research should be done. The goal of the reasearch is to determine whether the new product is accepted or rejected in the market. This study was to identify the characteristics of the new product based on organoleptic point of view and performance the three type of new multivitamin products based on location and social economic classes (SEC) of respondents. MANOVA and biplot analysis were used in this research. Based on MANOVA, there were differences on the organoleptic point of view of respondents among three type of new multivitamin products. The three products had differences on the assessment of aroma, sour taste, and sour after taste. In addtion with biplot analysis, it was concluded that each product had different location for sale and the target of respondents based on sosial economic classes. According to respondents, product A was too sweet taste and too sour after taste in the mouth compared to others. This product was preferred by respondents who reside in South Jakarta with social economic classes (SEC) A2 and C1. Unlike product A, product B was too hard with a bit of bitter after taste in the mouth. This product was relatively preferred by respondents in various residential with social economic classes (SEC) B. Product C was strong aroma with smooth texture and more bitter taste than others. This product was preferred by respondents who reside in North Jakarta and Depok with social economic classes (SEC) A1. Overall, product B was preferred by respondents compared to other products.

Seroprevalence and some Demographic Factors Associated with Toxoplasma gondii Infection among Male Population in Duhok Province/Iraq

The present study aims to investigate the seroprevalence rate of Toxoplasma gondii infection and its relation to some demographic factors among males in Duhok province/Iraq. A total of 424 random blood samples were collected from the male population of different ages (18-60) years and different social-economic classes. Out of 424 samples examined, 108 (25.47%) were seropositive to the anti- T. gondii antibodies; 88 (20.75%) were found seropositive for IgG, while 20 (4.72%) samples were seropositive for IgM. Regarding occupation, the highest percentage for chronic toxoplasmosis was reported in workers followed by policemen and pensioners at rates of 23.96%, 23.6%, and 23.07%, respectively. The age group 18-30 years showed the highest seropositive rate which was 26.6%; the seropositivity rate decreased with the increase of age. Regarding the blood groups, the highest percentage of IgG was reported in both O+ and B- groups, which were 23.2% and 23.1%, respectively. The higher rate of seropositivity was observed among married males (21.32%) as compared to unmarried males (19.05%) and fertile (22.3%) versus sterile males (12.5%). Concerning IgM antibodies, the highest seropositivity (9.4%) was reported in infertile males. The results of this study showed the importance of demographic factors to the epidemiology of T. gondii in males, which support the role of public health in the control of infectious diseases.

The Empire of the Tea Table

The Empire of the Tea Table Judith Fisher (bio) In the famous “proviso scene” in Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700), Millamant demands “to be sole empress of my tea-table” (380). Millamant’s tea table did become an empire: by 1871, the United Kingdom was consuming 171 million pounds of tea yearly (Cassell’s 1138). It is little wonder then that tea drinking is ubiquitous in Victorian fiction, which features scenes that include the Dickensian fireside, the country meat tea, the middle-class kettledrum, and the aristocratic five o’clock tea, the last of these purportedly invented by the Duchess of Bedford in the 1840s (Bramah 133). Mirroring the omnipresence of tea in everyday life, fictional tea scenes authenticated characters for readers, placing characters in specific social classes and geographical milieus. As Julie Fromer succinctly puts it, “Nineteenth-century representations of tea highlight the role of the tea table in forging a unified English national identity out of disparate social groups, economic classes, and genders separated by ideologically distinct spheres of daily life” (11). The intimate tea table, whether by the fire or not, creates affective connections [End Page 208] through the inclusive conversation and the acts of pouring out and handing around tea. As a space where intimacy can be performed for the reader without seeming theatrical, it is, perhaps, an essential enabler of domestic fiction. William Makepeace Thackeray’s illustration of “Laura’s fireside” in The Adventures of Philip (1862) presents the quintessential positive image. Pen is the protective, productive man (he has provided the means to acquire the tea), who, once he has been served, watches over Laura enclosing her children in her domestic temple (fig. 1). Importantly, no servants are present, implying, as readers would know, that Laura made and served the tea herself. Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. “Laura’s Fireside,” from William Makepeace Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip. Author’s collection. Tea scenes told readers where in the social world they were. Two practices in particular distinguished the class status of tea drinkers: the presentation and the food. The “elite” classes (or those with pretensions) displayed elaborate equipage and ritual combined with very little food—or at least very little emphasis on food; the “lower” classes, in contrast, had simple manners (but still a degree of ritual) and a plenteous table. Such recognizable class distinctions allowed authors to use tea to establish class status and [End Page 209] pretensions. For instance, an 1887 short story in Every Week, “A Five O’Clock Tea,” depicts the upwardly mobile pretensions of Sarah Hopkins, a farmer’s daughter who, much like Rosamund Vincy, has been sent to school and has come back with her head full of “genteel” notions. When we first meet Sarah, she is playing her piano while her mother, guilty of the same verbal sole-cisms as Mrs. Vincy, pounds away on her sewing machine. Sarah introduces her mother to the idea of tea at five that is not a “supper”: “And, ma, I mean one of these new kind of teas, where you don’t get supper at all, but have a cup of tea and bread and butter, or biscuits, or sandwiches. Just one plate of something, and have the maid bring it into the drawing-room, and I’ll pass it round the room; and the green china tea-set is just the thing, and we can talk and have splendid fun. It’s the latest style” (94). Of course, the neighbours who receive the daintily written cards do not understand the new style and show up expecting a country meat tea, which Mrs. Hopkins miraculously produces. While refined tea-drinking emphasizes performance and delicate and expensive equipage, often authors disguise the fact that the brewing, pouring, and handing around of tea are learned practices. Elizabeth Gaskell, for example, in North and South (1855), mystifies the required skills and thus naturalizes the ladylike femininity of Margaret Hale, who daintily pours tea for Mr. Thornton. Similarly, Thackeray, in The Adventures of Philip, presents Laura Pendennis as a natural lady, exemplified by her graceful tea-making. Margaret Oliphant makes the class contrast between “appetite” and...

50 años de vida de la UPOLI

Sergio Denis García, realiza en ocasión de los 50 años de fundación de la UPOLI, un breve recorrido de su trayectoria. Nos relata que la UPOLI fue la primera universidad cristiana evangélica en nuestro país y la segunda a nivel centroamericano. Siendo un proyecto educativo ideado y soñado por la Convención Bautista de Nicaragua (CBN). La UPOLI, en sus inicios (1967) se creó y funcionó como Instituto Politécnico de Nicaragua, el POLI.Posteriormente, mediante Decreto Legislativo, obtuvo rango de Universidad, y a lo largo de sus 50 años de vida, ha venido funcionando por convicción propia y designación estatal, como una universidad de servicio público, sin ánimo de lucro.Algunos expertos la han reconocido como una universidad con vocación especial para servir las necesidades de los sectores de la juventud nicaragüense provenientes de las clases económicas sociales emergentes (medias y medias bajas). Su Lema ´Sirviendo a la Comunidad’, la ha llevado a ser una de las instituciones de educación superior con más clara vocación de servicio.

THE IMPACT OF COLLECTIVE INVESTMENT SCHEMES ON FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN KENYA

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of collective investment schemes in financial inclusion in Kenya.Methodology: The research design was descriptive survey study in nature since it focused on all collective investment schemes in Kenya. The target population was collective investment schemes. A sample of 11 collective schemes was selected using random sampling. The second stage of sampling involved the selection of the respondents using a stratified sampling approach. The strata were the various respondents in the schemes. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire that consisted of both open ended and close ended questions. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and results presented in frequency tables to show how the responses for the various questions posed to the respondents. The data was then analysed in terms of descriptive statistics like frequencies, means and percentages.Results: The findings implied The study concludes that there was low access to financial products in the investment schemes. It is also possible to conclude that the there were several factors that affect financial inclusion in Kenya. These factors include age of the investor, gender, level of education and level of income.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that measures such as target marketing the segments with low access to collective investments and increasing the market budget to investors on financial matters, may be adopted. Such measures would ensure gendered financial inclusion, and inclusion of social economic classes characterized by age, level of income, education and rural urban classes.

Do patients with lung cancer recall physician-initiated discussions about planning for end-of-life care following disclosure of a terminal prognosis?

BackgroundCommunicating with patients about their prognosis and goals of care, including offering opportunities to engage in advance care planning (ACP) is widely recognised as best practice. Little is known about...

Contesting public discourses on sexuality in Kenya: A reading of Kevin Mwachiro's Invisible

abstractThe debate on homosexuality has recently gained heightened public interest in Kenya and her neighbour Uganda. This debate tends to depict non-heterosexual people as sick people who need medical care or cultural reorientation. Consequently, stories of the lives of gay persons are difficult to come by in these countries. This briefing is a critical reading of Kevin Mwachiro's Invisible: Stories from Kenya's Queer Community. I look at the narratives of public coming out in the Kenyan gay community in this anthology in the context of the current public debate on sexuality. The narratives in Mwachiro's book cut across gender, age, tribe, religion, educational background and social economic classes. My argument is that the very existence of a book that documents stories of gays in Kenya demonstrates that despite the hypocrisy and vitriol with which the subject is discussed, the gay community has always been and is a part of Kenyan society. I analyse the narratives in Invisible with the intention to demonstrate that the subject of sexuality can no longer simply be relegated to the periphery of national discourses. This short briefing argues that the stories of the Kenyan non-heteronormative should be heard alongside those of everyone else; that an understanding of Kenyan postcolonial culture and identity would not be complete until the voices of all sections of this society have been heard.

Holocaust Survival Differentials in the Netherlands, 1942–1945: The Role of Wealth and Nationality

Almost all of the 140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands when the German occupation began were sent to transit camps and eventually to death camps, but not on the same timetable. According to the Jews themselves, social-economic class and (pre-war) nationality played an important role in determining when and whether people were sent to meet their death. However, data from the province of Overijssel reveal that Jews from the highest social economic class were, in general, transferred to Westerbork transit camp at a later date than were Jews from lower social-economic classes. Although the usual assumption is that Jews who had more time to find a safe hideout had a better chance to survive the Holocaust, the analysis reveals otherwise. The results for nationality are similar. German Jews from Overijssel were, in general, deported from Westerbork transit camp to the death camps in the East later than were Dutch Jews from the same province. Even though this delay reduced the likelihood that German Jews were sent to a concentration camp that had a survival rate even worse than the one at Auschwitz, German Jews did not survive the Holocaust to a greater extent than did Dutch Jews.

The Historical Model: The 99 Percent

Inclusivity is perhaps the single most important human need to facilitate and demonstrate fairness for all members in an open and free society. When this principle need is compromised by appearances of unscrupulous self-interested privileged elites to perpetuate a systemic widening disparity between social-economic classes favoring exclusivity, it is imminently imperative to galvanize public opposition to mitigate this threat. A society that is governed by its collective citizenry should never be marginalized by its institutions or the people that run them. No institution should be more esteemed than its human beings. Thus, this paper seeks to provide a historic backdrop to help trigger a new wave of global interaction and imagination. We must make an effort to level the playing field so that all voices are invited to participate in our global conversation. I for my part offer this short analytical portrait into “The Historical Model” as a starting point towards gaining greater understanding and inspiration to further our global debate.

Review of childhood measles admissions at the National Hospital, Abuja.

The global disease burden from measles as a vaccine preventable disease remains high despite decades of interventions by various organs and agencies. To determine the prevalence and outcome of childhood cases of measles admitted into the children's emergency ward of the National hospital and highlight the possible contributing factors. Retrospective. A total number of 43 children with measles presenting at the National Hospital Abuja, seen over a 40 months period; January 2002 and April 2005. Cases-folders of patients seen at the Emergency Paediatric Unit (EPU) of the National Hospital Abuja during the period under review with the clinical diagnosis of measles were reviewed. The children were aged between seven to 12months, with 25 (58.1%) age 24months and below. Twenty three (53.5%) of the subjects had received prior measles vaccination. History of contact with cases of acute measles was present in 26 (60.5%). Associated protein energy malnutrition (PEM) was found in 30 (69.8%) with 28 (65.1 %) parents of these children being of lower social economic classes (III, IV &V). Recorded complications included gastroenteritis, bronchopneumonia, laryngo-tracheo-bronchitis as part of croup syndrome, tuberculosis, and otitis media. Three fatalities (7.0%) were record in this review, all in association with bronchopneumonia. Measles with its complications still present as a fatal illness even among vaccinated children.

Epidemiological profile of leishmaniasis at a reference service in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, from january 2000 to september 2008

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Brazil, the disease is an important public health problem, occurring in most states, but mainly in the Northeast region of the country, with the state of Alagoas having a significant number of confirmed cases. The present study establishes and discusses the epidemiological profile of cases of leishmaniases treated at the Reference Center of Alagoas, Hospital Escola Hélvio de Farias Auto, between January 2000 and October 2008. During this period, records of 2,104 patients notified to the hospital Epidemiological Surveillance Center were reviewed. The epidemiology of leishmaniasis, both visceral and tegumentary, has shown a profile that has changed over throughout the years, with a decrease in the number of notified cases. Disease occurrence was associated with lower social economic classes, and affected mainly rural workers in general, housewives and students.

Epidemiological profile of leishmaniasis at a reference service in the state of Alagoas, Brazil, from January 2000 to September 2008

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. In Brazil, the disease is an important public health problem, occurring in most states, but mainly in the Northeast region of the country, with the state of Alagoas having a significant number of confirmed cases.The present study establishes and discusses the epidemiological profile of cases of leishmaniases treated at the Reference Center of Alagoas, Hospital Escola Hélvio de Farias Auto, between January 2000 and October 2008. During thisperiod, records of 2,104 patients notified to the hospital Epidemiological Surveillance Center were reviewed. The epidemiology of leishmaniasis, both visceral and tegumentary, has shown a profile that has changed over throughout the years, with a decrease in the number of notified cases. Disease occurrence was associated with lower social economic classes, and affected mainly rural workers in general, housewives and students.

Too much computer and Internet use is bad for your grades, especially if you are young and poor: Results from the 2001 Brazilian SAEB

This work presents the analysis of the 2001 Brazilian Basic Education Evaluation System (SAEB) achievement exam. The SAEB tested 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students, in mathematics and reading (Portuguese). We classified the students into seven socioeconomic classes, and for each class, compared the test results according to frequency of computer use, computer ownership, Internet access at home, and whether the teachers used computers and Internet as pedagogical tools. Frequency of computer use had, in general, a negative effect on the test results, and the negative effect increased for younger and poorer students. Computer ownership had, in general, a small positive effect on the test results for older students, and no effect for 4th graders. Internet access had a negative effect for younger and poorer students, and a positive effect for 11th graders. Finally, whether the teacher used computers or Internet as pedagogical tools had no effect on the student’s test results for all social economic classes and grades.

Bone mass density in the normal population of Iran

AbstractBackground: Bone mineral density (BMD) of the spine and the femoral neck are accurate indicators of the bone mass and thus useful predictors of fracture risk. Dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is the easiest, yet the most precise and non‐invasive technique. The need for a population‐specific normative BMD data is vital in preventing mislabelling or misdiagnosis of osteopenia or even osteoporosis.Aim: This study was performed to determine the lumbar vertebral and the proximal femur BMD measured by DEXA in 280 normal Iranian men and women.Method: Subjects were selected randomly from different social economic classes in Tehran. Normal subjects were selected for each decade and both sexes. BMD was measured with a Hologic QDR 1000+ densitometer, for the lumbar spine (L1, L2, L3, L4, L1–L4) and the femoral neck (neck, trochanter, intertrochanter, ward triangle, total). Data were treated by polynomial approximation (3rd degree).Results: In women, the highest BMD recorded was 1.020 g/cm2 for the lumbar spine (mean L1–L4) at the age of 31 years, and 0.832 for the femoral neck at the age of 34. In men, the highest BMD recorded was 0.987 g/cm2 for the lumbar spine (mean L1–L4) at the age of 36, and 0.907 for the femoral neck at the age of 30. The highest BMD in spine was lower in men than women.Conclusion: The BMD of both lumbar spine and femoral neck (in both sexes) was lower in this study than the Hologic standards.

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor (review)

Reviewed by: Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor Seth Holmes Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor. By Paul Farmer. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2003. Pp. 419. $27.50. Once again, Paul Farmer proves himself a modern-day prophet. Repeatedly, he goes beyond what would be expected of such a multifaceted physician, anthropologist, and relief-worker. He speaks truth to power with all the fury expected of the contemporary realist and with all the conviction necessary for the idealist. Modern medicine, increasingly driven by destructive market forces, needs more prophetic voices. Farmer's is likely the most difficult to avoid. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor is the latest in a series of books, each equally disturbing and compelling, that Farmer has published in the last decade. The first, AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (1992), chronicles Farmer's first decade of health work in Haiti, brilliantly describes the initial stages of central Haiti's attempts to make sense of the advent of AIDS, and painstakingly documents the sinister effects of U.S. actions in Haiti. A more recent book, Infections and Inequalities:The Modern Plagues (1999), is a collection of essays analyzing the linkages between global inequality—based on economic class, ethnicity, and gender—and infectious diseases. Pathologies ofPower is another compilation of essays, the latest distillation of Farmer's dissection of the nexus of sickness and social injustice. In different ways in each book, Farmer calls us both to recognize our complicity in structural violence and to engage in what he calls "pragmatic solidarity" with those who are poor. In Pathologies of Power, Farmer manages to critically analyze U.S. foreign policy, describe the harm brought by the international spread of market rule, scrutinize insidious relationships between disease and social injustice, condemn multiple reigning concepts in the field of international health, and call for a re-examination of contemporary models in both medical ethics and human rights. The first half of the book utilizes case studies observed firsthand by Farmer to show that, time and again, the sicknesses of those who are poor and marginalized are an embodiment of structural violence. In the second half of the book, Farmer offers vital reforming alternatives to the fields of medical ethics and human rights. [End Page 153] Central to Farmer's analysis is the concept of structural violence, a term coined by Johan Galtung to indicate that the unequal structuring of our society harms people, particularly those who are poor. Indeed, the work of many contemporary social epidemiologists and medical social scientists shows that health disparities are determined primarily by inequalities among social economic classes, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, etc. Farmer is one of the most insistent and important voices arguing that structural violence is a primary determinant of both human rights violations and disease. In the present volume, he states that "rights violations are . . . symptoms of deeper pathologies of power and are linked intimately to the social conditions that so often determine who will suffer abuse and who will be shielded from harm" (7). Later, he argues that "suffering is 'structured' by historically given (and often economically driven) processes and forces that conspire . . . to constrain agency" (40). Agency, another term from social science theory, indicates the ability for a human being to determine the specifics of her or his existence through the practice of choice. Farmer shows how social inequalities erode the ability of those who are poor and marginalized to determine their own future, giving examples of structural violence determining human rights abuses and disease from locations as diverse as Haiti, Mexico, and Russia. These analyses are among the most important for human rights workers and medical professionals to grasp and to act upon. Farmer spends a fair amount of time lamenting the fact that each year millions of people around the world die preventable deaths. Those who are poor die for lack of access to medical care: "In an age of explosive development in the realm of medical technology, it is unnerving to find that the discoveries of Salk, Sabin, and even Pasteur remain...

“Take Up Your Mat and Walk”

ABSTRACT Based on the scripture John 5: 1–9, the events and incidents of this story-style sermon are all factual. The names of the persons involved and enough small details have been altered to protect their identities should this be published. The sermon has been written for a mid-sized congregation of 500 (worship attendance of two hundred) in an urban/suburban setting, during a time when our community is trying to raise awareness of the many forms of domestic violence currently on the upswing here (we are located on the northern edge of Greater Cincinnati, in the rapidly growing area of Warren County). The population here is mainly upwardly mobile and still clings to the belief that: (a) domestic abuse and violence is a problem of those in lower social-economic classes and (b) never happens among good church-folk. Yet we who are concerned in our county know that these are myths with no basis in fact. Domestic abuse/victims, including spousal/partner abuse, elder abuse, child abuse, and date rape/abuse ...