The Barrel of a Gun: How Violence Kept Him from Leaving

By David T. Ulrich

Published in The Moody Standard 76:11. This story is adapted from interviews with a male Moody student. Names are changed to honor confidentiality.

“At about 1 a.m. in the living room, I finally stood up and said, ‘I’m going to break up with Haley tomorrow, and she’s gonna blow my brains out.’ My friends on the other couches chuckled when I said it. It sounded absurd—Haley, do this? But they didn’t know how much I’d been lying.

Spare the Rod: A Physically Abused Child Learns Righteous Resistance

By David T. Ulrich

Published in The Moody Standard 76:9 This story is adapted from interviews with a female college student. All names changed to honor confidentiality:

“‘Spare the rod, spoil the child,’ my mom and dad used to say. So they couldn’t risk being light on the rod.

“One time I made a snack for myself before dinner: cottage cheese and applesauce in a bowl. But I couldn’t finish it—maybe it had gone bad, or else I just felt sick—but I couldn’t get through the whole thing. Mom said she wouldn’t feed me anything else until I finished my bowl. This was her ‘discipline.’ Doesn’t seem so extreme, right?