30-40 years ago, when men beat their wives, churches turned the other way. Women "fell down stairs" and "walked into doors" a lot.

It wasn't acceptable to beat your wife in public. You could knock her around plenty in the privacy of your own home, as long as you didn't disturb your neighbors. If your wife brought it up in public, people would ask her what she had done to deserve it. The one who rocked the boat was the one who was punished by the community, perp or victim, it didn't matter. This cut across income, education and racial lines.

Some churches, the more strictly conservative ones, still allow a certain amount of emotional battery of wives under the "man is the head of the house" Scriptural dictum.