Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate .. use of a switch as early as six months

PLEASANTVILLE, Tenn. — After services at the Church at Cane Creek on a recent Sunday, a few dozen families held a potluck picnic and giggling children played pin the tail on the donkey.

The white-bearded preacher, Michael Pearl, who delivered his sermon in stained work pants, and his wife, Debi, mixed warmly with the families drawn to their evangelical ministry, including some of their own grandchildren.

The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”

Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.

More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?hpw

I signed the petition a short while ago;

The petition is here

just in the week since that article was first published in the NYTimes.

http://mamamule.blogspot.com/2011/11/amazon-petition-whats-it-to-you.html

"This week, I feel optimistic. There have been a crop of responses to the New York Times, including this one featured on the front page of yahoo.com, also linking to the petition, and some excellent commentary, including two from Frank Schaeffer, here and here, another from Lisa Belkin at the wonderful Huffington Post, and the story even made the UK press in the form of the Belfast Telegraph. All of this and much much more publicity has had a wonderful impact on the petition, and the number of signatories has more than doubled to over six thousand. More importantly, much more importantly, the wider issues of the discipline and treatment of children are being debated extensively worldwide."



http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/2011/11/the-real-michael-pearl/

"But Pearl’s grip on parents is slipping. National exposure of Pearl’s teachings and of the abuses that have followed are leading many Americans to abhor the preacher from Tennessee. Following the publication of a New York Times article on Pearl, an online petition urging Amazon to stop selling Pearl’s book attracted hundreds of signatures.

Of course, parents who buy into the idea that Pearl is a religious authority and who are obsessed with child obedience will continue to follow his methods. Some may see Pearl’s teachings as a license to hurt, and even to kill. We should not be surprised if we hear that another child has been “trained” to death. Yet, at the same time, many more Americans realize that Pearl’s teachings are harmful and pose a risk to untold numbers of children throughout the United States and elsewhere."


Janet Heimlich spoke about religious child maltreatment on Oct. 16 in Seattle, Washington, at the University Temple United Methodist Church. KOMO4news was there and did a story on her lecture, also airing parts of an earlier interview that Gary Tuchman did with Michael Pearl on CNN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYTBXtHVasY

And here is a statement from this same Janet Heimlich:

"As it happens, tragically, there has been a case close to home here. Last May, 13-year-old Hana Williams died after suffering months of physical and emotional abuse. According to a detective's affidavit, the cause of death was hypothermia, as the underweight and malnourished child was found outside in 40-degree weather.

Hana had been adopted from Ethiopia by Carri and Larry Williams a couple years before, along with a boy, now ten years old, who was not related to Hana. Normally, children who come from poverty-stricken areas of the world thrive after they are brought to this country. But Hana and her adopted brother entered a world that was likely more hellish than anything they would have endured back home.

According to police records, both children were physically punished constantly for the most minor of infractions. For example, Hana was expected to stand still within a space that was one-foot wide, and her brother, who was deaf, angered his parents when he did not respond them stamping their feet on a concrete floor.

Witnesses say that the children were frequently beaten and made to sleep on the hard floor. Hana was forced to spend hours outside outside in the bitter cold and sleep in a barn. She was also repeatedly denied food and locked in a dark closet for days, while her parents played Bible readings on-tape and Christian music. The Williams have been arrested on murder charges and child abuse charges in connection with the boy.

Even more devastating, we now know that the Williams were followers of Michael Pearl. They had a copy of his pro-corporal punishment book To Train Up a Child in their home, and witnesses say they used a number of Pearl's "training" techniques, including spanking the children with plastic plumbing pipe. Hana's body was covered with bruises and other signs of having sustained beatings."

http://samuelmartin.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-message-from-janet-heimlich-author.html

have the same root. The disciples followed Christ out of love, not because he beat them. These fundy "Christians" have truly perverted the message.

Of course, there were a number of biblical arguments made justifying slavery, too.

Well intended? You can't possibly be serious? This is child abuse, plain and simple. What person in their right mind would hit a child with a flexible hose, deny them food, or hose them off for a lapse in potty training?

Featuring the special brass-knuckle/rattle combo for use with infants.

;-)

I found it on their web site;

http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Train-Up-Child/Michael-Pearl/9781892112002?id=5206944015212

I am writing them now to see if they could reevaluate whether or not they really want to carry this book.

People like this need to be imprisoned.

Someone needs to hold Mr. Pearl down and hit him on the buttocks with flexible plumbing line, see how he still thinks if is a legitimate way to punish a child.