[Vision2020] Beating Babies for Jesus

Tue Nov 15 15:08:05 PST 2011

Greetings:

Frank Schaeffer is the son of world renown evangelical preacher Francis
Scheaffer, who used to be one of Doug Wilson's favorite authors.  But that
was before he himself became a famous author.

Jesus: please protect us from your fanatical followers!

Nick
*
*
*Beating Babies For Jesus? *

*The Shady World of Right-Wing 'Discipline' Guides*

*By Frank Schaeffer*

November 12, 2011 "Information Clearing
House<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/>"
---   There is a brutal movement in America that legitimizes child abuse in
the name of God. Two stories recently converged to make us pay attention.
Last week, a video went viral of a Texas judge brutally whipping his
disabled daughter. And on Monday, the New York Times
published<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?_r=1&ref=us%22%20target=%22_hplink%22>a
story about child deaths in homes that have embraced the teachings of
*To Train Up a Child*, a book by Christian preacher Michael Pearl that
advocates using a switch on children as young as six months old.

What many people may not realize is that in the evangelical alternative
universe of the home school movement, tightly knit church communities and
the following of a number of big-time leaders and authors, physical
punishment of children has been glorified for years.

As the *Times* illustrates -- "Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths
Fuel Debate" -- the books of Michael Pearl and his wife Debi have been
found in the homes where several children were killed.

They're not the only right-wing Christians who advocate these methods. Some
of the most respected evangelical discipline gurus have made beating
children not just "respectable" in conservative religious circles, but even
turned it into a godly activity.

In 1977 James Dobson founder of the "Focus on the
Family<http://www.focusonthefamily.com/%22%20target=%22_hplink>"
religious empire and radio program, wrote a book called *Dare To Discipline,
* whose purpose was, essentially, to get parents to beat their children.

In his book Dobson glorified a sadomasochistic/spiritual ritual of
"discipline." He said he wanted to stop a "liberal" trend in America that
was moving away from the godly thrashing of infants. He wanted to help
"restore" America to God and the good old days of child hitting. This fit
in well with the notion of God as retribution-in-chief that evangelicals
endorse.

Dobson isn't alone. There's also the work of evangelical "family values"
guru Bill Gothard, with a following of millions. As reported by the Cincinnati
Beacon<http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/content/comments/huckabee_hearts_gothard/%22%20target=%22_hplink>,
Matthew Murray, the young shooter who killed a bunch of churchgoers in
2007, had been raised according to the teachings of evangelist Bill Gothard.

"I remember the beatings and the fighting and yelling and insane rules and
all the Bill Gothard rules and then trancing out," he wrote Dec. 1 under
the monicker "nghtmrchld26" on a Web forum for former Pentecostal
Christians.

Bill Gothard is the founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles in
Illinois, which promotes a Christian home "education" program. As quoted in
the *Beacon* article Murray said "I remember how it was, like every day was
Mission Impossible trying to keep the rules or not get caught and just
...survive every single (expletive) day,"

In *The Strong Willed Child* (Living Books 1992), Dobson makes a parallel
between beating children and beating dogs:

"I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to
deal with it. The ONLY way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with
destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a
small belt to help me 'reason' with Mr. Freud.

"What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the
most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one
wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and
growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the
entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed.
As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last
snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him
200 to 12!

"But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important
moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS
SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS,
SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD -- ONLY MORE SO." [Emphasis Dobson's]

"[I]t is possible to create a fussy, demanding baby by rushing to pick him
up every time he utters a whimper or sigh. Infants are fully capable of
learning to manipulate their parents through a process called
reinforcement, whereby any behavior that produces a pleasant result will
tend to recur. Thus, a healthy baby can keep his mother hopping around his
nursery twelve hours a day (or night) by simply forcing air past his
sandpaper larynx.

"Perhaps this tendency toward self-will is the essence of 'original sin'
which has infiltrated the human family. It certainly explains why I place
such stress on the proper response to willful defiance during childhood,
for that rebellion can plant the seeds of personal disaster."

Dobson is mild compared to the popular evangelical authors Michael and Debi
Pearl. In their book *To Train Up a Child* (1994) they advocate beating
babies.

In the book they recommend "switching" a 7-month-old on the bare bottom or
leg seven to eight times as a punishment for getting angry. If the baby is
still angry, the urge parents to repeat the punishment until the child
gives in to the pain. The "switch"  they recommend for an under 1-year-old
is from a willow tree and/or a 12-inch ruler.

The leadership of the evangelical world, from Billy Graham to the editors
of  *Christianity Today* magazine or the megachurch pastors like Rick
Warren, have not called for the banishment of abusers like the Pearls,
Dobson or Gothard. These people remain in good standing.

In the Pearls' case, actual criminal
complaints<http://www.examiner.com/attachment-parenting-in-mankato/another-child-s-death-linked-to-pearls-and-to-train-up-a-child%22%20target=%22_hplink>
have
been brought against some parents who have killed their children and who
have been following the "methods" in *To Train Up a Child*. This book can
be nevertheless be found in thousands of "respectable" evangelical
bookstores. Here's what the evangelicals approve by their silence and
complicity, as noted in the Examiner
<http://www.examiner.com/attachment-parenting-in-mankato/another-child-s-death-linked-to-pearls-and-to-train-up-a-child%22%20target=%22_hplink%2522>and
many other media sources:

A California couple has been charged with murder and torture after their
discipline methods caused the death of one of their children and critical
injuries for another.

Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz of Paradise, California, are accused of
murdering their 7-year-old adopted daughter during a "discipline session."
The couple is also charged with the torture of their 11-year-old adopted
daughter and cruelty to a child for signs of bruising discovered on their
10-year-old biological son.

The parents allegedly used a 15-inch length of plastic tubing used for
plumbing to beat the children, a practice recommended in the book "To Train
Up a Child" by Michael and Debi Pearl of "No Greater Joy Ministries."

The same plumbing supply tools were linked to a North Carolina child's
death in 2006, when a devotee of the Pearls accidentally killed her
4-year-old son by suffocating him in tightly wrapped blankets.

Police later found out about the Pearls' recommendations to beat children
with this type of plumbing supply tubing from a Salon Magazine article,
"Spare the quarter-inch plumbing supply line, spoil the child."

Mr. Pearl, who has no degree or training in child development, writes in
his book that he and his wife used "the same principles the Amish use to
train their stubborn mules" -- namely, "switches."

On their web site, the Pearls write that "switching" or giving "licks" with
a plumbing supply line is a "real attention getter."

And it is not just individuals who are abused. Whole "Christian"
organizations are involved. According to a report by Channel 13 WTHR
Indianapolis (and many other media sources over the years),

"At first glance, the Bill Gothard-founded and run Indianapolis Training
Center looks like an ordinary conference hotel. But some say there are dark
secrets inside. "They're not here to play," Mark Cavanaugh, an ITC staffer
tells a mother on hidden-camera video. 'They're here because they've been
disobedient, they've been disrespectful.'"

He's talking about young offenders who are sent to the center by the Marion
County Juvenile Court. Critics of the program here, however, have another
view. "This is sort of a shadow world where these kids almost disappear,"
said John Krull, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties
Union<http://iblp.org/iblp/about/history/>.
The pitch for the centers says that they were founded by Gothard because:
"At the age of 15, Bill Gothard noticed some of his high school classmates
making unwise decisions. Realizing that they would have to live with the
consequences of these decisions, he was motivated to dedicate his life to
helping young people make wise choices."

The WTHR report goes on to detail how they help these young people make
"wise choices":

"But Eyewitness News has learned of disturbing allegations about the
center, including routine corporal punishment -- sometimes without parental
consent -- and solitary confinement that can last for months.

And just last week, Child Protective Services began investigating the
center. That investigation involves Teresa Landis, whose 10-year-old
daughter spent nearly a year at the center -- sent there, according to
Judge Payne, after she attacked a teacher and a school bus driver. What
happened next outrages her family and critics of the ITC. The girl
allegedly was confined in a so-called "quiet room" for five days at a time;
restrained by teenage "leaders" who would sit on her; and hit her with a
wooden paddle 14 times. At least once, the family contends, she was
prevented from going to the bathroom and then forced to sit in her own
urine."

Dobson, the Pearls and Gothard both have a big followings in Rick Perry's
hang-em'-high "Christian" Texas. And Texas is where evangelical leader Gary
North is based as he writes and preaches his Reconstructionist/Dominionist
theology about applying literal Old Testament law -- including the
execution of "incorrigible youths" -- as mandated by the Bible. So even
Dobson is "mild" by comparison to the Reconstructionists who did so much to
influence the far-right "Christian" politics -- the likes of Michele
Bachmann and Rick Perry.

Here is how evangelical "man of God" Dobson describes how to beat a child
using his own life as a guide. He writes in *The New Dare To Discipline*:

"The day I learned the importance of staying out of reach shines like a
neon light in my mind. I made the costly mistake of sassing her when I was
about four feet away. I knew I had crossed the line and wondered what she
would do about it. It didn't take long to find out. Mom wheeled around to
grab something with which to express her displeasure, and her hand landed
on a girdle.

"Those were the days when a girdle was lined with rivets and mysterious
panels. She drew back and swung the abominable garment in my direction, and
I can still hear it whistling through the air. The intended blow caught me
across the chest, followed by a multitude of straps and buckles, wrapping
themselves around my midsection. She gave me an entire thrashing with one
blow! But from that day forward, I measured my words carefully when
addressing my mother. I never spoke disrespectfully to her again, even when
she was seventy-five years old."

Meanwhile the evangelical leaders who embrace Dobson, the Pearls and
Gothard will continue to tell the rest of us how to live "moral" lives
while children are beaten in the name of Jesus.

*Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As
One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All
(Or Almost All) Of It Back. *
*This item was first published at  Alternet <http://www.alternet.org/>*
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