[Vision2020] Beating Babies for Jesus

Tue Nov 15 21:39:53 PST 2011

Nick,

A couple of months ago I was talking to my old friend Dave, who said to me, "Do you remember Kevin? He's in prison for murder. He killed his kid."

I googled him. He's the Kevin Schatz in the story you posted below. I met him in '86, at Dave's place, and we saw each other there over the next couple of years. Then he moved, or dropped out of sight, or stopped hanging out with Dave, and I didn't think much about him. I don't think Dave had seen him for years either.

It's still hard for me to square this with the guy I knew. He was quiet, didn't join in when we were drinking too much beer. He was a nice guy, anyone who knew him then would have said that. And yet he did these terrible things to his children. It's surreal.

Sunil

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:08:05 -0800
From: ngier006 at gmail.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Beating Babies for Jesus

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" ---  
 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 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" 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,
 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 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 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. 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

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