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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>What's next? Beating disobedient
wives?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>w.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ngier006@gmail.com
href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com">Nicholas Gier</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, November 15, 2011 3:08 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Beating Babies for Jesus</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Greetings:</FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Jesus: please protect us from your fanatical
followers!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Nick</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT face="Times New Roman"><BR></FONT></B></DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT face="Times New Roman">Beating Babies For Jesus? </FONT></B>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B>The Shady World of Right-Wing 'Discipline'
Guides</B><BR></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"><BR><B>By Frank
Schaeffer</B><BR><BR></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman">November 12, 2011 "<A
href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/">Information Clearing House</A>"
</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman">--- 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 <A
href="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">New
York Times published</A> a story about child deaths in homes that have embraced
the teachings of <EM>To Train Up a Child</EM>, a book by Christian preacher
Michael Pearl that advocates using a switch on children as young as six months
old. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">As the <EM>Times</EM> 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. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">In 1977 James Dobson founder of the "<A
href="http://www.focusonthefamily.com/%22%20target=%22_hplink">Focus on the
Family</A>" religious empire and radio program, wrote a book called <EM>Dare To
Discipline,</EM> whose purpose was, essentially, to get parents to beat their
children.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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 <A
href="http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/content/comments/huckabee_hearts_gothard/%22%20target=%22_hplink">Cincinnati
Beacon</A>, Matthew Murray, the young shooter who killed a bunch of churchgoers
in 2007, had been raised according to the teachings of evangelist Bill
Gothard.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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 <EM>Beacon</EM> 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,"</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">In <EM>The Strong Willed Child</EM> (Living
Books 1992), Dobson makes a parallel between beating children and beating
dogs:</FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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!</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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]</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"[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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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." </FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Dobson is mild compared to the popular
evangelical authors Michael and Debi Pearl. In their book <EM>To Train Up a
Child</EM> (1994) they advocate beating babies.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">The leadership of the evangelical world, from
Billy Graham to the editors of <EM>Christianity Today</EM> 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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">In the Pearls' case, <A
href="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">actual
criminal complaints</A> have been brought against some parents who have
killed their children and who have been following the "methods" in <EM>To Train
Up a Child</EM>. 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 <A
href="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">Examiner
</A>and many other media sources:</FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face="Times New Roman">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. </FONT>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">On their web site, the Pearls write that
"switching" or giving "licks" with a plumbing supply line is a "real attention
getter." </FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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),</FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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.'"</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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 <A href="http://iblp.org/iblp/about/history/">Union</A>. 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."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">The WTHR report goes on to detail how they help
these young people make "wise choices":</FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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."</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">Here is how evangelical "man of God" Dobson
describes how to beat a child using his own life as a guide. He writes
in <EM>The New Dare To Discipline</EM>:</FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">"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." </FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman">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.</FONT></P>
<P><I><FONT face="Times New Roman">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. </FONT></I></P><I><FONT
face="Times New Roman">This item was first published at</FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> <A
href="http://www.alternet.org/">Alternet</A></FONT></I></DIV>
<P>
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