<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>