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Tennessee evangelist Michael Pearl PERSECUTED for Biblical child-executions!
The deaths of the three children each allegedly happened at the hands of their parents. Though they lived in different parts of the country, the parents all had several things in common: They adopted children, home-schooled them and beat them with quarter-inch plastic tubes. They also followed the child-rearing teachings of a Tennessee evangelist...
...Lydia Schatz died after being spanked for several hours.
And Hana Grace-Rose Williams, of Sedro-Woolley, was left out in the cold, where she died naked, face down in the mud.
The deaths of the three children occurred in different parts of the country — North Carolina, California and Washington — but each allegedly happened at the hands of their parents, all of whom were charged with murder.
The parents had several things in common: They adopted children, home-schooled them and lashed them with quarter-inch-diameter plastic tubes. They also used the child-rearing teachings of a Tennessee evangelist, Michael Pearl, and his wife, Debi.
The Pearls wrote "To Train Up a Child," first published in 1994, and which teaches parents how to use a "switch" to make their children obey. Michael Pearl says it has sold more than 670,000 copies, been translated into a dozen languages and is popular with some Christians who home-school their children.
The authors say raising a child is as simple as training a dog, and they cite biblical verses supporting use of the "rod." ...
Critics claim the couple's advice amounts to a prescription for child abuse.
"It's truly an evil book," said Michael Ramsey, the district attorney for Butte County, Calif.
...Lydia Schatz died after being spanked for several hours.
And Hana Grace-Rose Williams, of Sedro-Woolley, was left out in the cold, where she died naked, face down in the mud.
The deaths of the three children occurred in different parts of the country — North Carolina, California and Washington — but each allegedly happened at the hands of their parents, all of whom were charged with murder.
The parents had several things in common: They adopted children, home-schooled them and lashed them with quarter-inch-diameter plastic tubes. They also used the child-rearing teachings of a Tennessee evangelist, Michael Pearl, and his wife, Debi.
The Pearls wrote "To Train Up a Child," first published in 1994, and which teaches parents how to use a "switch" to make their children obey. Michael Pearl says it has sold more than 670,000 copies, been translated into a dozen languages and is popular with some Christians who home-school their children.
The authors say raising a child is as simple as training a dog, and they cite biblical verses supporting use of the "rod." ...
Originally posted by The LORD ALMIGHTY
"It's truly an evil book," said Michael Ramsey, the district attorney for Butte County, Calif.
Attn liberals, it's the BIBLE you're talking about. The advice isn't from "the couple", the advice comes from GOD.
Ramsey successfully prosecuted Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz for hitting their daughter Lydia to death in Paradise, Calif., in 2006 with a plastic plumbing-supply tube — the kind the Pearls mention in an article on their website called "In Defense of Biblical Chastisement."
Lydia, 7, was adopted from Liberia. [Adopted from Africa? Talk about a recipe for uppityness. The Bible says negros and other animals never change: Jeremiah 13:23] Her transgression? Mispronouncing the word "pulled" from a children's book. She said "pull-ed," according to Ramsey, and the hitting began.
The Pearls also drew fire after the 2006 murder of 4-year-old Sean Paddock, who suffocated after his mother swaddled him too tightly in a blanket. Lynn Paddock told a Johnston County, N.C., court she wanted to keep her son from getting out of bed.
She was a devoted follower of the Pearls, prosecutors said, and she had come across their writings while surfing the Internet...
Dead of hypothermia
Hana, 13, was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008 by Larry and Carri Williams, of Sedro-Woolley.
She was regularly spanked and locked in a closet, and was forced to sleep in a barn and take garden-hose showers outside, according to an affidavit from the Skagit County Sheriff's Office. The affidavit was based on information from the couple's six natural children, another adopted child, medical experts and other family and friends. The interviews were conducted by detectives and investigators from the state's Child Protective Services.
In 2009, Hana weighed 108 pounds, but over the past two years of her life, she lost 30 pounds, largely because her parents denied her food as punishment, the affidavit says. She was so thin she couldn't retain enough heat May 12, the night she died. She had been outside with no clothes and died of hypothermia, an autopsy found.
On the backs of her legs were marks consistent with being beaten earlier in the day, the affidavit alleges.
According to the investigators, the Williamses were familiar with the Pearls and had given a copy of their book to an acquaintance...
In a telephone interview, Pearl, 66, said spanking is just one part of a comprehensive program on child-rearing and should be "reserved for rebellion when children are angry or defiant."
"I'm passing on traditional parenting methods, traditional common sense that's been around for 6,000 years," he said...
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son," from Proverbs 13:24, is cited often, as are other biblical references to discipline....the Tennessee preacher argues the rod is a gift from God.
"A child properly and timely spanked is healed in the soul and restored to wholeness of spirit," he writes. "A child can be turned back from the road to hell through proper spankings."
Pearl encourages parents to think of the switch as a "magic wand" and says teaching a child to obey is like training an animal:
"A dog can be trained not to touch a tasty morsel laid in front of him. Can't a child be trained not to touch?"...In their book, the Pearls suggest setting up training sessions by placing something desirable, like a pair of glasses, in front of an infant. When the child reaches for it, the Pearls advise, calmly say "no" and "thump or swat his hand...
In one passage, Pearl says parents should "not allow the child's crying to cause them to lighten up on the intensity or duration of the spankings."
In another, he advises parents to sit on a child if necessary and "hold him there until he has surrendered."
Lydia, 7, was adopted from Liberia. [Adopted from Africa? Talk about a recipe for uppityness. The Bible says negros and other animals never change: Jeremiah 13:23] Her transgression? Mispronouncing the word "pulled" from a children's book. She said "pull-ed," according to Ramsey, and the hitting began.
The Pearls also drew fire after the 2006 murder of 4-year-old Sean Paddock, who suffocated after his mother swaddled him too tightly in a blanket. Lynn Paddock told a Johnston County, N.C., court she wanted to keep her son from getting out of bed.
She was a devoted follower of the Pearls, prosecutors said, and she had come across their writings while surfing the Internet...
Dead of hypothermia
Hana, 13, was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008 by Larry and Carri Williams, of Sedro-Woolley.
She was regularly spanked and locked in a closet, and was forced to sleep in a barn and take garden-hose showers outside, according to an affidavit from the Skagit County Sheriff's Office. The affidavit was based on information from the couple's six natural children, another adopted child, medical experts and other family and friends. The interviews were conducted by detectives and investigators from the state's Child Protective Services.
In 2009, Hana weighed 108 pounds, but over the past two years of her life, she lost 30 pounds, largely because her parents denied her food as punishment, the affidavit says. She was so thin she couldn't retain enough heat May 12, the night she died. She had been outside with no clothes and died of hypothermia, an autopsy found.
On the backs of her legs were marks consistent with being beaten earlier in the day, the affidavit alleges.
According to the investigators, the Williamses were familiar with the Pearls and had given a copy of their book to an acquaintance...
In a telephone interview, Pearl, 66, said spanking is just one part of a comprehensive program on child-rearing and should be "reserved for rebellion when children are angry or defiant."
"I'm passing on traditional parenting methods, traditional common sense that's been around for 6,000 years," he said...
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son," from Proverbs 13:24, is cited often, as are other biblical references to discipline....the Tennessee preacher argues the rod is a gift from God.
"A child properly and timely spanked is healed in the soul and restored to wholeness of spirit," he writes. "A child can be turned back from the road to hell through proper spankings."
Pearl encourages parents to think of the switch as a "magic wand" and says teaching a child to obey is like training an animal:
"A dog can be trained not to touch a tasty morsel laid in front of him. Can't a child be trained not to touch?"...In their book, the Pearls suggest setting up training sessions by placing something desirable, like a pair of glasses, in front of an infant. When the child reaches for it, the Pearls advise, calmly say "no" and "thump or swat his hand...
In one passage, Pearl says parents should "not allow the child's crying to cause them to lighten up on the intensity or duration of the spankings."
In another, he advises parents to sit on a child if necessary and "hold him there until he has surrendered."
bless his soul.
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