In Washington state a Christian homeschooling couple received maximum prison sentences allowable under the law after being found guilty of beating and starving their adopted daughter to death in accord with Biblical based parenting techniques.
Superior Court Judge Susan Cook showed no mercy to Larry and Carri Williams, found guilty of causing the tragic death of their adopted daughter, Hana, by using Biblical based parenting techniques found in the controversial child-rearing book, To Train up a Child, by Michael and Debi Pearl.
Cook sentenced Carri Williams to 37 years in prison. Her husband Larry, convicted of lesser charges, was sentenced to just under 28 years. Both terms are well above the standard sentencing range.
Cook said, “I feel the punishment should match the outrage felt by this community. I am at a complete loss. I think at some point in this trial each and every one of us sat stunned and speechless without the slightest hope of making any sense of this whatsoever.”
What these animals did to this child in the name of religion and superstition is repulsive.
Hana’s death was consistent with a corporal punishment style advocated by many Christian extremists, and memorialized in the controversial book, To Train Up A Child. According to reports, Hana was beaten and starved as part of a regimen of corporal punishment subscribed to by many Christian homeschoolers and other Christian fundamentalists.
The New York Times reports that the couple's abusive parenting tactics mimicked instructions from the Christian parenting book. Evidence presented at trial indicated Carri Williams had repeatedly beaten Hana with a plastic tube - a device recommended in the book.
To Train Up A Child advocates using a plumbing tool to beat children with starting at age one. The book also advocates giving children cold water baths, putting children outside in cold weather, and forcing them to miss meals, as well as beating them; all of which exemplifies the abuse investigators said Hana endured.
The book is also linked to the deaths of at least two other children, four-year-old Sean Paddock of North Carolina and seven year-old Lydia Schatz of California. In each case, punishment techniques advocated by the controversial Christian parenting manual were used.
Just in case anybody wants to ask me once again what I find so upsetting about religion and its impact on society, I think you can look at this post and figure that out for yourself.
Prejudice, sexism, child abuse, all if it goes down so much smoother when hidden within the elixir of religion.
Seems like a given that the authors of this book should also stand trial for causing deaths and receive at least as stiff a sentence as the parents.
ReplyDeleteAgree, since it's been used as a manual for murder.
DeleteThe book not only suggests hitting children one and older with plumbing line, but children as young as six months with a switch.
ReplyDeleteOMG! What could a baby of six months do to deserve the switch? Surely, they'll burn in eternal hell-fire for the abuse on young innocent children...and I'm not even religious!
DeleteI understand where you’re coming from. I also believe there’s a life after life since it’s been shoved right into my face. Namaste. We walk different paths.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they call themselves pro-life.
ReplyDeleteYou know they are! Fake Christians.
DeleteRepeating myself: religion is the greatest curse ever visited upon mankind. (Except, mebbe for Yanni.)
ReplyDeleteHorrible! Horrible! And, even though I am not numbered among the Christians, I can assure you that the vast majority of Christians find this crime as appalling and horrible as you do.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, this book is controversial among Christians too. Most hate it as much as you do.
ReplyDeleteThis is sick beyond sick.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the judge handed down this sentence. This book has been used as a manual to quicken the meeting of innocent children with their maker. Someone upthread felt the authors should be held culpable as well, and I agree. I also wonder how many have died and weren't reported. If there's a funeral director who is swayed by the book, the reports could easily be covered up or lied about.
ReplyDeleteThis form of murder is the most egregious. Defenseless children, sheltered from the public, slowly tortured and killed by those they should feel safe with and trust.
Hell is for Children - Pat Benetar
Good for that judge!!! I live in Oregon and there is a large 'Christian' church that doesn't believe in modern medicine. They believe in treating sick children with only prayer. Children in the community have died from illnesses easily treated. One set of parents who were on probation for the death of one child are going to jail for the death of a second child...in the same family. If an adult chooses to treat their own illness with prayer, that is their business. A pre-school child cannot make that choice...they do what their parents decide. Even it it means they die. That is a crime in Oregon now and it is about time.
ReplyDeleteAuthors of that book are flat out not screwed together. They had a "church" in TN and several years ago I was visiting family in that area when their name came up; we decided to go on Sunday to that church just to see what they preached. What a sick, sad crowd, in a grungy, dim, leaky building on too few folding metal chairs. We were not particularly welcomed and wondered later how much the sermon had been changed to accommodate the visitors. Interestingly, there wasn't a child in attendance. All in all, the whole thing was a pitiful display of a dozen or so pitiful people, some in rags/near rags.
ReplyDeleteJust because someone can write a book and get it published doesn't mean they are mentally balanced, or sometimes that they are even close to being balanced (witness: Sarah Whatshername). And that book, which I later read, can only be related to the bible, or at least the New Testament, by the contrast between the two. It should be taken off the market to protect kids whose parents have no sense...and those parents SHOULD be right where they're headed, or to equivalent sentences in a mental institution. Sick, all the way through.
I went to various sites to read reviews on this evil book. I wish i hadn't. Fucking nightmarish world,
ReplyDelete"Prejudice, sexism, child abuse, all of it goes down so much smoother when hidden within the elixir of religion. "
ReplyDeleteWell, that just about says it all, doesnt it....
"train up" a child - the title tells all you need to know. Only sadistic pigs would say something like that.
ReplyDeleteI am a Christian (although by now fairly disillusioned by most organized churches) and can only think of one bible verse after hearing about this...
"Jesus wept"
why do the most vulnerable and innocent fall to prey to the most twisted and perverse?
ReplyDeletei find this so incredibly uncomfortable to even comprehend. that this child endured so much pain for so long is too painful to absorb. these are the things that make me hope there is life after life. it would be unbearable to think that a few years of immense pain and confusion was all this child gets forever.
This book is sold on Amazon! If you can bear the pain, read some of the reviews (negative) by parents who followed the Pearls's advice on how to abuse their children, and the excerpts from the book detailing this torture. Your heart will break, followed by anger that there is not, yet, punishment for these authors and justice for these children!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you cover the sentencing of these two imbeciles, Gryphen. I mentioned this case in some comments here several months back. The couple in Vancouver, WA, who adopted kids from the Philippines and were "raising" them the same way, beating and starving them, locking them in rooms, etc., were also found guilty. Luckily, those kids were rescued before they were killed.
ReplyDeleteNo mercy for anyone found abusing kids based on the instructions in that "fundy" Christian book on child rearing. No mercy.
"No mercy for anyone found abusing kids based on the instructions in that "fundy" Christian book on child rearing. No mercy."
Delete10:01, I agree with that statement - as far as it goes. Personally, I would prefer you had said 'no mercy for anyone found abusing children'. Period.
Abuse of a child in ANY form and under ANY "guidelines" is disgusting!
Why can't Michael and Debi Pearl be indicted as contributing to the deaths of these children? It's their book. They've basically written a manual for murder.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this( the Pearl Method) what the Duggars use on their children?
ReplyDeleteYes, the Duggars use Pearl's teaching, including hitting small children with plumbing line. They don't show that on their tv show because they want to continue to be paid celebrities.
DeleteSo many of these "churches" adopt kids from other oucntries since they can't produce of their own abuse targets. They do it to 'save the children" and get more spiritual warriors. Why do you think Putin put a squash on out of country adoptions for Russian kids? This is one of the reasons since one Russian child was murdered by people just like this. As fucked up as I think Putin is in other areas at least he did this right.
ReplyDeleteBelieving in nonsense is NOT harmless.
ReplyDeleteAll parents need to read this and listen to it carefully. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/04/242945454/childhood-maltreatment-can-leave-scars-in-the-brain
ReplyDeleteDuggar used Blanket Training:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_training
If the baby leaves the blanket, they are wacked by a wooden spoon.
I believe the Duggar's have abandoned this method for the younger kids with the cameras present. It would explain why the older kids have fake smiles plastered on their face.
Mel68
I doubt that there is anything genuinely Christian about this method of child rearing. Christ talking about love when he talked about children; there was never any cruelty in his message. Where these pseud-Christians find their ideas is beyond me. It is simply insanity.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
I find it more disturbing to think of a parent calmly and deliberately hitting a child than one that hits in a rare fit of anger.
ReplyDeleteMy dad smacked me once when he was really pissed and later apologized which made me feel even worse about my transgression. I miss him.
Yeah, they were deeply disturbed. This happened in my state. The sentence may be justice under the law, but nothing can bring back this beautiful child. Tears, tears, tears. Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of they womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you not post references to religion in positive news articles, like that of Bernadine Tuff, who talked down a young gunman? You wrote up her story, but left out her own comments, "I'm no hero. I give it all to God."
Giving it up to God. Overwhelming idea, requires us to let go of all our prejudices, grudges, our needs to prove ourselves, our lack of understanding that we are loved regardless of our failings--which is what Jesus tried to convey to us.
Pax et bonum
First, I would like to ask: did those people even read this book? Did any of you read this book? Because perhaps I have a totally different version of the book than you. In To Train Up a Child, these author's stress out the importance of more TRAINING, and less DISCIPLINE, especially in the child's early years. And no, there is nothing in this book about beating your child or putting them out in the cold or starving them or anything like that, okay? It DOES say tapping your six-month-old's hand when they do something they shouldn't - such as grabbing your glasses and trying to pull them off - is a form of training. What I mean by this is that that slight bit of pain they feel in their hand when they do that will cause them to not want to do it anymore. Train up a child when he is young, and it wont be so hard to train them once they get older. Michael and Debi say nothing about beating your child, but they do point out that spanking your child is necessary when they do wrong. Spanking is a lot different than beating and they made sure to stress that point. Starving your child and making your child suffer were not options in their book. They say the parents are to blame if they do that to their child because the parents would be in the wrong, not the child. That would create a divide between parent and child and the Pearls explain that developing a loving relationship with your child through training will be successful, whereas mistreating your child will result in division. So, before you make assumptions about these people's child-rearing technique, I suggest you read the book yourself and then evaluate.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I do not believe those two parents who killed that poor girl are Christians. No true Christian would ever do such an evil thing and if a Christian does do it, then they have separated themselves from God. Also, the information given that there are MANY Christian homeschoolers who follow that kind of wicked technique of child-rearing (beating, starving, etc.) is false. I should know, since I am acquainted with many, many homeschooling families all across the States. There may be a few religious freaks who would do such a thing, but they are not true Christians.
So, just wanted to clear that up. God bless! :)
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ReplyDeleteIt's our Puritan heritage taken to an warped, twisted, obscene level. Sorta like 'bagger Xians.
ReplyDelete