Another couple found guilty of murder for parenting by "To Train Up a Child"

Two parents in Washington state have been found guilty of murder after allegedly following the abusive parenting techniques advocated in the parenting book "To Train Up a Child" by Michael and Debi Pearl.

Larry and Carri Williams received the maximum prison sentences allowable under the law after being found guilty of beating and starving their adopted daughter Hana to death. The methods they used to "discipline" their daughter were advocated in the controversial Christian book.

The New York Times reported:

Late one night in May this year, the adopted girl, Hana, was found face down, naked and emaciated in the backyard; her death was caused by hypothermia and malnutrition, officials determined. According to the sheriff’s report, the parents had deprived her of food for days at a time and had made her sleep in a cold barn or a closet and shower outside with a hose. And they often whipped her, leaving marks on her legs. The mother had praised the Pearls’ book and given a copy to a friend, the sheriff’s report said. Hana had been beaten the day of her death, the report said, with the 15-inch plastic tube recommended by Mr. Pearl.

Some of the discipline techniques the Pearls teach include:

Michael Pearl tells one mother on his website, "I could break his anger in two days. He would be too scared to get angry. On the third day he would draw into a quiet shell and obey."

Despite Pearl's claim that plumbing line is too light to cause damage to muscle or bone, it caused the death of seven year-old Lydia Schatz in 2010. Officials ruled that she died of severe tissue damage.

Some of the discipline techniques the Pearls teach include:
•Using plastic tubing to beat children, since it is "too light to cause damage to the muscle or the bone”
•Wearing the plastic tubing around the parent's neck as a constant reminder to obey
•"Swatting" babies as young as six months old with instruments such as "a 12-inch willowy branch," thinner plastic tubing or a wooden spoon
•"Blanket training" babies by hitting them with an instrument if they try to crawl off a blanket on the floor
•Beating older children with rulers, paddles, belts and larger tree branches
•"Training" children with pain before they even disobey, in order to teach total obedience
•Giving cold water baths, putting children outside in cold weather and withholding meals as discipline
•Hosing off children who have potty training accidents
•Inflicting punishment until a child is "without breath to complain"
The Pearls and their ministry, No Greater Joy, make an estimated $1.7 million a year.

I have been meaning to write a thread on this for a while but I wasn't sure if I could find the right words. I simply do not know how parents could read this book and think that the methods prescribed in it were anything other than monstrous. There has to be something wrong with the parents themselves and I do put 90% of the blame on them however the book itself needs to take some of the blame as well as the people who have gone on record to back the book. I would take that those who wrote it and saw how people were (benefit of the doubt-misinterpreting or abusing) the methods then killing their children would have a conscience and take the book off the market. Instead it is still on the market so money seems to be the only thing the pearls and their ministry care about.

All I can say is if you know anyone with a child whatever you do not buy this for them maybe even tell them about this book so they do not buy it.


Read more at Examiner.com

Please, speak up against the abusive practices advocated in 'To Train Up a Child'. Post on Facebook and Twitter! Aign the petition asking Amazon.com to stop selling this book and encourage new parents to seek more rational resources on child rearing, such as Parenting Beyond Belief

And they wonder why there seems to be a war on Christianity. Do they really not know?

Jesus. Are they Nazis? That's terrible. People have lost their damn minds. No common sense anymore. Poor little girl.

The title sounds more its more suitable for a tomato plant

And the content, not even a dog should be treated that way!

reply to post by amazing


The title should be how to beat up a child or how to torture a child or how to kill a child.

The methods in there are just mental something I would expect in a report of Guantanamo the only thing missing is waterboarding.

I didn’t want to rail against religion in the OP because I think most Christians know better but it is obvious some do not and some even write a book stating those methods are biblically approved in a sense. It’s sick I tell you that ministry and those people are all sick.

reply to post by Grimpachi


I have to say, every thread you bring to the forum is A+ quality.

___

Why wasn't any of the numerous homeland agencies not investigating this ministry if their entire deal is torturing kids. I think there was a thread on this before where the kids we being sent off to an internment camp if they couldn't be 'handled' at home properly.

Not sure if it's the same ministry, but it mirrors it well.

After the first few cases of something pops up, where are the wiretaps, undercover agents, etc. They are promoting and disseminating information that is equal to pedophilia.

For anyone who thinks I'm overplaying it, speak to adults who have gone through this insane type of child rearing. It is not teaching them anything besides how to be screwed up, and cope for the next 15 some odd years learning how to get over it.

reply to post by boncho


Thanks Boncho as I am sure you are aware there are many members who do not appreciate my threads as you do. I had to hold off writing this one to simmer down because I think the important thing here is to make sure this book stays out of homes more than anything and provoking a left right atmosphere would be counterproductive on my part.

I appreciate the support.

im compelled to author an appendix to this book...

Appendix A:

If you're not able to raise your child without using the techniques described in this book, please do the child and the rest of the world a favor and kindly kill yourself, you sadistic piece of sh#t.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Please don't describe this book as Christian.

It is a sadistic and vile evil, purporting to be Christian in order to deceive desperate and gullible people.

A wolf in sheep's clothing.

Last week I was in a store and observed a toddler swat at his mother. Her response was to slap his hand, and say ""You don't hit people!"
It might have been funny, if it wasn't so pathetic.
All corporal punishment seem to accomplish is proving to the child that you're bigger than they are, they need to fear you....and if they don't, you will make them hurt.
These children grow up and become the 'abuser'.
Children learn what they live.
I wish the consequences of improper parenting were a required course throughout high school. Something needs to break the cycle.
So sad....

My reply timed out.

I think ATS is telling me ... if you've got nothing good to say ...

Urantia1111
im compelled to author an appendix to this book...

Appendix A:

If you're not able to raise your child without using the techniques described in this book, please do the child and the rest of the world a favor and kindly kill yourself, you sadistic piece of sh#t.

Well said.


Those poor kids!

if you spare the rod you might spoil the child, they need to show respect to there parents. Most parents have no clue what the word "respect" even means anymore. They're the child and the child is the parent bossing them around. If you spare the rod you actually don't love you child very much.

nugget1
Children learn what they live.

That right there ^^^^^.
Punish a child with violence, they learn violence.
Treat a child with respect and they show respect.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Interesting accounts by parents who used the method.

One home-schooling/blogging mother went so far as to buy the plumbing hose and try it on herself. “What I did was take the small supposedly ‘harmless’ tube and LIGHTLY tap myself on the forearm with it,” she reports. “Not only did it sting like an SOB but it also left welts on my arm for TWO hours afterwards.”

The part that really got me though:

Judge and her husband followed the Pearls’ advice when trying to train their infant son Noah not to grab forbidden objects: “Switch their hand once and simultaneously say, ‘No.’ Remember, you are not disciplining, you are training. One spat with a little switch is enough,” reads the book. “They will again pull back their hand and consider the relationship between the object, their desire, the command and the little reinforcing pain. It may take several times, but if you are consistent, they will learn to consistently obey, even in your absence.”

Problem was, Noah didn’t learn so fast. By the time he was almost 2, neither the word “no” nor a swat on the hand were getting through to him. “I remember thinking how stubborn he was, and that he was a smart baby and should understand what we were doing. He was obviously being defiant. Obviously, I wasn’t switching him enough,” Judge says sarcastically. “So I did it more.”

If it takes you more than a week or two, on someone who is nearly at a blank state, to change minor behaviours… then you're doing it wrong. Kids have relatively short attention spans, distracting them every time they do something you don't want them to, works equally as well.

I've moulded a few people in my time, I can't say negative pressure ever worked well at all unless they already had a very deep positive bond with you. This method sounds like absolute indifference. The more you beat them the more, the more indifference you show them, the more they will develop their own towards you and anything you say.

While they eventually "obey" (see: Break) you get your trained animal but in the shell of a human being.

It really sounds like the authors are emotionally and intellectually bankrupt. Kid cries, beat kid till it stops crying, problem solved. Sounds like they are being raised in a meth house.

spartacus699
if you spare the rod you might spoil the child, they need to show respect to there parents. Most parents have no clue what the word "respect" even means anymore. They're the child and the child is the parent bossing them around. If you spare the rod you actually don't love you child very much.

Children become bad because of what they learn, they are not born bad! Then when they've been taught to be bad the parents start punishing them, getting more and more severe as the cycle gets worse.
I know children who have NEVER been beaten, and they are very good children who respect those who deserve respect.

Dont know much about the book or the teaching, but why do we not concentrate on loving our children and letting them become whatever kind of person they choose?

Sure, some people believe that kids need tons of discipline and and all that, but we let our kids learn from their dumb mistakes and just love em for who they are.......and they are some great kids.

Love is the answer......not a beating!

spartacus699
if you spare the rod you might spoil the child, they need to show respect to there parents. Most parents have no clue what the word "respect" even means anymore. They're the child and the child is the parent bossing them around. If you spare the rod you actually don't love you child very much.

The point is to give them love so they can see the difference when they get the rod. If a kid knows nothing but abuse they have absolutely no clue what it means to interact with people without some type of physical dependence.

And if you read accounts of parents who have taken up this method of child rearing, some say they themselves get addicted to the beatings. Transference of anger. (Often considered one of the most childish human emotions).

A parent has a bad day, oh well the kid just did XYZ, better punish them…

We know exactly how arbitrary rules are, especially as kids. Striking them and starving them, putting them in colds baths or outside without proper attire is not teaching them anything, besides the fact you have emotional problems.

This is really hard for people to understand, but kids aren't stupid. I knew when I was 6 years when adults were being asses (and I always pointed it out). Usually got whacked upside the head for it too, kinda proving my point.

(before anyone says it)… I also didn't have a problem with respect. I respected my grandparents, my father, an aunt and uncle here and there. The adults that deserved respect. You don't automatically get respect cause you have saggy balls.

*In social situations, yes it's proper to respect your elders. [though there are exceptions to every rule]

reply to post by boncho


Don't have much to say, except that you hit the nail on the head!

"Train" is about the truth of it from the sounds of this book. You "train" animals, you educate humans.

I realy think they're should be a lot of leway for parents deciding how to raise their children, but this is sick and twisted, any parent who reads this book and then decides to inflict such sick "training" on their child clearly shouldn't have a child or possible even be in the same area as one.