To train up a child, book has lead to the death of 3 children

[LaLaw2000]

Yes, I totally misworded and misread the article. It said the book is sent for free to military families and NOT that it is given out by the military.

:blowkiss:

 

[Deleted member 96356]

I'd like to find out which churches promote the book, and know exactly why the military gives it out.

I don't think this is promoted by anyone other than No Greater Joy Ministries, which is owned and run by the Pearls. (Yes, they have their own ministry.) The book is popular though not in any official capacity with members of the Quiverful movement run by Bill Gothard and his Institute in Basic Life Principles - Gothardism is the line of Christian faith that is followed by the Duggars of t.v. fame, for those who aren't familiar with it. And with people who homeschool with the American Training Institute curriculum. Also Vision Forum (recently disbanded). Again, I'm not saying this book is promoted by any of those organizations (except NGJ), nor am I saying that all members of those organizations follow the Pearls method, just that those are the loosely connected Christian communities where I know it to have some popularity. Could be others.

IMO, nothing good comes from the hardline patriarchal belief that sons are owned by their fathers until they reach legal age, and daughters are owned by their fathers until they are married. Children are humans, not property. IMO when you view them as your property, it's much easier to justify stuff like, well, hitting a 6 month old infant if they don't stay on a blanket.

Beyond all of that, the authors encourage "fasting", in which food is withheld as a form of discipline. IMO children need regular nourishment in proper amounts for their growing bodies. They need emotional nourishment too, for that matter.

I'm heartbroken to learn of the loss of these precious young lives. If any glimmer of good can come of their deaths, perhaps it will be the exposing of this childrearing "method". May they not have suffered in vain. :rose:

 

[Ausgirl]

And with people who homeschool with the American Training Institute curriculum.

/shudder

Just the idea of that book, plus homeschooling.

 

[ArianeEmory]

/shudder

Just the idea of that book, plus homeschooling.

It would probably look something like this:

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - NC Social Services Supervisor arrested for abuse of foster child, 11

 

[killarney rose]

How can they get away with giving that book to military families? Would the military condone it if they knew what is in it?

 

[Deleted member 96356]

How can they get away with giving that book to military families? Would the military condone it if they knew what is in it?

It is sent to individual servicemen in care packages along with other Pearl books and materials. They have other care packages for military wives and children. It's not sent out blanket, it's per request. So it counts as gifts, which our military are entitled to. I'm loath to criticize any care package, because I know how much they are dearly appreciated, and our military are entitled to their religions. But I'll admit this bugs me. :twocents: :moo:

http://nogreaterjoy.org/ministry/military-ministry/

Note that they seem to assume soldiers are men and the spouses are wives. Not like there are any female soldiers who have left husbands at home...

 

[forthelost]

The whole book is available online. I looked through it and trust me, none of the above mentioned things are any better in context.

 

[seattlechiquita]

The whole book is available online. I looked through it and trust me, none of the above mentioned things are any better in context.

Link won't work for me.

This case makes me beyond sick.

 

[Deleted member 96356]

This link should work:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101104141241/http://www.achristianhome.com/to_train_up_a_child.htm

I don't recommend it if you're sensitive....

 

[Elainera]

Disgusting. If three children have reportedly been killed, one can only imagine how many more have died or suffered at their ill-informed parents' hands without catching the attention or concern of CPS and LE.

Change.org has a petition, which apparently has not yet gotten enough signatures to convince Amazon to withdraw the books from their electronic shelves. But one can always let Amazon know that they will be boycotted until they do so.

https://www.change.org/petitions/am...which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children

Besides signing this petition (and sharing it on our facebook pages), we can add our own comments and one-star reviews to sites like Amazon. We can also educate our local bookstores about this book and the deaths that have come from it, and urge them to remove the book from their shelves. I see my beloved Powell's City of Books also carries it. Their CEO will be hearing from me soon.

Thanks for the link to the petition! I signed it. Suggest to everybody here to do the same.

It's utterly disgusting me :banghead:

Why were all the children that were beaten to death adopted? Are adopted children statistically beaten more often/more severely?

 

[Sheromom]

People have been using religious texts to suit their own ends and justify their own reprehensible actions for millenia.

Proverbs 23:13-14 (King James Version, the version I was raised on. And I was spanked until I was 11 years old!)

13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die .
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The rod referred to in the Bible is a Shepherd's staff. One end used to prod sheep along (prod, not beat) and the other end used to hook around their necks if they needed pulled out of danger. I hate the King James Version.

 

[song22]

I am mennonite and have lots of conservative mennonite and amish friends. I think this book is exploiting the image of the amish to help sell these repulsive ideas. While the Amish and Conservative mennos do spank, I have never heard of anyone in that community using this book or such ideas. of course there are always outliers and you can find abuse in any community, but it would not be the norm. it really disgusts me to hear that this book references the Amish.

My stepbrother and his wife (not menno) we're briefly enamored with an earlier version of Ezzo ideas. My mom and I flipped out and intervened right away and harassed them until they gave it up. it didn't involve beatings, they had their first baby and back then Ezzo had a book about withholding nursing if the baby cried in the middle of feedings, same crap about conditioning and control. babies were going to the ER with dehydration and malnutrition issues. this was back in the 90's, so this guy has been at it for a while. I remember a few of my conservative mennonite friends had heard about Ezzo from other Christians and were interested, but when they heard the details they said No way. Sorry about my grammar issues on the iPad.

 

[gitana1]

Yeah, it's not for me, but I did want to chime in that I knew of some blanket training that didn't involve corporal punishment. Since I've heard of more than a few people doing it, I wanted to put it out there in case someone saw/heard someone use the phrase and immediately assumed it meant spanking or beating to ensure compliance.



How is that abusive? While it's not something I would do, I really don't see how putting your small child on a blanket with special toys, for five minutes at a time, to get them used to sitting quietly and playing, is abusive. It's certainly odd and it assumes you can train a child like you can a puppy, but it's not abusive - the only discipline is to put the child back on the blanket if they move and tell them no.

Putting a bsby in a small space and ecpecting it to learn to stay there is in complete contradiction to all child development principles and what we know scientifically about infant brains. A tiny 5 month old baby lacks the capacity to understand what movement or keeping still mean, let alone why one would be preferable at one time and one at another. These are small, helpless beings, learning about their senses, learning eye hand coordination, developing a rudimentary understanding of depth and space, who are totally dependent on the adults around them for their every need, physical and emotional. They dOnt understand time but might eventually learn that if they mOve from a certain area after mother says "no", they will feel pain and eventually, out of nothing but fear, the baby would stop moving.

No one can tell me that a 5 month old baby would Learn to stay on a blanket without hitting it.

 

[killarney rose]

My guess is that kids who were in the system and had a poor home life to be taken from their parents, had emotional and behavioral problems, therefore were harder to get to behave than the bio kids.

 

[Elainera]

Makes sense killarney!

 

[Norwegian]

Why are all three kids, dead as a result of following this book, adopted?

 

[killarney rose]

Why are all three kids, dead as a result of following this book, adopted?

See my post above yours. Just my theory.

 

[Norwegian]

My guess is that kids who were in the system and had a poor home life to be taken from their parents, had emotional and behavioral problems, therefore were harder to get to behave than the bio kids.

Well, I agree to some degree.

But; is this book targeted towards adoptive families? Is this book "trendy" in the Christian adopting milieu? It can't be a coincidence that 3 kids dies from methods used in this book and all are adopted.

There's lots of bio kids misbehaving, too Step kids misbehaving

I just feel like a lot of people adopt to be heroes, but really; there's so many things to prepare for, think about, it's LIFE.

I'm also wondering to the inner voice and gut feeling of these parents. Even if they "trusted" the book - at some point they must've thought; "I'm inflicting pain on my child, this is going too far etc.?"

I'm going to dig more and see if I can find other deaths.

 

[Norwegian]

Affidavit from Hana William's murder:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/66907264/Probable-Cause

It's horrific reading!

Hana's younger brother, also adopted, had a condition where he was leaking urine and he got disciplined when he did so. Who the **** disciplines a child for an accident like that, let alone a condition making him constantly prone to leak?

These so-called Christians doesn't have any trouble lying to protect themselves!

 

[seattlechiquita]

Affidavit from Hana William's murder:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/66907264/Probable-Cause

It's horrific reading!

Hana's younger brother, also adopted, had a condition where he was leaking urine and he got disciplined when he did so. Who the **** disciplines a child for an accident like that, let alone a condition making him constantly prone to leak?

These so-called Christians doesn't have any trouble lying to protect themselves!

These people are worse than animals. Give me 10 minutes to discipline them, and we can see how they like it. :stormingmad: