Christian homeschoolers receive maximum jail time for death of child

[G_j]

http://www.examiner.com/article/christian-homeschoolers-receive-maximum-jail-time-for-death-of-child

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.”

..more..

[enlightenment]

1. Good.

Too bad they can't do the same to the sick arsewipes who wrote that torture tome.

[Ohio Joe]

2. "The book is also linked to the deaths of at least two other children"

Yet this shit is available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/To-Train-Child-Michael-Pearl/dp/1892112000

This pair of fundies should also be facing charges.

[malaise]

3. Time to rein in this BS

Good

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Couldn't happen to a nice pair of child abusers.

Thank you, Judge.

[valerief]

5. Since this proves we're not a Christian nation, can we make abortion legal again???? nt

[magical thyme]

6. well, they both should have gotten life in prison

but this will have to do. They look old enough already that their sentences may be tantamount to lifers. May they never know one second of peace, safety or satiety again on this earth.

[hatrack]

7. Good!

Psychotic assholes.

[Initech]

8. To quote Stephen Colbert: "This just in - Jesus has quit!"

[magical thyme]

9. I just added a book review to Amazon

How to torture and kill your child -- why is Amazon promoting child abuse?,

The latest people to murder their child by following the beatings and starvation this cult-book advised have mercifully been sentenced to 37 and 28 years in prison. You may want to ask Larry and Carri Williams how following this books advise worked out for them. It didn't work out too well for their adopted daughter, Hanna, whom they tortured to death. Hateful Book. I will not buy through Amazon again as long as they continue to promote this how-to book for torturers.

[freedom fighter jh]

10. Good thinking. nt

[vlakitti]

11. Good for you!

Amazon is an ethically-challenged corporation, anyway, but hitting them in their greed for money actually may get you heard.

[sakabatou]

12. Great job

[stage left]

14. I just replied to your post on Amazon.

I won't buy through Amazon, either, until this obscenity is no longer offered for sale.

[DRoseDARs]

18. Amazon has sold Mein Kampf and the Bible for years; discuss and advocate far worse...

...but now you care?

I'm not calling out your character (I'm sure you're a fine person) but there's a rather glaring contradiction here in your impotent rage.

[magical thyme]

19. my impotent rage? really?!?

Everybody draws lines someplace. You draw the line where you choose. This is where I choose to draw the line. Not at historical publications, but at a here and now book that purports to specifically provide a "how to" on how to train up a child with beatings that being on 1 year old babies, recommends implements that are known to not cause surface bruising so will hide the beatings, etc.

[Mz Pip]

20. There is a difference

There are historical and literary reasons for reading Mein Kampf. Both are lacking in that piece of trash.

[bluemarkers]

13. I used to homeschool

but not for crazy fundie reasons

anyway....

went to a home school convention and one of the topics was how to "discipline" your child or some such nonsense. This was a while back so the details are fuzzy as to why I was in the room, but I distinctly remember being disgusting and leaving. This guy was talking about how to spank and how it was the parent's right etc etc It may have been the authors from the article because I do seem to remember him saying it was alright to use material from a store.

This is religion at its most dangerous. While their actions have horrifying results they appear to be a reflection of the hatred they have for themselves. Self hatred and insecurity are a bad combination.

(This was the beginning of the end of my association with organized religion.)

[demigoddess]

32. I stopped going to church

when in 6th grade I heard the people talking about killing someone because she was an atheist. Also disgusted by the story of Abraham being willing to kill his son Isaac just because god said to. If we all would abandon the churches, perhaps this madness would end.

[LeftyMom]

34. If he was saying to use plumbing supply line

(and he looked like he'd just rode a mule out of the holler to sell some 'shine) it was Michael Pearl.

[Matariki]

15. Good.

Hope fans of those reprehensible idiots, Michael and Debi Pearl, take a lesson from this.

[CanonRay]

16. Two less Cruz votes

[sulphurdunn]

17. You can download this book for free.

It reads like a dog obedience manual with punishments and no rewards. No serious dog trainer would use such a method.

[dballance]

22. You're correct. All punishment - no rewards.

I've never trained my dogs that way.

Here is an example passage from the book that is ridiculous:

NEGATIVE TRAINING
How many times have we observed the grocery store arena? A devious little kid sits up in the command seat
of the shopping cart exercising his "childhood rights" to unlimited selfindulgence. The parent fearfully but
hopelessly steers around the tempting "trees of knowledge of good and evil." Too late! The child spies the
object of his unbridled lust. The battle is on. The child will either get what he wants or make the parent miserable. Either way, he conquers.

One father proudly told of how he fearlessly overcame by promising the child ice
cream if he would only wait until they left the store. Such compromises will simply confirm the child's terrorist tactics. You are not
gaining control of the child, he is gaining control of you. All children are trained, some carelessly or
negligently, and some, with varied degrees of forethought. All parental responses are conditioning the child's
behavior, and are therefore training

The father's method of training his child to behave is perfectly acceptable. Granted, he shouldn't buy the kid ice cream every time the leave the grocery and the kid behaved. But the Perls are condemning training with rewards for good behavior and only the threat of the rod when there is misbehavior seems to be acceptable to them.

[sulphurdunn]

24. When kids raised that way are old enough

they can own guns.

[nolabear]

25. The language in that passage alone shows nothing but hatred for children.

"A devious little kid sits up in the command seat..."

"...spies the object of his unbridled lust..."

"terrorist tactics"

There's not an ounce of recognition of the child's humanity. I could only wish that they receive the same level of kindness and understanding that they've shown those children.

Btw the episode in Washington, where I live, is worse than this. Far worse.

[arcane1]

28. That jumped out at me too. There is no love for children in someone who talks (writes) like that.

[dballance]

21. I added a review on Amazon with title "Parents Convicted for Using This Book's Methods"

Here is what I put in it:

From the "examiner.com" In September/October of 2013 "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."

"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."

http://www.examiner.com/article/christian-homeschoolers-found-guilty-death-of-adopted-daughter

I can't imagine anyone in this day and age using these techniques. In the first paragraph of the first chapter they compare beleaguered parents to Nazi Holocaust refugees. I find that offensive. The suffering of parents with misbehaving children should NOT be compared to the suffering of people who were the target of an attempted genocide.

If you use these Old Testament methods for raising children then I feel sorry for your children.

[vanlassie]

23. Disgusting. But the link to homeschooling is unfair

I guess a teacher might have reported evidence if abuse, but these parents and their sick "parenting style" caused the death, not homeschooling.

[dballance]

26. Should you wish to become further enraged - here's a link to the book for free

I downloaded it. Granted, after reading the first chapter all I could do was make myself skim the other chapters.

The Perl's and their followers are very disturbed people. They talk about children and "training" them as if they were a dog or a horse. Training a horse is commonly called "breaking the horse." Their book should be retitled "To Break a Child."

Link, if you can stand it.

http://poundpuplegacy.org/files/to_train_up_a_child.pdf

[demigoddess]

33. this is the same kind of people

who think that if you just beat your dog or cat within an inch of its life it will understand what you want it to do. Doesn't work.

[Thinkingabout]

27. This is very interesting. I wonder where this couple stands on the abortion issue.

Just have a feeling they might be anti abortion. When a woman is told to have a forced birth and if she makes the decision to give the baby up for adoption and a Christian family abuses the child until it results in death. My goodness, what was this couple thinking. Abortion after birth.

[gopiscrap]

29. fucking fundies, they're all like that.

[jmowreader]

30. You've got to work at it to leave a judge stunned and speechless

Next question: Why weren't Michael and Debi Pearl called as accessories to this crime?

[Northerner]

31. I hope there is a Hell waiting for these parents.

[hrmjustin]

35. They should get life for what they did. Just pure evil IMO.