Another adopted child...parents followed Pearl methods

[katiekind]

One adopted daughter is dead, another is in critical condition but expected to survive. The parents, who also have another adopted daughter and 6 biological children have been charged with murder and torture, and also according to one article, a lesser count of cruelty has been entered against them because of injuries to their ten-year-old son.
http://www.paradisepost.com/news/ci_14378467
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_14371777
http://www.chicoer.com/ci_14388171?source=most_viewed

[District Attorney] Ramsey said he is also exploring a possible connection to a Web site that endorses "biblical discipline" using the same rubber or plastic tube alleged to have been used to whip the two young ridge girls by their adoptive parents.

God....please teach your people better ways to parent their children! Please help the other children in the family as they go through this terrible ordeal. Please heal them all in body and spirit.

[Wonder Woman]

it literally made my stomach church when I read the follow-up article Of course it's the Pearls...http://www.khsltv.com/content/localn...b2Dx8U_gA.cspx - who apparently have No Greater Joy than to know that babies everywhere are being whipped in their name

I *know* that they don't condone murder, at least not the kind that leaves a 7 year old adopted child in cardiac arrest because she couldn't pronounce "pulled". But what about the murder of the spirit? What about the emotional death so many children experience at the hands of well-intentioned parents?

I literally don't have the words to pray...

[TestifyToLove]

Sadly, I flat-out called that one when I saw this situation in the In The News forum. The plumbing tubing was a dead giveaway.

Micheal Pearl should be proud. He can officially count 2 deaths of the most vunerable of vunerable to his 'parenting' practices. North Carolina tried to prosecute him for little Shawn's death several years ago. They certainly subpeonaed him and clearly showed he was the main influence in his adoptive mother's discipline tactics.

Pearl's parenting is dangerous and abusive for ALL children. But, you take a parent and tell them that they are under Biblical orders to discipline this way...then hand them a child they have NO attachments to, and you write that child's death sentence.

With attachment, even abusive parents feel a conviction to stop short of death usually. In older child adoption, attachment is SOOO hard to form. This child is a stranger in your home, yet you are expected to call yourself parent. In the best of situations, its a scary yet thrilling dance to attach with this fully formed person. If you start HITTING them, they WILL retreat and will not attach. And, now you are responsible for a child who sees you not merely as a stranger but a monster. And, you rise to that monster with no small voice inside of you that tells you BACK AWAY FROM THE PLUMBING TUBING. In short, you create RAD, you teach them to fear, to cringe and that response causes you to hit harder because that is precisely the 'heart issues' Pearl tells you to discipline out of them. And, eventually they are simply dead, you have beaten them to death nothing can be done to stop it.

Micheal Pearl should face homocide charges for these deaths. He should be locked away and his materials and website should be handled in the same manner is child pornography. It is just as vile and dangerous to children, but especially to adopted children.

[Teribear]

WHEN LORD? When are these people who condone abuse and do so in your name going to be held accountable? I know that you will hold them accountable for the damage they have done in your name and that is a fearsome thing but I'm still human enough to want some justice done in THIS life for the the children who they have caused to be hurt and the cycle that this perpetuates. I pray for their conviction...both in the meaning of the word that means their becoming aware of the sin they are perpetrating and in the meaning of the word that they are prosecuted in our human courts for their part in these child murders.

Amen

[TestifyToLove]

Slight correction, he spelled his name Sean, not Shawn, ftr. And, the Pearls were responsible for his death 4 years ago now.

[peacefullone]

[MomtoJGJ]

I posted one of the articles on my facebook... that's just sick... even before when I was punitive I couldn't see hitting children with anything other than my hand... that's just wrong no matter how you view it... plain abusive.

It probably will cause a big debate on my facebook, if it doesn't it will be because some of the people on there will deny that this is the same thing they are doing.

[peacefullone]

I couldn't get the link to work well on my pc.

[katiekind]

The DA, at the end of the article Wonder Woman linked, talks about even the No Greater Joy people pointing out that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed....

Ramsey is quick to point out that followers of No Greater Joy do not advocate spanking to the point of serious injury.

"Even the Tennessee pastor that espouse hitting children right from infancy says that you must watch that you don't cross the line. Clearly this is a situation where the line was crossed from discipline... to beating... to murder," said Ramsey.
http://www.khsltv.com/content/localn...b2Dx8U_gA.cspx

"Crossing the line" is clearly very subjective.

Harder thinking needs to be done than platitudes like "you have to watch that you don't cross the line". What do you say about lines defined by a guy whose starting point is weird and crazy to begin with? His followers might not be well-equipped to notice where normal parents would draw the line.

In the situation with these girls, one girl died from heart failure and the other girl suffered kidney failure caused by the chemical breakdown of her muscle tissue -- at least that's what one of the articles said. (I am horrified and shuddering at being so specific. I am sorry, mommas.)

How would a spanking parent know where those lines are?

This is all so grotesque, so inverted from the way of Jesus.

[*Mrs_Chris*]

The thing is though, if you truely use the wepon the way the Pearls say to, that so called line, isnt really there.. Sure, they would never say murder your child.. But they DO say to spank until the child is "repentant" And initiates healing the relationship. If they don't do that, or they continue to cry, you are supposed to continue to spank... How is that not advocating things like this??????

[Teribear]

Just read that the three adopted children were from Liberia...and thought of our moms here that have beautiful Liberian children. Somehow that makes it so much more "personal" to me today. Those poor little ones.

[soxthecatrules]

I just scanned this thread....don't have the emotional strength to read through all of it right now...

[Aerynne]

Things like that give homeschooling a bad name, too, if that's all people read about homeschooling. Those kids would definitely be better off in public school than at home. At this point, however, at least hopefully the other kids will be put into better homes.

[mamamonkey]

I have to admit, I was not familiar with the Pearls prior to reading this thread. I went to their website to educate myself a little further about their viewpoint and I am simply sickened .

One of the articles on the website under child training mentions a "child training marathon" in which the father was instructed to spank a child until he stopped crying. I agree with Mrs Chris..how does that not tacitly advocate things like this??

[Wonder Woman]

I just blogged about it here: http://mommypress.com/rebecca/this-m...-cry-today.htm