Many were shocked to learn of the death of Hana Williams, a 13 year-old girl adopted by Larry and Carri Williams. According to Go Skagit, the Williams' were arrested in late September and charged with homicide for allegedly abusing Hana to death. KVAL states that according to court reports, Hana had been systematically beaten and starved by her adoptive parents, who left her naked outside in the cold before her death. The Williams' reportedly took "Biblical" disciplining pointers from the book To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl of No Greater Joy Ministries. To Train Up a Child has generated controversy because it encourages parents to use corporal punishment on their children from a young age.
Anderson Cooper 360 interviewed the Pearls and explores what role To Train Up a Child may have played in other high-profile child abuse deaths. (Click here and here if you're having trouble viewing the videos.)
To learn more about No Greater Joy Ministries, visit www[dot]nogreaterjoy[dot]org. For additional commentary, visit the following links.
Huffington Post: Religion And Discipline: Report Explores Punishing Children In The Name Of Religion
No Longer Quivering: Corpses Don’t Rebel: A former follower of Michael Pearl’s “To Train Up A Child” reacts to the death of Hana Williams
It's so sad to see abuse "in the name of God." Also sad that they had taken in so many children, as if this was their "mission."
ReplyDeleteDonna -- Physical abuse and spiritual abuse are horrifying enough by themselves, but together they can cause enormous harm. These stories saddened me too.
ReplyDeleteThat particular Christian god is one sick puppy. Simply horrifying.
ReplyDeleteCognitive Dissenter -- A god who commands his followers to abuse children is not worthy of worship in my eyes. Sadly, this kind of brutality is condoned in Proverbs (see Proverbs 22:15, 23:13-14, and 29:15). Sickening.
ReplyDeleteWhy "well that's in the Old Testament" isn't a good argument in defense of the horrible nature of God...
ReplyDeletePerhaps this is one arena where we should be happy that more people do not read their Bible?
I'm just saddened to see people like this....and it seems more and more of them are proudly coming out of the woodwork.
ReplyDeleteWise Fool -- You might be right. The Old Testament is so full of sadism that I'm glad more people don't follow its more brutal precepts.
ReplyDeleteJerry -- They do seem to be coming out of the woodwork, which saddens me too. Still, I'd rather have these things out in the open (so that we can know about them and stop them) than in secret.