There's a bearded patriarch in starkly misnamed Pleasantville, Tennessee, who lacks only a turban to fully emulate a realm of Sharia law. Pastor Michael Pearl and his wife Debi preside over the equally misnamed Greater Joy Ministries.
The garb of the women in Pearl's congregation mock the burqas of women under the thumb of extremist mullahs -- baggy Christmas pageant costumry, hair modestly covered by nun-like habits, although it appears that women are permitted to wear shoes even when pregnant.
Seemingly harmless eccentricities were it not for the chilling specter of three dead children. Mr. Pearl has written a book, To Train Up a Child, which is adhered to as if it were the Gospel of God Himself by the non-thinking sheep herded by Pearl:
In the latest case, Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., were home-schooling their six children when they adopted a girl and a boy, ages 11 and 7, from Ethiopia in 2008. The two were seen by their new parents as rebellious, according to friends.
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. ...
The same kind of plumbing tube was reported to have been used to beat Lydia Schatz, 7, who was adopted at age 4 from Liberia and died in Paradise, Calif., in 2010. Her parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz, had the Pearl book but ignored its admonition against extended lashing or harm; they whipped Lydia for hours, with pauses for prayer. She died from severe tissue damage, and her older sister had to be hospitalized, officials said. ...
The Pearls’ teachings also came up in the trial of Lynn Paddock of Johnson County, N.C., who was convicted of the first-degree murder of Sean Paddock, 4, in 2006. The Paddocks had adopted six American children, some with emotional problems, and turned to the Internet and found the Pearls’ Web site, Ms. Paddock said. Sean suffocated after being wrapped tightly in a blanket. His siblings testified that they were beaten daily with the same plumbing tube. Mr. Paddock was not charged.
NYTimes
Home-schooling, describing a child-parent relationship as a battle of wills in which the parent must prevail like a vengeful god, switching as “spiritual cleansing.”
All of the children named were adopted or foster children.
Religiously used contraception, even abortion, seems a kinder alternative than the excruciating suffering experienced by these sad, short-lived mites of humanity.
Where is the respect for life, human life?