{"id":246,"date":"2011-10-07T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/10\/how-many-more-must-die\/"},"modified":"2012-08-07T21:14:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T01:14:47","slug":"how-many-more-must-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2011\/10\/how-many-more-must-die.html","title":{"rendered":"How Many More Must Die?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

And so it continues<\/span><\/a>. Another child has died as a direct result of Michael Pearl\u2019s teachings. How many more must die? <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. \u2013 The parents of an adopted girl who died of exposure in her own backyard after she had been starved and abused for months pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Larry P. Williams and Carri D. Williams of Sedro Woolley were arrested last week and later charged with homicide by abuse and assault of a child in the first degree in Skagit County Superior Court.<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Each was ordered held Thursday on $150,000 bail.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court documents, the couple\u2019s adopted daughter, Hana Williams, 13, was systematically starved, beaten, forced to use an outdoor toilet and sometimes locked in a dark closet for days by the Williams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hana Williams was found dead in May \u2013 naked, face-down in the mud in her own backyard \u2013 after she had spent much of a cold, rainy day outside as a punishment, according to court documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although she died of hypothermia, there were other contributing causes to her death, including severe malnutrition and chronic gastritis, doctors said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Williams had adopted Hana from Ethiopia in 2008 as a diseased little girl to begin a new life in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, according to court records, she was beaten, starved, forced to sleep in a barn at times and deprived of love and basic necessities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Child Protective Services said there are reports that Hana had lost a significant amount of weight before her death. And the night she died, she was out in the yard naked on a rainy evening, with temperatures in the low 40s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further investigation revealed that Hana had a number of injuries on the night she died, including a large lump on the head, bloody marks and injuries \u201cconsistent with disciplinary impacts with a switch,\u201d according to court documents released Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those same documents describe the hellish life that Hana endured in the months before her death \u2013 which included systematic withholding of food, forced times outdoors in the cold or locked in a dark closet, interspersed with regular spankings or beatings with a plumbing tool.<\/span><\/p>\n

In interviews with the parents and other children in the household, investigators determined that the Williams withheld food from Hana as a punishment for being \u201crebellious,\u201d court documents say.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, Hana was forced to use an outdoor portable toilet behind the barn instead of the home\u2019s indoor bathroom, and she sometimes was made to take cold showers while naked outdoors under a garden hose, the case file says.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Williams told investigators that they made Hana use the outdoor toilet because she had hepatitis and they didn\u2019t want any of their other children to become infected with the disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other punishments included locking Hana inside a dark closet for hours or days without food while the parents played the Bible on tape and Christian music for her while she was locked inside, according to court documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hana also was forced to sleep in the barn on some nights or kept outside for hours in the cold without adequate clothing or shoes, court documents say \u2013 but she was allowed to wear shoes if there was snow on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Williams also confirmed that they used a flexible plumbing tool as a switch to punish Hana and some of the other children in their household.<\/span><\/p>\n

The children told investigators that Hana sometimes was beaten with a switch for standing more than 12 inches away from where she was told to stand or for speaking without permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Williams\u2019 older biological children were sometimes encouraged to join in administering the punishment by their parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

A witness told investigators that the Williams got their ideas for the disciplinary measures from a book, \u201cHow to Train Up Your Child,\u201d which recommends switchings with a plumbing tool, cold water baths, withholding food and putting children out in cold weather as forms of punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Williams\u2019 other adopted child, a 10-year-old boy who also was adopted at the same time as Hana, is deaf \u2013 and also reportedly showed signs of abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the first-degree assault accusation against the Williams stems from allegations relating to the boy, who was also from Ethiopia but no relation to Hana.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court papers, the Williams also withheld food from the boy at times and switched him regularly \u2013 sometimes for not listening to them \u2013 even though he was deaf.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Hana\u2019s death, CPS convinced a judge to pull Hana\u2019s eight brothers and sister \u2013 ages seven to 17 \u2013 from their Sedro-Woolley home. Those children are all now in temporary foster care. The parents have requested a hearing to fight to get their children back.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Michael Pearl and his followers will once again distances themselves, saying that they never said families are to punish their children in anger or beat their children or starve them or put them outside in the cold. But<\/span>like I\u2019ve said before<\/span><\/a>, these defenses ring hollow. For one thing, there is no evidence that the Williams family ever punished Hana in anger. In fact, in the case of the Schatzes, there is actually a great deal of evidence that the Schatzes <\/span>did not<\/span> punish Lydia in anger.<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to punish in anger in order to abuse children. All you have to do is follow what Michael Pearl says in<\/span> To Train Up A Child<\/span>, slowly and methodically.<\/span><\/p>\n

The core of Pearl\u2019s teachings on child training seems to be the necessity of breaking the child\u2019s will. <\/span>Over and over again, Pearl tells parents to see parenting as a battle between the will of the parents and the will of the children, and over and over he admonishes children that unless they defeat their children\u2019s will and force them to defeat, they and their children will be miserable. He teaches that if you love your child, you must break her will <\/span>at any cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes breaking a child\u2019s will can be difficult. Sometimes it involves multiple (dispassionate) spankings with plumbing supply line, sometimes it involves withholding food until the child submits (and the Pearls say not to worry, for a child will never starve himself rather than submit \u2013 which in my experience has proved to be false). And while I have never heard of the Pearls recommending that children be forced to spend the night outside as a punishment, it is in some sense a natural outgrowth of the idea that a rebellious child must be separated from the others until he or she submits. <\/span><\/p>\n

If Hana had submitted, she would not have been beaten with the plumbing supply line. If Hana had submitted, she would not have been starved. If Hana had submitted, she would not have been forced to spend the night away from the family. Since Hana did not submit, Pearl would say, she was clearly in rebellion against her parents, striving to exert her will over theirs. Her will needed breaking. And sometimes, as in the case of Lydia and the case of Hana, breaking the will may result in breaking the body. <\/span><\/p>\n

This child was also adopted, and also from Africa. I cannot think that this is a coincidence. Children who are adopted may have attachment issues, and parents of adopted children may relate to them differently than to their biological children. Furthermore, children who are adopted as children rather than born into a Pearl family must have their wills broken much later than those raised on the Pearls from birth. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if this turns into a pattern. <\/span><\/p>\n

Update: <\/strong>Michael Pearl has issued an official statement on Hana\u2019s death,<\/span>which you can read here<\/span><\/a>. I think they realize the problem they have. They are not \u201claughing\u201d in this statement, but instead point out passages from TTUAC that supposedly warn against how Hana\u2019s parents treated her. Except, of course, that they actually don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrain up-not beat up. Train up-not discipline up.\u201d \u201cA child needs more than \u2018obedience training\u2019, but without first training him, discipline is insufficient\u201d page 4<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDisciplinary actions can easily become excessive and oppressive if you set aside the tool of training and depend on discipline alone to do the training.\u201d Page 9<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParent, have you trained yourself not to discipline immediately but to wait until your irritation builds into anger? If so, then you have allowed anger to become your inducement to discipline.\u201d Page 25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cParent, if you are having problems with your children, you can be assured that you are not alone. Your children are also having problems with you. You are going to have to make adjustments in your own life if you are going to help them with their problems.\u201d \u201c\u2026 the responsibility for making a significant change is completely yours.\u201d Page 32<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always some who act in the extreme. These individuals are capable of using what has been said about the legitimate use of the rod to justify ongoing brutality to their children.\u201d page 50<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rod should never be a vent for parents\u2019 anger. Where the supreme motivation is anything other than the child\u2019s good, it is inevitable that such behavior by the parent will assuredly create problems.\u201d page 51<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

None of these quotes argue against what Hana\u2019s parents did, because there is no evidence that her parents disciplined her in anger, and there is no evidence that they did not also try to build a relationship in order to curb Hana\u2019s \u201crebellion.\u201d There is no evidence that the parents were merely using Pearls\u2019 methods to justify brutality, rather than actually believing Pearl\u2019s methods and using them in love to train up their children. The problem was not anger or the rod, but rather the belief that children must have their wills broken at whatever cost necessary. Allow me to quote some <\/span>other <\/span>passages from TTUAC: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKnow that if he is accustomed to getting his unrestricted way, you can expect just such a response. He will just continue to do what he has always done to get his way. It is his purpose to intimidate you and make you fell like a crud pile. Don\u2019t be bullied. Give him more of the same. On the bare legs or bottom, switch him eight or ten licks; then, while waiting for the pain to subside, speak calm words of rebuke. If the crying turns to a true, wounded, submissive, whimper, you have conquered; he has submitted his will. If the crying is still defiant, protesting and other than a response to pain, spank him again. If this is the first time he has come up against someone tougher than he, it may take a while. He must be convinced that you have truly altered your expectations. There is no justification for this to be done in anger. If you are the least angry, wait until another time. Most parents are so guilt laden and paranoid that they are unable to carry this through to the end. If you stop before he is voluntarily submissive, you have confirmed to him the value and effectiveness of a screaming protest. The next time, it will take twice as long to convince him of your commitment to his obedience, because he has learned the ultimate triumph of endurance in this episode in which he has prevailed.\u201d (80)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have to sit on him to spank him, then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he is surrendered. Prove that you are bigger, tougher, more patiently enduring and are unmoved by his wailing. Hold the resisting child in a helpless position for several minutes, or until he is totally surrendered.\u201d The child is to \u201cbend over on the bed or couch\u2026 Slowly begin to spank. If you go too fast, you may not allow time enough for the inner transformation to occur.\u201d In the same section, the author says, \u201cI have found five to ten licks are usually sufficient. As the child gets older, the licks must become more forceful if the experience is going to be effective in purging his rebellion. A general rule is to continue the disciplinary action until the child has surrendered.\u201d (p. 49, 50)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally, there is this gem: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are just beginning to institute training on an already rebellious child, who runs from discipline and is too incoherent to listen, then use whatever force is necessary to bring him to bay. If you have to sit on him to spank him then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he is surrendered. Prove that you are bigger, tougher, more patiently enduring and are unmoved by his wailing. Defeat him totally. Accept no conditions for surrender. No compromise. You are to rule over him as a benevolent sovereign. Your word is final.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I rest my case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And so it continues. Another child has died as a direct result of Michael Pearl\u2019s teachings. How many more must die? MOUNT VERNON, Wash. \u2013 The parents of an adopted girl who died of exposure in her own backyard after she had been starved and abused for months pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[144,96,166],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","tag-authoritarian-parenting","tag-michael-pearl","tag-spanking"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Many More Must Die?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And so it continues. Another child has died as a direct result of Michael Pearl's teachings. How many more must die? 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