How To Beat Babies

[Oddeverything]

I really wonder if this is a lot milder than what they actually do.

I've seen kids a bit older than that get swatted by their mothers and the kid does one of two things. Laughs and simply doesn't react, or cries for 2 minutes and then goes back to doing the exact same thing.

It doesn't matter if the Pearls merely swat their children. Michael Pearl wrote a book that instructs parents to beat their children without mercy. He uses that exact phrase - no mercy. No distinction is given between actual misbehavior and accidents or childish limitations. No distinction is given for children with developmental delays or intellectual limitations. All transgressions from perfect behavior should be subject to physical discipline without mercy.

He advises in the book to beat children with plumbing line. I have read mothers boast of having plumbing line in their purses because it is so portable that they can now carry the means by which they terrorize their children from one place to the next and no one is any the wiser because it is very convenient to beat a kid in a car with plumbing line. Very ergonomic.

Lydia Shatz is dead because this book exists. Her mother beat her with plumbing line because she, an adoptee from Africa, could not pronounce American words to her American mother's satisfaction. Her mother was convinced that any mistake her little girl made was rebellion against God because that is what Pearl said. She believed she needed to beat her child without mercy because that is what Pearl said she needed to do. So she beat the little girl until she died. Her sister is in kidney failure because of the beatings.

The kidney failure is due to nephrons being clogged with flesh and muscle matter. You know what happens when you beat a piece of meat to tenderize it? That's what happens to kids whose parents adopt the TTUaC method of beating. They are hit without mercy until their internal flesh and muscle breaks down, enters their blood stream and then clogs up their kidneys. I will be very surprised if there is not a rash of fundie kids going into kidney failure as adults because of all the beatings they received as children.

Pearl could have just swatted his kids, which I doubt since he brags about even beating his dogs with plumbing line. It doesn't matter if he gave them a pat on the behind and they smiled minutes later. His book is sold to people who genuinely think they need to beat their children without mercy for any error in order to save them for God and those people are indeed beating their children.

I hope I do not sound harsh here. I don't mean to lecture you. But the physical and psychological impact of this wicked book cannot be diminished by hopeful second-guessing or equivocation. This is one of those instances wherein no decent person should even try to make excuses, even though it is in our natures as decent human beings to try to find reason in madness.

[debrand]

I'm going to try over the next few days to post more threads on the Pearls. Reading their work is troubling but I really hope that parents considering their methods will wander into our forum and consider what is written here.

[debrand]

This is one of the worst and most disgusting things I ever read. How many people approximately read this stuff and use it?

They've hinted that they've been turned into the authorities before but nothing came of the investigation.

[browncoatslytherin]

lynnkaboom, thanks so much for posting those links, they were very good reads. and you mentioned chris hansen! total props from me for that.

[browncoatslytherin]

They've hinted that they've been turned into the authorities before but nothing came of the investigation.

maybe because the kids wouldn't say anything?

[debrand]

http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/ge ... d-damsels/

They were turned in and investigated in 2005. Apparently, not knowing him in real life counts more than reading the abundance of literature that is available on the web.

Recently, when we held a seminar in Chattanooga, Tennessee, being warned by these damsels, the Department of Human Services of Tennessee sent a “spy†to observe. We welcomed him readily. We have nothing to hide. A few weeks later, the head detective for the state of Tennessee dropped by our place to visit. We knew we did not have to talk to him, but again, having nothing to hide, Michael answered all his questions for about an hour, gave him our booklet “Biblical Chastisement,†our DVD set, The Joy of Training, and several of our books. Biblical Chastisement was written for just this purpose—a defense of Biblical child training. He talked to Deb for about an hour and also spent time with our office staff. He then called and spoke with one of our grown, married children. So the nice detective left, having come to the conclusion that the ladies who were reporting us did not KNOW us. He was satisfied that everything we do and teach is within the law. Since he left, I have honestly been expecting him to invite us to teach foster parents how to train the State’s children. We welcome cooperation with them. They need direction desperately. So, we would like to thank the “damsels†for helping to give us a clean bill of “child-training†health. We are now officially investigated and approved, however unnecessary it was. Thank you, damsels.

[emmyfair]

The Pearls are truly insane. I can't imagine ever hurting my kids, for any reason - I cry when they have accidents! I hope, in the afterlife, the Pearls are eternally subjected to the "training" they created for innocent children and babies.

[xDreamerx]

~*~

Lydia Shatz is dead because this book exists. Her mother beat her with plumbing line because she, an adoptee from Africa, could not pronounce American words to her American mother's satisfaction. Her mother was convinced that any mistake her little girl made was rebellion against God because that is what Pearl said. She believed she needed to beat her child without mercy because that is what Pearl said she needed to do. So she beat the little girl until she died. Her sister is in kidney failure because of the beatings.

The kidney failure is due to nephrons being clogged with flesh and muscle matter. You know what happens when you beat a piece of meat to tenderize it? That's what happens to kids whose parents adopt the TTUaC method of beating. They are hit without mercy until their internal flesh and muscle breaks down, enters their blood stream and then clogs up their kidneys. I will be very surprised if there is not a rash of fundie kids going into kidney failure as adults because of all the beatings they received as children.

~*~

I knew the child died because her mother followed Pearls teachings, but I didn't know the "rationale" behind the beatings. It's so disturbing. It's just so terrible to think of children being beaten like meat. I thought of those little spikey mallets you hit meat with to make it flat and tenderized. It's not a good deal different. Very disturbing. I can't understand why they think this okay (the readers). This kind of stuff causes the mothers to ignore their instincts and see their children as..I don't know. Certainly not persons. Property maybe.

[contrary]

i think this book has fairly wide circulation. even folks i wouldn't consider 'fundie' or even 'fundie light' have seen/read/owned/heard of it. it's certainly not a niche-market sort of thing.

eta: i think it gets cross-over buyers, too. There are the fundies who go in looking for ways to "train em up", and then there are homeschoolers (who may or may not be especially religious) who go in for homeschooling information, and end up with more.

[GenerationCedarchip]

There are some fundies I can take with a sense of humor, but the Pearls are just plain horrible :evil: and I wish they would be jailed for inciting child abuse.

In scary news, their book To Train Up a Child is ranked #7 in the Parenting category on Amazon. In addition, it ranks #8408 in sales ranks for books overall. Out of curiosity, I ran that against a couple popular authors and found that this book has a better sales rank than some of the backlist books for big sellers like Nora Roberts or John Grisham.

:crying-blue:

[Deleted03]

I think that its important to remind newcomers how vile that the Pearls' methods are. THere is also the chance that the name of this site will come up when someone googles the Pearls and it will warn them away from the couple's abusive methods.

This is the most stupid part. Even if you don't swat at the baby but just ignore out of the blue crying or frustration crying (I mean on toddlers of course) the baby is going to stop by itself within 10 min, it's not because you hit the baby... it's because it was just frustration and frustration goes away.

They are sick. Just sick. I wish we could call CPS on their kids, but it's too late now. A place in Hell just does not do it for me, they deserve some place in prison for teaching parents to hit their kids, under the guise of the bible.

[emmiedahl]

I got a copy of Pearl's disgusting book, TTUaC. I plan to discuss it on my odd books site (it's odd because it's one of the evilest books I have ever owned, right up there with Mein Kampf and The Turner Diaries). When I do, I will post a link to it.

I bought my copy used from Goodwill. If anyone is ever curious about anything the Pearls published, please buy the book used so they don't get a penny of profit and please buy it from a place that you know is in no way affiliated with the sorts of abuse these people advocate.

You can read ttuac free on the internet at one of the fundie websites--anyone remember where? I can't. But yeah, don't give these bastards a dime.

[LynnKaboom]

You can read ttuac free on the internet at one of the fundie websites--anyone remember where? I can't. But yeah, don't give these bastards a dime.

This is what I used for my first article on them. I'm pretty sure it's the whole text.

http://www.achristianhome.org/to_train_up_a_child.htm

[hoipolloi]

Great commentaries & analyses, LynnKaboom.

Hope they climb to the top of the search engines' pages along with these FJ threads.

[antifundie]

Do we have an evidence to suggest that the 2005 investigation actually took place? It sounds (to me) like the story could have been made up, you know?

Also, could we (FJ-ians) start a website specifically to warn parents about this? With quotes, testimonials, and info about Lydia?

Something like this:

www.ezzo.info/

It's a site to warn parents.

That's the first hit when you Google Ezzo, so maybe we could do something similar?

[takers401]

I'm sitting here with my 5 month old and tears came to my eyes reading that filth. She needs to be hugged, kissed, nursed, and just loved, loved, loved. The Pearls have to be such horrible-hearted people to even think of 'training' a child like that.

[fundifugee]

[

Lydia Shatz is dead because this book exists. Her mother beat her with plumbing line because she, an adoptee from Africa, could not pronounce American words to her American mother's satisfaction. Her mother was convinced that any mistake her little girl made was rebellion against God because that is what Pearl said. She believed she needed to beat her child without mercy because that is what Pearl said she needed to do. So she beat the little girl until she died. Her sister is in kidney failure because of the beatings.

The kidney failure is due to nephrons being clogged with flesh and muscle matter. You know what happens when you beat a piece of meat to tenderize it? That's what happens to kids whose parents adopt the TTUaC method of beating. They are hit without mercy until their internal flesh and muscle breaks down, enters their blood stream and then clogs up their kidneys. I will be very surprised if there is not a rash of fundie kids going into kidney failure as adults because of all the beatings they received as children.

Pearl could have just swatted his kids, which I doubt since he brags about even beating his dogs with plumbing line. It doesn't matter if he gave them a pat on the behind and they smiled minutes later. His book is sold to people who genuinely think they need to beat their children without mercy for any error in order to save them for God and those people are indeed beating their children.

I hope I do not sound harsh here. I don't mean to lecture you. But the physical and psychological impact of this wicked book cannot be diminished by hopeful second-guessing or equivocation. This is one of those instances wherein no decent person should even try to make excuses, even though it is in our natures as decent human beings to try to find reason in madness.

I wonder if it is possible to send a copy of the materials quoted by Debrand to the prosecutors in the Schatz case? It just makes me sick to my stomach to think of these kids, and of parents defying their best instinct to protect in order to become terror and humiliation-inflicting torturers of their defenceless babies.

[forever ago]

Found another contradiction: It's not acceptable to hit a child with your hands, but when a baby keeps reaching for his cereal bowl, you 'thump' his hands to train him not to try and grab it.

wtf?

[MonkeyMomma]

I bought my copy used from Goodwill. If anyone is ever curious about anything the Pearls published, please buy the book used so they don't get a penny of profit and please buy it from a place that you know is in no way affiliated with the sorts of abuse these people advocate.

It also takes another copy out of circulation, which can't hurt.

[FundiesInMyFamily]

I too am in tears. I've been reading about the Pearls ever since I started lurking at the old FJ and it befuddles me every time why these people aren't in jail.

How would the Pearls train my child with their methods?? He's 16, but cognitively he's 6-7. He understands happy, sad, mad, hungry, hot, cold, sleepy, but cannot understand complex emotions like frustrated, overwealmed, overstimulated, or stressed, so he sometimes acts out for these reasons. Would the Pearls tell me to "train" him until he complies? I cannot even fathom it. What would the Pearls do with an autistic child? a downs child? a hearing or sight impared child? I spend alot of time with my son and his friends at his school (charter school for children with physical/mental/emotional disabilities) and I cannot imagine anyone hurting any of them for not "complying" or "behaving". I cannot fathom anyone hurting any child for any reason.

[forever ago]

I don't think the Pearls want intelligent, young adults with an ability to reason and correct their own behavior.

I think they want broken, frightened children who are afraid to even look at them the wrong way.

[Olivia]

Ugh. Stuff like this bothers me anyway, but even more so since I miscarried -- I wish I was going to have my baby to love and cuddle and hold any time s/he wanted. And there are people who have beautiful babies and then hit them with plumbing line? Jesus Christ, what a waste.

There was that other poor child who was beaten to death recently, as well as Lydia. It's not like it's just one family who could have been abusive anyway; it's starting to form a pattern of Pearl-following parents murdering their children with their "training". I'd love to see the Pearls charged. But, honestly, since I believe in an afterlife I'm sure they'll get their "reward" eventually.

[galaxygirl]

Ask for a plastic, ¼ inch, supply line. They come in different lengths and several colors; so you can have a designer rod to your own taste.

Aw, you can customize your rod! Just what I always wanted!

These people make me so sick. It's terrifying that they have followers who worship every thing that they say.

[mnb357]

Shit. I read this on a full stomach, and now want to hurl. Those rat bastards. Pardon the language, but that is sick, sick, sick.

[Buzzard]

I wonder if it is possible to send a copy of the materials quoted by Debrand to the prosecutors in the Schatz case? It just makes me sick to my stomach to think of these kids, and of parents defying their best instinct to protect in order to become terror and humiliation-inflicting torturers of their defenceless babies.

We can easily send it. Is there some reason to think they dont know about it? Its as simple as finding out what jurisdiction the case is being prosecuted in, calling and asking who the lead attorney is, and emailing them... I've gotten random emails with links from anon1232@yahoo.com and things of that sort.