Fundie Christians Beat Child To Death In Name of God

This is a very disgusting and heartbreaking story that I just learned about. Apparently, this fundamentalist Christian couple adopted several children, nine to be exact. They believed that God wanted them to beat/spank (apparently to them, these words were interchangeable) their children in order to help them become better, well-adjusted Christian adults later in life. So...they admittedly beat their children regularly.

At the heart of this situation are two books. One of them is the Bible, and the other is a book called To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl. This second book was inspired by Biblical teachings according to the authors. The authors also run a ministry program called No Greater Joy Ministries.

This book advocates beating a child with anything from tree switches, to spatulas, to plumbing equipment. Yes, plubming equipment! It even advises on how many times to smack your child with these items, and does not advocate using your hand instead. Your hand, they said, is not painful enough and any effective spanking MUST cause pain.

In the video, the authors of this book were interviewed and Mr. Pearl explained that if your 7-year-old son were to slug his sister, he would get 10 - 15 "licks." These licks would be given to him via use of a belt or a wooden spoon because he's a boy. He even gives advice as to your own demeanor when beating the child.

"You would take him aside, explain to him that what he'd done was violent and not accepted in our house or in society." And...then you beat him for ten to fifteen strokes, because...violence is wrong. Okay, so the quote I gave wasn't word-for-word, but it was close enough that I put it in quotes. You can hear it for yourself in the helpful video provided by CNN.

Another good and interesting quote within this video is the advice that, "if you can train your horse, if you can train your dog, then you can train your child." Because, obviously, your child is nothing more than property and cannot be reasoned with. In fact, dogs and horses can be trained without violence, as well. So, this makes even less sense as an example.

And, of course, inevitably there are a few other quotes more familiar to those who read the Bible about sparing the rod and spoiling the child. "Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them."

That quote isn't so bad, because it's from the NIV version. But, if you go to a different version you find a differently worded quote. Their translation of the KJV version of the quote is, "He who spares the rod hates the child, but he who loves his child chases him timely." Chases him timely! Lovely.

And of course, there's the ever-present, "if it wasn't good for the child, God wouldn't tell us to do it," mentality, as well.

Now, as to the parents and the actual victims of this particular heinous and tragic act.

The parents' names are Kevin and Elizabeth Shatz of Paradise, California. They pleaded guilty to murder and torture, and will be serving serious prison time. Kevin Shatz will be serving 22 years, while his wife Elizabeth will be serving 12 years.

The authorities said that this was basically death by 1000 lashes, more or less. The little girl, 7-year-old Lydia, was so severely beaten that she died of conditions that you usually only see in earthquake and bombing victims. She was beaten for seven hours with short interruptions for prayer breaks.

When the police officers got there, they tried CPR on the little girl, but it didn't work. The other little girl, Zariah, also adopted, was 11 years old and managed to survive. But, she almost died, as well.

The remaining eight children who are still alive, including Zariah, are now in foster care, since their parents are going to be in prison and...well...also because their parents beat them regularly by their own admission.

These people believed that this was the only way to raise good Christian children. This was helped along by a nasty book that reinforces the idea that beating your child, beating them...this cannot reasonably be called spanking, is okay and in fact that god wants you to do it. That it's good for the children and the only way that they will grow up to be happy and well-adjusted Christian adults.

During open court, Zariah had the opportunity to speak to her parents one more time. She had the courage to accept that opportunity and she had only one thing to ask her adopted parents, and she asked on behalf of her little sister.

"Why did you adopt her? To kill her?"

It's a very telling, very moving quote. The entire situation is awful, heinous, and tragic. These poor children will probably have years of therapy that they'll have to deal with in order to be okay again. These children will now have to contend with the foster care system, as well, which is also not the best place for children to be. But, as of right now, it is their only option. It's just too bad that this sort of thing wasn't found out about long ago, before Zariah was beaten to within an inch of her life, and before her little sister Lydia was tortured and murdered in the name of their fundamentalist Christian adoptive parents' view of their god.