A Major Victory for Children In Wisconsin

In 2012, a Wisconsin pastor named Phillip Camintini was sentenced to two years in prison to followed by 6 years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit child abuse. As pastor of Aleitheia Bible Church, he would tell his members to beat children as young as two months old with wooden spoons and rods.

As a part of the sentence, the judge also told him that he could not have contact with members of his church, and could not take a leadership role in any church.

He appealed his conviction, and this past week, Wisconsin's 4th district appeals court upheld his conviction, over his claims that it violated his rights to free speech and freedom of religion. Those arguments were rejected by the court, in their ruling, they said that the state "has a compelling interest in preventing child abuse".

If only prosecutors would go after these people too.....

Micheal and Debi Pearl:

Husband and wife team who have written horrendous books on child raising, and family issues.

Some quotes from their book, To Train Up A Child can be found here:

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.

You can read more about them in my Exposing the IFB post on them.

Reb Bradley:

 His book, Child Training Tips, has it's own horrendous advice on raising children, this is an excerpt from chapter 4 of the book that was posted to his ministry's website.

It talks about how he feels parents "accidentally teach their children to disobey them". In this excerpt, he presumes that parents already have a paddle to beat their children with, as he advocates in his books.

He gives an example of the types of threats that a parent might make, and state his belief in the chapter that parent's shouldn't threaten, they should just give the command, and then do it. Here's what he imagines a parent listening to his advice might say as a threat:

 "Want me to get the spanking paddle? Here I go. (Stomp, stomp, stomp). Okay, I'm getting the paddle. Okay, I've got it and I'm coming in now to give you a spank if you've not obeyed yet. Okay?"    Never threaten to spank. If your child is asserting his will against yours, causing you to want to warn him, he is already in need of chastisement. (Further discussion on chastisement in chapter 5 of Child Training Tips.)

 For an idea of the kind of impact that this kind of ideas have, and for a detailed breakdown of Reb Bradley's horrendous ideas, check out this 6 part series by a blogger who grew up with parents who were followers of his.

I just wonder, when are prosecutors in states besides Wisconsin ever going to get the courage to go after fundamentalist leaders who advocate abuse?