To Train Up a Child

Last updated
2015 edition cover TTUAC fullres-RGB.jpg
2015 edition cover

To Train Up a Child is a 1994 parenting advice book written and self-published by independent Baptists Michael and Debi Pearl, which has generated controversy for encouraging child abuse. The book has been endorsed by the Institute of Basic Life Principles. To Train Up a Child gained notoriety after methods recommended in the book were found to have contributed to several high-profile cases of child death. [3]

Contents

Background

Michael Pearl (born 1945) [4] is an American independent Baptist preacher and author. After graduating from Mid-South Bible College, he worked with Union Mission in Memphis for 25 years. [5] His 2006 graphic novel Good and Evil [6] won the Independent Publishers' IPPY Award Bronze Medal in the Graphic Novel/Drama category in 2009 [7] and was a 2009 ForeWord Book Award finalist. [8] His other publications include No Greater Joy Magazine, [9] Training Children to be Strong in Spirit, [10] and Created to Be His Help Meet. [11]

Michael married Debi Pearl in 1971. [12] Together they wrote To Train Up a Child, which they self-published in 1994. [2] The Pearls have five children. [5] Their daughter Shoshanna Easling has said she had a wonderful childhood and that her parents never spoke to her in anger. [4] Another daughter, Rebekah Pearl Anast, has said, "I think that the fact that all five of us are very happy, balanced people with great marriages and happy kids is evidence that my parents did the right thing." [13]

Michael and Debi Pearl's teachings on physical discipline were endorsed by the Institute in Basic Life Principles. The Pearls and To Train Up a Child were briefly covered in the documentary series Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets , which details the Duggar family and their upbringing under and connections to the IBLP. [14]

No Greater Joy Ministries is the Pearls' 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The organization brings in between $1.5 and $1.7 million a year through product sales and donations [4] [13] and has sold or donated over 1.5 million copies of Pearl's books, CDs, DVDs, and other materials. [13] The Pearls state that they do not receive royalties from the sales, and that the profits are used for ministry purposes. [15]

Controversy

To Train Up a Child has been criticized for advocating child abuse. The book tells parents to use objects like a 0.25 in (6.4 mm) diameter plastic tube to spank children and "break their will". It recommends other abusive tactics like withholding food and putting children under a cold garden hose. [4] [16] Its teachings are linked to the deaths of Sean Paddock, [17] Lydia Schatz, [18] and Hana Grace-Rose Williams. [19] In all three cases, homeschooling parents acted on the Pearls' teachings. [20] Michael Ramsey, the district attorney who prosecuted the Schatz case, called To Train Up a Child "an extraordinarily dangerous book for those who take it literally" and "truly an evil book". [1] Dr. Frances Chalmers, the pediatrician who examined Hana Williams's corpse, said that "this book, while perhaps well intended, could easily be misinterpreted and could lead to what I consider significant abuse." [4]

On his website, Pearl published responses to the deaths of Hana Williams and Lydia Schatz, listing quotes from the book that warn against abuse. [21] [22] Michael Pearl reacted to the death of Lydia Schatz by arguing his link to the murder of Schatz was not objectionable because Pearl's children became "entrepreneurs that pay the taxes your children will receive in entitlements." Pearl claimed that he did not bear responsibility for the murders because the size of the plastic tubing he recommends in his book is "too light to cause damage to the muscle or the bone." [4] [23] Pearl called the murder of Hana Williams "diametrically opposed to the philosophy of No Greater Joy Ministries and what is taught in the book." [16] Pearl stated "The book repeatedly warns parents against abuse and emphasizes the parents' responsibility to love and properly care for their children" which includes training them for success." [16] The New York Times quotes that the Williams' other discipline tactics involved Pearl's book taken to extremes, such as the Pearls' advice that "a little fasting is good training." [4] A witness in the trial reported that Hana Williams was subjected to "the use of a switch, cold baths, withhold food and force children outside in cold weather as punishment"; [19] in "Hana's Story," Kathryn Joyce writes that, according to the coroner's report, Hana was between 76 and 80 pounds at the time of her death.

The Change.org petition "Amazon, refuse to carry books which advocate the physical abuse of children," which mentions To Train Up a Child by name, received more than 100,000 signatures in 2011. As of February 17, 2024, the book is still for sale on Amazon, in spite of Amazon's stated policy not to carry books that promote child abuse. [24]

Notes

  1. ↑ The cover repeats a 2011 claim by Michael Pearl that the book had sold more than 670,000 copies. [1] However, Nielsen BookScan recorded only 9,579 sales between 2001 and 2013. While it is possible the book sold best prior to the earliest sales records available, this figure is likely to be inflated by shifting books through mailing lists. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NSPCC</span> British child protection charity

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnardo's</span> British charity

Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same groups. It is the UK's largest children's charity, in terms of charitable expenditure. Its headquarters are in Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Steinberg</span> American lawyer convicted of manslaughter

Joel Barnet Steinberg is a disbarred New York City criminal defense attorney who attracted international media attention when he was accused of rape and murder, and was convicted of manslaughter, in the November 1, 1987, beating and subsequent death of a six-year-old girl, Elizabeth ("Lisa") Launders, whom he and his live-in partner, Hedda Nussbaum, had illegally adopted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Bob Duggar</span> American reality TV star and politician

James Robert Duggar is an American politician and television personality. He appeared on the reality series 19 Kids and Counting, which aired from 2008 to 2015. From 1999 to 2003, he was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child abuse</span> Maltreatment or neglect of a child

Child abuse is physical, sexual, emotional and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential wrongful harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with.

Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII), and first named as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), is a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child. This may include injuring the child or altering test samples. The caregiver then presents the person as being sick or injured. Permanent injury or death of the victim may occur as a result of their caregiver having the disorder. The behaviour may be motivated by the caretaker seeking sympathy or attention.

Debi Gliori is a Scottish writer and illustrator of children's books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps</span> Christian movement

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps is a militant Christian fundamentalist new religious movement. The ministry, founded in 1981 by James and Deborah Green, still retains its military structure, partially based on the original pattern of the Salvation Army.

Blanket training, also known as blanket time, is a method adapted from the methods encouraged in To Train Up a Child, published in 1994 and written by Christian fundamentalists Michael and Debi Pearl. To Train Up a Child promotes several harsh parenting techniques, with a focus on child obedience, which have been linked to multiple child deaths.

Sara Jane Payne, MBE is a British media campaigner known for her campaign for parents' right for a controlled access to the sex offender registry, spurred by the murder of her daughter Sarah in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of James Bulger</span> 1993 child murder in Liverpool, England

On 12 February 1993 in Merseyside, two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abducted, tortured, and murdered a two-year-old boy, James Patrick Bulger. Thompson and Venables led Bulger away from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, after his mother had taken her eyes off him momentarily. His mutilated body was found on a railway line two and a half miles away in Walton, Liverpool, two days later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Nubia Barahona</span> Murder of an American girl

Nubia Docter Barahona was a 10-year-old American girl who was abused and murdered on February 11, 2011. Her body was found February 14, 2011, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the bed of her adoptive father's pickup truck on the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her body had partially decomposed from being covered in chemicals, possibly pesticides.

Lydia Charity Schatz was a 7-year-old American child of Liberian origins who was killed in 2010 by her adoptive parents in an attempt to discipline her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mithu Alur</span> Indian researcher, writer, and disability rights activist

Mithu Alur is the founder chairperson of The Spastic Society of India – now rechristened ADAPT – Able Disable All People Together. She is an educator, disability rights activist, researcher, writer and published author on issues concerning people with disability in India.

NGJ may refer to:

Hana Grace-Rose Williams was a girl adopted from Ethiopia by an American couple living in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. She died in 2011 of hypothermia, according to an autopsy, and her adoptive parents Carri and Larry Williams were convicted in September 2013. The adoptive father was later convicted of manslaughter in her death. Carri Williams was convicted of "homicide by abuse" for Williams' abuse and death and was convicted of "first-degree assault of a child" for abusing a second adopted Ethiopian child who survived and testified at her trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elham Dwairy Tabry</span> Israeli author

Elham Dwairy Tabry is an Arab Palestinian author and citizen of Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Gabriel Fernandez</span> 2013 murder of an abused eight-year-old American boy

On May 24, 2013, Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year-old boy from Palmdale, California, who had been abused and tortured over a period of months, died due to a beating from his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, two days earlier. Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre were charged and convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances of torture. According to prosecutors, Aguirre allegedly abused Gabriel due to his perceived homosexuality. Pearl was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and Aguirre was sentenced to death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Davontae Williams</span> 2004 murder in Arlington, Texas, U.S.

Davontae Marcel Williams was a nine-year-old boy who, in 2004, died of malnutrition at his apartment in Arlington, Texas. He weighed 35 pounds at the time of his death. Davontae's mother, Marcella L. Williams, and his mother's partner, Lisa Ann Coleman, were arrested, accused of depriving Davontae of food, and charged with capital murder. Marcella Williams entered a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment, while Coleman refused a plea deal, was found guilty, and received a death sentence.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Hodson, Jeff (November 27, 2011). "Did Hana's parents "train" her to death?". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 Merritt, Jonathan (April 22, 2013). "How influential are Michael and Debi Pearl? And how harmful?". Religion News Service. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "The Tragic Death of Ethiopian Adoptee Hana Williams, and How It Could Happen Again". Slate Magazine. 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Eckholm, Erik (November 6, 2011). "Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Meet the Pearls". No Greater Joy website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Pearl, Michael (2006). Good and Evil. No Greater Joy ministries. ISBN   1-892112-38-8.
  7. ↑ "Announcing 2009 IPPY Awards National and Regional Results". Independent Publisher website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  8. ↑ "Book of the Year Awards". ForeWord Publishing website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  9. ↑ "Magazine". No Greater Joy website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  10. ↑ Pearl, Michael (2011). Training Children to be Strong in Spirit. No Greater Joy ministries. ISBN   978-1-61644-037-4.
  11. ↑ Pearl, Michael (2012). Created to Need a Help Meet. No Greater Joy ministries.
  12. ↑ Pearl 1994, About the Author.
  13. 1 2 3 Harris, Lynn (May 25, 2006). "Spare the quarter-inch plumbing line, spoil the child". Salon. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  14. ↑ Horton, Adrian (June 2023). "'Insidious organization': a reality TV family and the dangers of fundamentalism". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  15. ↑ "About Us". No Greater Joy website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  16. 1 2 3 Burnett, Thane (October 8, 2011). "Was child abused to death due to advice from book?". The Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on September 15, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Is Conservative Christian Group, No Greater Joy Ministries, Pushing Parents to Beat Kids to Death? - Crimesider - CBS News". CBS News . October 3, 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-10-03.
  18. ↑ Hayes, Kevin (February 22, 2010). "DA: Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz Killed Daughter With "Religious Whips" for Mispronouncing Word". CBS News. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
  19. 1 2 Stoll, Lee. "Kids testify in parents' murder and abuse trial". KIRO TV. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  20. ↑ Hodson, Jeff (September 29, 2011). "Murder charges for parents who left girl outside". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 3, 2011.
  21. ↑ "Response to Schatz Case". No Greater Joy website. 17 August 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  22. ↑ "Hana Williams Official Statement". No Greater Joy website. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  23. ↑ Cooper, Anderson. "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, Aired October 26, 2011". CNN. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  24. ↑ "Content Guidelines for Books - Amazon Customer Service". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2023-06-20.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.