Questions about No Greater Joy ministry grow - child 'training' manual linked to murder of 7 yr old

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.paradisepost.com/news/ci_14469888

Controversy and media attention is mounting surrounding a Paradise couple accused of murdering their 7-year old adopted daughter, Lydia Schatz, earlier this month.

Much of the attention centers on a link between the girl's death and the child training, discipline and "chastisement" methods taught by a fundamentalist religious ministry based in Tennessee, called No Greater Joy ( http://nogreaterjoy.org _. Michael and Debi Pearl, founders of No Greater Joy Ministry and co-authors of a controversial religious parenting book, "To Train Up a Child," recommend that parents spank their children with a quarter-inch plumbing supply line - the same instrument used on Lydia Schatz and her 11-year-old sister, Zariah Schatz - reportedly for hours prior to Lydia's death and the arrest of their adoptive parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz on Feb. 6.

Lydia reportedly died of organ failure before she reached the hospital and Zariah had been beaten so badly her kidneys were failing. She was hospitalized and was listed in critical condition.

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Ramsey said one parent held the 7-year-old down while the other one used the quarter-inch plumbing supply line. Then, Ramsey claims, they would switch places.

Ridge parents arraigned on murder
http://www.paradisepost.com/ci_14378467

Posted: 02/11/2010 01:00:00 AM PST

Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz, the Paradise couple accused of murdering their 7-year-old adopted daughter during a discipline session last Saturday morning were arraigned in court Tuesday. The couple is also charged with the torture of their 11-year-old adopted daughter, who remains in critical condition at a Sacramento hospital, and a misdemeanor count of cruelty to a child for signs of bruising discovered on their 10-year-old biological son.

The couple has not yet entered a plea. A further arraignment hearing was continued until today at 8:30 a.m. Both are currently being held on $2 million bail. Kevin, 46, and Elizabeth, 42 could face life in prison upon conviction.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said both girls sustained extensive bruising and whip-like marks on their bodies that were consistent with a 15-inch length of rubber or flexible plastic tubing - commonly found in toilet tanks. There were a total of nine children living in the Schatz home - six biological children ranging in ages 8-16 and three adopted children. Ramsey said the other children indicated they were disciplined in a similar manner, but none of them displayed any signs of abuse. The children were taken into custody and released to the Butte County Children's Services Division.

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She is listed in critical condition at the Sacramento children's hospital, suffering from kidney failure among other injuries. She is undergoing dialysis treatment in hopes it will help the organs recover. The two girls had reportedly been adopted by the Schatz couple along with a 3-year-old girl from an orphanage in Liberia about three years ago. The other children reportedly told investigators the parents blamed the 11-year-old for "being a bad influence" on her younger siblings. Ramsey said the evidence suggests 7-year-old Lydia Schatz was being disciplined "for hours" prior to the 911 call for mis-pronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson. When police searched the family's Crestwood Drive residence, they took a photograph of a 15-inch length of tubing lying on the parents' bed next to a children's book about a frog and a toad, which Ramsey said the girl had been reading from.

Godly discipline turned deadly
A controversial child "training" practice comes under fire -- this time from Christians themselves
Monday, Feb 22, 2010 20:20 EST
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/02/22/no_greater_joy/

Four years ago this month, a 4-year-old boy named Sean Paddock died when his adoptive mother wrapped him in blankets so tightly that he couldn't breathe. His adoptive mother, Lynn Paddock, was later convicted of his murder. The case brought some mainstream attention -- including a 2006 Salon story http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/05/25/the_pearls/index.html -- to the popular, pervasive and controversial child "training" http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/child-training/ practices of Michael and Debi Pearl, which Lynn Paddock was said to have followed. The teachings of the Pearls and their Tennessee-based No Greater Joy ministry, which brought in $1.8 million last year in sales of books, DVDs and the like, are widely known and normalized across many conservative Christian churches and home-schooling communities. Perhaps the most popular of several ultra-conservative Christian figures to carry forward this centuries-old strain of Christian thought, the Pearls advocate a specific program of even-tempered, non-injurious corporal punishment, or "chastisement," designed to bring about total obedience -- even by infants http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2006/june/21/too-young-to-spank/ -- to their sovereign parents. (The Pearls' ministry and principles are described in greater depth, and broader context, here.) By no means do the Pearls advocate suffocation with blankets; they are emphatically against "abuse." http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/index.php?id=84&cHash=8440f96b4a&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=89&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=12 But they do not spare the rod. From their Web site:http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2000/may/01/questions-answered/ A length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line is a "real attention-getter."

This month, another child has died: 7-year-old Lydia Schatz, an apparent victim of repeated beating with -- as it turns out -- quarter-inch plumbing supply line. Her parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz of Paradise, Calif., who reportedly called 911 to report that she was not breathing, stand charged with her murder. They are expected to enter a plea on Thursday. According to the authorities, forceful and numerous whippings, apparently with plumbing line, may have caused tissue breakdown so massive that Lydia's vital organs could no longer function. The Schatzes also face torture and abuse charges for significant injuries sustained by Lydia's also-adopted sister Zariah, 11, who was hospitalized in critical condition, as well as for extensive bruising on a 10-year-old biological son. (The Schatzes have six biological children and three adopted from Liberia.) Though the remaining children showed no visible signs of abuse, they told police they'd been "disciplined" with the tubing as well. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told Salon that the Schatzes had explicitly described to police their adherence to the Pearls' philosophy, which, as one of many horrified anti-Pearl bloggers within the conservative Christian community observes http://docsdomain.net/blog/?p=1319 -- recalling precisely what prompted the Schatzes' call to 911 -- includes the admonition that a proper spanking leaves a child "without breath to complain." http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/child-training/attitudes/article-display/archive/1998/august/01/angry-child/

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"Obviously, I don't think Mr. Pearl stood over Lydia's body with plumbing line in hand," says Rebecca Diamond, a Bible Belt-born observant Christian and home-schooler in eastern Canada whose blog http://mommypress.com/rebecca/this-made-me-cry-today.htm is critical of the Pearls. "But when he uses phrases such as continuing to whip until the crying turns into a 'wounded, submissive whimper' http://www.achristianhome.org/to_train_up_a_child.htm or 'without breath to complain,' I'm not sure how he doesn't bear moral guilt for this. Legally, I don't know if he can be charged. But morally? I believe that absolutely, anyone who advocates treating children like that bears responsibility."

It's not just about parents who lose it or children who die. A Pearl spokesperson says that more than 1,400,000 copies of their book "To Train Up a Child" are in print worldwide http://www.tulipgirl.com/index.php/2005/10/pearls-po-russki/ , distributed at conferences, in church-member welcome baskets, and to military families http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2005/march/07/ministry-to-military-families/ . What about the kids who live with this "discipline" every day? Diamond, for example, recalls hearing a mother talk about hitting her 6-month-old with a glue stick because the child "cooed and wriggled during a two-hour-long church service, and she wanted to 'train' the child to be silent."

2006 Salon article:
Spare the quarter-inch plumbing supply line, spoil the child
Saying no to "timeouts," some fundamentalist Christians "train up" their children by carefully hitting them with switches, PVC pipes and other "chastening instruments."
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/05/25/the_pearls/...

"If you want a child who will integrate into the New World Order and wait his turn in line for condoms, a government funded abortion, sexually transmitted disease treatment, psychological evaluation and a mark on the forehead," writes Pearl in "To Train Up a Child," "then follow the popular guidelines in education, entertainment and discipline, but if you want a son or daughter of God, you will have to do it God's way." {my emphasis}

Michael Pearl's rural church is tiny, and his home base so remote that, with no broadband access, Internet connections require a satellite hookup, says their business manager, Mel Cohen. Still, the Pearls' 18-employee nonprofit company, No Greater Joy ministries, is big business. According to Cohen, much of the ministries' $1.5 million annual earnings go right back out the door via product donations as well as financial support for missionaries in nine countries. The Pearls have sold or donated -- to churches, military families and community groups -- more than 1,000,000 copies of their books, CDs, DVDs and other materials related to the Christian family. Their bimonthly newsletter has 74,000 subscribers, a number that's growing each month. "To Train Up a Child," in particular, is frequently sold or passed around via church groups and home-schooling conferences.

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"Select your instrument according to the child's size," writes Pearl. "For the under one year old, a little, ten to twelve-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient. Sometimes alternatives have to be sought. A one-foot ruler, or its equivalent in a paddle, is a sufficient alternative. For the larger child, a belt or larger tree branch is effective." Additional advice from their Web site: Switching with a length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line is a "real attention-getter."

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Yet again, in a sense, so is the switch. "The parent holds in his hand (in the form of a little switch) the power to absolve the child of guilt, cleanse his soul, instruct his spirit, strengthen his resolve, and give him a fresh start through a confidence that all indebtedness is paid..." writes Pearl. "After a short explanation about bad attitudes and the need to love, patiently and calmly apply the rod to his back-side. Somehow, after eight or ten licks, the poison is transformed into gushing love and contentment. The world becomes a beautiful place. A brand new child emerges. It makes an adult stare at the rod in wonder, trying to see what magic is contained therein."

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Does Anast {daughter of Michael & Debi Pearl} "train" her own three kids? Yes, though "98 percent of the time" she and her husband rely on the more "creative" penalties she remembers from her childhood. If they do spank, they use a "tiny little switch the size of a chopstick," she says. "It's a little swat on the back of the hand that says, 'Don't touch that,' or a swat on the back of the calf that says, 'Stop crying, buck up, be a happy girl.' It never breaks the skin or leaves a mark. It's not like 'going out to the barn for a beating.'" {my emphasis}