(no subject)

[elle_white]

Amazon is selling a book that promotes abusive ideas towards children.

It has been directly implicated in the deaths of three children. This Tumblr post contains an article about a thirteen-year-old girl who died of hyperthermia and malnutrition. Her adopted parents were followers of the teachings in the book. 

Not only is this a horrifying story, but the person who made me aware of it pointed out that young Hanna Williams is yet another victim of Michael and Debi Pearl.The Pearls co authored the book “To Train up a Child” that, according to the above article, has been implicated in several other similar cases of child abuse in the years since the book was published in 1994.

The Pearls have their own industry based around this called “No Greater Joy Ministries” which is a slightly terrifying website that seems to do nothing but enforce the idea that children are property of the men of the household. This becomes even more chilling when one considers that many of the victims of the Pearl method are adoptees, which for some reason is a too-frequent excuse for dehumanizing children.

This article is by a mother who once followed their teachings, and it describes the mentality behind their actions. WARNING: it contains very graphic and disturbing descriptions of child abuse. 

A former therapist, who has worked with many children from abusive homes, has set up a petition on change.org, asking Amazon to cease stocking this terrible book: http://www.change.org/petitions/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-refuse-to-carry-books-which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children  

Comments

[naye]

But if people can't buy it, how are sane and rational people who want to argue against the method and show how wrong it is get their arguments?

Far better to keep selling the book, but that activists (or just sane, concerned people) post a deluge of reviews denoting exactly what is wrong and dangerous with it, and offer alternatives to the parents who might be far gone enough to buy it. Because, seriously, one book is not going to make someone buy into that philosophy - but once someone has bought into it, you need to be able to reach them.

I'm not in any way defending this horrible book, and I'm appalled that this sort of thing can continue, but I'm not sure this campaign is directed in the right direction.