Entire Blog Series that originally appeared on UnderMuchGrace.com.
Click on subtitles to link to the original, single posts.
Subjects in this Series (following the Introduction):
I: John Bradshaw on the Culture of Blind Obedience
II: Moral Disengagement thru Dehumanization and Declaring War (Bandura's study on punishment and learning)
III: Aggression as Normal and Desired (The Bobo Doll experiments)
- A Note about Reactive Attachment and Liberian Adoption
V: Pondering the Atrocities of the Jewish Holocaust and its Relationship to the Study of Obedience
- Zimbardo's Lecture Videos About the Lucifer Effect
VII: Breaking the “Diabolical Will of Infants” in the IFB – Even at Hephzibah House
VIII: There But for Grace (A troubled mother's experience and alternative choices)
IX: Using the Milgram Study to Understand How Pearl Becomes Appealing
X: The Schatz Family is Not Unique
Also of interest:
- A list of ALL POSTS related to Lydia Schatz, Michael Pearl, and Blind Obedience
- CNN's Reports about the deaths of Lydia Schatz and Hannah Williams, and interviews with Michael Pearl on AC360 and Dr. Drew.
- Posts about Kidney Disease related to the Pearl Method
- Posts about Harm to Children through discipline for religious reasons (including Pearl)
Introduction
When
considering the Schatz Family and the tragic events that occurred, we
are faced with confusing dilemmas and difficult ideas. Along with the
questions concerning the problem of evil, we often cannot fathom how
good, decent, and loving Christians could have so blindly followed such a
dangerous practice to such an extent. (For background on the story of
Lydia Schatz, please link HERE.)
I would like present many reasons
why people do choose certain practices and how they lose perspective,
just like Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz did by following the teachings of Michael Pearl.
They were loving and kind individuals who aspired to be the best
examples of what Christianity represents, but their unfortunate choices
and dedication to a misguided system of practices resulted in permanent
disease and death among their children. They believed that the Pearl
Method offered them the best and highest means of fulfilling their
obligation as loving and dutiful parents in a way that would bring honor
to God. '
I will offer ideas that strongly suggest that without understanding of human nature and manipulation, nearly two-thirds of regular, everyday people can easily end up in the same position as these parents.
- Some people deem the Schatz parents as horrible monsters. (This is a “dispositional” view, maintaining that the person was disposed to certain behaviors because of who they were – horrible people.) Among these, there are also two general sub-groups:
- Those who know nothing about the Pearl Method and express their anger and grief by aggression toward the parents by deeming them entirely evil.
- Those who either identify with the subculture that practices the Pearl Method or those who practice it themselves. Part of their motivation for laying complete blame on the parents involves a devotion toward Michael Pearl and fear that negative attention will result in the loss in their freedom to parent their children through State interference. I believe that there is also motivation to make scapegoats out of the parents because they cannot face the discomfort of admitting that what has happened to the Schatz family could well have happened to them. “I would never go so far as to injure or kill my own child.”
- Those who offer compassion and acknowledge that circumstances can influence a person, and thought they are “good people,” they admit that good people can sometimes do very harmful things. They show compassion for the Schatz family.
- For those who understand the sub-culture, I believe that they recognize on some level that they could easily have been in the same position as the Schatz family because the followed the method themselves (and perhaps abandoned or rejected it). “But for grace, there go I.”
I am among those who feel great
compassion for these parents and recognize the types of influences that
can cause a person to displace their better judgment in favor of the
policy of a system or the consensus of a group. I understand this
experience on a personal level and know how the loss of perspective
affects individuals when they merge with a group ideal. Trust in the
group downplays a person's sense of personal responsibility.
I will give a host of reasons why people get caught up in less than perfect systems of belief and
why they tend to stick with them, doubting themselves as they put
greater trust in the system. Several blog posts will follow this one
over the next few weeks.
I would also like to invite visitors to also “tune in” to Jocelyn Andersen's Blog Talk Radio show
on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 11AM Eastern as we explore the reasons
why and how good people like Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz end up following
formulas with seemingly blind obedience in favor of better judgment.
I would also like to leave the reader here with this statement from Vyckie Garrison of NoLongerQuivering.com in response to Laurie M. (and her testimony about the Schatz Family) as it appears in Lydia's Smile Could Have Lit a Room:
Laurie ~ the reason I am writing is because your blog post vividly expresses the message which I and other Quiverfull escapees have been trying to make at No Longer Quivering: those of us who succumbed to this insidious doctrine were sincere believers who love our children and only wanted to glorify the Lord in our families.
… Collectively, we are raising our voices to bring awareness and sound the alarm regarding this teaching which is rapidly gaining ground throughout the Christian church. I believe that your post brings exactly the humanizing perspective which we strive to highlight with regard to the families who have been caught in the Quiverfull trap. We hope to warn others away from the teachings ~ and to help rescue those who are realizing the harm this is doing to their families and want to get out. … I would love to be able to offer the prospective of your sympathetic and grace-filled account to help others understand that parents like Kevin and Elizabeth are not monsters ~ only deceived by wolves in sheep’s clothing such as the Pearls and similar Christian teachers.
Part I: Virtue In Place of Unquestioned Obedience
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to hear John Bradshaw speak, and he is much different than the PBS guru that I remember.
(The last time I heard him a few years ago, he said that when he did
the PBS specials in the 1980s, he was dealing with repressed anger and
that conveyed in his presentation.) In person and in recent years,
I've found him to be engaging, deep, and loving, and I thoroughly loved
his presentation. I'm also grateful for his new book, particularly the
chapter entitled, “Were You There When Jesus Spanked the Children,” the subject of a upcoming post. In Reclaiming Virtue
which discusses how we can foster moral intelligence and virtuous
ethics, he notes that the religious beliefs of his past have recently
become of greater significance to him and has found himself revisiting
and reclaiming them. (Bradshaw was a well educated Catholic priest and
had expert training in philosophy.) Read more about and from Reclaiming Virtue HERE.
Blind obedience which flattens
the decision making ability of individuals by demanding an authoritarian
submission to the stringent rules, legalism, and pressures of a group
or leader create the conditions that are the same as those who produced
the Nazi Holocaust. Rather than fostering the growing discernment of
the individual and by teaching moral codes such as Christian principle
to inform that discernment, cultures of blind obedience punish and crush
liberty and independent choice which God even offered individuals under
the Old Covenant (Joshua 24:15).
On a personal level, Bradshaw who speaks from experience notes that if
we do not do our own personal moral work as we grow into adulthood, we
run the risk of falling into rigid black-and -white thinking, an immature understanding that polarizes the perception of right and wrong. Vyckie Garrison notes aspects of this through the patterns of extremes followed in the Quiverfull Movement, and in terms of development, psychological splitting describes this primitive way of perceiving the world.
The Quiverfull/Patriarchy
Movement (QF/P) offers all sorts of formulas which drive its culture of
obedience and requires followers to develop an external locus of control
by thriving on comparison and merging one's identity with the group. (Please read more about the Locus of Control at Overcoming Botkin Syndrome.) The Holy Spirit guides a Believer in liberty (Romans 8:1-7, Hebrews 10:16-18),
and with ethics informed by the Word, and the Chrsitian does the daily,
hard work of discernment when faced with life's dilemmas. In contrast,
the culture of obedience creates some idealistic promise that offers
some benefit to people for selling out to the “greater good,” promising
to alleviate followers of the stress of decision-making with ready-made,
foolproof formulas for success. Just like Adolf Hitler offered a
convenient solution to the “Jewish problem” and the struggles of a
shamed German people following WWI, child training experts like Pearl, Ezzo (Babywise), and even Bill Gothard promise fool-proof formulas that solve the problems and pitfalls of parenting. Bradshaw states that “blind obedience requires no real intelligence” (pg 228).
Bradshaw's book explains that a
culture of obedience (based on power and subjugation before love and
care) “fears equality and ultimately fosters violence, war, and death,”
and is “intrinsically incapable of fostering moral intelligence and
virtue.” Morality that depends upon unquestioned obedience can be
harder to confront honestly. Quite often, it's promises (or it's “big
lie”) were well meant and unintentional, perhaps even developing
unconsciously. They are seen as normal. Bradshaw offers corporal
punishment as an excellent example of the confusing and subtle problems
presented by a culture of obedience and states that traditional
patriarchy has created many of the problems that we now face concerning
the dangers of blind obedience. The New Testament warns against putting
new wine in old wineskins, stating unequivocally that it will not work.”
(pg 228).
Before exploring the mechanics
and the reasons why otherwise reasonable and rational people choose to
follow blind obedience, I wanted to offer Bradshaw's explanation of the
soil of thought in which blind obedience grows. QF/P represents one
such culture of unquestioned obedience which promises safety and well
being for families and children through the prescription of formulas
which promise to solve all of the messy problems in life. (There are no
solutions! Life is messy!) People buy these promises and believe they
will catch the carrot that is dangled before them like they are
ignorant horses, but the promises are largely empty.
The first step toward
understanding the errors of the Schatz Family involves understanding
that some acceptance of the principles and elements of the QF/P culture
of obedience precedes that error. Please review the chart (above and to the right) adapted
from Bradshaw's writing, noting the differences between the legalism and
the contrasting liberty in the columns and how these descriptions
parallel QF/P legalism and true Christian liberty as we see them today.
Part II: How Dehumanization (and Declaring War Against Family Members) Causes Moral Disengagement
How do good, kind, and loving Christian parents like Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz
lose perspective to such an extent that they “find themselves” capable
of inflicting harm on their children? I believe that these parents did
effectively “find themselves” in such a position after trusting and
following the child training methods of Michael Pearl,
never expecting that his techniques would ever result in harm and
death. What makes a person lose so much perspective so that they are no
longer able to realize that they are creating harm and injury? Are
regular people at risk for falling into the same kinds of errors?
Surely that cannot happen to regular people... or can it?
In a previous post,
we mentioned that cultures which demand blind obedience and that
operate under authoritarian styles displace critical thinking and even
punish it, requiring that discernment be relinquished to a group, a
system, or an authority. But this is just one piece to the puzzle – a
group of conditions that create a perfect storm that dashed the Schatz
Family against the rocks.
Moral disengagement creates yet
another factor that causes perspective to dissolve into an alternate
reality. Within complementarianism, religious leaders redefine women as
creatures who are not only subordinate to men and of lesser essence
than men, but they are said to be the natural and most dangerous
adversary of men. Men are told that they are at war with them. In the
Pearl's system of child training, parents are taught that their evil
little domineering infants plot against them in a domestic war on the
home front that will last for decades. The parent is taught to win at
all costs, making grovelling peasants of their miserable rebel seed.
Moral disengagement ''is where all the action is,'' said Albert Bandura, a professor of psychology at Stanford and an expert on the psychology of moral behavior. ''It's in our ability to selectively engage and disengage our moral standards, and it helps explain how people can be barbarically cruel in one moment and compassionate the next.''
"In the Execution Chamber, the Moral Compass Wavers,” NY Times, 2006
During
the '70s, Bandura wanted to continue to explore the reasons behind an
individual's willingness to engage in punishment, building upon and
confirming the findings of previous studies. Morality serves as a guide
for behavior and governs what people find acceptable, and most moral
codes prevent individuals from inflicting harm on others. Studies of
punishment indicate that one of the important factors that enables harm
involves the disabling of a person's guidance system, the standard that
would otherwise stop them. Bandura examined the situational pressures
and conditions that facilitate “moral disengagement” in otherwise
common, normal, moral people.
Several college students were
engaged to participate in studies testing the effects of punishment on
learning, and part of Bandura's specific contribution to this area
involved the effects of identification with and closeness to a person
has on their willingness to punish or harm them. In order to create
distance between the people to be tested through punishment and the
students who would deliver the punishment, several students were
recruited from another college. The students at the college conducting
the experiment were told that the study was a “helpful' one, and that
their efforts were meant to improve the other visiting students with
their problem-solving abilities by using punishment. (The study framed
the purpose in virtuous terms, stating that the endpoint served to
benefit the students from the other school – an important consideration
which engages an individual's willingness to comply, making the
punishment seem less like a punitive measure.)
The punishment would be delivered
as a series of electric shocks, and each “learner” receiving punishment
would sit for several consecutive trials with the “teacher”, repeating
several study exercises several times over. Over time, the “teacher”
who was delivering the shocks was required to increase the number of
shocks delivered as well as the voltage of the shock. What those
students did not realize was that those who were delivering the voltage
(which was not even delivered to the other participants) were the true
subjects in the study.
Another factor unknown to the
subjects was that Bandura had actually set up three groups of people to
be tested and arranged to have the investigators “leak” critical
personal information about the “learner”participants who were to receive
the shocks to the “teachers.” For the first group, investigators
mentioned prior to the study that the visiting students from the other
college were “nice guys.” The second set of “learners” were not
discussed at all with the “teacher” students delivering the voltage.
The third set of people were said to be “animals” and “rotten” people,
just before the study started. Bandura wanted to see if these personal
assessments would have any kind of an effect on how the subjects chose
to administer punishment, in both frequency of shocks and in the
intensity of the shocks delivered.During the first trial set for each one of the three groups (the “nice,” the “strangers,” and the “rotten animals”), there was no variation in the numbers of shocks delivered and no variation in the degree of voltage used. Nice guys, rotten animals, and those who were not spoken of were treated alike in the first round.
But the findings did not stay
that way. As the subjects repeated the process, completing the battery
of trials in the set, a notable pattern of behavior emerged. The nice
guys received less voltage and fewer shocks. The group about whom the
researchers said nothing received a level of shocks and voltage that was
significantly greater than the “nice guy” group but was less than that
of the “animals.” When it came to the group of people who were defined
as rotten and animalistic, the true subjects of the study, the
“teachers,” delivered more voltage and more shocks in their efforts to help those animals learn and to improve their rotten skills.
What can we say about these
findings? It demonstrates several powerful effects that result from
fallen human nature. Human beings have an intrisic sense of justice,
and their preconceived ideas about people will determine how they treat
those people. People who are cast in a negative light seem deserving of
punishment, as though society owes them a debt to punish them. Bad
people should be treated badly. However, when a person's moral compass
remains intact, people will extend a general level of respect and
consideration to those whom they do not know and of whom they have no
opinion. For those who are idealized, people feel obligated and owe
those good people good treatment and respect to an even higher degree
than the general beneficence that they owe to strangers. It shows that
dehumanization holds the power and the key to disrupt a person's
morality and objectivity. Dehumanization causes a loss of true and reasonable perspective.
How
does this apply to the Pearls in regard to child training? As
previously stated, the Pearl Method redefines the traditional view that
children are either innocent or are a mix of both good and evil, just
like every other human being on the planet. Children are evil and are
said to be the parent's evil adversary. The Pearls teach the parent
that their relationship with their child is a war zone in a war that
must be won at all costs, otherwise, both parent and child are deemed
sinful. The war has eternal consequences for all involved, and
salvation depends on following the method. (There is a promise of a
good outcome, and parents are told that thinking of their children as
enemies that must be subdued is something that the parent does in the
best interest of the child, a show of love to them.) The child must be
broken as an Amish farmer breaks the spirit and will of a horse in his
stables, but breaking them becomes the parent's act of love towards
them.
Jesus said to never forbid
children to come to Him, and He taught that people should be treated
with loving kindness. He taught that we should be well-disposed and
willing to forgive others when they failed us, just as He so willingly
forgave others. Those considerations were also extended to children
specifically, and His attitude toward children was one of joy and
tenderness. What Pearl offers to parents does not describe what Jesus
taught, but rather follows the patterns that Bandura identified in
college students. Pearl is teaching humanism and claims that it is
God's highest and best way to raise children. It is a lie. It
encourages aggression and thwarts loving kindness.
I must make a comment about the
Darwinian nature of the cruel, fallen nature of the psychology that
Pearl teaches as well. His model is actually evolutionary, stripping
children of the goodness of the Image of God that distinguishes them
from the animals. He reduces children to something less than human.
This is not to say that children have no evil in them or that they are
pure and innocent. The “Golden Rule” that Jesus set forth to entreat
others in the way that we would like to be treated should apply to
children as equally as it applies to any adult, regenerate or not. But
Pearl has an expectation of perfection for children, and he essentially
sets out to beat sin and error out of children through physical
punishment. I would much rather be a horse in Pearl's stable than a
child in his house, because though a horse is not an image-bearer like a
human child is, the horse does not have a sin nature either. I think
that the horse gets far more humane treatment, because there is no sin
to beat out of the horse. The horse is not the adversary of his master.
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.Luke 6:31-38 (NKJV)
The study discussed was
originally published as A. Bandura, B. Underwood, and M.E. Fromson.
“Disinhibition of Aggression Through Diffusion of Responsibility and
Dehumanization of Victims,” Journal of Research in Personality. 9 (1975):253-69.
Part III: Defining Aggression as Normal, Acceptable, and Desired Behavior
Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz chose to follow the teachings of Michael Pearl,
learning far too late that their duty to do follow Pearl's system in
the right way, their trust in his system, and their loving intent proved
quite inadequate, resulting in both serious disease in one child and
death in another. In previous posts we discussed several factors that
contribute to the perfect storm that causes good, normal, and trusting
people to lose perspective, falling into dangerous and deadly patterns. “Moral disengagement” and “cultures of obedience”
foster these evil consequences, but there are even more factors that
contribute to the development of dangerous degrees of blind obedience.
In the study,
a woman aggressively attacks the doll by throwing it, beating it,
sitting on it, and hitting it with small toy hammers while she is
observed by children. Those children were then placed in that room
where they had watched the grown woman attack the doll, by themselves
and without direct supervision. Every child in the study proceeded to
aggressively attack the doll, and they employ other devices such as a
toy gun in the toy chest in the room to use against the doll. Some of
the children were rather creative in their play, testing out their new
methods independently that were not modeled by the adult.
Several variations of the study have been repeated since the initial
one, including the substitution of the doll with a live clown. The
results always prove to be the same. The children attack, and they
continue to independently expand their behavior to include new methods
of attack, above and beyond what they observed in the adult who
introduced the aggressive behavior.
This video
includes only a portion of the responses recorded during the initial
study. If you can make it through the music in the beginning, the
second song that plays midway through the video until the end is rather
comical in context. This particular video features the representative
and responsive behavior of one boy and one girl.
By citing
this study, I hope to communicate a message about how one establishes
acceptable behavior and its effects on the behaviors of others, a matter
that I believe applies to the concerns about Michael Pearl as well as
the Schatz Family. As adults, we continue to remain social creatures,
and we are deeply yet subtly affected by the actions of others. The
behavior of those around us sets a standard which suggests which
behaviors should be tolerated, rejected, or embraced. When we see a
leader, an expert, and especially, a minister set a standard, it bears
an even greater significance for us and carries a greater level of
influence.
In the interest of ethics, particularly in the wake of WWII, psychologists began to study the ethics of behavior, not because they saw human beings as evolutionary animals but because they wanted to prevent the development of the same conditions that allowed the Nazis and Jewish Holocaust to flourish.
These efforts within social psychology test the veracity of what we
tend to observe every day and put tried and tested quantitative values
and estimates on behavior so that we CAN put the significance of behavior into perspective.
These scientifically qualified and quantitative studies helps us
understand specifically how potent our behaviors really are within
groups.
In terms of modeled behavior that we see in all people regardless of their subcultures, one third of everyday people
will observe and follow a group's behavioral consensus when their own
behaviors are visible within that group and when the behavior is
unanimous. (Conservative Christians show no notable differences
in behavior from those within the general population.) The presence of
only one or two dissidents among a person's peers [non-authority
figures] also has a profound effect on individuals' public behavior
within a group, dropping that figure of behavioral conformity down to a
consistent 10%. Just one person's behavior holds a tremendous amount of power
in terms of group behavior, far more power than they ever realize. An
individual holds the power of choice, and because of the potency of his
own individual behavior, each individual also bears a duty to those
around them concerning their behavioral choice in terms of ethics. Upcoming
posts will specifically examine the much higher level of compliance
demonstrated by individuals in response to the expectations of an
authority figure.
Opening Pearl's “Pandora's Box”
As
the children imitated the behaviors established by the adult who opened
the door to aggressive behavior that was directed toward the Bobo Doll,
Michael Pearl likewise establishes acceptable patterns of behavior for
parents and encourages them to follow patterns of punishment through his
prescribed formulas of behavior. He has opened up an Pandora's Box
full of a host of things which may include some benefits, but a
predisposition to aggression against children was one of the most
powerful and truly dangerous things that sprang from his teachings.
Many
followers identify corporal punishment as the first choice for dealing
with mistakes and inconsistencies right along with disobedience, as
Pearl's standard defines mistakes as unacceptable. That box also
contained intolerance of expressions of shyness and fear in children by
redefining it as disobedience, intolerance that is echoed in the First Time Obedience
teachings of Voddie Baucham. I'm sure that Pearl's teachings had a
certain degree of influence on the development of the First Time
Obedience concept and upon other leaders like Baucham.
Though he may
not specifically teach specific rules for every single problem in the
everyday life of a child, Pearl's standard of intolerance certainly did
communicate the authoritarian “no mercy” standard to the Schatz Family
regarding weakness and error in the general sense. Pearl's method
teaches that honest errors, just like crying in an infant, demonstrate
rebellion, and all occurrences and episodes of rebellion must be
punished without variance. Though you likely can't find a quote where
Pearl tells parents to spank their children to correct them for errors
as they study their schoolwork, the principles he advances certainly
communicated to the Schatz family that corporal punishment was indicated
for the error of mispronouncing a spelling word. A spoken word of an
eight year old requires far more deliberate will than does crying in an
infant, that infant's only means of verbal communication. Punishment
serves as the first choice for dealing with mistakes and just plain,
old human error to which even adults are given. Addendum 8Apr11: Please see this additional note concerning extenuating circumstances that may explain why discipline was used with Lydia for the mispronounced word.
The standard
of aggression does not remain with the parents only who accept this
behavior as normal and as God's ideal. Parents model and communicate to
their children that corporal means, punishment, and effecting positive
change within one's environment through force and domination serve as
the first and most reliable measures that normal and loving people rely
upon in the course of everyday life. As the children in Bandura's study
with the Bobo Doll responded to the standard set by the adult, the
children who survive Pearl's child training will find force and
domination to be the path of least resistance when they need to
accomplish their personal goals.
Because
of Michael Pearl, parents don't teach the primary lesson that obedience
is a virtue. They teach the greater message that “Might makes right.”
Children have learned to be aggressive and forceful and domineering,
because they observed their parents as they set this standard for them.
They've also learned that force should be used to counter the effects
of human weakness, a principle that children will live out in their
workplaces and in social settings like on the golf course or even in
their churches, should they retain the desire to continue to attend.
With their own children someday, punishment becomes their own path of
least resistance for teaching and training and correcting errors. The
measure of the use of domineering force does not apply to willful
disobedience alone. The method makes violence acceptable through
habituation. Untold numbers of children are required to “pick up the
tab” on Pearl's indulgences, though Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz certainly
continue to pay dearly. So have their daughters.
ADDENDUM:
ADDENDUM:
***Not included in this long post is an addendum concerning Reactive Attachment Disorder and the struggles faced by children who are adopted from orphanages in Africa. It is well worth reading:
An Addendum Note About Lydia Schatz and the Correction She Suffered for a Mispronounced Word: Liberian Adoption and Reactive Attachment Disorder
“Whoever inquires about our childhood wants to know something about our soul. If the question is not just a rhetorical one and the questioner has the patience to listen, he will come to realize that we love with horror and hate with an inexplicable love whatever caused us our greatest pain and difficulty.”
Part IV: The Milgram Experiment and the Pressure to Commit Evil for the Common Good
Stanley Milgram graduated from Harvard with his PhD in Social Psychology in 1960, and he went to work at Yale. Pondering the Eichmann Trial
which commenced in 1961 and his own Jewish heritage, Milgram set out to
investigate the reasons why and how so many reasonable people
participated with the Nazis.
The Asch Experiments
in the early '50s demonstrated that one third of individuals were
willing to reevaluate their perceptions in order to defer to the
consensus of a group, but Milgram wanted to conduct a study that was was
more relevant to human situations. Milgram rejected the idea of using
college students and advertised for subjects that represented regular
people from all walks of life. (College students want good grades and
can sometimes yield different results than those from the general
population.) He settled on 40 candidates [Big edit! 9Apr11: for the very first leg of the trial.
The entire study included 1000 subjects wherein variations in this
original group were performed. It was one of the most extensively
studied trials in psychology, actually.]
The test subjects were told that
they were going to participate in the study of the effects of punishment
on learning and memory. The subjects were all assigned the title of
“teacher,” and they were directed to ask questions of the other study
participant who was hidden from his view, but he could hear the
responses of this participant who was given the title of “learner.” The
“teacher” was seated in front of a panel of electrical switches ranging
in intensity from 15 to 450 volts.
Whenever the “learner” answered incorrectly, the “teacher” was
instructed to deliver a shock, and each subsequent shock would be
slightly higher in intensity. The panel also indicated that at a
certain voltage, the charges were considered dangerous and were marked
accordingly. What the “teacher” did not know was that the “learner” and
the “experimenter” who was administering the test were confederates,
and they were really testing his/her level of obedience. The responses
of the confederate “learner” were planned and pre-recorded.
The “teacher” (the real subject
in the study) begins to deliver shocks to the “learner” who eventually
begins to cry out in pain and begs to stop the experiment, even banging
on the wall and claiming to have a heart condition at a certain voltage
level. Many subjects would progress with the charges until the learner
begs to stop, asking if someone could or has checked on their well
being. Most people continued after they were told that they were not
responsible for the outcome. The “experimenter” was also instructed to
pressure the “teacher” to continue. At a certain voltage set point, the
“learner” becomes suddenly silent (they are unconscious or dead). If
the subject, the “teacher,” continued to protest after four
encouragements to continue, the study was halted. Otherwise, the
“teacher” was required to continue until he had delivered the 450 volt
shock three successive times. After performing some studies at the
university, he also moved the testing off site to a less impressive
looking building out of concern that the setting might have affected the
data (finding that these statistics did not show any statistically
significant differences from the data obtained at the Yale campus).
Prior to conducting the study,
Milgram polled senior students and other colleagues about the results
they would anticipate, and the opinions were all quite similar: they
predicted only a 0 – 3% rate of compliance.
The actual findings in the first group within the study were far more disturbing: 65% of subjects completed the full course
(26 out of 40), continuing up through the full 450 volts, though many
of them protested and bargained to be released from the study.
Milgram's study confirmed the
findings of the Asch Experiments, noting that social pressure had a
potent effect on the responses of individuals, and that they were
willing to surrender their better judgment to a system or a group as a
system. It also demonstrated that people feel a diminished sense of
responsibility if they comply with an authority or a system, seeing
themselves as a passive instrument or tool being used as opposed to
viewing themselves as a fully culpable moral agent.
Would most reasonable people
electrocute someone if they believe they are doing so for a good cause?
Apparently 2/3 of regular, everyday people will. Only about 10% of
people will get up and leave when their conscience gives them pause.
The findings of similar studies in the US offer the same general
findings.
In the Lucifer Effect,
Philip Zimbardo asks whether we have any real-life examples of these
findings regarding blind obedience. He offers the tragedy of Jonestown, Guyana
as evidence of the profound power of the pressure and the deception
that required followers to commit “revolutionary” acts of suicide and
mothers mothers to poison their own little ones.
I would like to offer the example of the obedience of the Schatz family as an example of this same process
that seduces good, faithful, loving, and dutiful people into following a
leader and a system with blind obedience to the point of causing harm.
I believe that when a person is engulfed in a culture that accepts,
promotes, and even demands in some cases that participants follow the
Pearls, they find themselves embracing an illusion that the system will
protect them. The Schatz Family discovered that this was not the case.
Somehow, the authoritarian nature of Pearl's system makes the system
and Pearl himself seem ultimately responsible, likely because the
individual has merged with the group identity while losing aspects of
their own. They may have to merge with a group in order to survive, and
obedience may be required of them. Obedience becomes more important
than personal responsibility, and the participant believes that their
good intent and their obedience will be credited to them as
righteousness somehow. But it is only an illusion.
As an adjunct to last week's show, listen to a discussion of Milgram and More on Jocelyn Andersen's Blog Talk Radio on Saturday April 9, 2011 as it relates to the Schatz Family.
Part V: Pondering the Atrocities of the Jewish Holocaust and its Relationship to the Study of Obedience
Because
I have discussed a few psychological studies, I believe that it is
necessary to address the nature of those studies and the motivation
behind why they were done. They were birthed out of a desire to
understand the reasons why a whole nation of good German people could be
influenced so strongly that they were able to commit such atrocities
during WWII.
[As an aside note, this post on “What Goes on in the Soul of the Abuser” which quotes material from The Nazi Doctors may be helpful in understanding the leaders of groups, but it is not my primary focus today.]
On this site, I talk a great deal
about manipulative behavior in Christianity, but I often approach it
from a position that is informed by both the Bible and from observations
about behavior. Some of that information comes out the study of why
both individuals and groups of people behave in the way that they do.
Conservative (traditional,
orthodox, Evangelical) Christians believe that God is the Author of
truth as it revealed to us in the Bible. All other learning must be
“brought captive” or brought under the authority of Christ (the Word of
God) and is subordinated to that truth. Personally, I aspire to exactly
this goal that I might be ever more conformed and changed into the
character that Jesus Christ modeled for humanity. Many Christians find
my perspective to be troubling because I am willing to accept as “truth”
a degree of information from the material world that is not explicitly
defined in the Bible. I am sometimes wrongly criticized as someone who
accepts everything that the world offers as truth, particularly
concerning what human beings have learned about the way we tend to act,
why we act that way, and how we go about acting in the best way.
With the right intentions of
maintaining pure thoughts that keep one under the authority of the Word
of God, many Christians teach that because many of the original
individuals in the area of psychology were atheists, all areas of study
of human behavior have to be flawed in the same way that men like Freud
and Jung were. They believe that all ideas that fall under the grand
heading of “psychology” must be rejected and resisted. Sigmund Freud
certainly had some bizarre ideas and was fixated on sex in addition to
his atheistic ideas, likely because he was sleeping with both his wife
as well as his wife's sister who was living with them, for example.
Carl Jung walked in his garden while talking to his spirit guide whom he
called Philemon.
Some
Christians believe that if these men framed out the foundations of
psychology, then all ideas about human behavior today can only be as
flawed as these original ideas were. I agree that these men's
theoretical ideas are flawed and their beliefs about who man was and why
he did things (from an evolutionary model) must be noted. And though
I'm sad that these men rejected the Christian perspective, I sometimes
agree with some of their matter-of-fact observations about people. I
generally reject their interpretations of what their observations mean
because I don't share their beliefs about the nature of man.
I find the theoretical
perspectives of some of these men to be only speculative, usually
insignificant in comparison to the empirical, applied, and practical
findings of social psychology today. I accept data and information that
comes from observation of behavior after it has been empirically tried
and tested. Exaggerating to make my point about more subtle matters,
there are some Christians who would argue that it was raining outside or
that the sun was shining if an atheist attested to it, or might deny
that there was such a thing as DNA because DNA is not described in the
Bible. There are also people today who reject data and findings from
brain science and imaging that modern technology has provided us,
because by suggesting that the physical aspects of the brain can affect
behavior and the “soul,” they feel that the significance of spiritual
matters becomes somehow diminished or denied. So I differ from some
Christians in that I view the brain as an organ that is affected by not
only spiritual practice, physical factors (disease, damage, health or
function of the brain itself), and environmental factors. I also accept
statistically tested, validated, and significant information about
human behavior, and if approached through a responsible hermeneutic, I
accept them as “common sense” truths.
Reframing the Findings of Social Psychology
In terms of the studies that have
been presented as an explanation of why good people (Christian people,
in particular) end up making dangerous choices and do things that seem
to make no sense, I would like to talk a bit about some of the
investigators and why they found the study of behavior so important.
Some Christians believe that all psychology means to prove that human
beings are only animals and that there is nothing about behavior that is
influenced by intrinsic forces such as a fallen sin nature or by
intervention and insight that is given to men through the Holy Spirit.
(Some maintain that it is impossible to bring ideas classified as
psychology captive to Christ.) Any information elucidated can only be
flawed, because it is the misconception of some Christians that all
those who study behavior and conclude meaning from those studies can
only be in error because of the atheistic influence. Some conclusions
drawn from ideas of psychology clearly are Darwinian (like those of B.F. Skinner who concludes ideas that are strikingly similar to those of Michael Pearl's). To those folks who reject all ideas related to psychology, I would like to offer this food for thought.
The Motivation Behind Social Psychology
Solomon Asch
I've
made some passing remarks about the findings of the Asch Experiments,
but I have said little about Solomon Asch himself. He was born in
Warsaw and emigrated to the US in 1920, and while living in Manhattan,
he learned to read English by studying Charles Dickens. He went to the
College of the City of New York and Columbia, earning a PhD.
His own motivations were not to
demonstrate that human beings were mere animals! In the wake of WWII,
he was distressed and moved on a personal level about the atrocities
that took place. He sought out to understand more about the effects of
propaganda and how the Nazis and the Jewish Holocaust could have
possibly taken place. He ended up elucidating very important
information about conformity and fallen human nature's tendency to “sell
the truth” in order to conform with a group.
Solomon Asch didn't set out to
prove any atheistic principles so he could make men into animals. He
studied human behavior so that he could figure out something about why a
whole nation found it so easy to conform to inhumanity, essentially
becoming animals themselves. He wanted to know how Germany could so
easily dehumanize the Jewish people. He was a Jew who was born in
Warsaw.
Stanley Milgram
As
stated in a previous post, Stanley Milgram was motivated to design and
conduct his study of conformity and obedience because he was disturbed
by the findings that came out of the Eichmann trials in Jerusalem in
1961. In this video,
Philip Zimbardo states that he knew Stanley Milgram from the Jewish
ghettos in the Bronx where they both grew up. Both Milgram and Zimbardo
graduated from
James Monroe High School in NYC in 1950. After completing his
training, Milgram studied with Solomon Asch at Princeton in 1959 and
1960.
He also wanted to understand in
an even deeper way just how so many good, regular, everyday people could
turn so evil. Hannah Arendt who wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem
coined the term “the banality of evil” when she reported on the trials
as she observed how dispassionately Eichmann described his own behavior,
recalling unspeakable atrocities without an appropriate human reaction
of disgust. (Hannah was a German of Jewish descent who was forced to
leave Germany in 1933.) Adolf Eichmann described the horrors of the
Holocaust as though he were describing a banal act of making coffee or
combing his hair in the morning.
Stanley Milgram did not seek to
prove that men were animals. He sought out to discover ideas behind the
nature of men like Eichmann and those who followed his commands without
questioning themselves. What happened to their consciences? How could
committing the most evil of acts become banal and commonplace? He
sought to understand the fallen nature of mankind and how on earth the
Nazis could have convinced good people to commit acts of evil so that
such a thing could never happen again.
Philip Zimbardo “Dr.
Z” (as he is known to his students at Stanford), friend of Stanley
Milgram, also describes his motivation for his study of the psychology
of evil as having been birthed in the days he spent in his “ghetto
sandbox.” I wept as I first read this section in the preface of his
book, The Lucifer Effect,
and I weep again today as I read it. He describes the abuse he
suffered at the hands of Gentile kids on the street, the antisemitic
prejudice of the police, and even from the janitors who would kick them
off their stoops.
Quantifying Evil
At some point in the future on
this site, I would like to explain more about the rigorous process of
testing data to see if the information elucidated by these an any such
study really means something and what the statistical analysis of that
information reveals to us. I have touched on this in the past
in some sense concerning Vision Forum's stance ectopic pregnancy, but
would like to expand upon it in an upcoming post. In defense of the
studies I've referenced recently, it may be helpful if people could get a
glimpse into how statistics are used to put observations into
perspective. But that is a subject for another day. I will leave you
with another statement that Zimbardo makes in the Lucifer Effect.
“Thus the Lucifer Effect has been incubating in me for many years, from my ghetto sandbox days through my formal training in psychological science, and has led me to ask big questions and answer them with empirical evidence” (pg xii).
Bad Apples or Bad Barrels? The Short and Long Versions of Zimbardo on the Lucifer Effect
Part VI: The Calm Before the Storm Following the Schatzes' “Guilty” Pleas
On Blog Talk Radio (BTR), Jocelyn Andersen and I spent the past two sessions discussing the death of Lydia Schatz and an overview of Michael Pearl's teachings regarding “child training.” The first episode (2Apr11)
gives a general overview of Pearl's ideas and what the Schatz Family
experienced as a consequence of following his methods. The second episode (9Apr11)
focuses specifically on the reasons that social psychology offers to
explain why and how good Christian people like Kevin and Elizabeth
Schatz can lose touch with their own rational thought when they follow a
system like the one Michael Pearl has created, a system essentially
enforced by Christian homeschoolers through social pressure. In
addition to the undue authoritarian influence and the spiritual
blackmail that Pearl prescribes, the majority of Christian homeschoolers
enforce an elitist secondary system that makes a graceful and easy
“exit” from Pearl's teachings even more difficult.
Note: “Exit” in this context is a term coined by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo which
describes an additional factor that enhances the pressure upon
individuals to yield obedience to a system of idealism. (Other factors
include but are not limited to the appeal to authority, pressure from
peers to conform, incremental increases in levels of compliance, etc..)
Kevin and Elizabeth were compelled by many forces to adhere to Pearl's
teachings, though it should be noted that this factor does not diminish their personal responsibility for their own actions. The lack of ease of “exit” is one of the items of discussion mentioned in the April 9th episode of Jocelyn's BTR show.
The Plea Bargains
Several news sources reported on April 8th and 9th
that Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz agreed to pleas of “guilty” related to
the death of their daughter, Lydia; the critical injuries sustained by
their daughter, Zariah; and lesser injuries sustained by their son who
was not named specifically and who I believe was not an adoptee. Kevin
plead guilty to whatever California classifies as second-degree murder
and torture, and Elizabeth plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter, a
lesser charge than Kevin's. I hope that there will be additional
discussion of the details of the case in the secular press, but for now,
a few more can be read HERE.
The Implications
This weekend, several people
asked me about my opinion regarding what will happen within the
homeschooling community in response to these pleas of guilty. On one
hand, the family avoids the many pains and the additional expense of a
jury trial, and they are never a pleasant experience. Ramsey, the Butte
County District Attorney planned to put young Zariah on the stand (the now 12 year old daughter who was hospitalized for renal failure). She will now be spared the personal difficulty (an understatement)
and negative publicity which would no doubt reinforce the negative
aspects of the whole experience of the abuse for her as well. Given the
whole emotional and sensational nature of the case, adding to that all
of the religious freedom implications, a jury trial would prove to be a
messy affair for all involved.
On
the other side of this benefit, the public no longer has the
opportunity to learn more about the situation, at least until
knowledgeable individuals come forward. From my vantage, a jury trial
would make public the facts supporting the Schatz Family as an example
of undue influence and these forces elucidated for us by the social
psychology experiments noted here on this website in recent days past.
There is also always some hope that the evidence presenting the good and honorable aspects of Kevin and Elizabeth might actually pierce through the confirmation bias (selective or magical thinking) that they were “animals” and “bad apples” (people as apples being the analogy that Zimbardo offers to
describe the experience of individuals who get trapped in bad systems,
the virtual “apple barrels” created by those systems). Some might see
the humanity and vulnerability of Kevin and Elizabeth, identifying with
them, realizing the harrowing idea that Schatzes differ little from the
average person – from themselves. “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows...” Or as I believe Hannah Arendt stated it, “We are all Little Eichmanns.” We all have the capacity to act in evil ways if the conditions are ripe for it and we comply.
We also like to hold confirmation
bias, that wishful thinking in hope that all families are wonderful and
sweet. I believe that truth challenges the concept that ideal families
do not struggle with the messiness of life. The Quiverfull/Patriarchy
Movement (QF/P) that tends to ascribe to Pearl's teachings follow the
myth of over-idealized families which they turn into a unique type of
idolatry of family – their families. I think that the trial would have
likely only polarized the QF/P's rejection and demonization of the
Schatz Family as a group that in no way represents them in an act of
denial of the problems inherent in both Pearl's system and their own. [Read a bit more about this HERE.]
Yet, in spite of this selective thinking, the details that a jury trial
would have revealed could have given us more insight into the process
of abuse. All those involved and interested in Pearl's methods, or
those who already abandoned the practice of the methods themselves,
could have learned much.
The Calm Before the Storm
It remains to be seen, but I
suspect that those within QF/P will either remain silent out of
embarrassment at the thought of associating themselves with murder and
death, or they will openly continue to show hostility toward Schatz
Family by continuing to scapegoat them in more intense ways. In these
few days following these pleas of “guilty” as we all absorb the sad
reality that these sad events would have never happened in an idealized
world of fantasy, I feel a calm sense of a sigh of both relief and
emotional exhaustion. It will take a little time to process and
understand the impact of it all, especially during the wait between the
offered pleas and the anticipated sentencing of the Schatzes on June 10th.
Sadly but predictably, I
anticipate a particular show hypocrisy on the part of at least some
within QF/P. The movement decries the secular system, and because of a
dissimilar worldview, they claim that the secular world is essentially
devoid of any ethics at all. I recall Howard Phillip's distortion and
logical fallacy which he stated in so many different ways that to side
on anything other than his side of politics essentially amounted to
stand on the side of the absolute wrong, no matter where you might fall
on a continuum to perceived right and wrong. QF/P follows this same
principle and distortion where they paint all things in absolute black
or white terms. To differ from their mistaken sense of uniformity as a
show of Christian unity makes those who are different from them any
sense of in principle or practice those who represent and support pure
evil in the most extreme terms. The world's system and the judgments of
the world represent the worst of evil. Only their system, special to God in a unique way, can determine the real truth about right and wrong.
I predict that while they reject
the idea that the secular world can know anything about right and wrong,
the QF/P world will say that in the case of the Schatzes and their
pragmatic pleas of “guilty,” they will claim that the world “got it right this time.”
QF/P should understand well that what is legal does not equal that
which is moral in terms of society. It is not against the civil law to
lie under many circumstances, for instance. You cannot be convicted and
go to jail if you deny that you were the person to put the last carton
of milk back in the 'fridge with only a teaspoon left in it without
making mention of it to the person in the family who procures milk for
the family's consumption! But such a statement is not a moral one.
So I'm waiting to see how many
will say, “Look at those evil Schatzes. See! They were guilty and they
admitted it!” There will be no consideration that the plea offered
many benefits, something not so much about justice but about the
pragmatic consideration of lesser consequences. Such an accusation will
enhance the illusion that the faithful QF/P follower is elite and a cut
above everyone else, especially these people who imitated what they do
but didn't have what it takes to get it right. The Schatz Family was
not “cut from the right cloth” and were probably never elect.
The proof that the Schatzes
messed up the system and brought shame against the “noble” name of
Michael Pearl and his glorious teachings proves to them that
Kevin and Elizabeth could not have been true Christians in the first
place. It shields them from the pain of admitting that the people in
QF/P are human like the rest of us and saved by grace instead of the
illusions that they create through legalism. They will have to admit
that they are “The Shadow” and that they are “Little Eichmanns.” “Thank God that I am not like the Schatz Family.” In
keeping with these ideas that are consistent with the Jewish holocaust
and the conditions that hypnotized a whole nation, you can operate
without a central leader, but you must always have a demon (a scapegoat) in order to make a system of ideological manipulation work.
How long with the calm last before the storm comes in the defense of Pearl?
Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”Luke 18:9-14, NKJV
Part VII: The Breaking the “Diabolical Will” of Infants in the IFB
The news media tells us that the Schatz Family also adopted an infant from Liberia
(along with Lydia and Zariah), a total of three children. We know that
they used the Pearl Method to “chastise” the two older girls, but we
are not told the age of the infant they adopted nor whether they also
used plumbing line with the baby, too. (Please note that Pearl says that infants have a “diabolical will to dominate.”)
Michael Pearl recommends the spanking of young infants in To Train Up a Child,
but we don't know how many people actually follow this specific advice.
Many parents read this book, only selecting certain principles from it
while resisting others. Some find the plumbing line to be a bit too
much, and they stick with wooden paddles and spoons. Some parents
follow Pearl's patterns of low or no tolerance for human error and the
learning process but use their hand for spanking in order gauge the
force that they use with their children. I've heard a friend say of
Pearl's advice that she “ate the fish and spit out the bones.” Why am I reminded of the aggressive Asian Carp that threatens the Great Lakes with invasion and ruin?
In ABC's 20/20 Episode, Shattered Faith, we heard clips of Jack Schaap
and other ministers affiliated with the Independent Fundamental Baptist
movement preach about the virtues of the beating of infants. Elizabeth Esther's blog discussion focuses on this practice, one that she likens to the teachings of Michael Pearl. 20/20 also features Jocelyn Zichterman who explained the literal Biblical translation of Provers 20:30
from the King James Version of the Bible, a verse understood by many
within the IFB to proclaim the virtues of bruising. Many believe that
both the rod and the bruising induced by correction mystically “drives away evil.”
Should we be surprised to discover that the beating of infants also took place in chapel services at Hephzibah House? Should we be surprised that it was something that the proprietor, Ron Williams, encouraged? Here is another testimony of abuse at Hephzibah House, told to us by Susan Grotte.
The scene describes the practices of the prevailing philosophy of
punishment within the Independent Fundamental Baptist churches.
Sundays at Hephzibah house were dominated by Church.I sat in a metal folding chair trying not to squirm since I had no fat left to cushion the hard seat beneath me. I was in the last of 5 rows of 6 girls interspersed with 4 staff ladies. The Hephzibah girls and Hephzibah staff, along with their children made up the entire congregation in the little unfinished basement room. Behind me I heard the familiar sounds of little baby Steven nursing away during the service. It felt good to know that sweet Mrs. K. was behind me. She would not be quick to find fault in my posture or how my hair was curled. The rhythmic sounds of a suckling baby were soothing and normal sounds in this surreal world.Back straight, eyes forward. I tried to pay attention to the long winded sermon and take good notes. Notes were turned in after every service and checked to make sure we paid attention to the service and were not daydreaming. If staff did not like your notes it was a paddling offense. Ron Williams had a theory that young people who were not engaged in busy work were lusting and enjoying lascivious fantasies.My feet were cold and my back ached but otherwise the sermon was a nice reprieve from the normal stress of daily life at Hephzibah house.Ron Williams deep voice filled the small room. He dwarfed the tiny podium.Patti Williams sat on the left side of the room with all eight children in a row. There was always a well worn paddle laying on the seat beside her. It was not unusual to see her paddle her children for wiggling or making noise during the long sermons. The youngest was Seth, perhaps two years old and the darling irrepressible Benjamin was just four years old. I do not recall a service where that poor little boy did not get a severe beating. I was amazed how undaunted and happy he remained. Seth seemed dull. He just sat and sucked his fingers. He showed no signs of normal 2 year old curiosity and wonder. Maybe that is what a successfully broken will would looked like in a two year old. I found it profoundly disturbing.Suddenly there was movement. I sensed rather than saw Mrs. K. stand up behind me. I dared not turn my head but up front Mrs Williams also hefted her wide girth out of her metal chair. It creaked loudly in protest. At just 40, Patti Williams was fat, slovenly and mean as a snake. Her grey hair in a stringy bun she stood looking back behind me towards the Mrs. K. and Steven. She had picked up the small paddle. A hard, tight smile crossed her humorless face. Mrs. K. had now made her way into my line of vision.Mrs. K. was clearly upset as she carried her tiny baby towards the front of the chapel.Ron Williams just droned on.My stomach clenched. What was this???Patti guided Mrs. K. into a small walled off area at the front of the room. The area was meant to be a closet one day. Now it had no door and served to store extra folding chairs. The two women entered the narrow room I had a partial view of the inside of the room but could no longer see Mrs. K. and the baby past Patti’s wide back.Ron Williams kept preaching.“NO! Oh NO!”I was frozen. Staring straight ahead and gripping my pencil in horror.WHACK!!The baby SCREAMED.We heard every powerful, stinging blow of the paddle hitting that tiny baby. It went on and on, every time there was a pause and I thought it was over it started up again.Ron Williams actually stopped preaching. Grinning from ear to ear he made a fist and moved it enthusiastically across his body like a diabolical cheerleader, “Hit him again Sister! Hit him again!”No one moved. No one DID anything. The babies cries were becoming strangled as he choked and he seemed to gasp dangerously between blows.“Go get that baby Susan!” The voice in my head was screaming, “DO SOMETHING!”I stared straight ahead as Ron Williams resumed his droning sermon. I thought of twenty scenarios where I saved that baby, but I sat glued to my seat. My blood ran cold.The crying stopped before the blows stopped. Soon Mrs. K. stepped out from behind the wall she was sobbing and clinging to her baby Patti was right behind her with a huge self satisfied smile on her corpulent face, now red from exertion.The baby was quiet. A spooky unnatural quiet. I watched the little bundle for signs of life intently until I saw his little chest heave showing he was indeed breathing.How hard would you have to hit a baby to make him stop crying? Why would we all just sit there and let it happen?I realized I had not taken any notes for several minutes. Somehow, knowing I would be paddled for that offense gave me a bizarre moment of satisfaction . A form of penance for my cowardice.Everyone took their places.Ron Williams droned on.
Susan asks, “Why would we all just sit there and let it happen?” I believe that the concept of Bounded Choice, the sense of learned helplessness, and profound cognitive dissonance
felt by many constrained everyone to obey. Anyone who intervened to
help that baby would have been punished severely, and the baby still
would have been punished as well, perhaps even more harshly than he had
been. Our choices appear to be open to us when we are under pressure,
but the are not viable choices that are truly available to us.
When you mix a system of violent
control, a system of manipulation, an idealistic belief system, and a
charismatic leader all together, you really have no choice, save the one
dictated to you by the system. In this situation, Susan seemed to have
options, but she had only one. She had to obey and follow the system.
She was as trapped as baby Steven. In many ways and at the time, her
prison was more complicated than his.
Read more HERE as the readers of Quivering Daughters elaborate
on how God is in the business of
healing our will, not breaking our heart.
Part VIII: There But For Grace
When I first heard about dear Lydia Schatz and her sister Zariah,
I felt an eerie chill run up my back and a sick creaturely feeling in
the pit of my abdomen, deeper and more cutting than just my stomach.
The term “pit” could not be more fitting.
Not having managed to carry a pregnancy very far myself, most women at my old Gothard-influenced
church held me at a distance. Two or three mothers who knew me well
let me into their worlds, but I kept my own distance when they discussed
some of the “methods” that they used with their kids. In the early
nineties, one set of close friends followed the Ezzos
meticulously, and I didn't ask much because I felt my own grief and
insecurities when I did. I also learned that my honest questions about
too many details were always followed with an equally defensive response
from some of these moms asking, “Why do you want to know?” I learned to stick to matters that concerned cooking and gardening and the other topics featured in Gentle Spirit magazine.
My dearest and best girlfriend
has great kids, and I have only ever seen her be loving with them.
Discipline that took place while we were together had more to do with
consequences of one's actions and sitting alone in a bedroom as a type
of time out. I knew of one occasion when one child who kept running out
of the fenced yard and into the street was taken into the house and
paddled. It seemed an appropriate trade-off for the young child who did
not yet appreciate the risks involved and would not listen, putting
themselves and a younger sibling at great risk. My friend and her
husband loved and cherished their children. I did hear rumors of how
willful one little girl happened to be, the one that I grew to be
closest to over the years, probably because she was as willful as her
mother whom I adore. I respect and honor that trait in her, for it
makes her capable of great determination to do the right thing in the
face of hardship. And I have said that I suspect that this one daughter
may have been harder for my friend to raise because of all of the many
similarities they share.
I moved away but stayed in
regular and close contact with my friend and continue to do so today.
The relationship strain that we do have comes because of some of these
doctrinal differences. The worst stressor involves her embrace of the writings of Michael Pearl,
followed by her ambivalence when listening to me express
dissatisfaction with various teachings of Bill Gothard. And, in fact, I
did not know that she followed Pearl's methods specifically by name or
in much depth until I started blogging about patriarchy, though I knew
that the method presented problems.
The phone rang one evening almost
ten years ago, and my dear friend called me, in tears. She was in
great distress, and it took some prodding to find out why she was so
upset, because it was difficult to get her talking – and this was not
typical of her. She blurted out that she feared that she was going to
kill her daughter. I would have laughed at her and thought her comment
to be an exaggeration, but I clearly knew from her level of distress
that it was not an expression of sarcasm. As I asked for specifics, she
spelled out for me that she believed that she was required to break the
will of her daughter by continuing to spank her (mentioning an
mind-numbing number of whacks) but feared that she would truly harm her
if she continued. At one point in the painful discussion, she did say
that she had failed to work things properly with the daughter that is
deemed as willful (though I see her as a gifted young woman with good
discernment and determination). Yeah, I know... I don't have to live
with her. And it takes one to know one, too.
I asked only the bare minimum
questions, still a bit confused but definitely aware of my friend's
distress. I felt terrified, and I felt terrified for her and her
daughter I didn't understand much of anything except the level
exasperation and fear and a whole host of other emotions in my friend.
What I found most significant was my friend's insistence that she had to
follow a specific plan, or the world would unravel, or so my friend
believed. She had to break her daughter's will or she would never
listen again, and it would affect her relationship with God in the most
negative way. (At this point, there was no mention of love, only a duty
that my friend could not bring herself to carry out without guilt and
fear for her daughter's ability to survive. She was also confused
because she did not get the results she desired.
With
my fresh perspective, I brought some other information to the table.
Back when I used to listen to Focus on the Family, I'd heard Cynthia Tobias talk about Gregoric Learning Styles and knew from my own experience that I was a “Concrete Random,” the kind of kid that will call your bluff and will likely die like a martyr
before doing what is expected of them on principle. They are
principled thinkers, and things have to make sense to them. (Concrete
Randoms don't do well under authoritarian parenting. It is not
rebellion but a reflection of how their brain makes sense of the world
and best takes in the information around them. It is more brain and
personality based than anything else, one of those things we tell our
kids is their precious gift from God to them, part of His expression of
love and care for them.) Not long before and thankfully so, I'd shared a
copy of Tobias' Redefining the Strong-Willed Woman with
this same friend. I came up with a plan with which my friend agreed to
comply, just because she felt so trapped. I suppose that she'd only
agreed because she liked this other book, and for that, I am grateful.
I explained how Einstein said
that true insanity was defined as doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results each time. It seemed that the
stakes were getting high, and for whatever reason, whatever was
happening and whatever was being done had failed to work. To continue
doing something that was painful for her and dangerous (per her tears
and admission of fear) did not seem wise to me, particularly when she
readily admitted that it wasn't working. She was deeply distressed, and
I encouraged her to consider that the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit. God has not given us a spirit of fear but one of love, power and a sound mind. She felt alienated from all of these things.
From
a purely pragmatic position, it seemed reasonable for her to at least
take a break to rest and think. There were older siblings in the home
at the time that could be assigned to watch this little five year old
for the next 48 hours, and they seemed to have fewer problems with their
sister than mom did at the time. I asked my friend to do this and to
merely take a 48 hour break at the very least. I then overnighted a
copy of Tobias' other book entitled You Can't Make Me, But I Can Be Persuaded
to her, asking her to read it and then decide what to do after that
little break. I think that my friend only agreed to this and found it
reasonable because she was in such distress. She also felt
uncomfortable talking with anyone else about it, fearing some kind of
reprisal. I didn't understand that at the time, either.
The plan worked. My friend
enjoyed a break, and I sent the book as a Fed-Ex first morning delivery
because I was literally terrified and very confused about what I'd been
told about all this. And I couldn't just get in the car, drive over,
and “fill in for mom” to give her a break. It was the best I could do
from my helpless vantage – 1,700 miles away. She devoured the book
when it arrived. I'd also like to note that this child turned out to be
her last one, so there were no new dilemmas with other younger
children.
Inspiring her daughter and
fostering her natural problem-solving skills through the use of the
wisdom that Tobias offered her in an hour of need worked remarkably
well. I still ask from time to time, and in what is quickly approaching
ten years at this point, this young “concrete random” has never had
another significant discipline problem. She is loving and sweet, and a
sheer delight to her family. I love engaging her on the phone when I
call, and sometimes her mom will have to ask her who she's talking to on
the phone. She and I chat at length and she's sometimes reluctant to
hand the receiver over to my dear friend.
Fast forward to 2007. I learn
from one of my many fine teachers about the Quiverfull/Patriarchy
Movement, Corrie, that this child training teacher whom my friend
followed had a name – Michael Pearl. When I called and talked with my
friend later that day (the one with the daughter who had success with
the suggestions made by Tobias), she readily admitted her unwavering
devotion to Michael Pearl and the wisdom she'd learned from him. I was
really quite shocked. I asked her several questions that day, but I
said nothing about the trouble she'd called me about and the problems
we'd discussed years ago. It was clear that this was not a comfortable
subject. I was mortified to discover that my dearest friend had used
the Pearl Method! In retrospect, we realized that many of our other
friends did as well.
When word of the circumstances
surrounding Lydia Schatz became public in early 2010, I approached my
friend about the topic of Michael Pearl and about the death of poor
Lydia. I never anticipated the response that I received from my friend
who I expected to become humble and melacholy. My friend who had once
called me in tears, expressing terrible fear about actually hurting her
daughter and feeling capable of doing so lashed out against Elizabeth
Schatz in particular in her defense of Michael Pearl. Her strength that
I love so much swelled up and with angry boldness. My otherwise
compassionate, forgiving, humble, and empathetic friend said that “only
animals” would have done such a thing and that none of the tragedy could
possibly ever be any responsibility of Michael Pearl. I was astonished
and a bit in awe.
Several weeks later, I broached
the subject again. I didn't push things at all but mentioned that I
felt badly for the parents (Kevin and Elizabeth) who must be in a
terrible state, having to go through such agony and realizing how “out
of touch” with reality they'd become. I stopped talking about it for
awhile and stated later that I had to ask my friend if she honestly
could feel no empathy toward this couple. Initially, her answer shocked
me, until I had a chance to think about it more deeply.
It seems that the events of those
few days were so traumatic that my friend does not remember anything
specifically about calling me and crying, expressing fears about her
potential to “acutally kill” her daughter by “breaking her will” through
spanking. I asked her if she remembered crying about how she gave her
daughter over 50 whacks and lost count but stopped because she just felt
so wrong about it. (At the time, I was so sickened and terrified by
the number of lashes that was given to this little one whom I knew and
loved by her mother whom I knew and loved, I never asked about what was
used as an instrument of discipline. I don't know if they actually used
the plumbing line.)
My friend said, “What are you talking about?” She and I had a discussion about You Can't Make Me...,
about what Tobias taught, about how this little girl was no longer a
discipline problem, about specifics in the book, etc.. She told me, “Well, I sort of remember that you sent me a book. Was it you that sent me THAT book? I don't remember. That was a long time ago.”
She also could not remember the
specific turning point that changed things with her daughter. She
remembers that they did have a big problem with this little girl, but
she's never had a discipline problem with her since, well... and she
goes on to name a specific event that corresponded with the general time
frame. But my friend did state that this little girl in question is
now her most well-behaved and good-natured child. In fact, she's
described as the most gentle and kind of all her daughters.
When I heard about Lydia, Zariah,
Kevin and especially about Elizabeth Schatz, I did little else but
think back on the week where I prayed and paced the floor and placed
several calls all week to check on my dear friend. The first thing that
my husband said – the first thing out of his mouth when I told him
about Lydia Schatz – was “That could have been [our friends' daughter]. It could have been her that died that time. Remember?” And I said, “How could I forget? You know how sick I was and how painful it was for [our friend].”
I would love to offer a post
here, written by my dear friend who has been a true blue and faithful
friend to me over what is now quickly approaching two decades of walking
together through both seasons of joy and dark nights of the soul. I
called with the plan to ask her to write about her experience for me to
put here on my blog. That week of pain that she so humbly shared with
me in desperation was so traumatic that it has passed out of her memory,
and she remembers only her duty to Pearl after using his methods with
the rest of her family's full quiver. Those painful events that
followed with her youngest have passed from her memory, too painful for
her to remember. She only recalls using the Pearl Method somewhat
successfully with the older children, though I don't know how true that
is and could debate that it was ineffective with her other “more
determined” daughter.
Though I am glad that my friend
was spared tragedy, in my own estimation, I believe wholeheartedly that
it was only God's intervention that protected everyone concerned in her
case. As wonderfully stubborn as my friend can be (a quality I tend to
like in a person because of how beautifully it glistens when God
transforms it into determination to do that which is right and good), I
know that it had to be God's own work. And I tremble. For whatever
reason, death visited Lydia and not [my friend's daughter], as I believe
that it well could have. I might have sat here last Spring, blogging
like Laurie M. did a year ago, talking about my friend instead of reading about a stranger for whom my heart breaks.
I understand the pressures that
my friend faced and some of the pain that she felt. I also understand
that I was a safe person for her to seek out and am humbled by that. I
know that her friends in homeschooling would have rejected her and
shamed her for wanting to give up on the Pearl Method while her family
who did not follow Pearl would have shamed her for following his
recommendations.
I wonder how many other followers
of Michael Pearl can't remember the nights when the feared for their
child's well-being, just as my own, dear friend? It's in their best
interest to forget, after all they've invested in the promises of the
power of the rod.
There, but for grace, go I. And I am grateful for all the grace that I am given, over and over again every day – God's unmerited favor.
PART IX: Using the Milgram Study to Understand How Pearl Becomes Appealing
What We Can Learn
From Milgram
In his book, The Lucifer Effect, Dr. Philip Zimbardo offers a list of ten primary elements of Stanley Milgram's Experiment that reinforced and enhanced the compliance of the study subjects.
Using a unique mix of factors,
the study played upon human tendency and nature, essentially exploiting
those human traits in an attempt to arrive at some kind of reliable
number that allows us to put the human capacity for evil into
perspective. Being aware of
subtle processes of manipulation which some people use as techniques
gives a person much more power of choice and confidence to resist subtle
manipulation in the future.
If you haven't watched the video of Zimbardo at MIT, please take time to do so – at least, just the portion about Stanley Milgram's Study of blind obedience to authority. Also, if you've not done so before, please read back through the previous posts on this topic, also taking special note of this post on moral disengagement as well as the post about the Milgram Experiment. Cialdini's “Weapons of Influence”
are also very helpful when working toward a better understanding of why
people complied in the Milgram Experiment, capitalizing on human nature
and tendency.
(There will be a few more posts on this subject to come in the future, too.)
We can learn from the Schatz Family,
because like so many others within Christian homeschooling and other
such communities, I believe that all of these factors contributed to
their progressive loss of perspective of which Michael Pearl's teachings
were only a part. So many additional factors become part of the mix of
Christian living because individuals who are convicted that a certain
practice is Biblical for them preach their preferences as moral
imperatives. These factors and more (many listed in the sidebar here at UnderMuchGrace.com) create
the perfect storm that caught up the Schatz family – a storm that
could well be true of all of us. May we learn the lessons from the
tragic example they have set for us.
May their sad experience be like a beacon of warning for us as Christians and as people.
Please don't miss the Moral in Milgram at the end of this post!
Ten Methods
that Enhance Comliance with
Ethically Questionable Systems
(Adapted from The Lucifer Effect, pp. 273-5)
~ With a Comparison to the Pearl Method ~
1.) Pre-arrange a verbal or written contract at the beginning of interactions, something directed at complying with an agreed upon behavior.
- Pearl Method: The system defines good, dutiful, loving Christian parents as those who who follow the method.
- The expectation is reinforced within homeschooling communities through social pressure, and sometimes in their churches.
- In order to prove to yourself and others that you are a good parent and truly Christian, you are expected to follow those expectations that are part of the unwritten contract enforced by social control and pressure within churches and homeschooling groups.
- People will go to great lengths to prove to themselves and others that they are consistent with commitments that they have made.
- It is human nature to “stick with the program.”
2.) Give participants a meaningful role to play
that builds upon positive and honorable values and those roles that
have automatic responses associated with them. (Milgram assigned status
of “teacher” which is understood culturally, usually in a positive
light.)
- Pearl Method: The good parent comes along and reads a book with many good ideas in it.
- Following the program has been framed out by a good minister as the only good way for good parents to raise good children.
- It's all about the ideals and one's Christian mission and duty in life.
3.) Imperative rules that seem to make sense can be presented to participants can be be argued in advance of the interaction. These rules can be used at a later time to justify and enforce mindless compliance.
People will feel committed to them because they believed and accepted
them initially, before they had an opportunity to really think about
them. This can be exploited later.
- Pearl Method: Christians naturally want to do what the Bible teaches, and Pearl's new rules can be enforced by stressing their divine nature which bypasses most people's radar when they don't scrutinize the nature of those new rules.
- Parents are also told later in the process that if they don't follow the formula, their children will suffer physically and spiritually, ultimately dying physically and spiritually.
- By the time the true nature of the risks are fully realized, the person has already become very deeply invested in the system and committed to it.
- At this point, it becomes easier to follow the process rather than to exit from it.
4.) Changing the language used to describe the process
from either benign or negative terms into those which connote pleasant,
virtuous, and lofty ideals obscure the true nature of the dynamics.
Doing something unpleasant can be redefined as something beneficial, meaningful, and good.
- Pearl Method: Parents are told that resorting to physical discipline is what God Himself has prescribed for them.
- Corporal punishment is reframed as “chastisement” which carries the connotation of Hebrews Chapter 12, and this Biblical language reinforces the elite nature of corporal punishment as an act of Christian virtue.
- “Spanking” replaces “beating.” A “switch” replaces a “whip.”
- People also identify the “rod” as a Biblical term and what God requires of them as the method frames it for them.
- Not everything defined as “Biblical” is really so – and the term itself is a big “thought-stopping cliche” within Christian groups.
- People take the shortcut and trust the term without searching out the validity of its use because it's easier.
5.) The system exploits participants by “creating opportunities for the diffusion of responsibility.” They are lead to believe that they will be exempt of responsibility for negative outcomes if they follow the prescribed pattern of behavior (moral disengagement). Someone else will be held responsible and they will not be liable.
- Pearl Method: Parents are promised that the system cannot fail if it is followed consistently and will yield great benefits for parent, child, church and society.
- It will also please God and will satisfy the requirements He demands.
- The system itself, because it has so strongly been identified with God Himself, is never questioned as potentially unreliable as a misguided one with good intentions.
- The promised virtuous outcome justifies the means used to gain that outcome.
- The system itself is responsible, and God is responsible.
- God will eventually justify those who stepped out in faith. Only reward can result from following the system.
6.) The “path toward the ultimate evil” begins with very small, incremental changes. Biderman's Chart of Coercion points this out very well, and complete compliance is surrendered in small steps. It is essentially a slippery slope of increasingly greater requests or requirements of compliance.
Each step takes you a little closer to the cliff's edge as
though there is no cliff to fall from at all. Because of the gradual
changes over time and because of a loss of perspective, you don't realize just how many changes you've made over time until you've fallen over the edge.
- Pearl Method: On the surface of things, parents just expect to spank their children when things become necessary but soon realize that, according to the program, a parent must spank very often.
- For the program to work properly, consistency is required without room for error.
- You can't just quit the program, or it won't work. It's comprehensive.
- The program demands more and more over time and becomes a whole lifestyle.
7.) With each incremental
step in the process, a new and slightly increased level of compliance or
intensity must be introduced. The increases are framed as so
indiscernible that they are insignificant. (In Milgram's study, the
first shocks that were delivered seemed to be relatively benign and
mild, but they progressed from 15 volts to a deadly 450 volts at the end
of the study.)
- Pearl Method: Parents soon realize that it is not just enough to spank, but they must inflict the requisite amount of pain for the system to work properly.
- They have to increase the intensity of the force used or the length of the practice to get the desired effect.
- You might decide that the paint stick or the designated paddle has worn out its usefulness and you might switch to the plumbing line for “better results.” Then you might find that you need it in every room, and then you need to carry it around in your purse.
- As the child ages, it gives to reason that greater force must be used to achieve this effect.
- I find it interesting that the Pearls loose many followers at this juncture, finding that it is either not necessary to get the harsh sounding recommended implements, or they find the whole plumbing line option to be a little too strange.
8.) Gradually changing the ethical nature of the authority figure
from a good, trustworthy and “just” person who behaves reasonably into a
bad, demanding, authoritarian, “unjust”, and perhaps irrational person.
The confusion enhances the compliance, and people generally respond
with mindless obedience. The inconsistency tends to galvanize
compliance in a manner very similar to that of women in “date rape” and
domestic abuse situations.
- Pearl Method: Elements of the Method are quite good, and some of the concepts that it teaches are very sound.
- Consistency, structure, and teaching consequences does help children. So parents get quite a lot out of these beneficial elements of the Model.
- The Pearls talk about love and their duty to both their children and to God to do the right thing.
- But that concept does not match the aggressive nature of the harsh and often unbridled punishment methods.
- Peers and church leaders take on the primary authoritarian role, showing painful disapproval for non-compliance. Doubt is discouraged or punished.
- The inconsistency induces cognitive dissonance which makes people very compliant and greatly compromises their critical thinking ability.
9.) Compliance increases when the process makes it difficult to nearly impossible to comfortably exit the process.
In the Milgram study, the “teacher”/subject was permitted to voice
their verbal dissent so that they could feel at ease with the moral
dilemma, but at the same time, they were required to continue with the
process.
- Pearl Method: Parents are told that though they may not like their role, they are required to continue to keep their own salvation and to properly care for their children.
- There is no exit, and the consequences are defined as eternal.
- In “hard” complementarianism which the Pearls also observe, women often talk of repenting of their sin of not liking the limits of their role, but they are still required to suppress their desires and comply, even though it doesn't feel good or natural to them.
10.) Ideology or offering “a big lie” to justify the process and the system reinforces the idea that the system can and should resort to necessary means to achieve the benefit and the virtuous endpoint.
“In social psychology
experiments, this tactic is known as a 'cover story' because it is a
cover-up for the procedures that follow, which might be challenged
because they do not make sense on their own. The real-world equivalent
is known as an 'ideology'” (pg. 274).
- Pearl Method: Following the formula promises to solve discipline problems as well as shape and prepare a child for an increased if not guaranteed Christian status.
- The parent will be rewarded in many ways for their dutiful Christian service and for their parenting efforts.
- This ideology is actually a strong component in every one of the conditions in Zimbardo's list about the Milgram experiment because of the religious nature of the Pearl Method.
- It isn't only a program which uses coercion to increase compliance of participants – the program defines and redefines one's Christianity and Christian status in terms of the program itself and compliance with it.
The Moral in Milgram
“Such procedures are utilized in varied influence situations where
those in authority want others to do their bidding but
know that few would engage in the “end game”
without first being properly prepared psychologically
to do the “unthinkable.”
In the future,
when you are in a compromising position
where your compliance is at stake,
thinking back to these stepping-stones to mindless obedience
may enable you to step back and
not go all the way down the path – their path.
A good way to avoid crimes of obedience
is to assert one's own personal authority and
always take full responsibility for one's own actions. “
~ Zimbardo, pg 275
referencing Kelman & Hamilton
Part X: The Schatz Family is Not Unique
In only a few days, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz
are scheduled to return to the Butte County Courtroom in California for
sentencing, months after they plead guilty for their respective roles
in the death of their adopted daughter Lydia and for the injuries
sustained by their other children related to their use of the discipline methods taught by Michael Pearl.
The United States Court System
bears witness to other deaths and injuries to other children, some of
which author Philip Greven notes in his book, Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse.
To those who wish to understand how Christians can make such
dangerous choices to discipline their children to such an extent and how
the practice is especially tied to Protestant traditions in the United
States, please read Greven's book.
And please read it, especially if you employ the Pearl Method as a disciplinary measure with your own children.
Had Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz
opted to stand trial, though we would have certainly learned more about
the details of the family and the discipline methods used within the
family, though the Pearl Method would have likely been described in the
proceedings, the press has noted that the prosecutor had no interest in
focusing on Michael Pearl. Perhaps one of the Schatz children may later
decide to pursue Michael Pearl for damages in a wrongful death suit in
the future, but as it stands, Pearl still operates unchecked in terms
of the law. His subjective methods of cruelty remain at large, and his
writings remain in the marketplace.
But... Consider that, as Greven
writes in his book, in the history of our nation, a few similar cases
have gained the attention of the courts, demonstrating that the Schatz
Family is not entirely unique. And in at least one other case in 1985,
the spiritual leader of a group that promoted stringent discipline
methods was convicted and held culpable for the abuse and death of
another child. Perhaps this precedent may one day provide some basis to
hold Michael Pearl accountable for his teachings and for the tragic
consequences of his ideas.
From the Chapter entitled Memories of Pain and Punishments in Greven's Spare the Child
 |
| Rev. Frank Weston Sandford |
Reverend Frank Sandford
developed an authoritarian apocalyptic sect called “The Kingdom” and
also “The Church of the Living God” in the late 1890s in Durham, Maine.
In a memoir written by Arnold White chronicles the abuse that he and
others endured in the group, noting that any lack of obedience was
defined as “stubborn,” and that parents sought to "'break a child's spirit' beginning at an early age.”
In 1904, a former member
commented about the lack of normal and natural affection among the
members and among family members. She recalls how babies would be put
on 40 hour fasts with no food and water, including nursing infants.
When she talks of how a room full of babies cried like little lambs and
called an elder over to listen, the elder snidely commented that it was “the devil in the babies.” She reported that at any given time, a person could hear some child screaming while being whipped.
Sandford's
own six year old son was required to fast for 72 hours and was
threatened with a beating thereafter for behaving with impertinence.
Sanford stood trial and was convicted in court for cruelty, but was only
fined $100. However, as soon as this trial concluded, he was charged
with manslaughter for the death of a fifteen year old who was required
to fast while he had diphtheria. The court could reach no judgment
regarding this incident, but the State prosecutor was convinced that
Sandford's actions caused this child's death. (Kindle Location 725 -
768)
From the Chapter entitled Disciplined to Death in Greven's Spare the Child
In
1985, a jury found Dorothy McClellan of West Virginia “guilty of
involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit the unlawful wounding
of Joseph Green,” a twenty-three-month-old boy who had died after being
paddled for two hours by his parents. (Kindle location 833)
In 1974, Dorothy McClellan and
her husband established a Fundamentalist community called Stonegate, a
cultic group that lived in a large 27 room Victorian home in West
Virginia. The group followed a system of discipline that became child
abuse which they justified as a religious practice. Because the
spiritual leader, Dorothy McClellan, promoted and enforced the practice,
the judge also convicted her for her role in the child's death. Her
appeal was overturned.
The judge declared that:
Dorothy McClellan is an extremely strong-willed and manipulative woman who was unquestionably the leader of the Stonegate group. She instituted therein a policy of child discipline which ultimately encouraged the acts which brought about Joey Green's death, and thus is just as surely responsible as if she had wielded the paddle herself. One only has to realize that her teachings created an atmosphere I which each set of parents had their own monogrammed paddles which were carried openly and used frequently. Indeed, through her leadership there evolved a system of child abuse which was mistaken under the guise of religion. (Kindle Location 865)
Greven's states that the judges statement overlooks the implicit issue that “the
pervasiveness of such views about physical punishment among
Fundamentalist, evangelical, and Pentecostal Protestants as well as many
Americans of other persuasions, both religious and secular.” (Kindle Location 876)
Before considering the man
complex consequences of physical punishments, we must first explore some
of the religious and secular rationales for inflicting painful
punishments. Only then will we begin to understand some of the
intellectual sources – as well as the experiential roots in the early
lives of many individuals – for our persistent collective commitment to
hitting children in the name of discipline. (Kindle Location 889)
~~~~~
I still plan a few posts for
inclusion in this series, but the sad nature of the material has slowed
my pace in preparing them. They will come in time.
I would like to again revisit John Bradshaw's Reclaiming Virtue and also discuss Heimlich's new book, Breaking Their Will.
And most importantly, as
both Greven and Bradshaw note, no discussion of child discipline can be
complete without the inclusion of material from Alice Miller's number
of works on the subject, especially For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-rearing and the Roots of Violence.
- More LINKS on the topic:
- A list of ALL POSTS related to Lydia Schatz, Michael Pearl, and Blind Obedience
- CNN's Reports about the deaths of Lydia Schatz and Hannah Williams, and interviews with Michael Pearl on AC360 and Dr. Drew.
- Posts about Kidney Disease related to the Pearl Method
- Posts about Harm to Children through discipline for religious reasons (including Pearl)
