Links Related to Lydia Schatz, the Michael Pearl Method of Child Training, and First Time Obedience

Created Apr 2011;  Updated 4Sep13

Click here to read the entire series on the archive.

Index of posts pertaining to discipline methods within Evangelical Christianity and the homeschooling movement.

THIS POST offers a brief overview 
of the problems with Michael Pearl's methods of "child training"
and the (known and reported) fatalities associated with his system of corporal punishment.


CONCERNING MICHAEL PEARL

Why Good People Make Dangerous Choices (Series of posts pondering Pearl and Lydia Schatz)

• Read the whole series in a single post at the archive site. (Why do good and reasonable people loose perspective when following practices like those that the Pearls advocate? Draws heavily on the research of Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, Albert Bandura.)
  
  

  • Revisiting First Time Obedience as it relates to Lydia Schatz

CNN And Anderson Cooper Reports and Interviews

• AC 360 (Aug 2011) Part I (Lydia Schatz)
• AC 360 (Aug 2011) Part II (Interview with Pearl in Tennessee)
• AC 360 Report on the Death of Hanna Williams
• AC 360 Interview with Pearl (In studio)
• Dr. Drew Show Interview (Oct 2011)
• Anderson Daytime Talk Show (2Dec11)

Death and Disease in Children Disciplined for Religious Reasons

• CNNs Report on the Death of Hanna Williams
• Detection and Reporting Kidney Disease, Rhabdomyolysis, and Problems with the Pearl Method (Also offers a general overview of the events concerning the death of Lydia Schatz)
• Another Case of Renal Failure (that Won't Make the Press) (Pearl Method)
• Baptist Pastor's Sons Beat a Boy into Renal Failure in 2002

OFFSITE LINKS CONCERNING PEARL

Media Reports about the Schatz Family and other Religious Chlid Maltreatment

• New York Times (Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate)
• Huffington Post (Multiple Articles)
• Huffington Post Parents (Can Adoption Lead to Child Abuse?)
• See blog posts with video and transcripts of CNN's reporting (noted above) from their series called “Ungodly Discipline”

Essential Information (with more extensive information about Lydia Schatz and Family)

• No Longer Quivering
• The Schatz'  Guilty Pleas to Avoid a Jury Trial 8Apr11
• The Beauty for Ashes Post
• Now...Through a Glass Darkly
• Janet Heimich's Video Interview with Michael Pearl
  
  
  Specific Information about the Pearl Method (listed sites also have info re: Babywise/Ezzo)
  • Why Not Train a Child?
  • Parenting in the Name of God (at Scita > Scienda)
  • Tulip Girl

FIRST TIME OBEDIENCE

First Time Obedience and Unquestioned Submission (Pearl-style, authoritarian discipline)

• Revisiting First Time Obedience as it relates to Lydia Schatz
  
  
• About First Time Obedience (FTO) from the series on Multigenerational Faithfulness
  
  
  • Introduction: The Selfish Sin of Shyness
    • FTO in young children. A review of the submission required under multigenerational faithfulness as Vision Forum’s carryover from Bill Gothard’s submission teachings with various examples of this demand for unquestioned obedience without credulity.
      
      * Response to claims that I've taken Baucham out of context concerning corporal punishment and behavioral expectations for young children. (2013 post)
      
      
    I: Parental Convenience

• A review of the principle of sacerdotalism and parental convenience (as a control issue in dysfunctional families) as rationales for requiring FTO and “leaps of faith” required under multigenerational faithfulness.

II: Spiritualizing All Activities

• Review of the tendency to make every banal daily activity one of great eternal spiritual significance as a consequence of works-based salvation. Includes a discussion of viewing personality traits that do not fit the belief system’s paradigm as sinful as well as the building up of all gender related activities as sacramental for the impartation of inward sanctification.
Part II Personal Experience
• Blog host’s personal experience with inherent personality traits treated by parents as sin, the idolatry of seeking parental approval, and the consequences of requiring unquestioned submission with the use of guilt and shame that predisposes one to easy brainwashing and compliance with thought reform. Includes a section from Biderman’s Chart of Coercion addressing the powerful effects of devaluing individuals in religious settings.

III: Poor Development of Analytical Thought and Problem Solving Skills

• Discussion of the development of how perfectionism, works-based salvation and First Time Obedience squelch problem-solving skill and prevent the development of critical thinking under the guise of multigenerational faithfulness.

IV: Theological Concerns

• Discussion of the development of how perfectionism, works-based salvation and First Time Obedience squelch problem-solving skill and prevent the development of critical thinking under the guise of multigenerational faithfulness.

Alternatives to Aggressive Discipline and Corporal Punishment

• Crushing the Spirit: Alternatives to Michael Pearl's Violence

Voddie Baucham on Corporal Punishment and Shyness in a Young Child from Under Much Grace on Vimeo.