"Breaking Their Will"
I recently read that the attorney for Bishop Robert Finn is trying to get his client’s case thrown out, by convincing a judge that Finn was not responsible for reporting cases of child sexual abuse. Finn, who heads the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese of Kansas City, Missouri, is the highest ranking member of the Catholic Church [...]
As most of you know, I have devoted much of the last four years to researching and writing about religious child maltreatment. I intend to continue to learn all I can about his form of abuse and neglect. However, it’s time to begin a new path. A few months back, I had the pleasure of [...]
Last week in Montreal, three Muslims from Afghanistan were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for killing four family members, including three teenage girls. According to prosecutors, Hamed Shafia killed his three sisters—Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13—upon orders by his father, Mohammad. Hamed’s mother, Tooba Yahya, was also convicted [...]
I don’t care to criticize others for their religious beliefs. It’s not my business whether one worships Allah, Yahweh, Jesus, the pope, Mohammad, or Warren Jeffs. But when I see religious leaders spouting beliefs that directly, or indirectly, harm children, I speak up. Whether it is indicted Bishop Robert Finn or pro-spanking fundamentalist Christian preacher Michael [...]
As I stress in my book, Breaking Their Will, children are at most risk for being religiously abused or neglected when they are raised in religious authoritarian cultures. These cultures are homes and communities in which members strongly identify themselves by their faith. And, as in any authoritarian community, people care more about meeting the needs [...]
Both TV and print media have pitted me against the pro-spanking fundamentalist Christian preacher Michael Pearl, as I have been vocal about my concerns that his teachings about childrearing are dangerous. I have written extensively about Pearl in Breaking Their Will, and this is the second blog I have posted about him. As Pearl notes both on his [...]
Why is it when religious leaders are accused, or even convicted, of abusing or neglecting children, the devout rush to defend them? Take the case of Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese in Missouri. On October 14, Finn and the diocese were indicted for failing to report a priest who allegedly [...]
I have just returned from Seattle, a trip that was fun, inspiring, and also sad. Initially, I had planned to celebrate the release of Breaking Their Will with friends and others at a dinner party and then hold a talk and booksigning at a church. Those two events went off without a hitch, and I’ll tell you [...]
It’s hard to believe that women in a family would not do all they could to come to the aid of a dying infant. But that is what happened in the case of David Hickman. The infant was born two months premature and died nearly nine hours after birth in 2009. The cause of death [...]
A friend and child advocate recently emailed me a 2002 article that appeared in the satirical newspaper The Onion. The headline reads: “Pope Forgives Molested Children.” I get it. And, yet, I wish there wasn’t something to get. After all, the reason why it’s sickeningly funny is due to the fact that untold numbers of [...]
