Even a Child Can Recognize Injustice

Even a child can recognize injustice when the supposed "justice" consists of whippings followed by whippings followed by whippings over a several-hour period. And sometimes a child, recognizing the injustice, will resist to the point of death. I don't know if this is what Lydia Schatz did...resisted because she recognized injustice. I don't know that.

Sometimes a child, when being confronted with whipping after whipping, is unable to comply with the parents' demand...in this case the pronunciation of a reading word.

In either case, Lydia's non-compliance was considered as rebellion to the parental authority. Lydia either would not or could not comply. And the whippings continued. Parental authority demanded it.

And perhaps this betrayal of parental love simply shows the true nature of the hearts of Kevin and Elizabeth. Hearts that were hardened to recognizing what true love demands....love God, love one another.

Whippings carried out over a period of hours to the point of a child's death do not translate to "love". Not in my world, anyway.

Lydia Schatz, Dead.
Zariah Schatz, several days in critical care.
A biological son with marks of whipping.
Six other children in the home, one of the older of whom was being taught by her parents to administer switchings/discipline.

The beatings that caused Lydia's kidneys to shut down (destruction of tissue underlying the skin) were being administered in a manner prescribed and taught by Michael Pearl and Debi Pearl, self-proclaimed authorities in "parenting" under their No Greater Joy Ministry. Sadly, many Christians follow the Pearl's child-rearing methods because they are "Christians". I wonder how many would be looking at their methods in a different light if they were under the guise of Atheism or some cult or some secular authority. Does the label of "Christian" absolve them of accountability for presenting methods that can be mis-used so frighteningly?

Disclaimer: The Pearls do not out-and-out recommend whipping to death...they do, however, advocate not ceasing until the child submits to a state of utter submission. There are many who say their children have been easily taught obedience with a light tap on the leg or single switching. But we all know there are children, who if disciplined in this manner, will rebel totally. At the least those children will leave home at the earliest possibility and never look back at their "loving" parents. At the worst, those children will suffer mightily under this "rod of instruction". Either way, there will be no glory to God in all of it. God forbid that we treat our children in this manner.

I expect there to be more about this in days ahead. But when? So far I see no national news media coverage. I do see local news. And there are many blogs speaking to this. But where are the national network news people?

If you've already heard about this case (my previous posts) you needn't read all the following. I'm linking them here to verify what I have written. Now...go hug your kids.

Paradise Post, Paradise, CA Feb 26, 2010 Questions About Ministry Grow
Chico Enterprise Record, Chico, CA Feb 26, 2010 Plea Delayed in Fatal Beating
Chico Enterprise Record, Feb 25, 2010 Beating Draws National Attention (where?)
Oroville Mercury Register, Oroville, CA Feb 25, 2010 Plea Entry Delayed
Oroville Mercury Register, Feb 19, 2010 Schatz Girl Released from Hospital
Chico Enterprise Record, Feb 12, 2010 Paradise Parents Face Murder Torture Charges
Oroville Mercury Register, Feb 10, 2010 Paradise Parents Face Murder Torture Charges
Paradise Post, Feb 09, Neighbors Surprised By Murder Case

The following blogs comment a bit more indepth on this tragedy as well as take apart some of the teachings of the Pearls.
TulipGirl
Elizabeth Esther
Beauty for Ashes

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8

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You've Got Mail! In a Box! Full of Good Things!

It's 4:56 am and I'm lying awake. I suppose know its the steroids they gave me with my chemo infusion yesterday. They trick you, ya know. They gave me benadryl, too, which as everyone knows, puts you to sleep for the duration of the infusion. Even when you would rather be reading or knitting. The last hour and a half was spent with my head rolled to one side, saliva drooling from the corner of my mouth, and my knitting lying quietly neglected in my lap. (I'm kidding about the saliva...I don't drool...ever...never!)

At home I took another hour's nap and then the benadryl was done. But the steroids! They're still working! For another two days. Trust me. The house will be clean. I'll have baked, cooked, scrubbed, mopped, painted. And I'll have used 60,000 words per day instead of my usual 20,000. Steroids do that to me. On Monday I will crash on the sofa and by Tuesday I'll be my usual lazy self.

But here it is, 4:56 am. I tried lying on the sofa, thinking my body might think "NAP!" But that didn't work. So here I am.

As I lay in bed, checking the clock, I got to thinking about things. Specifically I got to thinking about prayers from a small church in Pennsylvania (900 miles to the east). My friend, a breast cancer patient, had put me on the prayer list at her church. (Yayyy, send prayers! I am grateful for any and all prayers!) There are ladies in that church who minister through knitting/crocheting. They make shawls. While they are making shawls, they pray for the one to receive the shawl. That's a lot of prayer-time, folks! You don't crochet a shawl in ten minutes time!

In the box that arrived in the mail a couple weeks back were a gorgeous shawl to warm my shoulders (it looks great over a red turtleneck sweater!), a couple mugs for Valentine's Day (definitely already filled with love), and a church bulletin. Why a church bulletin, you ask? You see, the Sunday before she mailed the package they prayed for me in church. And that day, the Scripture reference for the day just happened to be Rev. Ch 2:12-17. Why do I mention that, you ask?

The answer is that my friend knew from my blog why I chose WhiteStone as my blog name. I chose it from Rev. 2:17. You can read that here. My friend was surprised as could be to see that the Scripture reference for the day included my special verse. She sent the bulletin so I could see the coincidence. Except she didn't consider it coincidence. Neither do I.

Every time I wear that shawl I think of my friends in Pennsylvania. And I'm reminded , as their note mentions, of God's great love for us.

One of the things that cancer has taught me is to pray better for others. Life is tough! We're commanded to pray for one another, to lift each other up! It humbles and quiets your soul to pray for others and to know you have friends praying for you!

Today's scripture? James 5:16. And a second, Jude 2. (run your cursor over the scripture to read)

I think I'll go back to bed. There are still a couple hours till daylight.
P.S. This series of chemo is kind. I have no residual side-effects other than an exceptionally clean house two days out of seven.
P.P.S. You can read more about prayer shawl ministry here .

Bless you, My Friends.
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From the Pen of the Chemo Curl Gurl

Those of us in the cancer world are well aware that chemo (depending on the drugs used) causes complete loss of hair. I spent much of last summer wearing scarves and caps to cover my bald pate. The first week of September (some two months after the last chemo session) I began sporting fine, fuzzy, puppy fur. By Thanksgiving I could claim "real hair".

Now, five months later, I'm sporting the curliest 'do I've ever worn. Not even the Tonette perms of my childhood can compare to this. This is Real Chemo Curl!

Funny thing...a month ago I had a hairdresser in the mall give me a quick shave of the neckline and a slight trim of the sideburns. She commented, "You have a lovely perm!"

And funny thing...this past week a friend, whom I had not seen in considerable time, commented on how nice my hair looked. I could tell by the way she spoke that she thought I was wearing a wig. She was surprised when I informed her, "Yep, Chemo Curl!"

And funny thing! My sideburns are as straight as can be.

For those of you nearing the end of your chemo treatment...There are Curls At the End of the Tunnel! Just thought I'd give you a curly heads-up!

Today's message is brought to you by the Chemo Curl Gurl.

(she said with a smile)

During Which I Switch Topics: At Least for Now

You know what! It's difficult to follow such disturbing posts as those I wrote on Sunday and Tuesday. It's difficult to go from writing about the death of 7-year-old Lydia Schatz at the hands of her parents and then, the next day, to move on to other topics.

It's not that I have already, in a few days time, forgotten Lydia Schatz. Nor am I soon to forget how she died even though her death has not yet hit national news (Where are you, Oh, Great News People!) I'm certain it will. And if it doesnt? Well, then, maybe I'll be blogging again as the parents move through the justice system. According to the Oroville news (click here) they currently reside in the Butte County Jail, Oroville, California, on bail placed at $2 million dollars. God help us all as we see the depth of man's inhumanity to man. God help us to recoil at the horror of sin.

Now...I must switch topics. Bear with me.

What's happening at our house today? We're doing some minor finishing touches on our "new" bathroom. Roger the Handyman will be here to put in place a panel that will "disguise" the opening to the plumbing at the end of the tub. He also needs to place a strip on the floor where the vinyl meets the hallway carpet.

As soon as Roger the Handyman is out of the house and down the road, I'll be grabbing a paint brush. If my Mom reads this, I can hear her say, "I thought you painted it already!" Yes, we did. A lovely creamy white. But after living with it a couple weeks we've decided we prefer a bit of color. Not a lot. A sandy, tan color. It's still "quiet" but a muted quiet, so to speak.

Gotta run. Coffee awaits.

Don't forget Lydia.

What Harris (Correctly) Calls "Popular, Pervasive, Controversial"

It's in my head...this story...this story about Lydia Schatz...who died earlier this month at the hands of parents who were using a parenting style taught by Michael and Debi Pearl. I can't get it out of my head.

The methods espoused (nationally distributed by the Pearls) are, as Lynn Harris of Salon calls them, "popular, pervasive and controversial". I want you to focus on the word "controversial". I want you to know that their methods need to be held up to the light of day, by ordinary people, by people who know with the first reading that there is "something not quite right" about their method of child training.

Thanks to the child training methods of the Pearls, Lydia Schatz is dead. Seven years old. For mispronouncing a reading word. According to local news media Lydia was held down by her mother and "whipped" by her father. Not just once. Not just 10 swats with the 1/4 plastic plumbing line. No! Lydia was whipped multiple times over a several hour period. Tortured. The "mild" effect of that supposedly ideal whipping instrument (as espoused by the Pearls) was over the top. The tissues in Lydia's body, the tissues under the skin, were damaged so severely that her organs shut down. Lydia died that night.

Admittedly, the Pearls do not advocate whipping "to death". But they do advocate whipping to compliance, to submission, to whimpering. Beginning with 10 swats and continuing until that compliance, submission, whimpering appears.

Kevin Schatz and his wife, Elizabeth Schatz, are currently being held in the Butte County Jail in Oroville, California. According to the local news they face homicide charges in the death of their adopted daughter, Lydia, and face other charges in regards to injuries to another daughter, Zariah, and injuries to a son.

Again, read this article by Lynn Harris at Salon.

Also, read a post by Paul Mathers here.

Read Laurie Mathers here.

And see what TulipGirl has written here.


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A Day In The Life of the Meter Man

Last week we were sitting at the kitchen table, looking out over our deck, when the meter man came walking across the drift from the neighbor's backyard to ours. Our backyard is heavily drifted as well, so I watched to see how he would find his way to the meter which sits next to the house to the right of the deck.
The fellow plodded along, found the high edge of the drift and simply followed it.



The snow is well over four feet deep here...the packed snow held him up nicely.
The drive in front of the garage is clean, so he wandered to the low end of the drift where he could access the drive.And from there it was a clean walk to the meter near the foundation of the house.

I'm betting he got his workout that day. Fortunately for him, it was a beautiful sunny day with no wind. Nice day for a walk.

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Abhorrence Hits Me On This!

I find it exceedingly strange that this has not yet hit national news. The only news links I find are located in the area of the crime, in the town of (can you believe it?) Paradise, Butte County, California. And yet this murder is already two weeks old. Murder of a 7-year-old girl. Currently in jail are her parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz.

On February 6, 2010, 7-year-old Lydia Schatz was (dare I say "apparently?") beaten to death, several times beaten, multiple beatings, which beatings apparently extended over a several-hour span. The muscle tissue underlying the skin was so damaged that her body organs shut down and she died. Her mother called 911 about 1:00 o'clock in the morning to report that her daughter was not breathing.

Lydia's 11-year old sister was hospitalized in critical condition for similar bruising. The other eight of the nine children in the family (six biological children, three adopted) have indicated that the type of beating Lydia received was "normal" punishment in the household. One news article maintains that an older daughter in the family was being taught to administer punishment in this "appropriate" manner.

And why was Lydia beaten? Because she failed (or couldn't) pronounce a particular word from the book she was reading. The parents, Kevin Schatz and his wife, Elizabeth, purportedly were following teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl, founders of No Greater Joy Ministries and authors of the controversial religious parenting book "How to Train Up a Child."

You can read more about this horrifying event and the purported use by Lydia's parents of the ministry espoused by Michael and Debi Pearl by going to TulipGirl's series of posts here and by reading Laurie's "Beauty for Ashes blog" here. Be prepared to be horrified, stunned, dropped to your knees.

The methods espoused by the Pearls may be familiar in some home schooling circles but is considered controversial and refuted by many Christian parents as being unChristlike and unloving as well as abusive and destructive.

Please be in prayer for these children. And go hug your own.

Added later...some more links.
Paul Mathers at Paulus Torchus
Lynn Harris at salon.com
Rebecca Diamond at her blog here

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