Refuting the theology of Debi and Micheal Pearl, No Greater Joy Ministries

In light of the post below on the viral video of Texas Judge Michael Adams beating his 16 year old daughter, I’m grateful to The Wartburg Watch for bringing this book to my attention.  This is an excellent opportunity to talk about the differences between  parental discipline and child abuse and evangelical attitudes on parenting.

Debi and Michael Pearl are Tennessee entreprenuers who market their ‘brand’ of child rearing to conservative evangelicals in the US. Their book To Train Up a Child has recently been brought into a  murder trial in the US.  Lydia Schatz died at the hands of her parents,  Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz from Paradise California last year. The Schatz family followed the teaching of the Pearls.

Is the child-training method of homeschool business No Greater Joy Ministries responsible for the death of a child? Sean Paddock (2006) and Lydia Schatz (2010) both died at the hands of parents who allegedly followed Michael Pearl’s child training method. But what influence, if any, can Pearl’s teachings be said to have had on the parents’ thinking?

In the wake of intense online debate and controversy in 2010, we undertook an in-depth review of NGJ’s theological basis.

This book, Parenting in the Name of God: No Greater Joy Ministries and the Bible written by David J. Dyck and C.L. Dyck from Winnipeg, is available for download free of charge.