This site does not have a quick exit button.
Part of the Christian Kyriarchy Project
Last updated 09/06/2025
This document covers all types of abuse, including child sexual abuse and extreme discipline that kills children.
1. Some Christians will insist inflicting corporeal punishment on children is both biblical and necessary. They may argue that increasing perception of spanking children as abusive is a sign of “the world” failing to listen to God. They also like to portray people leery of corporeal punishment as spoiled brats or spineless parents destined to have rebellious children.
Uncritical examples
To Train Up A Child by Michael Pearl (originally published in 1994)
Wikipedia link added for context on how Pearl's teachings on discipline have gone horribly for the children subject to them.
Archived on Wayback Machine
In Defense of Biblical Chastisement, Part 1 by Michael Pearl | No Greater Joy Ministries (April 2001)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
In Defense of Biblical Chastisement, Part 2 by Michael Pearl | No Greater Joy Ministries (October 2001)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
GOD'S IDEA OF DISCIPLINE | Above Rubies (earliest archives are from January 2013)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Michael Pearl Laughs At Critics | To Train Up A Child (March 2010)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Commentary
Spanking and Unconditional Love | Permission To Live (November 2012)
Is Conservative Christian Group, No Greater Joy Ministries, Pushing Parents to Beat Kids to Death? by Kevin Hayes | CBS News (March 2010
TTUAC: This Is What Got Lydia Schatz Killed | Love, Joy, Feminism (September 2013, part of a larger series looking at the book To Train Up A Child)
TTUAC: The “Magic Wand” | Love, Joy, Feminism (January 2014)
2. Many Christian teachings on discipline of children essentially tell parents to place dominating their children's wills above all else. They frame children as innately defiant and needing to be brought to heel.
Uncritical examples
You Can't Yell Your Way Into Their Hearts by James Dobson | Family Talk (July 2020)
Archived on Wayback Machine
To Train Up A Child by Michael Pearl (originally published in 1994)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Commentary
James Dobson: Beat Your Dog, Spank Your Kid, Go to Heaven by Barbara Falconer Newhall | Huff Post (October 2014)
Breaking Kids God's Way | Speaking When The World Sleeps (September 2017)
TTUAC: The Promise of Perfection | Love, Joy, Feminism (September 2013, part of a larger series looking at the book To Train Up A Child, which involves a lot more examples of seeing children as evil beings in a war against their parents)
TTUAC: This Is What Got Lydia Schatz Killed | Love, Joy, Feminism (September 2013)
3. Christian parents who homeschool their children may frame attempts to regulate homeschooling as government overreach or persecution by “anti-homeschooling” groups. Their arguments frequently treat child abuse in homeschool environments as “a few bad apples” or otherwise not their problem.
Uncritical examples
House Bill 480: Creates Safe2Tell Program | Home School Legal Defense Fund (posted in or before January 2014)
Homeschool debate
How to keep a few bad apples from spoiling the bushel by Daniel James Devine | WORLD (September 2014)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, Ghost Archive, and Homeschoolers Anonymous
Commentary
I Am Not “Anti-Homeschooling” | Love, Joy, Feminism (June 2014)
CRHE to World Magazine: Don't Downplay Abuse and Neglect | Coalition For Responsible Homeschooling (September 2014)
[video] Homeschooling: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (October 2023)
Facing Our Fears: How the Voices of Homeschool Alumni Can Help Homeschooling by R.L. Stollar | Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (October 2014)
HSLDA Opposes Measure to Reduce School Violence | Love, Joy, Feminism (January 2014)
WORLD Magazine Takes Aim and Misses | Love, Joy, Feminism (August 2014)
4. Cases where adults take advantage of teenagers may be framed as “having an affair” or as mistakes and not as sexual abuse and statutory rape.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
because purity culture harbors rape & abusers | The Smitten Word (June 2014)
Pastor Admits Affair with 16-Year-Old by Tim Bean | orangebean (June 2022)
Despite the title, this article does a good job of addressing the awfulness of the situation.
Priest Puts Blame on Some Victims of Sexual Abuse by Sharon Otterman | New York Times (August 2012)
Church embraces pastor who admits to 'adultery' despite victim saying she was 16 by Hemant Mehta | OnlySky (May 2022)
Preserved on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Op-Ed: Roy Moore's alleged pursuit of a young girl is the symptom of a larger problem in evangelical circles by Kathryn Brightbill | Los Angeles Times (November 2017)
5. Some facilities involved in the incredibly abusive “troubled teen” industry involve Christian ideals of discipline and self-expression.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Two Christian ranches, meant to help troubled teens, were hotbeds of abuse by Hemant Mehta | OnlySky (September 2022)
Preserved on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Suffer the Little Children: Mike Pence's Disturbing Connections to the Teen Treatment Industry | Deirdre Sugiuchi (appears to have been published in December 2016)
America's Tough Love Habit by Maia Szalavitz | Mother Jones (May 2009)
“Conversion Therapy” Is Abuse by Deirdre Sugiuchi | Dame Magazine (December 2020)
The Fixer by R.L. Stollar | Homeschoolers Anonymous (May 2016)
6. Christian parents rejecting their LGBTQ+ children is a major factor in teen homelessness.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Religious Rejection and the Crisis of LGBTQ Youth Homelessness | Impacting Our Future
7. Many organizations (Christian and otherwise) involved in the adoption industry treat children as commodities. The processes involved in getting adoptable children may mean separation from their biological parents through force or deception, which is often harmful to the kids.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
The 'orphan' I adopted from Uganda already had a family by Jessica Davis | CNN (October 2017)
Parents: All Haitian 'orphans' had relatives by Javier Galeano | NBC News (February 2010)
The Horrible True Story that Inspired Sound of Freedom Is Probably Our Fault, Part 1 | Not Peer Reviewed: By Laura Robinson (July 2023)
Owning Laura Silsby's Shame: How the Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies the Western Disregard for the Integrity of Poor Families by Shani M. King | University of Florida Levin College of Law (January 2012)
The Horrible True Story that Inspired Sound of Freedom is Probably Our Fault, Part 2 | Not Peer Reviewed: By Laura Robinson (July 2023)
[audio with transcript] RELIGION & ADOPTION: ICWA with Dr. Courtney Lewis | Keeping It 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion Podcast (November 2024)
More information about child abuse in Christian circles
Corpses Don't Rebel: A former follower of Michael Pearl's “To Train Up A Child” reacts to the death of Hana Williams by ExPearlSwine | No Longer Quivering (November 2011)
5 Things church leaders must do when allegations of abuse arise | Jimmy Hinton (August 2020)
A Church Group, a Lawsuit, and a Culture of Abuse by T.F. Charlton | Religion Dispatches (March 2013)
Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate by Erik Eckholm | New York Times (November 2011)
No Eye Contact Equals a Defiant Heart? by Suzanne Titkemeyer | No Longer Quivering (October 2020)
Giving victims of religious trauma a voice by Chrissy Stroop | Religion News Service (January 2020)
This about how teaching children particular Christian theology can harm their mental health.
Most states allow religious exemptions from child abuse and neglect laws by Aleksandra Sandstrom | Pew Research Center (August 2016, name-drops a couple of groups)
Lawmakers scrutinize Idaho's faith-healing exemption from child neglect, manslaughter charges by Betsy Z. Russell | The Spokesman-Review (August 2016)
Tuam babies scandal will only get more 'shocking' by Conall Ó Fátharta | Irish Examiner (March 2017)
The Failure of Complementarian Manhood | Carolyn Custis James (April 2016)
Baptist missionary convicted of sexual abuse after giving 4-y.o. victim gonorrhea by Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist Substack (May 2023)
Bishops show lack of interest in pedophile victims | READER COMMENTARY by Frank Schindler | Baltimore Sun (November 2022)
Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement's Adoption Obsession by Kathryn Joyce | Mother Jones (April 2013)
Amazon algorithm recommends Bible-emblazoned spanking paddle by Bob Smietana | Religion News Service (October 2021)
When a Good Offense is the Best Defense for Abuse | Bethany Bassett (May 2015)
The Daughters' Great Escape by Sarah Stankorb | Marie Claire (June 2018)
Louisiana High Court: Priests Have a “Property Right” Not to Be Sued For Sexual Abuse by Steve Kennedy | Balls And Strikes (April 2024)
Ghanaian children wrongly taken in raids backed by US charity IJM by Chiara Francavilla, Kwakye Afreh-Nuamah, and Kyenkyenhene Boateng | BBC (July 2023)
Christian Homeschooling and the Battle of Peer Dependency, Part 1: We're Not Exaggerating by Darcy (December 2015)
Available on Homeschoolers Anonymous and Love, Joy, Feminism
Christian Homeschooling and the Battle of Peer Dependency, Part 2: Family, Not Friends by Darcy (December 2015)
Available on Homeschoolers Anonymous and Love, Joy, Feminism
All Aboard the Orphan Train! by Megan Goodwin and Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst | The Revealer (February 2025)
Pope's 'penitential pilgrimage' to Canada marks rethink of Catholic Church's legacy on First Nations people by Nicole Winfield | PBS News (July 2022)
Murder of Lydia Schatz | Wikipedia
Death of Hana Grace-Rose Williams | Wikipedia
Child Brides, Teenage Sluts, and Roy Moore | Love, Joy, Feminism (November 2017)
Called by God by Meg Conley | Slate (May 2021, written by a former member of Operation Underground Railroad who realized the organization's anti-trafficking efforts were more about spectacle and hero complexes than actually helping victims of trafficking)
Supporters defend Roy Moore: “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter” by Jen Kirby | Vox (November 2017, contains descriptions of the abuse Moore inflicted)
Second Child Of Philadelphia Faith-Healing Couple Dies by Korva Coleman | National Public Radio (April 2013)
Gothard Explains Why God Allows Child Molestation: Part I by shade ardent | Homeschoolers Anonymous (August 2016)
Further information
Six Types of Emotional Abuse | Teach Through Love (this deals with ways adults can emotionally abuse children)
9 Signs of Childhood Emotional Neglect by Andrea Brandt Ph.D. M.F.T. | Psychology Today (January 2020)
Myths And Facts | 1in6 (this is from an organization seeking to help male victims of sexual abuse)
Scarleteen Confidential: Supporting a Teen after Sexual Assault by Sam Wall and Heather Corinna (first published July 2015)
The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry by Maia Szalavitz | Mother Jones (August 2007)
Exclusive: Fraud and deceit at the heart of Uganda adoptions to United States by Tom Esslemont and Katy Migiro | Reuters (May 2015)
International Adoption and the White Savior Industrial Complex | No White Saviors (September 2019)
Bill To Ban Child Marriage In West Virginia Defeated By Republicans by John Raby | Huff Post (March 2023)
Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools: A Comparative Study prepared by Andrea Smith for the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (May 2009, details the effects of boarding schools on indigenous cultures and brings up many motivated by Christianization)
Why Are Some Republican Lawmakers Hellbent on Preserving Child Marriage? by Tessa Stuart | Rolling Stone (May 2024)
'Why Is Child Marriage Still Legal?': A Young Lawmaker Tackles a Hidden Problem by Erick Trickey | Politico (January 2022)