ARCHIVI 2011 -2013
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment
High-profile cases such as the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and “faith healing” child deaths in certain fundamentalist Christian congregations have made the public aware that religion can sometimes mask deviant and harmful behavior. But the extent of the problem is far greater than most people realize.
In this revealing, disturbing, and thoroughly researched book, award-winning journalist Janet Heimlich exposes a dark side of faith that most Americans do not know exists or have ignored for a long time—religious child maltreatment.
After speaking with dozens of victims, perpetrators, and experts, and reviewing a myriad of court cases and studies, Ms. Heimlich explains how religious child maltreatment happens. She then takes an in-depth look at the many forms of child maltreatment found in religious contexts, including biblically-prescribed corporal punishment and beliefs about the necessity of “breaking the wills” of children; scaring children into faith and other types of emotional maltreatment including spurning, exploiting, and isolating; sexual abuse by religious authorities and the failure of powerful religious organizations to support victims and punish perpetrators; and religiously-motivated medical neglect.
In conclusion, Ms. Heimlich proposes changes in societal attitudes and legislation to protect children from religious child maltreatment. She also pushes for more people to recognize and acknowledge that children are deserving of basic rights, including the right to intellectual autonomy.
While fully acknowledging that religion can be a source of comfort, strength, and inspiration to many young people, Ms. Heimlich makes a compelling case that, regardless of one’s religious or philosophical orientation, child maltreatment under the cloak of religion can never be justified and should not be tolerated.
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Breaking Their Will is a powerful and deeply disturbing book, wide ranging in its exploration of religiously based physical and mental abuse of children past and present, and richly informed by both personal and scholarly reflections and insights. This book will have a profound impact upon the consciences and actions of readers from a wide range of religious perspectives who surely will be convinced, after finishing this book, that children deserve to be free from all forms of physical violence in the guise of discipline and the other forms of physical and mental abuse explored in Heimlich’s book.”
— Philip Greven, Author of Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and thePsychological Impact of Physical Abuse
Tratto da:
http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/breaking_their_will/
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NOTA sull’autrice:
Janet Heimlich
Janet Heimlich is an award-winning journalist and the author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment, the first book to take an in-depth look at child abuse and neglect in the United States that is enabled by religious belief. She is also President of the Child-Friendly Faith Project, a national, nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charity that educates the public about the impact that religious, spiritual, and cultural beliefs and practices have on children. Ms. Heimlich has been a freelance reporter for National Public Radio and has written nonfiction articles for such publications as Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Texas Observer. She has won nine journalism awards, including the regional Katie, the State Bar of Texas’ Gavel Award, and a “Radio Journalist of the Year” Lone Star Award. She received a B.A. in Communications from Stanford University in 1984.
DISCORSO dell’autrice:
June 1, 2013 — Janet Heimlich speaks about religious child maltreatment at American Humanist Association conference along with Richard Dawkins, Katherine Stewart, Sean Faircloth, and Liz Heywood.
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