41 Atlanta Children Put In Foster Care Because Of Parents' Religious Practices

Jet, April 16, 2001

An Atlanta judge recently ordered 41 children into foster care for a year after their parents refused to stop whipping them in church-sponsored beating sessions and forcing teenage girls to marry.

The fate of 41 children, ranging in age from 5 months to 17 years, came after a two-day hearing into practices at the House of Prayer, an all-Black, 130-member, nondenominational church led by the Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. in Atlanta.

Allen, 68, was charged with cruelty to children for ordering the whipping of a 7-year-old boy and a 10-year-old boy, both members of his congregation, because they had been unruly in school. Police also charged six other church members with inflicting or allowing excessive beatings to the two boys.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that in a videotaped interview with police the 7-year-old boy admitted that four church members held him in the air while another beat him with a belt. The boy said that Allen was "watching and telling them when to stop."

Allen, who has been preaching at the House of Prayer for 35 years, said, `The Bible says that if you spare the rod you're going to spoil the child. I have the scriptures that give me the right to do it." He denied that the children from the church had been abused.

Juvenile Court Judge Sanford Jones was told about the 7-year-old boy who had welts and bruises and the 10-year-old with open wounds on his stomach and side after he was "disciplined" by members of the church. A former church member also testified that she was forced into marriage when she was only 14 years old.

"I hate to see these children jeopardized by what I consider to be a cult," said Jones.

The pastor said the beatings are simple discipline. "If the White society doesn't want to whip their children, that's their business," said Allen, who in 1993 was sentenced to 30 days in jail for ordering a woman to beat her 16-year-old daughter.

The parents represented themselves at the hearing, saying the state had no right to interfere with their religious practices. They said no child is permanently injured and the bruises go away.

The judge said the children's parents, four couples and a single parent, could have their children back if they agreed to four conditions: No marriages for anyone under the age of 16; no missing school after latenight church events; no physical discipline by anyone else; and no church beatings.

"I'm not saying you can't whip your children, I'm just saying you can't leave marks like this on them," Jones said.

The parents refused to comply with the conditions.