Article Traces Church Where Teen Killed By Parents and Others In Counseling Session

An AP report yesterday reviews developments this week in upstate New York in the beatings of two teens by their parents and other members of the Word of Life Christian Church:

Six church leaders and parishioners now face charges including manslaughter and assault for a brutal beating in the sanctuary last Sunday that left 19-year-old Lucas Leonard dead and his 17-year-old brother Christopher hospitalized. Church members Bruce and Deborah Leonard, parents of the victims, face the most serious charge, manslaughter. Deborah Leonard's daughter, Sarah Ferguson, and Joseph Irwin, both face assault charges.

Police say the beatings arose out of a "counseling session" that may have been related to Lucas Leonard wanting to leave the church.

Apparently over the years the Church, which now has only some 20 members, has changed, and the AP article traces this history.

UN Committee Concerned Over Child Trafficking For Religious Rituals In Britain

As reported by AFP, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child yesterday released its observations on the report of Great Britain relating to child trafficking. (Full text of UN document),   Among other things, the U.N. committee expressed particular concern about trafficking of children for use in religious rituals:

The Committee is strongly concerned that thousands of children continue to be trafficked every year in the State party, particularly for sexual exploitation and labour, and it expresses its deepest concern about reports that hundreds of children have been abducted from their families in Africa and trafficked to the State party for brutal religious rituals, such as the so-called voodoo and juju rituals. 

Court Upholds Conviction of Pastor For Conspiracy To Commit Child Abuse

In State of Wisconsin v. Caminiti, (WI App., March 20, 2014), a Wisconsin state court of appeals upheld the conviction of the pastor of a small, close-knit religious community on eight counts of conspiracy to commit child abuse.  Philip Caminiti taught his followers that they should discipline fussy infants starting as young as 2 or 3 months by forcefully striking their bare bottoms with wooden spoons and dowels. He claimed that the Bible gives specific instruction on what tools to use, and he demonstrated to his congregation the correct degree of force.  During church services Caminiti would look at parents whose child was crying to indicate that they should discipline the child. The court rejected Caminiti's free expression, free exercise of religion and parental rights defenses. The court held that the state has a compelling interest in preventing child abuse, and that the state's "reasonable discipline" privilege for parents strikes an appropriate constitutional balance.