Child Abuse and What Christians Must Do About It

By staff - Jan 31, 2006 - 1

“Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years? …
They are weeping in the playtime of the others,
in the country of the free.”

The Cry of the Children, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sadly, child abuse is deeply entrenched in American society. While slow to receive public attention, abuse and neglect are daily news items. Complete and accurate statistics still evade us, but estimates show nearly one million children in the United States were victims of abuse and neglect in 2003¹.

Our slowness to recognize the horrors of child abuse is shown in the history of child abuse in the United States. There is the notorious case of nine-year-old Mary Ellen, found by a nurse in 1874 chained to a bedpost in her parents’ apartment. She was severely bruised from beatings and emaciated from a diet of bread and water. When some church leaders went to the police and district attorney, they were told that the child could not be taken away from her lawful parents. In desperation, the church leaders turned to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help. They agreed to help, and Mary Ellen was brought to the court on a stretcher. It was argued that as a member of the animal kingdom, she was being treated worse than this society would allow anyone to treat an animal and, therefore, she deserved protection. The case was won, and she was removed from her parents’ home. The shock of discovering that our society had been more diligent in protecting animals’ rights than children’s rights led in 1875 to the organization of the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in New York².

Nevertheless, for decades the problem of child abuse remained essentially underground. In the middle of this century, however, some physicians began to note a strange malady among children for which they had no name and no explanation. X-rays showed a series of broken bones in different stages of repair. There were deep bruises about the body and no evidence of treatment. There was no history of accidents and no evidence of skeletal disease. It is incredible to realize that not until 1961 did Dr. C. Henry Kempe at Colorado General Hospital begin to put the pieces of evidence together and diagnose this ancient malady. After four children, three of whom died, were admitted on the same day to his hospital with this same puzzling affliction, Dr. Kempe decided to give it serious study. The result was the awakening of our society to what Dr. Kempe was to call the battered-child syndrome³.

Annually in the United States more children die from abuse than from accidents and communicable diseases combined. The director of the National Center on Child Abuse has said: “If you had a communicable disease that struck as great a rate of children, you’d say you had an epidemic on your hands⁴.” According to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reported child abuse and neglect cases rose to 2.9 million in 2003 and an estimated 1,500 children died in America as a result of abuse and neglect. Over 78 percent of these fatalities were children under the age of four—the most helpless of our society⁵. This epidemic demands the attention of Christians and the churches. We must find a way in God’s love and power to minister to its victims and prevent its dreadful recurrence.

The Issue:

One mother’s testimony: “Now that he’s four years old he has the habit of imitating me, everything I do. We have been living in this little hotel room for two years, and it really gets to me, so when I was scrubbing the bathroom and found that he had taken the scouring powder and was trying to scrub the rug in the other room, I really blew up and lost my cool. I don’t know how I came to do it, but I started beating on his fingers with the brush, and he was hollering and screaming, and I was getting madder and madder, and when I stopped, I found that I had broken all his fingers and had ‘pulled his fingernails off, some of them⁶.’”

This confession reveals a two-dimensioned tragedy. There is the tragedy of a helpless and innocent child—the victim of an awful violence he cannot understand—and the tragedy of a parent—the perpetrator of the violence which she did not control and cannot understand.

It is difficult to define child abuse and neglect. What some would call abuse, others would call discipline. A frequently used, but limited, definition is: “Physical abuse of children is the intentional, non-accidental use of physical force, or intentional, non-accidental acts of omission on the part of a parent or other caretaker, aimed at hurting, injuring or destroying that child⁷.” It should be noted that abuse is not limited to physical assaults. Psychological abuse in the form of threats, cursing, and humiliation can be devastating to a child’s life. There is also sexual abuse. As many as 500,000 cases of child sexual abuse occur annually, and approximately one of every four women has had some form of forced sexual experience before reaching the age of 18. Somewhere between 10 percent and 12 percent of males have been sexually abused before their 18th birthday⁸.

The heart of the problem is abuse by parents, however; and it is their violence that is particularly difficult to understand. One student of this violence concludes: “Parents bash, lash, beat, flog, stomp, suffocate, strangle, gut-punch, choke with rags or hot pepper, poison, crack heads open, slice, rip, steam, fry, boil, and dismember. They use fists, belt buckles, straps, hair brushes, lamp cords, sticks, baseball bats, rulers, shoes and boots, lead or iron pipes, bottles, brick walls, bicycle chains, pokers, knives, scissors, chemicals, lighted cigarettes, boiling water, steaming radiators, and open gas flames⁹.”

The Abusers

What kind of people would treat their own flesh and blood this way? They are generally not crazy or psychotic. They come from all walks of life. To most people, they appear completely normal. Careful study, however, has revealed some common, if not universal, characteristics. Many abusing parents were themselves victims of child abuse. In these cases, it seems that child abuse is behavior that passes from generation to generation: parents do unto their children as they themselves were done unto. Abusive parents have unrealistic expectations of both the child and themselves as parents. They tend to be isolated socially and emotionally from friends, relatives, and the community. They trust no one. They often misuse drugs or alcohol. They have very little self-esteem.

It also appears that certain environmental factors contribute to child abuse. There is a high percentage of one-parent families among abusers. Also, there is a higher percentage of poverty-level parents who are detected abusing their children. This may result from the fact that middle- and upper-class parents are better able to avoid detection. It may be that poverty-stricken parents experience a higher level of frustration in life, however, and have fewer alternatives for dealing with their anger and frustrations than do the more well-to-do. Children and their needs become constant reminders of the parents’ social and economic limitations¹⁰.

The Abused Child

“He knew it made me mad when he cried, but that morning he started crying when he got up, and everything that happened made him cry more. I decided to spank him, and he knew he needed one, but he rolled over on his back so I couldn’t hit him. I grabbed him by the head and shoulders, to try to turn him over to spank him, and something in his neck broke and he died.”

A mother’s comment¹¹

The victims of abuse tend to be distributed fairly evenly, according to age and sex, though the majority of deaths occur during the first 12 months. One study shows six groups of children who tend to be especially susceptible to abuse: (1) illegitimate children, (2) premature babies, (3) congenitally malformed babies, (4) twins, (5) children conceived during the mother’s depressive illness, and (6) children of mothers with frequent pregnancies and excessive work loads¹². In short, the abused child is often an “unlovable” or “problem” child. The tragic irony is that their mistreatment makes them even more “unlovable.” They tend to become ugly, cry a lot, overreact to pain and hostility, and become depressed. Studies reveal that even hospital personnel tend to avoid the abused child patient. “The simple consequence is that the victimized child has been made unattractive in a way which works against his receiving the kind of love and attention which will make him thrive in the future. The abuse of a child creates a child who invites abuse. The abused child is truly the spoiled child, more than an overindulged child could be. The spoiled child in the latter sense may tend to make excessive demands upon life, but the former has been made unfit for receiving love¹³.” The compassionate Christian remembers that God’s priority is for just such “unlovable” and neglected persons.

History of Child Abuse

“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men” (Matt. 2:16). Christ’s life began with his rescue from infanticide, the ancient and widespread form of ultimate child abuse that has tragically marred much of human history throughout the ages. Christ’s experience parallels Moses’ escape from the pharaoh’s order that all the male children of Israel be killed (Ex. 1:15-22).

A New Testament word for hell is Gehenna, an abbreviation for Ge-Hinnom. Hinnom was the valley near Jerusalem that had been made into a constantly burning garbage dump. Originally, however, it was the valley where children had been destroyed. The
prophets protested it, and Jeremiah called it the “Valley of Slaughter” (Jer. 7:32). Both the depth of this human cruelty and the biblical protest against it is reflected in the fact that this New Testament word for hell has its roots in that “Valley of Slaughter” of innocent children¹⁴.

Some Answers:

“Then children were brought to Him so He might put His hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. Then Jesus said, ‘Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.’ After putting His hands on them, He went on from there” (Matt. 19:13-15).

What can Christians do in response to this awful human tragedy of child abuse?

Hear Christ’s rebuke of His disciples, who did not want Christ to be bothered with those troublesome little children. Children and their needs must be priorities in the local church’s ministry and in our communities.
Remember that many abusive parents are also tragic victims. Often trapped by an abusive past, the incredible pressures of their lives, and their own violence, they need Christian compassion, help, and ministry. Recognize that many such parents are church members.
Organize a Mother’s Day Out program and make it available to parents in the community, especially seeking out the most needy.
Sponsor or help organize a local Parents Anonymous group to help abused children and abusive parents. (Write Parents Anonymous Inc., 675 West Foothill Blvd., Suite 220, Claremont, CA 91711, or call 909-621-6184. Visit the Parents Anonymous website at http://www.parentsanonymous.org .)
Become familiar with the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, which was amended and reauthorized by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003.
Learn about some ways you can promote the well-being of children and families. The National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information is an invaluable source of research, statistics, and programs. For materials and suggestions for local programs of child abuse prevention, write National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, Children’s Bureau/ACYF, 1250 Maryland Ave., SW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20024, or call toll-free 1-800-394-3366. Visit the Clearinghouse on the web at http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/index.cfm .
Discover what local agencies such as police departments, hospitals, and children’s service agencies are doing and join their efforts. Help organize a local, coordinated effort if one does not exist in your community.
Report cases of child abuse. The law protects you, and Christian duty demands it. If you know of an abusive situation, report it to the National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453.
Fight child pornography by asking your congressman and senators to change the legislation on child pornography so that it is treated as an abuse of human rights, not just obscenity.
Organize church and community studies of child abuse so you will be well informed and your efforts will be effective.
If there is violence in your own family, seek help. There are those nearby in the family of God who will understand and help.

Notes

¹ “Child Maltreatment 2003”:http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm03/index.htm, (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families) [Accessed December 12, 2005]

² Vincent J. Fontana, Somewhere a Child Is Crying: Maltreatment—Causes and Treatment (New York: New American Library, 1976), 11.

³ Ibid, 12-18.

⁴ Joseph Julian, Social Problems (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1977), 395-6.

⁵ “Child Maltreatment,” 2003.

⁶ Peter and Judith DeCourcy, A Silent Tragedy (Alfred Publishing Co., 1973), 3.

⁷ David G. Gil, Violence Against Children (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), 6.

⁸ William A. Check, Child Abuse (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989), 18.

⁹ Fontana, 1.

¹⁰ “Child Abuse and Neglect: The Problem and Its Management,” Vol. 1, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, DHEW pub. no. (OHD) 75-30073, 5-7; also, see Joseph Julian, 389-90.

¹¹ Peter and Judith DeCourcy, 129.

¹² Blain and Rita Justice, The Abusing Family (New York: Human Sciences Press, 1976), 95-8.

¹³ David Bakan, Slaughter of the Innocents (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1971), 111.

¹⁴ Ibid., 26-29.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Family, Abuse, Child Abuse

1 comments (post your own) feed

1 On Dec 24th, 2006, at 5:43am, felician wrote:

Hi people!
Christmas Day falls on December 25. It is preceded by Christmas Eve on December 24, and in some countries is followed by Boxing Day on December 26. Some Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on January 7, which corresponds to December 25 on the Julian calendar. December 25 as a birthdate for Jesus is merely traditional, and is not thought to be his actual date of birth. for attention thank you

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission