Good evening!

I'm a foster parent in Canada and one of my foster children has been apprehended from a rather 'strange' religious family. I'm looking for any help any of you might be able to offer.

I know the following:

- fellow "members" are recognised by the word "professing"
- the Bible is followed very 'literally'
- the only Bible acceptable is the King James Version, and only one that uses "thee and thou"; no 'current' wording
- the children are "whipped" (with a whip!) for misbehaviours
- the father requires that young teen girls undress, lie on the bed and be "examined" to see if they are "developing"
- children are sexually abused by the father as a matter of "right"
- mother says that "God is first, husband second" and whatever he wants to do is acceptable (including raping daughters)
- meetings are held in different homes in the area
- meetings are reading the Bible and giving opinions as to what the scripture "means" (although I truly doubt that one could disagree with the 'general concensus'

Any information that could be supplied would be gratefully appreciated.

If what you say is true, it sounds as if you should be calling the police - although unless an offence has been commited, it may be hard to get them to do anything.

In the UK I would think that social services would prohibit a child being placed in such an environment (although I am speaking without any legal knowledge - we live in a strange world of political correctness where it seems any behaviour can be tolerated if it's claimed to be part of a religion).

Thanks for the response, Wolfie!

YES ... the police are involved (father was arrested and released a couple of days later!!)

Child is in foster care due to the fact that mother is denying that any abuse (sexual or physical) ever occurred - therefore, there is nothing (and nobody) needing protection! <sigh>

Basically, mother is saying that if the father thinks it's okay ... it MUST be as he comes second under god! (it boggles my mind!!)

alpha

I was just going through the site and was horrified to read about this situation.

On behalf of those that hurt the child, I am deeply sorry. It is a shame that there are people who mis-use the Name of God to suit their own personal agendas.

I am really glad that the child is in your care, seeing that you are a caring human being. The child needs your love and protection.

Every child is a precious gift and we need to treat them as such.

Whether or not it's a religious thing. Any person who does that ought to get thrown in jail or hanged.

Whatever happened to this now? Does the child say anything about it?