IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!
Posted on 10/07/2002 3:36:39 PM PDT by sinkspur
Pretrial motions got underway in Fulton Superior Court Monday in the trial of five members of the House of Prayer.
The Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. and four other members of the independent church in northwest Atlanta go on trial this week, facing criminal charges of cruelty to children and aggravated assault. Prosecutors say they participated in the severe beatings of two boy church members, then ages 7 and 10, in February 2001.
Allen, 70, and the other church members are representing themselves without the aid of an attorney.
July selection is scheduled to start Tuesday.
On Sunday, Allen, 70, led a pep rally as much as a church service at the House of Prayer.
"Let's look forward to being on the battlefield in the morning!" he shouted from the pulpit to his cheering congregation.
"This church is being crucified!" Allen roared at his congregation of about 130.
Sunday's lengthy service included church members washing each other's feet, to "humble ourselves to what He asks us to do," Allen said.
Allen also used the service to defend his teachings on corporal punishment.
"We don't go around beating children," he said. "We're given authority as parents to chastise our children. And He said if we don't chastise them, then we don't love them."
Later he said, "What's wrong with going to jail standing for what's right?"
If Allen and the others are convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison on some counts.
Police and social workers took 49 children from House of Prayer families into protective custody after the two boys showed up at school with welts and bruises. All but six of the children, including the boys, have been sent home after authorities admitted they had little evidence to hold them.
"We can be called a cult," Allen said, his King James Version of the Bible at hand. "But can't anyone prove this as long as we stay in obedience to the word of God."
Allen suggested that his church is suffering as Jesus did.
"When Jesus was being terrorized, he just hang there, looking to his father in heaven," Allen said. "All we can do is just hang there and suffer."
But the mood wasn't one of suffering on Sunday at the unadorned brown brick church on Hollywood Road.
"Come in and see if this has taken our joy!" Allen thundered at news reporters, as church members cheered. "It's only made us stronger!"
Emanuel Hardeman, 37, one of the accused, said ebulliently, "I feel victorious already."
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