Wisconsin Church Members Charged With Abusing Infants
The pastor and seven members of a small church in central Wisconsin have been charged with using wooden rods to spank infants as young as 2 months old for "being emotional, grumpy or crying," the Dane County Sheriff's office said.
The Aleitheia Bible Church, in the town of Black Earth, was started in 2006 with a donation in the range of $500,000-$600,000 from Bob and Lori Wick of nearby Mazomanie, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
Lori Wick is the author of almost three dozen historical Christian novels with more than five million books in print, according to her Amazon profile. Reached by AOL News today by telephone at their home, Bob Wick said they "have no comment" on the case.
Publicists at Lori Wick's publisher, Harvest House Publishers, did not immediately respond to emails from AOL News today for comment.
Philip Caminiti, left, the pastor of Aleitheia Bible Church in Black Earth, Wis., and his brother, John Caminiti, 45, have been charged with a dozen counts of child abuse for allegedly using wooden rods to punish children. The investigation into the Aleitheia Bible Church began last November, when former members contacted authorities with concerns about how children were being treated, according to the sheriff's office.
Six church members pleaded innocent to charges of child abuse during an appearance Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. They were booked and released.
Pastor Philip Caminiti, 53, and his brother, John Caminiti, 45, were charged with a dozen counts of child abuse last week and also pleaded innocent.
The victims included 12 children ranging in age from infancy to 6 years old, according to the sheriff's office.
"During interviews with detectives, Phil expressed his belief that the Bible dictates the use of a rod over a hand to punish children. He stated that children only a few months old are 'worthy' of the rod and that by 'one and a half months,' a child is old enough to be spanked," according to the sheriff's office release.
"Throughout the investigation, the church members were open with detectives about their 'Spare the rod, spoil the child' philosophy. They described using wooden dowels and wooden spoons on the bare skin of children, starting as young as 2 months old," the sheriff's office said.
"If you spank early and it is done right, then kids will be happy and obedient," Philip Caminiti said, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the sheriff's office, the dowels were described as being 12-18 inches long with a diameter about the size of a quarter. The parents told detectives that "redness and bruising" were the "common effects of the spankings."
"One person described the children being emotional, grumpy or crying as behaviors that would constitute a spanking with a dowel," according to the sheriff's office.
Three sets of parents are among the six others charged, including two of Philip Caminiti's children and their spouses: Matthew Caminiti, 27, and his wife, Alina, 24; and Maria J. Stephenson, 29, and her husband, Timothy, 28. Also charged are Andrea L. Wick, 26, and Timothy J. Wick, 27.
The children often were punished when they cried or failed to sit still during church services, a former church member told authorities. "Phil was very strict about children being quiet during church," the complaint states.
John Caminiti told investigators in November that he does not allow his family to communicate with people outside his religious beliefs and has punished his wife and son by confining them to their rooms until they corrected their disobedience, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
Attorney Jeffrey W. Nichols, who represents Alina Caminiti, described his client as a "caring mother who loves her children," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"I believe it is important to note that the children have never been removed from her or her husband's care despite these allegations and despite some unfair characterizations of her," he said.
All the children of the parents charged are remaining in their homes and the families are working with social workers from Dane County Human Services, the sheriff's office said.
I'm not going to take an MSM news article at face value, but it does paint a little different picture than the one presented by Dr. Boys.
Spanking a 1-1/2 month old infant doesn't work for me. Ever.
Thanks for the research.
So in other words, not only is Don Boys, Ph.D. illiterate, unable to construct a paragraph or convey a coherent thought in writing, but he is also a liar.
Exactly. You posted the full article. I posted the paragraphs that dealt with the jury’s finding. The truth is not every ‘church’ teaches God’s word. Just because one ‘thinks’ they are called to ministry does not make it so. I find these self-proclaimed groups often to be really very dangerous
You have reproduced for us the take of the liberal media on these episodes.
The pastor was not himself convicted for abusing any child.
Furthermore, the judge has determined that this pastor cannot again assume the office of pastor of any church after is prison sentence is up. This is far, far, over-reaching.
There is always the possibility of parents, taking the teachings of Proverbs on corporeal discipline, to an un-biblical extreme. The discipline of Proverbs cannot put a child in danger of death, for starters (Proverbs 23:13).
There are thousands of Biblicist pastors and Bible teachers all over this country, yea, tens or hundreds of thousands of us worldwide who still teach child discipline literally from the Bible, and also apply it in our homes and families (the seven children in my home have all had "wooden objects" used on their posteriors and the fleshy portions on the back of their thighs, and at early ages when it is most effective in subjecting the will, spirit and mindset of the child to those of the parents).
There is always the possibility of some people who hear us teach the Scriptures not using Biblical reason and going beyond what is proper with their own children.
At this point, Dr. Boys (who is not novice at researching the topics on which he writes), and we ourselves, are looking at the fact in this case that the pastor has been convicted and sentenced for teaching the Biblical texts on the use of the rod (could be "wooden objects"), and not for abusing any child.
We surmise that if we (Dr. Boys and I) were living in the same judicial jurisdiction, we would encounter the very same treatment from the same prosecutors and judge simply for our teaching, and not for abusing any child.
This judge apparently believes that any use of the rod on a child is wrong and punishable in her court. She is one who has been trained in this way of liberal, anti-Christian, anti-Biblical, anti-Christian-heritage way of lawmaking from the judicial bench. I doubt that any Wisconsin law gives her this authority.