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This compelling book presents ten parenting principles drawn from the words and actions of Jesus. Using modern-day examples, Dr. Whitehurst explores: • application of biblical principles to today's parenting challenges • modern parenting trends at odds with Jesus's teaching • parenting temptations and how to resist them • how to help children become receptive to Jesus's message • how parents can come to Jesus and find rest Read more

Montessori: A Modern Approach has been called the single best book for anyone -- educator, childcare professional, and especially parent -- seeking answers to the questions: What is the Montessori method? Are its revolutionary ideas about early childhood education relevant to today's world? And most important, especially for today's dual-career couples. Is a Montessori education right for my child? Read more

A study examining the theological aspects of sexual abuse experienced within the family. Read more

In spite of their physical invisibility, emotional wounds are a very damaging form of abuse. Whether caused by words, actions, or even indifference, emotional abuse is common--yet often overlooked. In this helpful guide, Dr. Gregory L. Jantz reveals how those who have been abused by a spouse, parent, employer, or minister can overcome the past and rebuild their self-image. Read more

THE CASE OF THE POPE delivers a devastating indictment of the way the Vatican has run a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world. Is the Pope morally or legally responsible for the negligence that has allowed so many terrible crimes to go unpunished? Should he and his seat of power, the Holy See, continue to enjoy an immunity that places them above the law? Read more

This brilliantly reported, unforgettable true story reveals how one of the most monstrous sexual criminals in the history of the Mormon church preyed on his victims even as he was protected by the church elders who knew of his behavior. Read more

Pretend You Don't See The Elephant is a personal memoir about the author's life growing up in the 1950s. Throughout the narrative, the elephant represents the silence surrounding familial dysfunctional behavior. Christian Science provided the background of denial in a home where physical, emotional, and verbal abuse ran rampant. Read more

In 2006, New York magazine and ABC’s Nightline both featured stories dealing with rabbis who had abused children entrusted to them. Then, at the start of 2007, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published a five-part series on sexual abuse by rabbis who led congregations, taught religious studies, and ran youth groups. The series soon was picked up by Jewish newspapers nationwide. Despite this spate of media coverage, there has been a dearth of scholarly material investigating sexual abuse within the Jewish clergy. Tempest in the Temple brings together fifteen practicing rabbis, educators, pastoral counselors, sociologists, mental health professionals, and legal advocates for abuse victims, each of whom offer insights into different facets of the problem. Read more

Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war. Read more

Preventing Child Abuse will guide churches and nonprofit organizations through the process of designing and implementing the policies and procedures they need to keep their children safe. Many appendices and other useful materials have been added to help your church create a comprehensive abuse prevention policy. Read more

Anne Owens takes a daring look at the forbidden topic of abuse under the guise of religion. With the care of a scientist and the caring of a humanitarian, she relates true stories of hidden suffering and battles for freedom. Her account is heart-wrenching and inspiring, a must-read for anyone who knows a hurt child or has been one. -Marcia Cebulska, playwright, author of Dear John, Florida Read more

History, science, public policy, and personal experience all come together to form a compelling argument against physical punishment of children from a former child protection social worker who has made this advocacy his life’s work. Read more

This book offers parents and teachers constructive methods of discipline, useful for everyday situations. It documents the long-term negative effects of spanking how it brutalizes kids and creates violent adults. Irwin Hyman, an expert in the field of home and school discipline, explains in a passionate and compelling style why spanking or hitting children is abusive, destructive, and counterproductive. He then gives common sense advice on alternative forms of discipline, which help to raise happy and emotionally stable children. Read more

Clears up misconceptions about childhood, parenting, and discipline, argues that all violence against children is wrong, including spanking, and suggests a more positive approach to the prevention of child abuse Read more

Despite the frequent use of the term children of God to describe graced human existence, Christian theologians rarely consider childhood as an explicitly theological topic. Jensen argues that vulnerability is a dimension of the imageo Dei, and suggests that childhood provides a window for under-standing the shapes of graced human life and the violence that inhibits life. By offering a fresh understanding of the vulnerable child in the image of God, Jensen presents a compelling reinterpretation of sin, church practice, and Christian witness in a world in which the threats to children's lives--poverty, child labor, war, and the sex trade--seem overwhelming. Seminary students, pastors, educators, resource center directors, and those involved in the discipline of spiritual formation will find this book useful. Read more

Theological ideas and biblical injunctions have frequently been employed to legitimate the physical abuse of children. Some theological ideas are inherently abusive because they create fear in a child's mind, causing a child to feel alone, odd, and of little worth. Donald Capps exposes the abuses that theology and the Bible have inflicted on vast numbers of children. In particular, he is concerned with the "hidden" abuses of children by well-intentioned adults and the role that religion plays in the legitimation of these abuses. Read more

The 77 most asked questions about teaching children about the Catholic faith. Read more

A groundbreaking study that offers a personal and theological understanding of the problems and needs of children subjected to child abuse. Read more

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. These words provided generations of American Christians with the justification for physically disciplining their children, in ways that range from spankings to brutal beatings. This learned and deeply disturbing work of history examines both the religious roots of corporal punishment in America and its consequences -- in the minds of children, in adults, and in our national tendencies toward authoritarian and apocalyptic thinking. Drawing on sources as old as Cotton Mather and as current as today's headlines, Spare the Child is one of those rare works of scholarship that have the power to change our lives. Read more

Argues that some schools are still using corporal punishment and humiliation in order to discipline students, and gives advice on how to protect one's child Read more

Based on his studies of over 9,000 families, Murray A. Straus, the foremost researcher on family violence in the world, discusses the extent to which parents in the United States use corporal punishment (such as spanking and slapping) and its effects on their chil­dren. The question of whether corporal punishment is an effective method of discipline is hotly debated. Straus contends that this believed-to-be-"minor" form of physical violence is precursor to much violence that plagues our world. Read more

In 2012, Mormon General Authority Marlin K. Jensen acknowledged that members are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "in droves." Access to the internet is often credited and blamed for this mass exodus, where members learn about problematic doctrines and cover-ups of LDS history. Read more

Cult victims and those who have suffered abusive relationships often suffer from fear, confusion, low self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress. Take Back Your Life explains the seductive draw that leads people into such situations, provides guidelines for assessing what happened, and hands-on tools for getting back on track. Written for victims, their families, and professionals, this book leads readers through the healing process. Read more

This extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities, where some 40,000 people still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God. Read more

The Christian patriarchy movement promises parents a legacy of godly children ~ if they adhere to specific Biblical principles. But what happens when families who abandon "the world" for "the Biblical home" leave hearts behind, too? For many wives and daughters, the Christian home is not always a safe place. Scripture is used to manipulate. God is used as a weapon. And through spiritual and emotional abuse, women who become "the least of these" within Biblical patriarchy experience deep wounds that only God can heal. But if living "God's way" caused this pain, why should they trust Him to heal it? Read more

Sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy burst onto the American scene in 1984. Revelations about such abuse since then have confirmed that this tragedy is not limited to the U.S. Catholic Church, nor is it a new phenomenon that grew out of so-called secularizing trends of the late twentieth century. By reviewing a collection of documents from official and unofficial sources from 60 CE to the present, this book demonstrates that sexual abuse of minors is a deep-seated problem that spans the Church's history. Read more

In this groundbreaking memoir and exposé, Christa Brown tells the story of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups in the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. As she shares her journey from trusting church girl to tenacious advocate for children's safety, Brown shines a light on the patterns of preacher-predators and the collusion of evangelical leaders. This Little Light speaks of the unspeakable, and in doing so, testifies to the transformative power of truth-telling. Read more

This remarkable anthology outlines the unprecedented threats to life at this defining moment in history, and offers a novel and systemic remedy for societal transformation based on honouring our youngest and “most valuable players.” Contributors from across many disciplines include renowned child development author Penelope Leach, Nobel Prize nominee Lloyd Axworthy, celebrated cultural historian Riane Eisler, bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver, and ecological economist Ron Colman. Read more

Relying on religious traditions that are as old as their faith itself, many devout Christians turn to prayer rather than medicine when their children fall victim to illness or injury. Faith healers claim that their practices are effective in restoring health - more effective, they say, than modern medicine. But, over the past century, hundreds of children have died after being denied the basic medical treatments furnished by physicians because of their parents' intense religious beliefs. The tragic deaths of these youngsters have received intense scrutiny from both the news media and public authorities seeking to protect the health and welfare of children. Read more

Most Evangelical Christians earnestly strive to worship the God of Love and Truth. But a belief that the Bible is literally perfect can put them in the odd position of defending falsehood, bigotry, and even violence. What do Evangelicals believe? And how do these beliefs subvert humanity's shared moral values, including the compassionate ministry of Jesus in the New Testament? Is the Good Book even “good,” given its historical inaccuracies, scientific impossibilities, and moral contradictions? Trusting Doubt answers all these questions … and more. It also provides a clear picture of this variant of Christianity which has risen to political prominence at a spiritual cost. Read more