Arthur Allen and four of his followers who are members in what they call the “House of Prayer,” were convicted for cruelty to children Thursday, reported NBC News 11 in Atlanta.
Allen describes his group as an “independent church,” but others have referred to it as a “cult.”
The leader and his followers were sentenced to short terms in jail and fines. But Allen also pulled ten years probation.
The current charges began after two children ages 7 and 10 were brutally whipped with sticks and belts. The group has a troubled history of child battery.
Allen attempted to use religion as a defense and claimed he was a victim of “persecution.” But the jury didn’t buy it. He acted as his own lawyer and as the old adage says, he apparently had a “fool for a client.”
Ten years probation will hopefully reign in the authoritarian leader of the Atlanta group, who seems to have turned a “house of prayer” into a hell house for children.
Increasingly in the United States and Canada the severe corporal punishment of children, which is routinely meted out within some religious groups, is being legally restricted.
It appears that religious rights don’t include cruelty to children and such behavior cannot be exonerated by invoking the “name of God.”
Perhaps while Arthur Allen serves time in jail he will read the bible more carefully. Wasn’t it was Jesus who said, “Suffer not the little children…”?
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