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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 23183 • Posted: Wednesday January 21, 2009  

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Children endangered by ministry’s history of beatings and underage marriages

TEXARKANA – A judge on Tuesday upheld the removal of 18 children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, saying the children were endangered by the ministry’s history of punishing misbehavior with beatings and of allowing underage marriages.

Miller County Circuit Judge Joe Griffin also ordered a member of the ministry jailed for contempt after she refused to answer questions about images of ministry children that were posted on a Web site.

Griffin issued his ruling on the removal of the children at the end of the seventh day of a hearing on 23 ministry children who were taken into protective custody and placed in foster care in November and December. On Jan. 14, Griffin upheld the removal of five children, all boys who have sisters who were taken into custody in September.

The 18 children whose cases Griffin ruled on Tuesday include eight girls and 10 boys from five families.

None of the children were alleged to have been sexually abused, but they were deemed to be at risk because of a history of underage marriages within the church, Griffin told reporters after the hearing adjourned for the day Tuesday.

“You’ve got allegations that involve children who were married, not these children, but other children that got married under 15 years of age, allegedly some at 12,” Griffin said.

He added that, while the ministry’s leader, Tony Alamo, has said he does not allow underage marriages in the church, he and his followers believe that the Bible says girls are old enough to be married when they reach puberty.

“The consistent testimony is, they still believe marriage is proper when a young lady reaches the age of puberty,” Griffin said. “The number 12 years has been used consistently.
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Griffin said some of the children were also alleged to have been beaten, and others were deemed to be endangered by the church’s practices of administering beatings for violations of church rules.

He said he also found the children had been educationally and medically neglected. He did not elaborate on that finding, but Miller County Circuit Judge Jim Hudson found in an earlier case that ministry children had not received childhood vaccinations and were not taught by certified teachers or registered as homeschooled students.

The hearing was closed to reporters, and Griffin has issued a gag order barring participants from speaking with reporters about the case.

Griffin’s ruling means the 18 children will remain in foster care for the time being, but he did not say whether they can eventually be reunited with their parents or under what conditions. He is expected to approve a plan addressing that issue today.

In previous cases, Griffin and Hudson have ruled that the parents must move off of church property and find jobs outside the ministry if they hope to regain custody of their children.

Since the ministry’s compound in Fouke was raided on Sept. 20, 36 children have been taken into protective custody by the Human Services Department and placed in foster care. The department is still looking for 92 others who are named in a pair of court orders issued in Miller and Sebastian counties as being at risk of abuse.

Alamo, the ministry’s 74-yearold leader, is in jail awaiting a May 18 trial on charges that he transported five girls across state lines for sexual purposes over the past 15 years.
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