Each day, more harrowing details emerge about the so-called “House of Horrors” in Perris, California, where parents allegedly inflicted horrific abuses on their 13 children, ages 2 to 29.
Prosecutors have alleged that David and Louise Turpin beat, strangled, starved and chained their kids for months at a stretch.
When a teenager escaped and contacted the police, the tragic circumstances were unveiled. Now people are struggling to fathom how anyone could mistreat children this way.
Some relatives claim the parents are Pentecostal Christians, but don’t belong to a church community. One relative recalls the father explaining the family size because God had “called” the parents to have a large brood.
One newspaper headline branded the parents as “devout Christians,” which, if true, would be quite a black eye for Christianity.
After all, anyone can claim to follow Christ — and describe their lifestyle as a divine calling.
But a person who systematically tortures and starves children must be reading a different Bible than the rest of us.
In my Bible, Christ says clearly, “If anyone should cause one of these little ones to sin, it is better that he have a rope tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.”
Would denying children food, tying them up and beating them lead them to sin? Children in such circumstances surely could hate their parents and fall into despair.
Christ praised the Good Samaritan, who helps a stranger lying by the roadside, bruised and bloodied by bandits. Many people saw the man in distress and ignored him.
What if the person who’s beaten and bloodied — and crying — lives under our own roof?
For me, the most compelling guide to true Christian living comes in Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus contrasts the folks who are promised the joys of heaven with those thrust into the pit of hell.
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me.”
When his disciples are confused, he explains that heaven awaits those who minister to suffering people.
Children are among the hungry, thirsty, naked persons we meet every day. As we feed, clothe and cherish “the least of these,” we’re given the astonishing opportunity to encounter God.
But some people fail to glimpse Christ’s presence in the eyes of children.
Tragically, an estimated 1,670 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States in 2015, according to the National Children’s Alliance.
These were little ones who expected nurturing and love from adults, but were sharply disappointed.
It seems that 700,000 children are abused and neglected annually, with parents being the perpetrators in 79.1 percent of the cases.
Mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction can play a role when children are mistreated.
But let’s not dismiss the existence of human evil, which explains many horrors in our world.
The choice between good and evil is firmly rooted in our souls, which means humans are capable of stunning acts of kindness, a la Mother Teresa, as well as shocking cruelty.
All around the world, countless children live in homes where they’re well-fed, nicely dressed, kissed and hugged. They have bedtime stories and special lunches that include favorite snacks.
Family life, when it runs smoothly, gives us a taste of God’s love — and previews our future home in heaven.
And tragically, when it goes terribly wrong, as it did in the House of Horrors, family life gives its innocent victims a gruesome glimpse of hell.
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