The Turpin Case and the Urgent Call to Neighbor

The recent discovery of 13 siblings allegedly neglected, starved, and tortured by their parents embodies the essence of human depravity. Disgust churns in our stomachs as we consider the deplorable conditions that prosecutors claim Louise and David Turpin “raised” their children in—shackled to beds, deprived of food, beaten, compelled to wallow in filth. We balk at the thought of parents discarding the children God entrusted to them as rotten and expendable. We wonder how they could withdraw all affection from their children, and dote on their dogs instead. If true, this case of child abuse exemplifies raw sin. It exposes evil at its most horrific. We recoil from the sight of it, because the soul knows no other response.

These shocking findings in Perris, California, have appropriately sparked outrage. As desperation spurs us to act, the public dialogue has focused on homeschooling, with a flurry of articles debating the need for tighter regulation. As a homeschooler myself, I’ve read these arguments with interest, but I can’t ignore the greater issue lurking between the lines. A more sinister question, fundamental to Christian identity, hovers in the squalid hallways of the Turpin house.

Why did no one report this abuse? Read More

An article I posted in January, "Behavioral Science Catches Up to the Bible," explains in part why people do not report abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation. Another common reason is that people do not want to "get involved." They fear the consequences that they might suffer if they report abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation. A third common reason is that people do not recognize the signs of abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation for what they are - indicators of a serious problem that requires intervention. I read this week about the case of a 2-year-old child who was found "frozen" on a back porch. The cause of death is yet to be determined. A neighbor had repeatedly found this child and a sibling wandering the neighborhood and had returned the children to their mother. No one, however, reported the wandering children to the police or the local child protection agency. The case has all the indications of a lack of supervision case that borders on criminal neglect. The neighbor was well-meaning but if a very young child is found wandering a neighborhood more than once, the police or the local child protection agency should be contacted to investigate the situation. A fourth common reason is a particular group, religious or otherwise, may protect a member of their group who is abusing, neglecting, and/or exploiting a child because that individual is a member of their group.