Church in smack fury
GIRL, 6, AND BOY, 8, BEATEN OVER GRADES Backlash after support for parents convicted of assault
Senior clergy at a church have incredibly backed two elders who physical ly attacked their children for failing to get top grades in their school reports.
The Hope United Church in Motherwell issued an extraordinary statement in support of the couple despite their convictions for assaults on their six-year- old daughter and son, aged eight.
Two elders who physically attacked their children for failing to get top grades in their school reports have been given the backing of their church.
The Hope United Church in Motherwell issued an extraordinary statement which appeared to support the couple despite their convictions for assaults on their six- year- old daughter and son, aged eight.
Posting on their Facebook page yesterday, the Evangelical church also suggested their conviction was unfair and claimed good parenting had been criminalised.
They said: “We will mostly all agree that when parents no longer have any control over how they guide their kids, we are really on a slippery slope.
“There is a family in our church who have already been victims of this system. A family has been ripped apart and made an example of through this unjust system.
“At this moment, the current legislation cannot charge you for reasonable chastisement. So what it has to do is exaggerate and elevate parents’ actions in order to criminalise perfectly good parenting – which is exactly what has happened to this loving, balanced family.”
Yesterday, no one from the church ch or either parent could be contacted co for comment.
Hope United – who also have a church ch in Dundee – were founded 10 years ye ago by 48-year-old former roofer Mark M Ralston. He is the senior pastor.
When we called at Ralston’s home in Shotts, Lanarkshire, a woman who wh answered the door said he was not no available.
The 33- year- old father and his 31-year-old 31 wife both attacked their eight- eig year- old boy when he was given giv a “B” in an assignment. The