The stories recounted by the survivors of Hephzibah House are quite disturbing. Personally, I am appalled by the lack of investigation into the allegations made by Ms. Sengpiehl, Ms. Grotte and Ms. Fleury.
No person should have the right to emotionally, spiritually and/or physically abuse a child or teenager, and a victim who is courageous enough to come forward should be heard. I realize that there are statutes of limitations and Mr. Williams is entitled to a presumption of innocence under the legal system.
Amongst all these allegations, I find it interesting that suddenly the Hephzibah House Web site has deleted the links to many of the tracts by Mr. Williams. One of the more unsettling tracts is called "The Correction and Salvation of Children," in which Mr. Williams advocates severe hitting using a "rod of correction" on infants under 1 year of age. "The Correction and Salvation of Children" also describes a procedure for "Biblically beating" a child alarmingly close to the beating Ms. Sengpiehl describes in the Times-Union article on June 12. What Mr. Williams is advocating in his tract is not a simple spanking that many parents use as discipline, but rather "sessions of correction" or beating the child, potentially "lasting from one to two hours in length." The tract is available at www.isaccorp.org under the Hephzibah House documents on that site and all quotes come from it.
If acts of abuse are occurring at Hephzibah House, I hope the community will mobilize to stop this from happening to other girls. Ms. Sengpiehl, Ms. Grotte and Ms. Fleury have had the bravery to speak out. I hope we are willing to listen and take them seriously.
