Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Atlanta, Georgia, USA · 2002

United States: House of Prayer pastor convicted — affirmed on appeal — for church-ordered whippings of children

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor of the House of Prayer, who ordered congregational discipline

Organization

House of Prayer, Atlanta

Spiritual nexus

The beatings were ordered by the pastor as an act of congregational discipline and carried out by the congregation — the victims were members' children inside that disciplinary system.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2002-10-17 · conviction; affirmed on appeal

Fulton County Superior Court; Georgia Court of Appeals (Allen v. State, 273 Ga. App. 227). Arthur Allen Jr., pastor of Atlanta's House of Prayer, and four congregants were convicted in October 2002 of cruelty to children and aggravated assault for church-ordered belt whippings of two boys aged seven and ten, held aloft before the congregation while they were beaten. Allen received 90 days' jail, ten years' probation and a fine; the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions on 10 May 2005. Allen and six members had previously been convicted in 1993 over the church beating of a sixteen-year-old girl.

Appellate history

2005-05-10 · undefined

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Documented coercion mechanisms

beatings ordered from the pulpit as church discipline and administered by congregants
children held aloft before the congregation during whippings

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment Allen v. State, 273 Ga. App. 227 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005).: The appellate opinion affirming the convictions.
national news agency verdict report 'Georgia pastor convicted of child abuse', UPI, 17 Oct. 2002.: Wire-service report of the verdict.

Related record

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