Janet Heimlich is an award-winning journalist and the author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. It is the first book to take an in-depth look at religiously motivated child abuse and neglect in the United States. She will speak at a community-wide public forum on December 2, 2012 at Red River Unitarian Universalist Church, 515 N. Burnett Ave, Denison at 11:15 a.m. This special public forum is open to all.
Ms. Heimlich received a B.A. in Communications from Stanford University in 1984, after which she began a career of producing corporate and commercial film and video presentations. In 1996, she turned her interests toward journalism. For eight years, Ms. Heimlich freelanced as a reporter for National Public Radio. Her work won nine journalism awards, including the regional Katie; Houston Press Club’s Radio Journalist of the Year; and the Texas Bar Association’s Gavel Award. She also writes Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Texas Observer.
In this revealing, disturbing, and thoroughly researched book, award-winning journalist Janet Heimlich exposes a dark side of faith that most Americans do not know exists or have ignored for a long time—religious child maltreatment.
After speaking with dozens of victims, perpetrators, and experts, and reviewing a myriad of court cases and studies, Ms. Heimlich exposes many forms of child abuse and neglect found in religious contexts. While fully acknowledging that religion can be a source of comfort, strength, and inspiration to many young people, Ms. Heimlich makes a compelling case that, regardless of one’s religious or secular orientation, maltreatment of children under the cloak of religion can never be justified and should not be tolerated.
