As the pastor, Allen authorizes courtships between church members and approves marriages for girls from the congregation as young as 14. He promotes isolationism among church members, encouraging them to live within walking distance of one another and discouraging them from voting. And he makes it clear that the parents whose children were seized would be in conflict with the church if they reunited their families by promising a judge they would not follow the church's disciplinary practices. Either you love the Lord thy God with all your heart and soul . . . God doesn't accept serving two masters.
Some former members agree.
Another church member said Friday evening that social workers had indicated they soon would take 11 of his children. Allen acknowledged Friday that in 1993, a DeKalb County judge sentenced him to 30 days in jail for child abuse after he ordered a church member to beat her teenage daughter for having sex in a building where a Bible study group was meeting. Friday evening, Allen took a defiant stance in the gravel parking lot of his church, as 75 church members crowded around and shouted encouragement under the glare of television lights. The Bible, Allen said, gives parents the authority to ''whip'' their children. Where the two sides disagree is when spankings become abuse.