Tony Alamo News

6/20/09 – TG: Parents hope to keep newest addition

Texarkana Gazette
June 20, 2009
By: Lynn LaRowe

Parents hope to keep newest addition

Carlos and Sophie Parrish’s joy at the birth of their fifth child is clouded by fears an Arkansas state agency will take their baby because they are Tony Alamo Christian Ministries members.

The couple’s four other children, a 7-year-old boy and three girls ages 5, 3 and 1, were taken by Arkansas Department of Human Services officials and placed in foster care.

“I feel in my mind a battle of hope and doom at the same time,” Carlos Parrish said. “My child being born, even through all of this, is like a ray of hope. I keep telling Sophia that God will protect this baby.”

The Parrishes are hoping for help from the public, especially other parents, and from the courts. “Help us. Stand up for what’s right,” Sophie Parrish said. “If this can happen to us, it can happen to any family.”

Little Gian Carlos Parrish, born a couple of days ago, is believed to be the first baby born to ministry-loyal parents since six girls were taken following a raid on properties in Fouke, Ark., in September. He weighed 9 pounds when he entered the world at an area birthing center with a midwife’s assistance. Within hours of his birth, Gian Carlos lifted his tiny head from his mother’s shoulder and peered into her face.

“He looks so much like his brother,” Carlos Parrish said proudly.

The Parrish’s four older children were among 20 taken by DHS from SUVs in November as they traveled toward Texas.

Removal orders signed by judges in Miller and Sebastian counties listed more than 125 children whose parents are church members. “I can’t comment about a specific case but we do an assessment based on the risk to that child at that time, said DHS communications director Julie Munsell. “But if we have a family that is working toward reunification, if there are ongoing efforts on the part of the family to comply with the court’s case plan, we may not feel it necessary to take this child. We also take bonding issues of newborn children into consideration.”

The allegations that led to the removals of the children last year included sexual abuse, underage marriages, physical abuse and medical and educational neglect.

“There are no allegations of newborns or very young children being abused,” said Desere Howard of CPS Watch, an organization that advocates for parents.

So far, the state has taken 36 kids, ranging in age from 1 to 17 years of age. Many members have fled with their children and are in hiding.

Two parents were jailed in January during custody proceedings in Miller County for refusing to divulge the whereabouts of their spouses and children. Both Bethany Myers and Don Thorne remain in jail.

Thorne is Sophie Parrish’s father. Sophie Parrish has both children and siblings now in foster care. The Parrishes said they will not run.

“We haven’t done anything wrong. We’re not going to hide,” Carlos said. “Why would we hide if we haven’t done anything wrong?”

Sophie was only 12 when she married Carlos, then 18. Both were raised in the ministry. “We’ve been married for 12 years, we’re still happy, we’re still in love,” Carlos said.

The couple said they will not permit any of their children to wed before they are legally able to do so under the law.

“Nowadays teenagers aren’t mature enough,” Carlos Parrish said. “At 18 or 19, they might not even be old enough but at that age they’re basically on their own.” The Parrishes declined to talk in depth about the custody proceedings because of a circuit court gag order though both lamented the anguish separation from their children has brought.

“They (the public) only get to hear one side,” Carlos Parrish said. “We have services every night. Anybody’s welcome to come and see what we’re about.”

Carlos and Sophie Parrish are concerned that without the support of the larger community in which they live that their dreams of family reunification may never be realized.

“Just to stand by and watch something like this go on, it’s like when people did nothing during Nazi Germany. I just hope people realize what they’re doing to us, to our children, Carlos Parrish said.

“This isn’t just about our baby. This is about every baby that is born here in Texarkana. They’re all at risk.”

The Parrishes said they never spent that much time in Tony Alamo’s personal residence. They live in a house in Fouke that is part of a cluster of privately owned residences around the church.

The circuit judges presiding over the custody cases have ordered parents to sever residential, economic and employment ties with the church. The Parrishes said they believe they are being asked to choose between their faith and their children.

Carlos is the church’s gardener and Sophie once cared for her own children and at times the children of other members.

“I wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody else-it’s horrible,” Sophie Parrish said. “Just because I’m in this ministry.”

The Parrishes responded with smiles and attention to Gian Carlos’ coos and cries.

“I don’t even know how to explain how much I love my children. I could never understand how somebody could love their child so much-until I had one. And then I thought, ‘How could I love the next one as much?’ But they all have their own unique, special little place in my heart that could never be anybody else’s.” Carlos Parrish said. “Of course, my heart belongs to God, but God has put my children in my heart.”