6 03-04-88 03:06 pes Mich. CINCINNATI (UPI) _ Slavery convictions of seven members of a

   6 03-04-88 03:06 pes Mich.

   CINCINNATI  (UPI)  _ Slavery convictions of seven members of a
Michigan religious cult camp, where  a  whipping  block  and  axe
handle  were used to beat members and their children, were upheld
by a federal appeals court Friday.

   A 12-year-old son of a member died after a "particularly harsh
and brutal series of beatings," said the court.  "Other  children
were also brutally beaten, burned and disfigured."

   The  6th  U.S.  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  affirmed Michigan
federal judge Douglas Hillman's convictions of seven  members  of
the  "House  of Judah" _ Muriel S. King, Robert A. McGee, William
Alexander Lewis, Larry E. Branson, William Lenard Lewis, Theodore
R. Jones and Eddie L. Green.

   The seven were convicted of slavery and conspiracy to enslave.
Their appeal was "without merit," said the court.

   About 100 people lived in 30 trailers at a House of Judah camp
in a rural area  20  miles  from  Allegan,  Mich.    A  so-called
"prophet" of the cult ordered construction of a "whipping block,"
similar  to  a  stock  with  holes  for head and hands, to punish
members and their children.

   The seven defendants _  the  prophet  and  six  members  of  a
council _ would order anywhere from five to 80 licks with a heavy
wooden axe handle labeled "Big Mac."

   The court said such child beatings were not legal just because
parents consented or because they were "in the name of religion."

   "Neither  religion  nor  parental  consent  can save the Salem
witch trials or the sale of a daughter into prostitution  or  the
Padrone  system  of  child  labor or the House of Judah system of
child beatings," said the judges in a 3-0 ruling.

   "Our law views the child as an individual with the dignity and
humanity of other individuals, not as property.    It  views  the
parent-child  relationship  as  one  of reciprocal obligation and
mutual respect.

   "The principle of reciprocity that the  law  establishes  does
not  have  a  place  for bondage by parental consent or religious
command."