Minn. Pastor Accused of Hitting 12-year-old with Two-by-four Because Child "Wanted to Test God"

By Christopher Brennan
New York Daily News
December 21, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pastor-accused-disciplining-12-year-old-two-by-four-article-1.2919213

Pastor Dong Wook Kim (left) and his son, 19-year-old Joo Seong Kim (right) were arrested for beating a 12-year-old. (HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)

A Minneapolis pastor and his son were arrested for disciplining a 12-year-old with a two-by-four because the child “wanted to test God.”

Dong Wook Kim and his 19-year-old son Joo Seong Kim are accused of using the wooden plank and an electrical cord to repeatedly hit the youngster in the basement of the Good News Church for more than four days of punishment.

The unnamed child was discovered in shorts and a T-shirt on Saturday after he ran outside as temperatures hovered at 3 degrees and asked a stranger for help, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Police found the 12-year-old with a black eye, lash marks on his back and a football-sized mark among the bruises on his behind and thighs.

The boy said that he was first made to stay in a plank push-up position on Wednesday for misbehaving at school, and he received kicks when he could not hold it anymore.

The pre-teen's head was slammed against a doorway and he suffered blows from the two-by-four on Thursday and Friday.

The boy said that he ran away when the Kims told him to take off his shirt and said they were goign to get an electrical cord.

Joo Seong Kim told police said that his father became angry and hit the boy’s behind with a “small stick” up to 20 times when the child told him “that he wanted to test God.”

The abuse allegedly occurred in the basement of the Good News Church in Minneapolis. (GOOGLE)

The “small stick” later found in the church was a two-by-four, discovered in a closet along with an electrical cord.

Dong Wook Kim admitted to police that he used the electrical cord against the boy in front of his father, who “followed his leadership in punishment of children.”

The boy’s 4-year-old sister had also allegedly been hit with a paint stir stick by the pastor on a previous occasion, and was taken into protective custody after his arrest.

Both the Kims, charged with assault and malicious punishment of a child, are currently in custody and being held on $50,000 bail.

The pastor’s wife sent a letter to KTSP saying that her “husband and son didn’t have any bad intentions when hitting” the young boy and that it stemmed from “greed of wanting to make him a better person.”

She added that the punishment came because the 12-year-old is “like family” and that her husband would not have physically punished any other child.