No Law Against Mercy: Jailed for Sheltering a Child from the State

In 1993, 15-year-old Billy Stefan was in state custody, isolated from his family, drugged, and beaten. His father helped him escape from the boy's home--his place of torment--and the authors, Barbara Lyn Lapp and Rachel Lapp, offered him refuge in their home. As authorities searched for the missing boy, the Lapp sisters helped him with secret media interviews that spilled across the nation his terrifying accounts of abuse at the hands of America's child protective system.

"No Law Against Mercy" presents a stark portrait of the human cost when legal powers clash with a moral stance. The authors, in this 428-page memoir, spare no reproach on the government as they tell what it's like to be in jail for just actions defined as crimes. Using God's law and historical common law as a basis, they make a case for responsible noncompliance to immoral laws. Victory will come by doing what is right, they assert--and the ending of the book bears this out.