Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate

[groovedaddy]

PLEASANTVILLE, Tenn. — After services at the Church at Cane Creek on a recent Sunday, a few dozen families held a potluck picnic and giggling children played pin the tail on the donkey.

The white-bearded preacher, Michael Pearl, who delivered his sermon in stained work pants, and his wife, Debi, mixed warmly with the families drawn to their evangelical ministry, including some of their own grandchildren.

The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”

Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html?nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=tha23&adxnnlx=1320685332-P6yLx+dTG2TOdE6IyesELA

[HopeHoops]

1. Spanking children is a weakness of the parent. There's no excuse for it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Absolutely! "Ha - I am bigger than you. It is time you learned that bigger ought always to win".

It's just a power trip for people who internally are pathetic and laughable.

[HopeHoops]

5. We never hit our kids and they've always been objects of "I can't believe how well behaved they are"

type comments. Mutual respect and discussion are far more powerful than the rod.

[Exultant Democracy]

7. The best behaved kids I know all come from non-spanking families. Calm parents calm children?

[HopeHoops]

10. I'm not exactly calm, but they know what respect is and hitting undermines that.

[raccoon]

20. Spanking is almost always about the parent being PO, not about what the kid did or didn't do. nt

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Did he ever stop to wonder if the Amish used those techniques on their kids?

Seriously, what a shitstain.

"Gee, the Amish use this abusive kind of tactic when they have a mule that isn't following directions. The logical extension of that is to have parents use it on all their children".

Fuckwit.

[LeftishBrit]

3. How utterly disgusting

And by the way, this isn't 'spanking'. A spanking is being hit with someone's hand. This is savage beating.

[libinnyandia]

6. Jesus said suffer the little children to come to me

not make the little children suffer.

[PoliticAverse]

8. What a bad title... The abuse detailed in the article didn't involve 'spanking'. n/t

[RKP5637]

9. Brutality toward ones children makes one unfit to be a parent in my book. This

preacher is an abusive authoritarian, and some people flock to these types of misfits in life. And do it under the guise of religion.

[SecularMotion]

11. Petition to remove the book from Amazon

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-refuse-to-carry-books-which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children

[countryjake]

21. Thank you for adding that link to the Petition...

we all should sign it!

This week Pearl has issued a call to his "followers" to go on the attack against his latest persecution, asking them to respond to all of the media reporting on the recent deaths of children tortured and beaten to death by parents using his methods, specifically that NYTimes article and the reviews section at Amazon. He wants them to expound on the joy of a properly "trained" child.

[MarkCharles]

12. One can make a lot of money selling instruction books on child abuse to

gullible Christians. And claim tax exempt status, too!


"More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”

What's wrong with this nation?

[CoffeeCat]

13. Make no mistake...

...the idiots who argue vociferously about the benefits of "spanking" children are hitting
them and abusing them.

There are so many angry, dysfunctional people out there--just looking for a church or some
other organization that will validate (and even praise) their pathology.

It's really, really sick.

I've read a great deal about child abuse, in particular, childhood sexual abuse. In an
effort to identify an "average child predator" researchers have studied convicted pedophiles
and found no "typical abuser". They hail from all socioeconomic levels and come from all
types of neighborhoods and areas of the countries. In short, they're everywhere. The only
trait that many child predators share in common--is describing themselves as "highly religious".

Isn't that interesting?

Are all highly religious people child predators? Obviously, no. However, religions is often
used by child predators and abusers--to justify and rationalize their behavior. People who
abuse children need very strong denial systems--to shield their monstrous acts from themselves.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to function. Religion--and religious leaders who justify
and minimize child abuse and abusive mentalities--fuels that denial for the perp.

Something to think about...

[LeftyMom]

14. The Pearls' adult children are crazy loser hermits with herds of starving urchin children.

OTOH, gentle parenting guru Dr Sears' kids? Three doctors, one more in med school.

If the proof is in the pudding, I'd suggest dishing up the gentle, non-violent pudding. ;)

[cleanhippie]

15. If you hit your child, you are a failure as a parent. Period.

There is not a single reason to ever hit a child. Ever.

[MarkCharles]

16. "Spare the rod, spoil the child".. that phrase actually has Biblical origins!

I know that there are several examples of punishment of children, or one even about sacrificing children in the Bible.

People do this stuff to their kids? They have been doing it for more than 2000 years!


http://www.openbible.info/topics/punishing_children


"Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV /

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear."

W T F !!!!!!!!!

[NMMNG]

17. Sick freaks who deserve prison for life

But of course they hide under the banner of "parental rights" and "religious freedom". :eyes:

[Odin2005]

18. Any violence against a child, even "mere spanking" is wrong.

These fuckers should be in jail.

[MikeH]

19. I wonder how those preaching the virtue of spanking would have raised the boy Jesus

I wonder how fundamentalist Christians who preach and advocate spanking children, such as Michael Pearl and James Dobson, would have raised the boy Jesus, and what they would have done to him, had he been in their charge.

Actually I think we know the answer. As said by Jesus, "As you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me."

[countryjake]

22. More on the Pearl methods...

http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/2011/11/the-real-michael-pearl/


"But Pearl’s grip on parents is slipping. National exposure of Pearl’s teachings and of the abuses that have followed are leading many Americans to abhor the preacher from Tennessee. Following the publication of a New York Times article on Pearl, an online petition urging Amazon to stop selling Pearl’s book attracted hundreds of signatures.

Of course, parents who buy into the idea that Pearl is a religious authority and who are obsessed with child obedience will continue to follow his methods. Some may see Pearl’s teachings as a license to hurt, and even to kill. We should not be surprised if we hear that another child has been “trained” to death. Yet, at the same time, many more Americans realize that Pearl’s teachings are harmful and pose a risk to untold numbers of children throughout the United States and elsewhere."


Here's a link to that Petition, asking Amazon to remove child abuse manuals from its inventory list.

http://www.change.org/petitions/jeff-bezos-amazon-ceo-refuse-to-carry-books-which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children



Pearl has issued a call to his followers this week to respond to all of the negative reviews he's been receiving at Amazon's website; he wants them to proclaim the joys of a properly trained child and also to downgrade the comments which condemn his methods. The author of the Petition has noted his statement here:

http://mamamule.blogspot.com/2011/11/amazon-petition-whats-it-to-you.html

"Dear No Greater Joy Supporter

As you may be aware, NGJ is in the midst of a controversy as the result of a recent article in the New York Times and the subsequent articles and blogs that are using that article as a base, much of which is taken out of context and adding their own inflammatory rhetoric.

The opponents of the traditional, biblical, child training philosophy presented by NGJ are rallying an orchestrated attack to discredit the Pearls and our Ministry. This includes petitioning sales outlets such as Amazon to discontinue selling To Train Up a Child and all other NGJ material. Another tactic is to fill the book review pages on Amazon with negative 1 star reviews and hateful comments. We trust God’s protection but also recognize our responsibility to properly respond and make these circumstances known to our supporters.

You can assist us by making your voices heard. Share your beliefs and leave a comment to all of the online articles that you read. You can also go to the To Train Up a Child page on Amazon and leave your own review and rate the other comments by checking “Yes” for the positive reviews and “No” for negative reviews. You may also make your own comments in response to the other reviews. Click “Create your own review” (located after the last review on the page) to rate To Train Up a Child and add your own review."



The signing of the Petition has more than doubled this week, just since the NYTimes article came out, and a rising international call to end all corporal punishment of children has finally begun. If you haven't already done so, please help and go sign it.