This. This is why I hate religion.

[Tridimity]

A child-raising book that advocates whipping with branches and belts has sold hundreds of thousands of copies to evangelical Christians. But the deaths of three children whose parents appear to have been influenced by the authors' teachings have provoked a growing backlash.

The implements can vary. For a child under one year old, a willowy branch or a 1ft (30cm) ruler is recommended. For older children, a larger branch or a belt.

But the objective of the "spanking" described in Michael and Debi Pearl's To Train Up a Child is the same - making children surrender completely to their parents' will.

"Training is the conditioning of the child's mind before the crisis arises; it is preparation for future, instant, unquestioning obedience," reads a passage from the book's first chapter.

The "training" is meant to start early and pre-empt the need for punishment. But if the child is already rebellious, parents are told to "use whatever force is necessary to bring him to bay".

"If you have to sit on him to spank him then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he is surrendered... Defeat him totally."

Hannah (not her real name) grew up in a community of Independent Fundamental Baptists in north-western Florida. Her parents obtained copies of books by the Pearls when she was about nine and her sister seven.

The spanking began shortly afterwards and continued for at least eight years. In the first five years, it usually happened several times daily.

One day, when she was 14 or 15, her father heard a story about Hannah getting into a fight with a boy at church.

"I'm still not sure honestly what I was being accused of, but my dad just completely flipped out because whatever he heard was just atrocious," she says.

Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

There's no way that a person who reads the book could be led to violence”

Michael Pearl

He used wooden rulers, or yardsticks, to spank her, snapping about five in the course of the beating - her mother kept a dozen in the house because they broke so often.

"When I couldn't sit down a couple of days later he was like: 'Stop being so melodramatic, what's wrong with you?' Then he had mother look and [my coccyx] was incredibly bruised and swollen."

Hannah, now in her mid-20s, says her father was "horrified" and never spanked her again. But her mother continued, using a plastic blind handle that she thought was less likely to leave marks on her children's skin.

Like other people who have witnessed Michael Pearl's advice being put into practice, Hannah says her parents were seduced by the idea of a simple formula that would make their children compliant.

"The problem is that [Pearl] tells you you have to break your children," she says. "And to get there you have to be completely ruthless."

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25268343

[EdEarl]

Physical abuse may leave scars that are visible, but the more common mental abuse of teaching children to obey unconditionally leaves scars that are almost invisible, but they are, nonetheless, debilitating. Once a child stops asking, "Why," and begins to believe because someone says one should believe, the natural curiosity of childhood is lost, the light of curiosity is snuffed, and it is very hard to reawaken. It is a tragedy of epic proportion.

Edited December 11, 2013 by EdEarl

[hypervalent_iodine]

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Moderator Note

I'm closing this thread pending staff review.

 

Edit:

 

Tridimity,

 

We are first and foremost a discussion forum and the rules that we have are there to help promote that objective. One of those rules pertains to proselytizing / soap boxing / preaching and this rule extends equally to people pushing pro-religious agenda as it does to people pushing anti-religious content.

 

Simply, threads that are authored solely to vilify or to advocate religion have no place in a discussion forum. Your thread in particular offers very little for discussion in addition to having an inflammatory title and as such, it will remain closed. Please keep this in mind in the future.

 

Edit to the edit:

 

One other point. Posting the entirety of an article and nothing else is not a good starting point for discussion. Generally, we ask members only to include links to articles, etc. or quotes therefrom as a support to the crux of what they want to discuss.

 

 

[swansont]

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Moderator Note

This thread will remain locked, as per staff decision. The topic is not excluded from introduction elsewhere if it can be introduced in a manner that is not inflammatory (in this case, with regard to the title) and is clearer in terms of the discussion that will follow. It has been suggested that this should be a thread in psychology rather than religion; it's not acceptable if it is implied that all religion is responsible for the actions of a few.