On page 10 of the January 3-9, 2009 Trumpet Weekly the PCG editors have chosen to include the following article entitled 'Children who are Spanked are More Successful.'
The original article, published by some pro-life website entitled Life Site News.com, may be seen here.
I do not object to all forms of physical punishment for kids, but having heard of what have occurred with some of those born into Armstrongism, the thought that this article may encourage abusive behavior among some PCG members just chills my heart.
Having heard how some in the old WCG just take whatever advice they are told by the organization and apply it in an over literal fashion I fear this article in this publication may encourage bad behavior by over zealous parents.
So I am not happy with this.
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If you haven't read "Matches in the Gas Tank" by Carla Powers(a former WCG member under HWA)it is a worthwhile read, and shows the abusive treatment of those attending Imperial schools during the '60s.
ReplyDeleteMen were to be respected regardless of their behavior, and reporting any leader or elder for sexual abuse of a child was never accepted.
In the context of PCG this is worrying.
ReplyDeleteAlso worrying is the way the article is quoted, for example it quotes:-
"The claims that are made for not spanking children fail to hold up. They are not consistent with the data," Gunnoe said.
But then they fail to quote Gunnoe’s very next sentence, which qualifies this statement:-
"I think of spanking as a dangerous tool, but there are times when there is a job big enough for a dangerous tool - you just don't use it for all your jobs," she added.
Gunnoe is saying to use spanking very sparingly, and this is from a site which seems to be quite pro spanking.
I share your worry; I have experience of how some of the ministry wanted to enforce members spanking their children. And we are not talking about 2 year olds – I had very serious run ins with a particular minister because we failed to beat our baby of less than six MONTHS old, when the child cried in services.
This was advice we had to withstand, some other parents withstood it, and others didn’t.
Much of the COG has improved from those days, but I have my doubts about PCG.
I think the Branch Flurridians want to be as close to the Original WCG as possible, even moreso than the Packatollah and his Pack Rats do.
ReplyDeleteHey, Q, I know you get a lot of grief (more from me sometimes than others), but thumbs up to you, for sticking up for your kids against the ministurd way back when! From our discussions, I forget whether or not I'm your age, or your kids' age, but I have to say, your kids are/were really blessed (yeah I said it LOL) to have (had) you in their corner, backing them against the wishes of the ministry. That must have taken strength, conviction, compassion, and true love for your children. Kudos to you for that!
My parents didn't go in for the corporal punishment, fortunately, but they had no compunctions whatsoever about letting one particular deacon's wife wail the tar out of me when she felt like it. I was not the only one she targeted, but my parents were the only ones who tried it, saw it just made me worse instead of better, and quickly gave it up. Children in other families were not nearly so lucky, and probably still have the battle scars to prove it.
(Well, that, and I probably would have told someone in authority, teacher, etc., if they had asked, and that wouldn't have been good either.)
My stories are more amusing and kind of eye-rolling, unlike some of true tales of horror that are out there on the web, thanks to "Spanky" Meredith's endless sermons on how to beat your wife and kids. You may have been one of the rare members to withstand that part of the cultic mindset, but I can pretty much guarantee you that your kids ended up better for it. IMO, at least, given that I don't really know you or your kids.
Wish you'd been around to tell that deacon's wife off when she was wailing on me though....
Thanks for your kind words Aggie.
ReplyDeleteYes, sometimes I have had ‘grief’ from you, but really you are usually pretty fair with it, given our differing outlooks at this time.
I think childrearing was a particular bugbear with me. One of the first sermons I heard, when I was still single, was Raymond McNair, listing ’70 reasons to spank your child’. (I think it was 70 – it could have been 80, or as low as 60).
He was encouraging the kids to write down the reasons as well – I suppose so they knew what they were in for.
Wish I had the list now – I do remember very serious things like not washing your hands after using the toilet certainly qualified for a good bashing. I thought at the time, that if that’s the way children need to be raised – then if I ever got married, I would have no children.
Well I got married and had children – but there was no way I was going to apply such a list – especially when there is no need. With a bit of encouragement, most children are happy to fall in with their parents requests, most of the time.
Willing obedience is far more valuable than compliance out of fear.