Samuel was also a child of the Worldwide Church of God and was impacted by spanking. He was around when Garner Ted came out with his Child Rearing book. For some church kids their lives soon became a living hell.
When Carn Catherwood, fresh out of Ambassador College, was appointed to Cincinnati as pastor, he came in spouting Ted's and HWA's decrees as dogma. Catherwood had no kids of his own at that time, yet told older members how they should be disciplining their children.
He soon had the Spokesmen Clubs making one inch thick paddles about 16 inches long. He had them drill holes though the paddles to cut down wind resistance. He instructed parents from the pulpit that when their children misbehaved they were to be taken immediately to the restroom and spanked. 20 swats was the required number to give. He also expected to hear the child cry, even if it was during his sermon. You would see children hugging their parents as they were being taken out for swats yelling, "Please Daddy NO! Please don't spank me!"
Samuel has a web site up and a blog where he has information on why spanking was NOT used by early Christians and was also not a thing that was done by Jews.
Samuel writes:
Fact: The Bible does not teach that spanking a child will save him from Hell.
Fact: The Bible does not teach that spanking a child should bring tears.Fact: In Bible times, the texts concerning spanking children found in Proverbs were not applied to young children under the age of about 10 years!Fact: Many respected Christian theologians including St. Augustine, Dr. Karl Barth and Rev. Dwight Moody rejected spanking children.Fact: Many Biblically conservative Jewish Rabbis, who have the Old Testament as their Holy Scripture, reject spanking children today.Fact: The main Christian advocates for spanking children now are not usually trained Christian theologians teaching in universities, but most often are conservative fundamentalist Christian pastors, Christian politicians, Christian psychologists, lay church members and Christian school leaders.Fact: Well meaning Christian advocates of spanking children have developed doctrines surrounding what they believe the Bible teaches about spanking children which are not found in the Bible at all.Fact: Well meaning Children's Rights activists, who are not trained Bible scholars, have entered this debate attacking the Bible with disastrous results.
His to web sites are: Christians and the Spanking Controversy
and Blog: Samuel Martin Blog
4 comments:
oh for god sake, use your common sense!
Yes, spanking is yet another example of how Armstrongism somehow always ended up being a bottom feeding organization. Take the most illogical, the most intensely obsessive compulsive practices, and the least defensible points of view, combine them, and you have the Armstrong movement (pun intended!).
Add a pinch of arrogance attractively packaged as the weak and foolish confounding the world's wise, and you have a lifelong pathology that is tougher to get rid of than the most persistent booger!
BB
HI Dennis,
Nice to hear from you.
While I was a kid during the time that spanking was an everyday occurence in church services, homes, and schools associated with the church, I was never spanked by any church employee that I can remember.
My sisters were spanked, but for reasons that I am still trying to understand, they never laid a hand on me.
Samuel Martin
Jerusalem Israel
www.biblechild.com
www.samuelmartin.blogspot.com
http://samuelmartin.blogspot.com/2011/11/should-we-preach-publish-or-proclaim.html
Dennis - I've done this post of late which may be of interest to some of your readers.
All the best,
Samuel Martin
www.samuelmartin.blogspot.com
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