The Church of God has had a horrible reputation for child abuse over the decades because of its child rearing policies and booklets. That abuse continues into the 21st century with David C Pack.
He advocates that you child should fear you just as they should fear his god.
God’s Way:
Spanking does end bad behavior. And yes, it does teach your children to fear you—just as God wants His children to fear Him. Consider the following scriptures: “Blessed is every one [who] fears the Lord, [who] walks in His ways” (Psa. 128:1).
“In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence…The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (Prov. 14:26-27).
“Then you shall say unto your son…the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive” (Deut. 6:21, 24).
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7).
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10).
“The fear of the Lord prolongs days” (10:27).
“Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments” (Psa. 112:1).
Spanking, done God’s Way, produces proper fear, respect—and trust.
Once again the law trumps grace and love.
When a child is repeatedly spanked it stunts their mental growth, academic performance and even eventually the types of jobs they will find. A child repeatedly punished and made to feel worthless will never feel good enough for anything. Armstrongism has created scores of adults who to this day feel they are "not good enough."
If you know me really well, you know that I have converted to the “no spanking” side of the argument. I used to be for spanking, and used it with my child. However, after attending a seminar* about it (which included a biblical scholar to explain the common verses frequently used to support spanking) and saw some global statistics about the use of spanking, I changed my mind. I did a complete 180 and now promote no corporal punishment.From that seminar, I have learned that if parents stopped spanking, the research shows that it would increase:
Another eye-opening statistic was that the larger the percent of children in a nation who were spanked, the larger the percent who hit a dating partner. For example, in Taiwan, the percentage of children who were spanked or hit a lot before age 12 is around 80%, and the assault total is around 40$. By contrast Sweden has about 20% of children spanked, and 20% hitting of a dating partner.
- mental development
- academic performance in elementary school
- chances of completing a university degree
- occupational achievement and income
They gave four key reasons why children should NEVER be spanked:
From Northlight Counseling
- Spanking is not necessary.
- Spanking has harmful side effects.
- Spanking undermines long term effectiveness of parents
- Contradicts the ideal of the family as a place for love, not violence
Samuel Martin, who grew up in the Worldwide Church of God as the son of Earnest Martin, knows first hand what corporal punishment does to a child. Martin now lives in Israel and has published a book on spanking, "They Rod and They Staff Comfort Me: Christians and the Smacking (Spanking) Controversy."
In no instance does the New Testament quote from any of the texts that are used to demonstrate that smacking is valid for today. There is no instance in any of the New Testament‟s 27 books that specifically refers to a child receiving any bodily punishment. The evidence shows that the New Testament writers were quite familiar with the whole of the book of Proverbs and quoted from numerous sections of it, but wholly avoided any passage mentioning the rod. Because of these facts, anyone who seeks to advocate for the idea that smacking is a New Testament teaching is standing on shaky theological and Scriptural ground. This is the plain information we find in the Bible itself.
David C Pack's lies about child punishment lie directly in the pit of the law. Pack has placed the law above grace and the New Covenant. Law keeps the flock in submission. Law prohibits free thought. Law controls every aspect of a persons life.
Why parents in the Restored Church of God continue to allow this man to tell them what to do with their children is beyond me. Pack is just as sick as Gerald Flurry when it comes to the youth of his group. He has instructed members to kick their children out of their homes and to shun them. He has young teenage sons spying on their parents and reporting back to him. In doing so he rewards them with jobs in the Wadsworth cult compound. Dave becomes their new "parent" who controls their life with veiled threats. They fear going against him at all costs.
All this has done is created bitterness in the children he has forced out of homes. Pack has literally destroyed hundreds of families and marriages over this topic. When will his members ever wake up and stop the abuse?
Dave, you damned horse's ass!
ReplyDeleteYou don't have any notion of the difference between "proper fear" and TERROR.
Oh, but you make me sick!
"Spare the rod"- does the word "rod" refer to a stick to strike someone, or does it refer to a means of measuring or setting a standard of behavior?
ReplyDelete"'Spare the rod'- does the word 'rod' refer to a stick to strike someone, or does it refer to a means of measuring or setting a standard of behavior?"
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of the bible is totally fluid. Everyone looks into it and sees themselves reflected in it. It means whatever you, dear reader, think it means. Rest assured, however, that whatever you, reading in the 21st century think it means, is almost certainly not what the guy who wrote the first draft was thinking of. There's very little chance of that.
Who is going to spank the Pack of lies, so that he may fear The Father above? This man is everything the bible warns us about!
ReplyDeletePerfect fear casts out love.
ReplyDeleteI have seen animals of all types trained to do all kinds of manner of tricks and behaviors at zoos , aquariums, circus, Vegas etc.
ReplyDeleteNever once did I see animals having to be beat or threatened or hurt in order to accomplish this.
It was positive reinforcement, patient instruction, and reward that drove behavior. NOT terror, fear or physical force.
I hate to admit it, but I would just love to B*TCH SLAP Pack around just once and make him cry, just so he can know and remember what it feels like.
Do not hesitate to call the national child abuse hotline for anyone in the RCG.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteI hope that if you ever spank another person, it is someone who has diarrhea! Frankly, you have become accustomed to spreading so much crap throughout your miserable life, that you probably won't even notice.
BB
Pity the pets in the family.
ReplyDeleteHe wants to beat adults in the millennium when he rules with a rod of iron. He wants and is so looking forward to when "soon" the world plunges into some chaos and billions die, he wants that very much. He is looking forward to the super super virus causing the death of billions. And famine, he will gloat that he told us so. The place of safety is waiting for Dave to flee to imminently.
ReplyDeleteIn the mean time, just in case it doesn't happen soon, keep sending those mega bucks to Wadsworth so he can spend it all on his me me me empire and keep dressing up in the fine suits and adorn himself with gold cuff links and watch, and the best quality patent leather shoes (his god is impressed with all of that).
He is like a Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, or numerous other cruel dictators who have dominated I their followers. Only Dave can't cent it together like they did, he has a little flock that he controls. The man is mean. He has written about his dad, how he use to get beat by his dad, he says it with a smile on his face as if it is funny. Really, it has created a psychopath.
Report that Colette. Or is that too much truth for your social club newspaper to print. When the day comes that we hear on CNN how a doomsday cult from Wadsworth Ohio left the country for Petra, and some horrible mass suicide (actually, Dave would just do them with out a consensus) the Beacon will be known as not such a beacon at all. All the lurkers out there, do something to stop the madness! Share the truth about DCP and maybe save some lives!
Coming to you from the parking lot of Giant Eagle in beautiful Wadsworth Ohio just across the way on Ambassador Drive leading to the glorious campus of God's True Church.
ReplyDeleteYes, I made the 15 mile or so pilgrimage last Sabbath so I could sit in the lot for an hour with a pair of binoculars and gawk at the faithful filing into the compound.
I had hoped to get a glimpse of the 21st Century Apostle himself, but I didn't catch him- I guess there's always next time...
I remember HWA and the Plain Truth at the grocery store in the early 80's and I laugh loudly at the fact that some 30 years later there's this delusional nut in my backyard
who's lifetime fantasy is to rebuild and head the Pasadena campus like it is the new Jerusalem of the Second Temple era- in Wadsworth Ohio!!!
Ronco
A lot of people in this world cannot handle power and these are the ones that seek it for themselves. Their minds are unstable and lives are out of control therefore they try to control others. This is why our world is screwed up in the first place...all he crazies running it.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough "fear" in this world. A home should be a place of peace, not fear for children.
I used to believe in spanking while in the church but I would let my husband do it. But he was another crazie who didn't get it and we would end up arguing because I felt he was only taking out his anger on the kids...which he was. It got to where he wouldn't do it at all and would run off which was his usual response,which was fine with me...yoo hoo!
So again letting a crazy run the show does not work, obviously.
David C. Pack is just another crazie.
All crazies GO AWAY! Fall into a sinkhole why don't you!!
Growing up AmstrWrong my parents bought into all that spanking crap, although now they would probably disavow it.
ReplyDeleteBut lest you think, back in the day, spanking was only for children, think again. Anytime something wasn't going my parents' way, my mother would routinely say that "God was 'spanking' them." Ahh, the joys of trickle-down abuse that come from worshiping a legalistic and violent god.
I have a hard time understanding what it was that made ArmstWrongism so attractive to my parents as young adults such that they chose it for themselves.
Be sure to get Pack's new booklet:
ReplyDelete"How to make your child a psychopath".
You can't say he's not an expert.
There will always be backward people.(no pun intended)
ReplyDeleteWhether from COGs, or from more mainstream American Evangelical stock, there are some very ignorant, dangerous and backward people.
"Through a closer examination of the Hebrew word for “rod” (shebet) one can see that in the Hebrew dictionary it has various meanings, a stick for walking, writing, fighting, ruling, and punishment. The word “shebet” is most frequently used when referring to shepherds who are tending their flocks. The Shepherds used the stick to fight off prey and to gently guide wandering sheep, not to beat them.
ReplyDeletePlease remember that these verses come from a book of poetry. Writers of poetry use familiar words of the day to represent concepts that the people to whom they are writing can create an image of what they are writing about. The image that we are to extract from these verses in Proverbs is one of creating a culture of accountability. The point that God is making is that we as parents are to hold our children accountable for their choices and actions. There are many ways to hold a child accountable and corporal punishment (spanking)has to be one of them." By Thomas Haller
Thanks for linking my book, which is free. - whynottrainachild.com/2013/06/22/download-martins-book/
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I just appeared at a conference in Chicago where I presented my book and ideas to the academic community in the USA working against corporal punishment of children. - http://www.luc.edu/chrc/may23-242014/
My upbringing in the WWCG is a big part of the reason that I wrote the book. The negative stories that I have heard are herein rehearsed in this post.
Thankfully, before my father Ernest passed away, I was able to review with him the basic ideas that I presented in my book and he agreed with my conclusions.
Samuel Martin
Jerusalem Israel
The Church of God has had a horrible reputation for child abuse over the decades because of its child rearing policies and booklets.
ReplyDeleteBS. 30 years in the COGs and I've never seen a single child being abused.
Ah yes, a typical COG member who saw no wrong in the church. You are an ass! There is a Facebook page with over 700 exArmstrongites that is filled with both men and women who were sexually abused. It also has people who went to Imperial schools that were sexually molested. What you just said spit in the faces of those people. It's because of people like you that degenerate men are leading many of the splinter cults.
ReplyDelete8:36, turning a blind eye makes you part of the problem. Apparently, like the abusers, you allowed Armstrongism to redefine society's prevailing concept of abuse.
ReplyDeleteAh, the wonderful world of Armstrongism, where careful redefinition of words that have traditional, accepted meanings eliminates child and spousal abuse, racism, false prophets and false prophecy, plagiarism, selfishness, elitism, fiscal malfeasance, and a plethora of other evils. If that isn't brainwashing, I don't know what is!
You didn't so much defend your ACOG heritage as identify yourself as one of the hopelessly deluded! In Spanish, a question mark or exclamation point is placed at the beginning of the sentence to alert one as to what follows. Placing the letters "BS" in front of your sentence served the same purpose.
BB
Here's a cool project, kiddie kiddies! Next feast of barnacles, when your ACOG minister is giving a sermon on child beating, whip out your ghetto blaster, and play Queen's "Tie your Mother Down!" in the big tent.
ReplyDeleteOr, Everclear's "Father of Mine."
I don't care what 'rod' means in the Bible, gentle leading or whacking? It is not relevant. They used to stone people, especially women, for silly things too, now was the stone perhaps a plastic ball or a piece of dirt, or maybe a piece of bread because maybe they were hungry? What else is a Rod? Is it a Rod Meredith? Is it something men have, or is that more of a stick?
ReplyDeletePlease form a line to whack Pack with the rod of correction, and make sure it is of stout dimensions, and make him wear his tightest shorts........ummmmmm
There is a reason none of his kids are in the church anymore.
ReplyDelete