Sheldon Monson - Living Proof Old Traditions Never Die - Raising Godly Kids the Armstrong Way—Just Mind the Soft Spots

It was only four days ago that we posted Samuel Martin’s letter on the use of corporal punishment, some of it rooted in old Worldwide Church of God beliefs. People rushed in to insist that the old abusive styles of punishment were relics—no longer practiced in “the church” today. How reassuring. 

A reader has now pointed out Sheldon Monson’s piece in the April-June issue of A Good Report (Church of God Assembly, a Living Church of God splinter). In it, the classic Armstrongist advice reappears for raising “godly” children: corporal punishment is fine, just don’t slap the face or hit near the vital organs.

This is the same worn-out material Garner Ted Armstrong and Roderick Meredith peddled for decades. Spare the face, spare the kidneys, but by all means apply the rod (or hand, or switch) elsewhere. After all, Proverbs is clear, the child’s heart is full of foolishness, and nothing says godly parenting like carefully calibrated physical pain—delivered, of course, in love and never in anger. 

Modern child-development research, changing legal standards in many places, and simple observations about trauma and aggression can all take a back seat. The old playbook still works if you just avoid the head and the soft spots.

Armstrongism’s child-rearing tradition never really retired; it just splintered, rebranded, and kept the fine print. Monson’s group continues the lineage, and A Good Report is happy to pass along the refined technique: hit them, but do it “properly.” 

Four days after Martin’s critique, the same old instructions surface again. Coincidence? Or just the unbroken habit of treating carefully limited violence as a biblical parenting essential?