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:
- mental development
- academic performance in elementary school
- chances of completing a university degree
- occupational achievement and income
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.
They gave four key reasons why children should NEVER be spanked:
- 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
From Northlight Counseling
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?
