You call this "discipline," the rest of us call it torture...

[lunadelcorvo]

Christian discipline drawing criticism even from Christians

The two cases discussed are here and here. There is another excellent Salon article on the phenomenon here.

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When the hell are we going to deal with this crap? When are we going to realize that parents usually don't dream up this stuff on their own? In no way do I exonerate a parent who can beat their child to death without knowing it's wrong, but the Pearls and others with similar rhetoric are to blame as well. "Doesn't advocate abuse?" Seriously? In whose dictionary is advising a parent to use plumbing line to strike their child (as young as 6-12 months!) NOT abuse?

What really bothers me is that this stuff is not broadly pursued with any real vigor because it hides behind a bogus screen of religious freedom. Individuals who go to far are sometimes (but not always) convicted of what it really is: abuse, murder, torture. But the broad problem gets a minor mention at the bottom of the article, with words like 'suspect,' 'may be influenced.' Why? Why is this not a center stage issue?

I'll tell you why. First, imagine a Muslim family that did this in the US; beat a child to death in the name of religious discipline. What a shitstorm that would be! Or a Wicca parent, using a switch to instill their religious values (supposedly just as well protected)? We look the other way on this stuff because as a society, we are scared to confront the Christian gloss on it, and it perpetrators hide behind that gloss, knowing it protects them. I call bullshit!!!!!!

Comments

[doctoreon.livejournal.com]

In America, you have the freedom to practice any denomination of Christianity. That's what 'religious freedom' means, right? Right?

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Sure. But let's consider a few points: First, let's be realistic - a significant percentage of the crap that comes out of the Christian lunatic fringe would *never* be tolerated if it came from other religions. What's done and said with Bible in hand gets passes and get-out-of-jail-free privileges that the same thing done or said with Quran, Bagavad Gita, or (for lack of a better comparison) The God Delusion in hand will never get.

Secondly, religious freedom *does not* equal the freedom to abuse children, nor, in my opinion, the freedom to make child abuse somehow a protected religious doctrine. Free speech yes, and I know this is problematic territory in that regard as well. But...it seems that the authors & promoters of things like "Train up a Child" and "No Greater Joy" have to be held to some kind of responsibility for advocating this stuff, and then standing back and waving their hands when someone who has taken it on religious authority ends up seriously injuring a child.

As fervently as I believe in free speech, I also believe in responsibility, and words have consequences. Along with the freedom to speak those words needs to be the responsibility for the consequences of them. Just like all those who bandied about a rhetoric of violence bear culpability in the deaths of abortion doctors, the Pearls and others with similar programs bear culpability when some damned fool, fired by the religious conviction on which these authors so blatantly play, ends up beating a child to death.

[doctoreon.livejournal.com]

You're preaching (pun intended) to the choir.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

I figured your comment was rhetorical, but it gave me a chance to expand. Did I just make you my straight man? ;)

[doctoreon.livejournal.com]

I think you may have. ;-)

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

As fervently as I believe in free speech, I also believe in responsibility, and words have consequences.

Absolutely - hence the need for hate speech to be a crime. This would certainly fall under that category.