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?

[donerleg.livejournal.com]

Huge sorrow.......

[primitivepeople.livejournal.com]

Terrible, terrible story, but encouraging in that even ultra-conservatives are starting to see what's wrong with an ideology that is extremely abusive.

I don't see anything in the Bible about beating the crap out of your kids, and it's good that people are waking up to this. Horrible.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Yikes.

That sort of shit makes me sick. Rationalization of authority to the point of trying to "train" children to treat parents like "sovereigns"-- even leaving out the whole concept of physical abuse, the mental abuse of such a thing is gigantic.

And it doesn't work! Children brought up in such families are MORE likely to become criminals, promiscuous, drug abusers-- etc.-- not less! AND it all happens when they get too big to beat without retaliation (in other words, at some point children, especially males, tend to hit back or just leave the home.) I was in Ohio around families where this attitude is common, and families where FATHERs were in total charge were often very sick with incest and all sorts of things. And the sons did go to drugs and crime, and the girls left home early and slept around and....

Besides, AUTHORITY CAN BE WRONG! If you aren't allowed the ability to question authority, how can you possibly stop evil from happening like a good Xtian should? Wasn't Jesus anti-authoritarian himself?

This is why I can't respect Christianity (or ANY of the desert religions) as a whole at all. They START from a bad place, and attempts at reform (as I consider Jesus' teachings to be) fail again and again in the face of a system that is bad to begin with. Chuck it all and try something else, I say. Something that is not about a Male Authoritative God and his blindly obedient followers.

Ug.

[hope-guides-me.livejournal.com]

I couldn't read that entire article.

You know I'm a Christian.

I'm a little exhausted and not fully understanding, but...

This nonsense needs to stop hiding behind my religion. I'm sick of this bullshit making my religion look bad.

>:|

[x3non.livejournal.com]

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!

This is an excellent example of how people are just talking past each other in America nowadays.

I just did a two-second Google search on "muslim honor killing in america", picked the first hit (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24329), skimmed the reader comments and found this:

Can you just imagine if it was a Christian ritual to abuse the women of the house???? That would give the NY Times and Newsday headlines for a year.

See? We're just talking past each other.