rhinestone belt on us until she was exhausted and out of breath. I
remembered when I was even smaller and she used to make us put on
shorts before picking our own switch. For those of you fortunate enough to
be blessed with ignorance, a switch is a thin vine like branch from a bush or
shrub, the kind that swooshes through air and slices through flesh.
I thought about all the hits, kicks, screams, slaps and unanswered prayers
for God to save me. I thought about how everyone had told me all
throughout life that God’s official policy on the matter was “Spare the rod
and spoil the child.” Nothing had ever been clearer. “He was wrong,” I
replied.
Ghost of Nightmares Past
I rarely think about these things anymore, but am sometimes reminded such
horrors continue for others, and continue to be justified in exactly the same
way. Michael and Debi Pearl published a book back in 1994 on child rearing
entitled “To Train Up A Child.” The book provides fine parenting tips like
pulling a baby’s hair if s/he accidentally hurts the mother during breast
feeding, purposely neglecting to feed children and other acts of cruelty.
The book cites biblical scripture to condone violence such as Proverbs 13:24
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth
him betimes.” This is the verse usually shortened to simply “Spare the rod
and spoil the child.” Another popular verse cited is Proverbs 22:15
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall
drive it far from him.” Perhaps the most horrifying example cited comes
from Proverbs 19:18 “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy
soul spare for his crying.”
“To Train Up A Child” instructs parents to “conquer their child’s will” by using
quarter-inch plumbing pipe and other weapons on children starting at four
months old. Proverbs 23:13 reads “Withhold not correction from the child:
for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.” But the instructions
outlined by the Pearls have in fact led to the tragic murders of at least three
children, Sean Paddock, Lydia Schatz and Hana Grace-Rose Williams.
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