Pastor's Advice on corporal punishment

I don't know if you read the recent story about Tennessee pastor Michael Pearl, who wrote a book about corporal punishment for children "To Train Up a Child." "In their self-published book, Pearl, 66, and his wife Debi, 60, recommend the use of "the rod" to teach young children to submit to authority. They give instructions on how to use a switch for hitting children as young as six months, and describe how to use other implements, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line. Older children, the Pearls say, should be hit with a belt, wooden spoon or willow switch, hard enough to sting. Michael Pearl has said the methods are based on "the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.""

The only problem i see with this is that children are not mules!

"There are 670,000 copies of the book in circulation, and it's especially popular among Christian home-schoolers such as Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Wash. In September, local prosecutors charged them with homicide by abuse after their adopted daughter Hana, 11, was found naked and emaciated in the backyard, having died of hypothermia and malnutrition. She had been deprived of food for days at a time, and made to sleep in an unheated barn.

Hana, originally from Ethiopia, also had been beaten with a plastic tube, as recommended by Michael Pearl. Carri Williams had praised the book--which advises that "a little fasting is good training"--and had given a copy to a friend, local authorities say.

The Pearls aren't being charged. But Dr. Frances Chalmers, a state pediatrician who examined Hana's death, suggested to the Times that their teachings may have played a role in Hana's death. "My fear is that this book, while perhaps well intended, could easily be misinterpreted and could lead to what I consider significant abuse," she said."

There are at least 3 other children that have died with parents/gardens who have had connections to this book.

"The Pearls, along with some conservative Christians, say the Bible calls for corporal punishment. "To give up the use of the rod is to give up our views of human nature, God, eternity," they write in the book.

And Michael Pearl rejects the notion that his teachings bear any responsibility for the childrens' deaths. "If you find a 12-step book in an alcoholic's house, you wouldn't blame the book," he told the Times."

But other like blogger Crystal Lutton and myself disagree. I want to state that i have two children who do on rare occasion get a spanking. I don't do it everyday, every week or even every month. There are several ways to punish children and spanking is always my last resort.

I know there are scripture about spanking your children;
Proverbs 22:15 "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him."
Proverbs 23:13 "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die"
Note it says he wont die, because your not doing it to torcher them, it is only to be used as disciplinary action when needed.

But i also know scripture says to love like Jesus loved us. Did Jesus have some hard words or his followers yes, did he beat them to death.......no.

I love having fun with my kids and i do it everyday, but i also remember that i am their father and the one who disciplines them not because i like punishing them but because i know they will benefit from it.
I encourage you to spend a little more time than you normally would loving on your kids, or grand kids this week. Do something with them that will bring them joy, and show them how much you love them.

Find more on this story from Zachary Roth from The Lookout at
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/pastor-corporal-punishment-advice-scrutinized-child-deaths-160004793.html