The Sounds of Fundamentalism is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of Fundamentalist Calvinist John Piper stressing the importance of parents, even Jesus and his wife, beating their children.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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John Piper forgot to say that not sparing the rod means using the rod to beat the child to within an inch of their life and calling 911 just as the child expires unto death. These fundie people and their insidous child-raising practices really make me angry. They cannot consider the possibility that the Bible often just describes the way an ancient culture was at a particular span of time in human history—-but another pattern of child rearing in another culture works just as well. By this stupid line of thinking, people today would still be riding chariots into battle against heavy tanks like the new M2A2. Why? Because that’s what they did back in Bible days, so we should be doing the exact same thing now. Why hit’s in the Bible. A reverse corollary to that same kind of reasoning would be:
“It is wrong to drive automobiles today because the Bible does not mention ancient Jews or Christians driving automobiles.” I have a couple of questions: “Why are fundie Christians so stupid with stuff like this? Why do they do things like this:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sinister-side-of-homeschooling
Sorry Bruce. I forgot to do the “change” thing again. My fault—just tired late in the night—had a real bad day.
I think he makes some good points.
This John Piper is another religious crackpot, much like Spaniard 8.
I’m delighted that Wales, where I live, the welsh government has banned all smacking of children by their parents. Scotland has too. Physical violence by a parent only teaches the child it’s fine to prey on those weaker and smaller and that physical violence is the way to solve problems or vent anger. I was smacked as a child, 60yrs ago, It was only on rare occasions, I had a compliant nature. The world has moved on, we understand so much more now about child psychology and about long-term damage done to young brains by childhood traumas.
That is another great problem with the bible and its followers. It lacks clarity in defining words, phrases and concepts. Is the rod literal or figurative?? The great book leaves it wide open. My favorite is thou shalt honor thy father and mother. Oh how my inlaws used that to control the kids and keep them quiet. No questions or discussion allowed. Blind allegiance or face the consequences of said father back hand and mother guilt trip.
I wonder if he Beats his wife and then tells her how much he loves her right afterwards. So much cleaner and quicker than the silent treatment. Listening to him joking about hitting his three year old for acting like a three year old was sickening. Everything I have ever heard from this son of a bitch makes me glad I deconverted
John Piper….ah yes.I first heard of him on the radio defending residential schools that Native kids were forced to live in, before they were shut down. I don’t know if Piper ever hit his wife, but a while back, he admitted he oppressed his wife, and had to go into seclusion for a while. He is such a space-based, nothing that comes out of his sunken game-like mouth surprises me. ..If I recall correctly, he said he was raised in the South, and held racist views at one point. He is not a good person. He may hold strict opinions and has a code of sorts, but this man is a Puritan at heart and proud of it.
I will give you a summary of what I said in another comment. Religion is the greatest cause of child abuse in the United States.
Many Jewish, Christian, and Islamic groups think beating a child is the best thing in the world. Some of them also do things like genital mutilation of girls.. Most of these groups believe some type of child abuse is “holy”.
These groups need to be watched like criminals because that is what they are. We now have evidence that Catholic Schools for native cultural Canadians beat and abused those children and buried them in unmarked graves.
We need a national agency to stop child abuse and we need to fund it. We need to do much research to find out how these religious schools and home schooling parents are abusing children. We must have the laws and staff to enforce these laws.
Pedophiles and child abusers are in the same category as rapists. There is no “cure”. We should have the staff to find them, put them on trial and then incarcerate them for life with no chance of parole. They are a danger to all of society.