This is what Scripture says:
Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:3-6, NASB)
Our Lord says child abuse and filicide are not merely life-or-death issues; they are much more, for they may affect the eternal state of one’s soul.
For this reason, as Salon reports, Christians are finally starting to speak out against so-called “biblical” child abuse.
Paul speaks out:
If you call yourself a Christian and you don’t immediately think it’s a foul, unthinkable, disgusting suggestion to whip your child at least 10 times per offense (more “if needed”), wearing the weapon visibly at all times, having a weapon always at hand with which to whip your child, menacingly hunting down your child when they are fleeing punishment in terror like the villain in the Halloween movies, and even manufacturing occasions to whip in order to “train them”, if you don’t immediately recoil from such things, I would highly recommend you put down the plastic tubing and go pick up your Bible. You may have reason to be concerned about the state of your soul.
Laurie speaks out:
And, PLEASE, won’t the men in the church stand up and speak?! This is NOT just a mommy problem. The fathers are at the head of these Pearl households. The wives are taught to submit to them. Nothing will change unless we reach the men, and these are NOT men who will learn from women.
Paul, via Salon:
Not to be crass, but you slap the title ‘Christian’ on something, and all of a sudden it’s the ‘Christian’ thing. Sometimes, in my experience, that’s all it takes for Christians to start following something. There’s not a whole lot of discernment.
We must make a stand against child abuse, child murder, and Pelagianism, and leave no room for doubt. The gospel is not about behavior modification, but regeneration. Our righteousness is not our own, but the righteousness of Christ, which is reckoned unto us by faith alone (Philippians 3:9). Scripture admonishes us over and over again to stand up for the fatherless, the widows, foreigners, and those who are too weak to defend themselves. Please join me in standing up for Lydia and Zariah. Their parents were not salt and light, but were the very wolves in sheep’s clothing against whom we must guard the flock.
Aaron, hug Momma and babies for me, if you don't mind.
Yes. And hopefully there are a good number who will listen and not be deceived and at least some who are deceived who will open their eyes.
In our neighbourhood, at all schools I attended, wherever I went, there were child abusers around. My wife and I have been ministering to such victims, until our churches persecuted us and we ended up in a stalemate. Ousted by a church (not a specific one but a general statement as many individual churches and Christian radio stations were involved.) we found ourselves with no friends, no support base and branded by society. We still care for people recovering from hurt and we do minister to them, but it is being done discreetly.
Here is my problem with an apostate Christianity. Please read and comment.
[…]
TL;DR
My response to [an overly-merciful friend]:
and my indignation let me write another letter…
Now, I do invite your views on this, as I need to see where you see our social responsibility, our civil duty lies. Should we just forgive sexual transgressors and let them get away with it or should we protect the innocent?
Non-Christians may see this differently but, if Christians have integrity, they should follow their own house keeping rules and eject the evil man, whilst refraining from judging people from other cultures or walks of faith.
Pieter: I commend your hatred of hypocrisy, especially from those who are supposed to shepherd the flock. Key here are Paul’s words, “For it is no business of mine to be judging those who are outside; but it is yours to be judging those who are among you;
As for those who are outside, God is their judge. So put away the evil man from among you.” Paul presumes that Christians ought to have higher morals than the Greeks (though Socrates might beg to differ). Yet, his attitude toward those outside the church is proper, and ought to inform Western attitudes towards issues like gay marriage: those who do not have the law are not obligated to live by the law.
As for pedophiles and abusers, Jesus said it would be better for them to be tied to a millstone and thrown into the sea. This is hyperbole, of course (though the Catholic Church actually employed this method of execution in medieval times). Nevertheless, it does illustrate that Christ considered them much differently than the adulterers for whom he said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” If your friend can’t reconcile these two sayings of Christ properly, then he is apparently not able to “rightly divide the word of truth”, and you might consider just writing them off instead of arguing.
As to your comments about pregnancy in school, I think your attitude is quite bigoted, and leans toward the Taliban prohibition of educating women. Would you ban Mary from school?
*Aaron, I also should add that yet another factor here is the extreme HIV infection rate. My country is argued to be global champion in contracting AIDS, percentage-wise.
Right now, where some pregnant girls are allowed to attend school, it causes secondary problems. And because children are brought into the world for secondary concerns, such as enhancing status amongst teenage girls, or as an added stream of revenue to the young mother and her parents, this “industry” is trading in human lives as those were livestock. It is as cruel as farming with canned lions; imagine what a terribly dysfunctional world the babies are being born into.
Or are deliberate teen pregnancies with ulterior motives something we should condone, despite the ruined lives awaiting the unborn? These unborn babies and their well-being should be our first priority, not that of a mother in love with free, uncontrolled sex**, mostly with multiple partners. **Should twelve- or fifteen year-old girls be encouraged to become mothers*?*And sleep around as if there is no tomorrow?** * *Aaron, you cannot even begin to understand the mindset we are dealing with – don’t try fix it from your perspective. Come live here for at least two decades, so that you can grasp this better, then decide whether I am bigoted. *
*The pregnant teens girls at school, by no means there by an “accident” but **because of a willful act**, also offend fellow students with other values, for instance some Christian and Muslim pupils do object.*
*LiJC
Pieter http://blessedbeyondrecognition.wordpress.com/*
Just because I’m American doesn’t mean you’re not a terrible racist. There are some universal human rights, and you wish to violate these rights, and you believe you have an obligation to do so because you are Afrikaner. Can you not see that you are the abuser?
Okay… If your bias against pregnant women living on the dole isn’t racist, then can we agree that it is sexist?
This most certainly is an interesting conversation thread!
We have someone who objects to convicted pedophiles being around children, directly against the orders of the court at that, but somehow the judge never learns or acts upon the violation of the orders of the court.
That is in and of itself worrisome, as that indicates a non-functional judicial system.
Then, we learn that “perhaps not even a full five per cent of the Afrikaner population” are radicals, something again quite worrisome, as that percentage can trivially disrupt an entire nation.
What is even more fascinating is that I have friends in Capetown, they’ve never related anything like what has been described in this thread, perhaps it’s a local community problem.
Yes, teen pregnancy is rampant, that is so in many poor areas of the world, dole or no dole. Effective programs have been implemented, those did not deny the minor child her education due to pregnancy, they educated, taught about birth control methods and provided birth control in the form of condoms.
But, certain fundamentalist religious types of various faiths object to such effective programs and punish the pregnant minor child by denial of education, even at times, depriving the pregnant minor child of her life! Why use what is effective when you can force your faith upon those who do not share that faith with seems to be their desire.
It seems that our faithful speaker here wishes to do away with the dole for the infant, for starvation is a really cool way to patrol societal issues and further, deny the mother her education under the guise of upholding the morality within a secular school.
Not *quite* Taliban like, but in the general neighborhood.
When I was in school, a couple of girls became pregnant. They still attended school, strangely enough, nobody envied them their morning sickness, frequent bathroom visits, bloating and discomfort walking the hallways between classes later in their pregnancies.
But then, we had and still have effective sex education classes and we had and still have easy access to birth control, especially condoms.
Well, we as in students who didn’t have religious fundamentalists who prevented their child from attending sex education class, which had the predictable result in a relatively high teen pregnancy rate within that group of students alone. A problem that continues today, as my sister in law can attest to with her own daughter and her granddaughter, born out of wedlock to a 16 year old mother.
Still, if I ever head down toward Capetown, I may well visit. I always did enjoy meeting the locals when I travel.
Reblogged this on BeyondRecognition and commented:
Purgatory should happen this side of the grave, evict the evil from within and HANDS OFF OUR CHILDREN!!