“He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes” (Proverbs 13:24)

“Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.” (Proverbs 23:13-14)

Pastor Michael Pearl, the author of ‘To train up a child‘, a book that follow the above biblical proverbs and teach parents how to train and discipline your own children by psychologically torturing and beating them up with PVC, rulers and other handy tools according to the child’s size,

Select your instrument according to the child’s size.

For the under one year old, a little, ten to twelve-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient. Sometimes alternatives have to be sought. A one-foot ruler, or its equivalent in a paddle, is a sufficient alternative.

And among other ‘Pearls’, also suggests tempting a child with a bite of their favorite food ~ placing a morsel within the child’s reach – and when said child instinctively reaches out for the food ~ Switch their hand once and simultaneously say, ‘No.’ Repeat as many times as necessary until the child is trained not to automatically grab for whatever he or she wants – but rather, to automatically look to the parent for permission before reaching out to take the desired food.

This book is for sale on amazon.com, sold over 1 million and 400 thousand copies worldwide, laid the advice incited Kevin and Elizabeth Statz to beat their 9-year-old daughter, Lydia to death using a quarter-inch plumbing supply line, and even on some of the most popular social network sites such as Facebook this Pastor already have over 4500 fans in his page; a group where he is to be found spreading his teaching and answering questions. Such Biblical rod ‘methodology’ is well spread worldwide, and does seems to be widely accepted and praised as correct by the Christian community; there are thousands of similar sites, forums, internet groups, books, articles, conversations glorifying the ‘rod’ teachings and techniques; Elias Goodwin is one of this people,

http://www.surfinthespirit.com/parenting/duty.html

It seems, from the word of God, that the rod is to be used (and that not sparingly) in the government, and correction of children, in bringing them into perfect subjection to their parents. But how seldom is the rod seen and much more seldom used by the professed people of God at this day. Many seem to think that they are serving God, doing those things that are pleasing in his sight, while in a measure, if not wholly, they are neglecting to govern their children, and bring them to yield that obedience to their parents, that the word of God requires. But this is a mistaken idea and a snare of Satan into which the whole world, with few exceptions, have fallen, in these “perilous times.” But my prayer is, that God would deliver his people out of this snare, and give them to see and understand their whole duty to their children.

Michael Pearl is the owner of  ‘No Greater Joy Ministries‘, a 1.5 million dollar a year business.

The following are extracts of public letter he released to the critics of the ‘discipline by the rod’ methodology earlier this week.

It has come to my attention that a vocal few are decrying our sensible application of the Biblical rod in training up our children. I laugh at my caustic critics, for our properly spanked and trained children grow to maturity in great peace and love.

When your children grow old and realize their mortality and seek to make peace with their Creator, it will be one of our children that shares with them the message of God’s love and forgiveness.

People all around the world, in places like Russia, China, Germany, New Zealand, Guatemala, Peru, Africa, and fifty other countries are laughing with joy because after applying the Biblical principles found in our books they finally have happy and obedient children.

Even my chickens are laughing . . . well, actually it is more like cackling, because they just laid another organic egg for my breakfast and they know that it was that same piece of ¼ inch plastic supply line that trained the dogs not to eat chicken.

The comments to his articles and letters on Facebook are shamelessly public and made of warm appraisals – “So true! We need more men like you in this world” – and people publicly assuming they do proudly, wisely and justifiably use the ‘rod’ methodology to beat their own children up.

“Causing a child to feel temporary, physical pain is not child abuse.“

I can not possibly describe how outraged I am by this; this people are beating up and training them children like dogs, after the biblical ‘discipline by the rod‘ teachings, as promoted not only by Michael Pearl, but by a large number of Christian authors, Pastors and by members of the Christian community themselves. For this people, you are not a good, God-bound, responsible parent, unless you follow God’s given methods; “Wasn’t the first sin disobedience ?“.