WT on Discipline

by ttdtt 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ttdtt

  Anyone else see what you would call abuse of kids actually at the KH?
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  Vidiot

  I honestly lost count of how many dyed-in-the-wool JW parents used to lament how spanking had either been criminalized or become socially taboo.

  I was, like, "Jeezus, people, what? Did you, like, enjoy it or something?"
  
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  jwundubbed

  Violence is never appropriate in any household.
  Hitting kids is not discipline.

  I don't mean to be annoying or offensive but your words are just as unclear as the ones you are pointing out from the Watchtower. You have effectively equated 'hitting' with violence. What do you mean by 'hitting'? Slapping a wrist, spanking a bottom, slapping with an open hand, slapping a face with an open hand, punching with a closed fist. These are all examples that can be considered 'hitting'. Each and every one of these things can be violent or non-violent. It all depends on the ability of the person doing the hitting, the emotion they are doing the hitting with, the purpose of hitting, how forceful they are at hitting, and the intention behind their hitting. Karate can be violent or it can be a disciplined activity. I once hauled back and hit my elder sister across her chin with my closed fist. I intended violence but my ability was laughable. And she did. She laughed right in my face at my pathetic attempt. It was so frustrating. Then there is my mother who was a firm believer in humiliation and pain through spankings, many of which were done in the back of a Kingdom Hall. She hit in anger, she hit to hurt, and she hit to humiliate.

  But spanking is not always done violently nor out of anger. And in point of fact some hitting is discipline. If you smack a child's hand to keep them from touching the hot stove you have given them proof that pain is what they get for trying while at the same time you have kept them from being hurt and harmed even more by the hot stove. Not all hitting is bad. Sometimes it can be discipline but the intent has to be to teach and to guide so that children can then make wiser choices on their own.

  Jehovah's witnesses are intent on mindless control, and most often hit out of anger... or that has been my experience of them. One cannot discipline others if one first does not know how to discipline themselves. JWs hit out of anger at the child and anger at their circumstance/situation and as a lack of control in themselves. They spank at the back of the hall, less often because the child isn't minding them and more often because they are getting peer pressure from the group to do so.

  Spanking a child with a wooden spoon or a brush is distinctively different from giving a child a mild swap with an open hand... or even of striking them with a rod. Those are two ends of a very large spectrum; mild open hand vs rod. And children do die of being stricken with a rod, especially if the child is hit where internal damage can happen.

  If you changed that title to 'teach children to conform' I think it would be much the same thing.