Friday, March 17, 2006

can you boycott evil?

This post is NO LONGER sticky and will remain on top for the present. Please scroll down for further posts.

This post has been further edited below.

My last post was about spanking and was inspired by the story of a mother, following advice from a pair of child beating/abuse experts. The advice resulted in the death of the child. Apparently, when a child won't stay in bed, it is okay to wrap them so tightly in the covers that they can't move. If you end up killing the child then you must have been abusing them incorrectly.

Well, it happened. See the story HERE. I first heard about all of this at Darryl Cobranchi's site. I've become a fan of Mr. Cobranchi's writing about news stories that affect us homeschoolers.

Blogging, as it has throughout the world, has become popular among homeschoolers. The Old Schoolhouse is a magazine by and about homeschooling and this magazine sponsors a blogging site named Homeschool Blogger. The evil couple that educate child abusers and provide lessons in abuse are well represented at both these sites. These sites help the baby beaters spread their word and profit off of beating lessons disguised as books.

A boycott has been called for both these sites as well as anyone who supports the baby beaters. If you want to know more about the baby beaters follow the link to stoptherod.net which I included in my last post. I will continue to give this link when I feel it might help.

Here's a link to the page at Stop the Rod that deals directly with the baby beaters. http://stoptherod.net/ttuac.html

The following links are part of the boycott of groups willing to help the baby beaters.
http://cobranchi.com/
http://kitchentablelearners.blogspot.com/
http://dantesvirgil.blogspot.com/
http://evilmissy.blogspot.com/
http://beingbridget.blogspot.com/
http://intothesunrise.blogspot.com/
http://www.odonnellweb.com/
http://asmallcornerofnowhere.blogspot.com/

Joyce Fetteroll has a site about both unschooling as well as parenting. This PAGE has helped me immensley in the past. I keep it bookmarked because the questions answered here come up very often with me personally. I'm including this link because it can help. This page has nothing to do with the boycott or with anything else mentioned. It is a page of help for parents who need answers. I would ask that everyone read through this page because as parents, we can always use another answer from another point of view.

I am posting this for the children. For me to boycott the fundies and their crazy websites and blogs is kind of like a vegan boycotting meat. I gave up superstition a long time ago, and I usually steer clear of the oppressive majority. I've always felt in the minority as far as homeschooling goes, and I've always been okay with that. But this is bigger than me and my feelings. This is about the uncountable children who are hurt every day in this country. This is about people finally standing up for the children who can't stand up, the kids who are beaten with straps and sticks and plumbing supplies.

Pain does not teach or train. Pain drives children to develop an animalitic attitude where life is all about avoiding being hit. I know what it's like to lie and hide to avoid being hit.

This post has been edited to add:

I've taken the sticky off and relegated this post back to when it was written. I won't say that I disagree with anything that I've said, but in discussing this and pondering it with people not involved, I wonder how reasonable a boycott is. I'm not against the idea, but I can't help feel that it's sort of a token thing that is impossible to use as a true weapon. I have to ask myself how willing am I to truly follow up on all of this. If I boycott one place for one thing, how far up the chain do I go to be sure that I'm in no way supportive of something I disagree with?

I'm not questioning a boycott of anything. If nothing else, it seems as though it should work to affect a change, but I doubt it will unless you can sway a great number of people. And even then it's only use is to bring some light to a situation.

Sadly, christians are possibly the best at this sort of thing. They have great numbers and they can rouse support. Many of them also have the kind of money to make a dent when it's removed.

In the end, I know that the effort is not about the boycott or who does business with which bunch of moralistic butthole child beaters. The focus should be the children. Perhaps our efforts could better utilized in other arenas.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel so sorry for the children that are being abused because of this book.

I think we should also find out who the publisher of the book is and name them as well.

Anonymous said...

Add me to your list, if you would. I think we're all kind of linking to each other.

Don't know about you, but my hit stats are out of sight today!

Anonymous said...

I felt the rest of you covered it all so well that my post was short but I put all of your links in it so people could read what you have to say. Hopefully it's some help.

Anonymous said...

Considering that the Pearls have been married for over 35 years, raised 5 healthy children who are all grown adults and happily married, it is a bit fallacious to accuse them of child abuse, especially since they have never been charged with such a crime and none of their family members demonstrate signs of abuse.

Like it's been stated before, any parent with an emotional maturity level higher than the average thirteen-year-old can, with a proper vision and knowledge of the Pearl’s techniques, will see the wisdom in it and have happy obedient children.

What to really boycott evil?

Start boycotting homosexuals for raising children in an unnatural environment and subjecting them to "animalitic" perverted behavior.

One cannot measure the destruction it brings to the lives of children who grow up in gender confused homes.

samuel said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
samuel said...

I removed my own comment. I couldn't edit it as far as I know.
BluntTruth, I applaud your ability to use Google long enough to find that story. Do you beat your kids? When i was younger and got beat they were called whippings, at least in my house.
I can attest to the damage done to children who are beaten.
Do you really think it's right to beat children? Do you read the whole Bible or just the parts that you can twist to justify your evil sinful attitude toward the world? You certainly aren't setting a very Christ like example by bearing nothing but hatred. The Bible never once tells its followers to hate or to judge or to hurt, yet you are doing these very things. How can you possibly call yourselves christian?

Anonymous said...

Samuel your ignorance is abounding, as you clearly have no understanding of the Bible. What do you know about a Christ-like example anyway?

Jesus was offensive. Most people were offended by him. The Bible sometimes ministers through ridicule, humor, sarcasm and even mocking - but you wouldn't know that, would you?

Don’t hate? Don’t judge?

Okay - Maybe we should rip out the entire book of JUDGES that is in the Bible?

The Bible does not say, "Hate the sin, love the sinner." It says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). And that God “hates all workers of iniquity" (Ps 5:5). "The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" (Ps 5:6). Further, "The face of the Lord is against those who do evil" (Ps 34:16). God "loves righteousness and hates wickedness” [perversion] (Ps. 45:7).

Jesus repeatedly taught men to judge rightly, insisting they “judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24) and He praised a man who “rightly judged” (Luke 7:43). Paul shamed the Corinthian Christians because no one among them was willing to “judge the smallest matters” (1 Cor. 6:2).

Maybe we shouldn’t "judge" someone who beats their kids, or "hate" it when a child dies from a violent rage at the hands of his mother's lesbian lover?

You must be nicer than God!

Perhaps you should read the Bible before you judge someone else - hypocrite!

Anonymous said...

Dani and Bluntruth:

Pointing out that another child died in the hands of a *lesbian* doesn't change the issue of child abuse. No one has justified the killing of a child just because homosexuality is involved, and for you to bring it up is a red herring. The real issue is beating a child.

If I thought you had stepped out of line Biblically and came over and gave you the thirteen whacks I thought you richly deserved, you would call the police. When you do that to a child, it doesn't make it discipline. It makes it abuse.

How incredibly arrogant of you to sit in judgement of Samuel and say that his "ignorance is abounding." Who put you in charge of determining what's in people's hearts? Last I looked your Bible says that's God's job, not yours. How do you know what he does and doesn't know? You most certainly do not have the "spirit of mildness" that Christ talks about.

None of the New Testament description of Christians seems to fit the way you interact. You're a major discredit to your faith, and don't think other *true* Christians don't notice it and comment on it, because they have.

Go do good works with a "meek spirit" somewhere already.

Anonymous said...

The only reason homosexuality was brought into the picture is because I was called “perverse” for spanking my kids by a lesbian mother. Okay - who is the perverted one here?

Obviously beating a child is a wicked, despicable and horrific behavior that no parent should ever do. Nothing ever justifies beating a child.

For Samuel to say the "Bible never once tells its followers to hate or to judge" is evidence of his ignorance.

I am not judging his heart, I am judging his words.

Look at the Bible a little closer before you claim to know what it says.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the Bible is full of many interesting tidbits, like judge certain people, but then in later scripture all judging is supposed to be left up to God and not the followers. Contradictions are easy to come by, I don't know if I'd go there if I were you. You certainly aren't the only one who has read the Bible or theology attached to it, and you would be very silly to think so.

You're either incredibly stupid or you have a reading disability if you can say that beating a child is never justified and still defend the passages in the Pearl's books. I have read it for myself, and it is as plain as day. People don't make mistakes under the guise of Christ?

I haven't found Doc to be perverse. On the other hand, I find you to be absolutely repulsive. And if you think hitting your kids is OK, that's why you're perverse. Grown people with kinky sex lives pay women in leather to spank them. Why are you modelling that behavior to your kids??