…that should leave the child in a “wounded, submissive whimper” and “without breath to complain.”
This to teach the child who’s in control and not to be questioned. The Pearls recommend keeping a plumbing line in every room and even one around the neck to remind the child of that message.
Please take a moment to review the dictionary and thesaurus as they define and discuss the word spank (verb). Note the antonyms as well. (The complete listing is found at the end of this post.)
Main Entry: | punish |
Part of Speech: | verb |
Definition: | penalize for wrongdoing |
Synonyms: | abuse, attend to, batter, beat, beat up, blacklist, castigate, chasten, chastise, correct, crack down on, cuff, debar, defrock, discipline, dismiss, do in, execute, exile, expel, fine, flog, give a going over, give the works, harm, hurt, immure, incarcerate, injure, knock about, lash, lecture, maltreat, misuse, oppress, paddle, rap knuckles, reprove, rough up, scourge, sentence, slap wrist, spank, switch, teach a lesson, throw the book at, train, whip |
Antonyms: | award, exonerate, let go, praise, protect, reward |
Mike’s Response (to the Schatz case)
We do not teach “corporal punishment” nor “hitting” children. We teach parents how to train their children, which sometimes requires the limited and controlled application of a spanking instrument to hold the child’s attention on admonition. Over 1,000,000 parents have applied these Biblical principles with joyful results.
The courts have never charged NGJ Ministries with teaching abuse; quite the contrary. In a former case where a woman owned one copy of To Train Up A Child, the prosecuting attorney used that very book as testimony against her out of control methods. Likewise Ramsey, the prosecutor in the Schatz case, is quick to point out that No Greater Joy does not advocate spanking to the point of serious injury.
If indeed these parents were abusive, and that has not yet been proven by the courts, it is regretful that our teachings were not able to turn them from their predisposition to abusive habits. Those of us who deal with substance abuse, psychological impairment, and family issues, try to make positive changes in every person, but sometimes our best efforts are too little or too late. But for the sake of our precious children, we must double our efforts and move forward.
Michael Pearl, CEO
No Greater Joy Ministries, Inc
Mr. Pearl, you are incorrigible. And you are digging your own grave, and those that follow you.
Jonestown, anyone?
Main Entry: | incorrigible |
Part of Speech: | adjective |
Definition: | bad, hopeless |
Synonyms: | abandoned, beastly, hardened, incurable, intractable, inveterate, irredeemable, irreparable, loser, recidivous, uncorrectable, unreformed, useless, wicked |
Antonyms: | good, manageable, nice, obedient, reformable |
Main Entry: | abandoned |
Part of Speech: | adjective |
Definition: | free from moral restraint; uninhibited |
Synonyms: | corrupt, depraved, dissolute, immoral, incontinent, incorrigible, licentious, profligate, shameless, sinful, uncontrolled, unprincipled, unrestrained, wanton, wicked, wild |
Antonyms: | chaste, innocent, moral, pure, restrained, virtuous |
Main Entry: | fanatical |
Part of Speech: | adjective |
Definition: | overenthusiastic |
Synonyms: | biased, bigoted, bugged, burning*, contumacious, credulous, devoted, dogmatic, domineering, enthusiastic, erratic, extreme, fervent, feverish, fiery, frenzied, headstrong, high on, immoderate, impassioned, impulsive, incorrigible, infatuated, mad, monomaniacal, narrow-minded, nuts for, obsessed, obsessive, obstinate, opinionated, partial, partisan, passionate, possessed, prejudiced, rabid, radical, raving, single-minded, stubborn, turned on, unruly, violent, visionary, wild, willful, zealous |
Antonyms: | disinterested, dispassionate, impartial, unenthusiastic |
spank
1720–30; imit.
spank
1800–10; back formation from spanking
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
Cite This Source
spank
Cite This Source
// // spank
![]() ![]() v. spanked, spank·ing, spanks v. tr. To slap on the buttocks with a flat object or with the open hand, as for punishment. v. intr. To move briskly or spiritedly. n. A slap on the buttocks. spank– 10 of 19 thesaurus results
* = informal/non-formal usage
* = informal/non-formal usage
// //
// //
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* = informal/non-formal usage
* = informal/non-formal usage
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Just a suggestion: you might want to strip the HTML and CSS coding from the pages you copied.
Now, more to the topic. Switching, spanking, whipping, beating… Pearl does indeed teach parents to do this. What he thinks will save his calloused hide is this line: “to the point of serious injury”. He may indeed teach this. But who is he to judge what “serious injury” is? There are injuries that can’t be seen, and are far more serious than the whip marks the Schatzes left on Zariah and their 10-year-old son.
Sorry, Mr. Pearl, you DO teach parents how to hit their children, and how to hide it from authorities. And through your teaching parents to do this, you are creating children who will walk away from God as soon as and as fast as they can. After all, if their parents (who, according to you, are as God to them) will beat them for any tiny infraction, how much more will an Almighty God do?
You leave out the mercy, and gentleness, and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved the little ones so very, very much. And you have hung a millstone around your neck, and around the necks of every parent who uses your methods.
Got it… that wasn’t intended.. 🙂
Two year old knows where the publish button is. She likes my laptop.
I agree… and to re-emphasize –
The Pearls teach that the spanking is to be to the extent that the child surrenders, and is “left without breath to complain”. This is teaching to spank to the point of injury – serious injury.
without breath to complain….
without breath…
obviously they have taught some parents this very well.
As a woman who has given birth to 3 children I still had breath to complain through contractions. How much pain does a child have to experience until there is “no breath left to complain”? Honestly in my eyes this bit sounds too close to torture & murder.
Honey