by dgp 39 Replies latest watchtower bible
there was a small reception area but it had glass window/door divider and the screaming would disturb the main hall ( screaming out there could result in an announcement from the platform about disturbing the talk) so the favoured
spots were the toilets just off the reception area where the screams were more muffled by the walls.
one particular elder would leave the platform mid talk to go slap his kids to set an example for everyone else.
one particular elder would leave the platform mid talk to go slap his kids to set an example for everyone else.
When my dad was an elder, he did that to me. I also remember him assigning another elder to discipline me while he was giving the talk.
Why would anyone take child rearing advice from the Governing Body? Many of them do not even have children.
Bangalore
This just exposes the unreasonable demands made on children by the witlesses. You get a beating for making a noise during the 2 hour boasting session. You get a beating for drifting off to sleep. You get a beating for not answering, or answering enough, or giving "bad" answers, at the boasting sessions. You are supposed to settle down, instead of playing in the Kingdumb Hell, as soon as you get out of the car and stay settled down until you leave the property (and usually another 6 hours after while your parents are out in field circus). The littera-trash, and the boasting sessions, are boring. They are confusing enough for adults, let alone for children.
Also, some of the worst beatings happen after. You do see children getting hauled out of the Kingdumb Hell to the lobby, the library, or wherever they are spanked. But, very often it is "Just WAIT until we get home!" that is the real problem. Usually, the child will be apprehensive during the remainder of the boasting session, not paying attention, and get a worse beating once they get home. Sometimes they get other punishments such as being grounded, extra field circus during the week, or a privilege taken away--but the effect is the same.
Yet, one punishment is never suggested. The one that gets right at the root of the problem. The boasting sessions are not appropriate for children, so why not make the child miss the boasting session after the one they act up during? An option would be to use the time to study the Bible, and just the Bible. Either way, there would be no disruption or need for these beatings if this were enacted. Of course, the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger would not tolerate it because the child would act up on purpose (but this would not happen if there was real value at the Kingdumb Hells).
The Society was and is hungup on a fanciful jewish model, one of the OT accounts talks about people standing for hours while a ceremony is enacted, forget which one but in the Literalist mindset of the GB that's what Theocratic people do.
Stand at attention till you wet your pants........smack your kids if they squirm
I still resent my mom for her abuse during the meetings. She's not sorry and is a bit proud of it.
Here's the excerpt from the book. I have marked in bold the text that I find most shocking.
He who spares the rod
Our Kingdom Hall was an older model - it did not originally come equipped with a Spanking Room. Spankings took place in the women's bathroom.
This was a bone of contention for some of the parents. If their child misbehaved, they'd have to miss a good portion of the meeting what with the spanking, waiting for the tears to stop, taking the time to make the child presentable again, etc. Not to mention the lines; because the women's room was only big enough to hold a handful of people and "disruptions" were a regular event, there was inevitably a line of impatient moms and terrified, weepy children in the hallway outside waiting their turn.
I can vouch for the fact that waiting to be beaten breeds its own unique brand of terror.
There were complaints about this, of course, and some parents argued that it was more important for them to atend the meeting than to discipline their child. Well, that raised a ruckus. The elder settled it by informing the congregation in no uncertain terms that the doctrines of the Watchtower Society were clear and scripturally supported. According to Proverbs 13:24 (New World Translation) the parent who spares the rod "is hating his son, but the one loving him is he that does look for him with discipline". If you didn't et that, here's a more straightforward translation from the NIV Bible: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him". This is such a potent idea that there's even a song about it in Jehovah's Witness songbooks.
If a child was not paying attention or was disrupting a meeting in any way, the elder annouced that the child must be removed from the Hall and beaten thoroughly as the scripture clearly indicated (Proverbs 13 also says "The unfaithful have a craving for violence", but oddly that verse seldom gets quoted).
"It's not right", the elder told the group, "for one parent to be selfish about missing part of the meeting that they allow their child to disturb the entire congregation". He then refined on the point by telling everyone that the practice of dragging children aout of the Hall by their hair had to stop. Their screams were too loud and disrupted the meeting. Hair pulling was henceforth outlawed as a means of child extraction.
Clearly something had to be done about the situation and, about a year after Mom became a Jehovah's witness, it was. As I said, this was an older Kingdom Hall and it was scheduled for renovation. During the remodeling of the facility, a new room was added right next to the women's bathroom. I didn't notice it until an elder brought it up at a Friday morning book study (the one Mom snuck us to during the summer months while Dad was at work).
"You may have noticed that our Kingdom Hall has been updated with a new Spanking Room next door to the women's bathroom", the elder announced. "It's been especially designed with an audio system so that mothers using it will miss the minimum amount of meeting time while they're disciplining their children".
There were murmurs of approval and a round of applause. The elder went on to describe the features of the room. There were comfy chairs and couches where the mothers could relax while their children recuperated from the spanking ("settled down" may be the term he used). There was a coffee table with a selection of The Watchtower and Awake! magazines.
He then opened the meeting for discussion. The leadership wanted to hear from the moms about what else they would like the room stocked with.
"What", he asked, "do you find is the most effective tool to hit your child with?"
The women came up with a list that, while lacking in creativity, was pretty comprehensive: hands, belts, rolled-up newspapers or magazines, wooden spoons, paddle boards, traditional hickory or willow switches, and good, stout hairbrushes.
One woman shared with the group that he found it difficult to hit her child hard enough to be effective with any of the aforementioned implements.
"That's easy", offered another mom. "Just pull his pants down first".
Other mothers chimed in too, offering their support for the idea that all spankings in the Kingdom Hall should be done "bare-bottom" in order to have the desired effect.
The woman with the "problem child" only grew more upset. "I do spank him bare-bottomed", she fretted, "and I've tried a belt and a wooden spoon and even a paddle but I can't seem to hurt my son enough to get my message across".
I thought she was probably getting her message across pretty well if the volume of her son's screams was any indication.
"Well, for heaven's sake, Jane", said one of the more experienced moms, "just get one of the brothers to spank him for you".
Even as ripples of dissent and agreement riffled through the group, the elder on stage took charge once more. "I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable", he said firmly. "You cannot take a brother's time away from a meeting to discipline your child. That's your responsibility, and you can't pawn it off on someone else".
Stunned and horrified at the direction this discussion was going, I turned to look at my own mom. She was taking notes!
Some of you know that I'm a worldly and therefore WAS NOT there. Fortunately for me, I may add. From people's posts, however, I can see how this was a problem for everyone.
Not that I want to pick up a fight, but now I would like to give the floor to Watchtower apologists. I can think of Bane and Alice in Wonderland at the time, but perhaps there are others. And I am sure there are others who are just lurking. What can you guys say about this? It is perhaps easy to engage in discussions about whether YHWH is the real name of God. How easy is it to hold that a loving God who treated you with "undeserved kindness" would approve this?
I believe that the value of your answers goes beyond what you could talk to me or others posting here. A worldly will happen to see this post and ask questions, too. I hope so. I wonder how many studies get to know this kind of things beforehand. And I am shocked to think that some of those studies will be brainwashed enough to perhaps hear the spanking and not think what it really means.
WT Wizard said "The boasting sessions are not appropriate for children,"
I agree, especially when the go into detali about armegeddon and the tribulation and other topics. I remember one time, a little girl raising her hand and answering one of the watchtower questions in detail, about circumcision.
Even adults have trouble following the convoluted explanations of the socities doctrines and it's connect the dot scripture references.
I remember a story being told in lots of Halls....
About a little girl who wasn't behaving so Mom... took the girl by the hand and was brining her to the Bathroom for a _________ when the little girl screamed " jEHOVAH help me!!!!!"
The Spanking Room was the Bathroom in our Hall.
