As much as I loved my JW father, he definitely was into corporal punishment. He would beat me and my two brothers with a belt. As I got older and the belt did not seem to be doing the job, he reversed ends and used the buckle end. Now he would go to jail for child abuse. Then, if we tried to say we were "calling the child abuse hotline" he would pick up the phone and start dialing the actual number and tell us when he got out of jail he would give us more. We never called. If we tried to run (we had 9 acres), he said we had to come home sometime and it would be (and was) worse. Mom tried to run interference but got emotionally abused herself.
I only partly blame this on the religion. I blame part of it on the time he grew up (he was born in 1934) and his dad was tough.
Although he softened a bit as he got older, he still was abusive, physically and emotionally. Right before he went on vacation with my mom, he threw my teenage brother off the front steps (just a couple). Dislocated his shoulder. Dad died of congestive heart failure while in the bathroom overnight at his sister's house. Alone. Mom found him on the floor the next morning, dead. They had just argued right before bed about what dad did to my brother. (As a side note, this is why my fiancee and I never go to bed mad at each other nor do we leave each other for the day going to work or school mad .. we just never know. It is the only "rule" I insist on and it has kept us close so far).
I don't see what my dad did through rose colored glasses nor do I justify what he did. Karma bites you in the ass. The sad thing is there is no damn resurrection. He has been gone 16 years.
Rest in peace dad, I still love you.
Snakes (Rich )