Linking severe corporal punishment with JWs is a nonsense, it's far more likely to have socio-economic causes . . . - scotsman
Scotsman, with all due respect, you are full of s&it. I recall attending district assemblies at Dodger Stadium as a kid, and when you got up to use the restroom, it was very common to see many parents beating their children in the back areas of each floor of the stadium, with belts, wooden spoons, paddles, switches, etc.. You could hear the screaming from the seats. Los Angeles has all socioeconomic classes, but I can clearly recall the words of the elders at our meetings, "spare the rod, spoil the child," which were used to justify the beatings that were commonplace at our kingdom hall. Even if it were true that they didn't encourage this, they certainly condoned it by allowing it to occur for many years on property owned or leased by them.
Most of the beatings seemed to be attributable to the inability of children to sit still for hours and hours of boring, mindless programming that their brainwashed, intolerant parents either enjoyed or pretended to enjoy. District assemblies at Dodger Stadium were held in the summer, and temperatures in the seats frequently exceeded 100 degrees farenheit. I remember dreading attending these gatherings that seemed to be nothing more than a misery fest. What sort of sick, lowlife individual(s) would organize meetings/assemblies with these conditions and no child care facilities?
Your effort to absolve the Jehovah's Witnesses of moral responsibility for engaging in and encouraging the physical abuse of children is both disingenuous and despicable. It's time for the JWs to admit that their treatment of children has been inappropriate and take action to ensure that there are no further occurrences of them condoning or encouraging the physical abuse of children.
Edited to clean up formatting errors
Edited by - 144thousand_and_one on 4 February 2003 20:35:16