goingorthodox:

libertarirynn:

tcfkag:

brehaaorgana:

winterfells-walls:

brehaaorgana:

fromchaostocosmos:

chiribomb:

sonypraystation:

kathy with the scorching tea

Lazy-ass child

anyone else really disturbed by the hashtag train up a child

no seriously what the fuck

I suspect a loooot of people don’t know that “train up a child” is a reference to a book/method of raising children that is centered around regular and extensive child abuse, usually through beating the child in question. 

This image/screencap isn’t amusing or charming. I’m sure people thought it was “funny” because it’s super christian and therefore weird or incongruous with how we think kids should be/should act/alien to our own childhoods, but the reality is that that mom just referenced a book that probably means she beats or starves her son. [Note that the death cases have often been white xtian fundamentalists who have adopted black/African children.]

If you’re not familiar with the Pearls and their book To Train Up a Child, here’s some links, which tend to be from horrified Christian parents. I can’t confirm or deny these are all good websites, but I know these are mostly about horror at the TTUAC method. Trigger Warning for Child abuse and Murder:

• Speaking up against TTUAC - more links documenting extensive/extreme child abuse, including child murder by parents using the TTUAC “method.”
  
• Babble - TTUAC Book leads to multiple child deaths
• Christianity Today: When Child Discipline becomes Abuse
• Why Not to Train a Child (quotes from the book, revealing that the Pearls advocate beating infants.) 
• Quotes from Michael Pearl
• CNN transcript from Anderson Cooper on the Death of Hana Williams/Interview with Pearl. 
• Corpses Don’t Rebel: A former follower of Michael Pearl’s “To Train Up A Child” reacts to the death of Hana Williams, from the blog No Longer Quivering
  
• The abusive teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl 
  
• Liberty for Captives: to Train Up a Child Abuser / pt 2
• When Parenting Kills, What Can We Do?
• “Christian Families on the Edge: Authoritarianism and Isolationism Among Us” by Rachel D. Ramer for the Christian Research Institute
  
• Child Abuse in the Name of Jesus

etc etc. This post isn’t funny or meme-worthy, it’s a sign that whoever knows this lady should consider calling CPS. 

Listen I know nothing about whatever book that is, I’ve never heard of it in my life and I grew up Christian and I’m still Christian. She was probably referencing, I don’t know, the BIBLE considering the first thing I thought of was that verse in proverbs that talks about training your children to do right while they’re young so they’ll do right when they’re adults but you know whatever. Like I definitely don’t condone any kind of child abuse (obviously) but assuming she’s referencing this book instead of something much more widely known is like accusing everyone who offhandedly mentions making a deal of referencing “the art of the deal” and being a trump supporter. There’s not really a correlation.

I MEAN LIKE…. okay: I’ll admit I had a knee-jerk reaction to this. I’m fine with editing it down. I was responding to someone saying it made them uncomfortable (Jewish bloggers) and I… I mean look, I know it’s a biblical verse. I’ll grant that I perhaps over-emphasized my own personal connection with this specific verse and rampant abuse and child murder. It’s possible she just means raise your kids to be religious, and is an evangelical who doesn’t beat or starve her child. (God willing, that’s the case. I’ve never really heard that particular citation being quite as popular outside of evangelical circles)  

But also…this is a very popular evangelical book on parenting that was linked to the deaths of several children, and you can’t exactly fault me for linking it to news cases that were considered pretty major less than ten years ago? 

In my whole life as a Christian in America, the only context I’ve ever heard the phrase “train up a child” is in reference to that horrific abusive book.

Yes it’s referencing a bible verse, but I would bet that 99/100 times the people using it are at the very least influenced by How to Train Up a Child.

Sorry but I think that estimate is waaaaaaay off. Perhaps you grew up in a very fundamental circle, but the book itself is not that widespread. According to some reports it has barely sold 10,000 copies in the last 16 years. That’s hardly an extremely popular book or grounds to assume that 99% of the time people saying that phrase are referencing it.

Yeah my first thought was the Bible verse, and I even know about the Pearls (and will gladly rant with anyone about them, if you’d like) 

Yeah I hate fundie garbage like that. But has it ever occurred to people that every Christian on the block would be beating their infants and leaving their kids to starve if these kind of methods were widespread? Here’s a thought: they’re not. There’s absolutely no reason to launch such a heinous accusation of child abuse against a woman for using a simple hashtag of a common bible verse, no matter how corny you think she’s being.