A Response To Michael Pearl

Mr. Pearl apparently has heard that he has vocal dissenters out there.  He posted a message to Facebook as a way to answer us.  Once again, Mr. Pearl has missed the point entirely, and I am terribly disappointed by his response.

Original Statement by Michael Pearl can be found here.

It has come to my attention that a vocal few are decrying our sensible application of the Biblical rod in training up our children. 

Only because I believe it to be neither sensible, nor biblical.

I laugh at my caustic critics, for our properly spanked and trained children grow to maturity in great peace and love.

That is not the only way to teach children, nor to allow them to grow in maturity and love.  In fact, I'm of the opinion that this happened despite your methods, not because of them.

 Numbered in the millions, these kids become the models of self-control and discipline, highly educated and creative-entrepreneurs that pay the taxes your children will receive in entitlements. 

Wow.  So, now those of us who disagree with you are raising children who will be a burden on the state?  This is such an inflammatory statement.  It's as if he's heard the arguments that have been made about the flaws in his theology and teachings, and instead of responding to that, has instead chosen to attack.  The attempt to deflect the attention isn't working for me.

When your children finally find an honest mechanic or a trustworthy homebuilder, it will be one of ours. When your children apply for a job it will be at a company our children founded. When they go to a doctor, it will be one of our Christian children that heals them with cutting edge innovation. When your adult kids go for therapy it will be one of our kids-become-psychologist that directs them to the couch and challenges them to release their self-loathing and embrace hope for a better tomorrow.

This is the packaging of fear.  Follow the Pearl's or your children will grow up to be listless, lazy, second-rate, and likely in need of therapy.  But I think of the Schatz children.  They all bear permanent scars to their souls after watching their parents kill their little sister while doing things the way the Pearl's taught.  My children are happy, they're healthy, and they're safe.  Because I'm their mother, and I will do my best every day to raise them to be amazing people of God, and I will not hurt them.

When your children grow old and realize their mortality and seek to make peace with their Creator, it will be one of our children that shares with them the message of God's love and forgiveness.

As my kids sing songs that they've made up about the God who loves them, I can honestly say that they already know those things, and they didn't learn them at the end of a switch.

My five grown children are laughing at your foolish, uninformed criticism of God's method of child training, for their kids-my 17 grandkids-are laughing . . . because that is what they do most of the time. 

And I'm sad for your insistence that what you teach is "God's" method.  As if God would bend us over and give us 10 licks.  No.  God Himself took our place, so that we would not face wrath.  God's way is merciful, but you teach no mercy.  And I'm sorry that in the face of the death of yet another child, you would think that laughter is the appropriate response.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance"         Ecclesiastes 3: 1-4 KJV

I love laughter and I love to hear it from my children.  In fact, I often do.  But not when a little girl dies.  When that happens, it is time to mourn.

They laugh when Daddy is coming home. They laugh when it is time to do more homeschooling. They laugh when it is time to practice the violin and piano. They laugh when they see their Big Papa coming (that's me) because Big Papa is laughing and they don't care why just as long as he laughs with them.  My granddaughters laugh with joy after giving their baby dolls a spanking for "being naughty" because they know their dolls will grow up to be the best mamas and daddies in the world-just like them.

Spanking doesn't make the best mamas and daddies in the world.  Character, compassion, grace, discipline, mercy, honesty, understanding, patience, love, and a thousand other things go into the best parents.  The God I believe in doesn't want us to beat our children into submission:

Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast. Psalm 22:9

I think I will trust God, and be the nurturing parent He designed me to be.  Somehow, without spanking, my children are still disciplined and wonderful.

People all around the world, in places like Russia, China, Germany, New Zealand, Guatemala, Peru, Africa, and fifty other countries are laughing with joy because after applying the Biblical principles found in our books they finally have happy and obedient children.

Perhaps their children have become fearful enough of the lash to be obedient.  But breaking the spirits of children doesn't make me want to laugh.  It makes me sad for those families.  And it makes me wonder how long until we hear of the next child, dead at their parent's hand.

Even my chickens are laughing . . . well, actually it is more like cackling, because they just laid another organic egg for my breakfast and they know that it was that same piece of ¼ inch plastic supply line that trained the dogs not to eat chicken.

Let me finish that statement differently: they know it was the same piece of 1/4 inch plastic supply line that trained the dogs not to eat chicken, which also broke down the tissue in a seven year old girl's body so that her organs failed and she died.  I'm sorry for your dogs, Mr. Pearl as well as the children.