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Originally Posted by forty-two
I'm like Aerynne - I've only heard of the more extreme punitive views online and never IRL. I wonder if, instead of being a regional thing, it's more of the theological thing: that some traditions are theologically/historically more likely to fall into punitive thinking at certain times and in certain places than others .
I know that my tradition (Lutheran) is more likely to fall into antinomianism and Gospel reductionism than other Christian traditions - our beliefs and practices are currently weak in those areas for a lot of reasons, and so those are some of our "besetting sins", our characteristic heresies. But punitive parenting hasn't really made inroads into our congregations - the hard-core punitive parenting stuff contradicts our core theology in ways that pastors notice and reject. But other nasty things slide under the radar because of their surface similarity with our theology, or how they reject the same things we reject - and a *lot* of our churches are infiltrated with them . Other traditions are going to have different core emphases, and punitive parenting is similar enough to some traditions' core theology that it can make serious inroads in those churches. Since you are seeing it everywhere you go, it sounds like your tradition might be one of those.
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I'm afraid extreme punitive parenting can be found in all denominations. Larry Christenson is a Lutheran pastor (Or was? I wonder if he is still alive...?) and he has written the very "spanking manual" that ruined the first 5 years of my marriage and motherhood. The Christian Family is the name of this book. With a preface by David Wilkerson who is a Pentacostal.
And even Chuck Swindoll has written a really horrible book about child upringing. You and Your Child, IIRC. Isn't he a baptist of some kind? Or Evangelical?
Both books were used at the church we were attending when we were young parents. It was a Full Gospel Church on The Netherlands!
It was a relief when our "Pastor" introduced the video courses and books of James Dobson. Can you believe it, Dobson a relief?