Yes; you read the title of this post correctly....some Christian creep of a Baptist pastor told the parents in his congregation to punch their kids for behaving outside of gender norms. And we wonder why we have so many problems with abused, confused, and sometimes murdered and missing children! First of all, while a lot of parents do spank their children, and spanking is not necessarily unlawful, ( the BEST parenting techniques eliminate the NEED for such a negative sanction!!!) going a step further and actually punching a child is certainly abusive. And then there is the grave question of why a parent would be so unaccepting of a child who occasionally acts in ways that do not appear to fall within certain gender norms. If my daughter dresses up as Spiderman on Halloween, should I harm her for it, and then reject her if she still wants to be Spiderman on Halloween? Or if my son plays a female in the school play, should I stop being proud of him and reject him as my son? What, exactly, is Rev. Sean Harris saying?
This is what he is saying:
"So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, 'Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,' you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.
Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign [sic] her in. And you say, 'Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.'"
Rev. Sean Harris is saying that parents should not allow their children to be anything outside of accepted gender norms in a society where gender norms are largely dictated by the entertainment industry and the advertising industry. If that actually works for the masses, perhaps it isn't a big deal. But what about the occasional boy or girl who is born in this population but is not interested in the choices offered on TV, in church, or by his or her peers? Should parents immediately begin to assault and batter such a child? Pastor Harris's attack is on the Gay Community, but acting outside of gender norms is not necessarily a Gay thing. As children grow up, we find that sometimes a male is a better custodial parent and sometimes a girl is a better police officer or soldier. It happens. Should those children suffer abuse until they finally gave up on their dreams and areas of talent and expertise? If Rev. Harris's Christian church has it's way, the answer appears to be "yes". If a child grows up to be a Gay man or woman, should that child's parents no longer love him or her? Should that child be the recipient of abuse throughout childhood, thereby perpetuating all of the generational problems incurred by abuse?
The good Rev. Sean Harris later countered that he was only joking about punching a child, but here is a clip from the sermon in question. Does it sound like he is joking?
This is what he is saying:
"So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, 'Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,' you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.
Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign [sic] her in. And you say, 'Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.'"
Rev. Sean Harris is saying that parents should not allow their children to be anything outside of accepted gender norms in a society where gender norms are largely dictated by the entertainment industry and the advertising industry. If that actually works for the masses, perhaps it isn't a big deal. But what about the occasional boy or girl who is born in this population but is not interested in the choices offered on TV, in church, or by his or her peers? Should parents immediately begin to assault and batter such a child? Pastor Harris's attack is on the Gay Community, but acting outside of gender norms is not necessarily a Gay thing. As children grow up, we find that sometimes a male is a better custodial parent and sometimes a girl is a better police officer or soldier. It happens. Should those children suffer abuse until they finally gave up on their dreams and areas of talent and expertise? If Rev. Harris's Christian church has it's way, the answer appears to be "yes". If a child grows up to be a Gay man or woman, should that child's parents no longer love him or her? Should that child be the recipient of abuse throughout childhood, thereby perpetuating all of the generational problems incurred by abuse?
The good Rev. Sean Harris later countered that he was only joking about punching a child, but here is a clip from the sermon in question. Does it sound like he is joking?
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