More Responses to the 20/20 IFB Story

Bob Bixby shares an update from Tina Anderson’s husband. Tina, as you may remember, was featured on the 20/20 story about abuse in some IFB churches.

And here are 2 more responses to the 20/20 show:

20/20 And The IFB Culture by Baptist Thinker

IFB by David Schmidt from Thoughts of an Unlearned.

And if I may make my own comment on the show and the responses, I must say that I am rather disappointed that I am not seeing more discussion of the part about the harsh teachings of using corporeal punishment of babies in some of these churches.  I have seen only a few references to harsh punishment and that is it.  Elizabeth Vargas was properly shocked at the idea of spanking infants for crying in church and then the topic was pretty much dropped.  I found one blog post about it.  In each of the other pages about it to which I have linked lately, I have seen much discussion in the comments about sexual abuse and coverups as well as how linked the IFB churches are or are not.  I have seen mentions of spiritual abuse and legalism.  I have seen no outrage for the idea of spanking infants nor even a discussion of what age would be ok to start.  I must be missing something.  If someone has seen such discussion, I would be interested.

 

edited to add:

I see that Bob Bixby posted something On Whipping Your Children today.  Also, I see from my comments that people are, indeed, discussing it.  Apparently, I am just not reading in the right places.

 

10 Comments

  1. Ken Smith on April 19, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    Another common misconception is that Michael Pearl is an Independent Fundamental Baptist: He isn’t and well known IFB’s have spoken out against many of his doctrines and teachings.

    Bill Gothard is not an IFB either and doesn’t practice the doctrine of separation.

    • Hermana Linda on April 19, 2011 at 10:02 pm

      True. Pearl is not at all a Fundamental Baptist. But for some reason, many IFB churches recommend his books. That is one reason why I try to expose the heresies in his teachings by linking to anyone who speaks out against them.

      And I agree that Bill Gothard is not a separatist. People should get their facts straight, they do not help their cause when they end up sharing falsehoods.

  2. Cindy Kunsman on April 19, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    My husband says that the weightiness of the 20/10 episode was so difficult that it was quite a bit for people to process. People don’t really like to think about these matters unless they must. And even I was distracted by the April 18th tax deadline. (I asked God almost 15 times that if my times were in His hands, why did he work out this timing this way?!) 😉

    I’ve also found the subject and the events very tiring. I just put up a post, continuing on the other implications of that 20/20 episode, but even that was difficult.

    • Hermana Linda on April 19, 2011 at 2:17 pm

      Good points. It’s very hard and I have been praying for you. Your latest post is heart wrenching and I will link tomorrow.

      By the way, I thought the tax deadline was April 15th.

      • Cindy on April 19, 2011 at 6:50 pm

        They decided to give us an extra three days for some reason. Maybe the IRS took the weekend off or something?!

        I just put up another post that was also hard for me to write. I was going to save it, but I want to get through all this stuff and move on.

  3. Linda Bennett on April 18, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Try Sharper Iron discussion board (you will really be disgusted there) and Stuff Fundies Like forums. I’m sure the anti-spanking brigade could use the help in both places.

    • Hermana Linda on April 18, 2011 at 4:13 pm

      Thank you. I really didn’t want to join any forums. I was more thinking of blog posts and the comments therein. But I’m sure some of my readers will be interested in joining in.

  4. TealRose on April 18, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    I have seen outrage all over the web about hitting a baby. I have also seen discussions of ages to start spanking a child, much to my disgust. I tears me apart, disgusts me, makes my pulse race to double, and has me thinking 24/7 about children being HIT … at home and at school. Babies being hit, just … infuriates me beyond belief.. Next time I am ‘about the net ‘ so to speak, and see discussions on the subject of spanking a baby – and discussions about ‘when to start’ .. I will come back and post them to you.

    I post on those sites – ‘ You know when the sperm hits the egg? THAT is the time to STOP… ie you should never start hitting a defenceless child. Or anyone else !!’

    • Hermana Linda on April 18, 2011 at 12:43 pm

      Thank you. I would be interested. I guess I’m just not finding them.

  5. Brenda King on April 18, 2011 at 11:52 am

    Wow, I didn’t realize there was that little of an outcry about the infant spanking. 🙁 That’s very disturbing, but I guess it’s indicative of the state of denial the church is in about spanking in general.

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