Your People will never be my people, your God will never be my God.

Via Pharyngula: God deigned to instruct his creation

The Voice In His Head, Alleged to be God, Spake, and, Lo! He fell for it!

New Kensington resident Joey Salvati, 39, a father of two, was in the shower about a month ago when he first heard God speak to him about the matter. Whether it was an external or internal voice, he wasn't sure. He tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back, day after day, until he realized he had to do something about it. The message was for Salvati to make wooden paddles for corporal punishment and give them to parents who need help disciplining their children.

Now, far be it from me to denegrate those who hear voices in their heads. I'm a Mulitiple Personality and I know what seems to be more than my share of schizophrenics, shamen and mystics. One common insight to each of us is the realization that most such "voices" ain't God. Or even necessarily wrapped any tighter than any other being, corporate, discorporate or other-dimensional.

In other words, "voices in your head" are exactly as credible as "voices on the net." If what they say doesn't match with what they do, Be Skeptical. Be Very, Very Skeptical. And if others around you are skeptical, maybe you should accept that as a reality check.

"I'm just going all by my heart," he said this week while sitting at his kitchen table. In the next room his mother watched TV in complete disagreement with everything he was doing, certain he would go to jail because of it. Upstairs his son worried that his friends at school would label his father a loon.

Son - I'm afraid that if they do, they will be correct. That is the common way of speaking about people who listen to the voices in their heads that tell them to harm other people. Your father needs a serious reality-check about this "word of wisdom" that has been "placed upon his heart."

Salvati, on the other hand, did not have those concerns. His objective was to obey the message. "I believe it was given to me, and I'm sure I'll be buying a lot of timber," he said confident that many parents will agree with what he's doing. Many people disagree, however, including authorities on child discipline. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Spanking has negative consequences and is no more effective than other forms of discipline. In fact, there's often a gray area between when spanking ends and child abuse begins."

Indeed. And it could be especially difficult with this "implement of affection."
New Kensington resident Joey Salvati has made 85 wooden paddles intended only for disciplining children and is giving them away. The paddles, which weigh about 13 ounces and are about 2 ½ feet long, can be ordered Online at www.Spare-Rods.com at a cost of $5.75 for shipping. Information about using the paddles is included in the Web site. Salvati also has been giving the paddles away in the former Burger King parking lot along Tarentum Bridge Road. He has no plans to ever sell the paddles.

But here's the creepiest part, the part that heaps emotional abuse on top of the physical punishment.

APPOINTMENT Child's Name: Behavior: Punishment: Date: Time:

And here's the "why."

We have all seen, or perhaps even done it ourselves, a parent grabbing their child in the process of doing something wrong and spanking them in anger. Stopping the behavior is of course the important thing to do. Punishing them immediately is not as important as making them understand what they did wrong. Fair punishment at a later time helps them understand how important it is to you that they change that behavior and allows them time to think about it.

To help your child understand that you love them and that the spanking is because of their behavior, have the child fill out an appointment form such as the one on the left. It is important that the child writes down the behavior that needs to be changed. [Emphasis Mine]

Click here to print a page of appointment slips.

There's only one good thing about this approach to "disciplining" your kids. Documentary evidence of premeditated intent.

The fact is - and these are facts, not bleeding-heart "lefty-lib" speculation - is that such authoritarian abuse cripples children in many ways, the MOST critical being that it trains them to reflexively submit to any authority willing to use violence against them. It doesn't matter if it's "for their own good." A true patriot and citizen of these here United states, when confronted by potentially violent Authority is councelled by constitution and honor to politely request the basis for the command and the color of authority under which it's given.

"Because if you don't comply, I will hit you" deserves only the contempt of any free being of conscience - matched with what sort of visible or invisible resistance that seems prudent and possible.

This idea that one can "lovingly" break the will of a child by violence and other forms of abuse comes from no God I respect or would even consider obeying.

I should also state that I'm quite confident in my own spiritual understandings, including the understanding that there is no such God. But there are many who wish there was, and more than a few "voices" willing to take advantage of their disappointment.