Shane Meyer-Holt
Appearances
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
Not to forget books and pamphlets and a bunch of cassette tapes were very big, passing around the cassette tapes. You could then buy one set, share them around, share the blessings around with everyone.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
spankings for my parents i remember the time that it came into our home there was a shift in the way that authority was wielded and the kind of kids that we had to be and i don't know if they were ever really particularly into smacking before the stuff i guess they were probably smacked or spanked as you call it in america which is a much larger sexual connotation here in new zealand
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
But my parents definitely were enthusiastic smackers after that. And I don't think they ever really enjoyed it, but I think there was definitely a sense in which this is what you had to do, spare the rod, spoil the child, if you were going to have kids that didn't go off the rails and become strong-willed children.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
On reflection, as people who are trying to grow healthy children, as people who are trying to grow healthy children who don't believe in hell or smacking, things are a lot harder. I have to say, our parents had some shortcuts that we definitely didn't have.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
Not being able to threaten with eternal conscious torment or physical violence might be much better for our children, but it was definitely easier for them.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
A bit of a hair thing. Indeed. I remember the one that stood out for me and I've always got to giggle in youth group when they read out the list of things that you were and were not allowed to do while dating. Level 16B was heavy petting. And again... Petting isn't really a New Zealand word. That's more to do with kind of like petting a cat.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
And so we always thought that was like rather amusing that heavy as opposed to light petting. Tried to work out what the difference was between those two things. But James is very clear on it.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
There's a lot of suppression of emotion and putting your own needs aside, not understanding your feelings, but instead just squishing everything down and falling into line and making sure that you respected the authority figures in your life. And that kind of like militaristic hierarchical authority structures.
Flightless Bird
Focus on The Family
It was at the center of growing good kids was to have respectful, obedient kids and this strong parenting, which squashed rebellion and those dirty little seeds of satanic rebellion lying in the heart of evil toddlers.