Convincing Christian book stores to not carry TTUaC/Pearls

[Vex]

I am also generally against banning books - a disturbing number of banned books here are on homosexuality and I have campaigned before to have the ban revoked, even if they were mostly banned during the 30's-70's and are terribly outdated. In spite of that, I really would love to get the book banned here but it's not likely to happen since a book hasn't been banned in almost two decades, though some banned books have had their bans upheld recently.

That said, I am certain that many Christian book shops are 100% unaware that the Pearls' book is literally about breaking the will of children, that it encourages the beating of infants, and that children have died as a direct result of the book and its refusal to put a cap on the amount of punishment delivered to a child. I know that if I were running a book store I would be horrified if a book like that were on my shelves.

What I have done is to go to this address: http://whynottrainachild.com/2010/04/20 ... rom-ttuac/

They have a lot of solid quotes there. At one time most (if not all) of TTUaC was available digitally, but so far I haven't been able to turn it up to read through and find my own quotes.

I've also prepared a sheet of quotes from the Pearl's website, to further back up what kind of people they are and the advice they give. I'm so glad to hear that you're wanting to do this too, Patsy!

[Funky Chicken]

Unfortunately, Australia is pretty tolerant of spanking. I constantly hear parents threatening their kids with a 'smack' for being naughty at the shops. Hitting with objects isn't commonplace, though, and I'm sure that if I went through the book and took out some of the worst content - the stuff about hitting infants, about standing out in the snow while wet, all the bullshit about how to set up your kid just so they will fail and give you the chance to beat them... that kind of thing, alongside the information about the parents who followed the Pearls' methods and killed their kids, people would be disgusted.

People are "tolerant", but at the same time it is against the law here. As a doctor it's a mandatory notification issue if I see someone hitting a kid. I'm not sure that much gets done in some cases, but it is officially an assault I believe.

Good on you for showing this lady the truth! I'm sure that even the would-be spankers here would find that book horrifying!

[ILoveJellybeans]

These are a few sources (by Christians), which go against the Pearls.

spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.co.uk/2006/04/switch-or-cross_12.html

(By someone who knew one of the children killed by child training)

ticklemebrahms.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/in-which-i-talk-about-terrible-event-i.html

spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/senseless-deception.html

tulipgirl.com/index.php/2010/11/avoiding-millstones-by-rebecca-prewett/

[Vex]

Actually, to quote the Australian Institute of Family Studies:

"It is lawful in Australia to use corporal punishment to discipline children as long as the punishment is "reasonable" in the circumstances. Punishment that is "unreasonable" (e.g., punishment that causes harm to a child that lasts for more than a short period) may be classified as physical abuse and could lead to intervention by police and/or child protection authorities."

They mention spanking with an open hand or with an implement as common ways of dishing out corporal punishment, and as you can see the legality is based on a number of factors. Hitting an infant with a switch would absolutely be unreasonable, I would think. Seeing as the Pearls say to keep beating until the spirit is broken and the child submits, doing so WOULD be unlawful and as such, the Pearls are advising parents to break Australian law. However, "a couple of licks" wouldn't be seen as unreasonable.

Thank you for the extra resources, ILoveJellybeans!

[latraviata]

I live in Australia, and although we do have fundies, they are a pretty much silent minority. Many of my Australian Christian friends aren't even aware that they exist here. The cult that most people worry about here is the CO$. It might be a stereotype that Australians are laid-back and not particularly religious, but it's a stereotype for a good reason. It's largely true.

Imagine my surprise when I walked past a Christian book store in town and saw a couple of shiny new copies of the Pearls' abomination, To Train Up a Child. I went straight inside and looked around, wondering what other fundie gems they might have had. Fortunately, they just had the two copies of TTUaC.

I took them to the front counter and asked the lady there if she had read the books. She said she hadn't, but a friend from the US on facebook loved it and so did a lot of her friends, and they sent her two copies to put in the shop. I asked her if she had any children. She obviously thought I was kind of weird and/or an IRL troll, but she told me she did, and I asked her if she would have hit her children with a small branch from a tree when they were infants.

Of course she said no, like any sane person, and I explained that by selling TTUaC she was advising parents to do just that. I found the appropriate passages in the book to back up my claim, and by that stage she was genuinely interested and horrified. She said that she was going to take the books off the shelf, because the message 'wasn't something any Christian would want to hear'.

I don't know if she'll keep them off the shelves, but I think she was sincere. She suggested I write to other Christian book stores that stock it and explain why it should be taken off the shelf. I want to make a difference, but I don't really want to pretend I'm not an atheist so they'll take me seriously, and I'm not sure how to go about it. There really aren't that many Christian book stores in my city, so if stores in other cities stock the book I'd have to e-mail them to ask about it, and then explain my position, and since it would be over e-mail or phone they almost certainly wouldn't take me seriously.

Would you do it? Or would you just let it be? I know that in the US there are too many believers to really make a dent in the numbers, but I think it might actually be possible to convince chain stores in Australia that it's a harmful book.

Tl;dr: I convinced a Christian book store to stop carrying TTUac, they suggested I should try to continue doing so, I'm looking for opinions.

Well done!!