What do you call it when a husband beats his wife with a paddle for disobeying him? Some would say domestic abuse. These people say he’s doing God’s work. By Brandy Zadrozny.
On a pain scale of one to 10, Chelsea ranks the epidural-free birth of her child as a six. Her husband’s spankings? Those are an eight.
First, he uses his hands for “warm-up” slaps. Then comes a combination of tools based on the specific infraction. The wooden spoon is the least severe; for the worst rule-breaking—like texting while driving (“It could kill me,” Chelsea admits) or moving money between accounts without his permission—she’ll be hit with something else: a hairbrush, a paddle, or a leather strap.
But this isn’t domestic abuse, Chelsea says. This is for Jesus.
Chelsea and her husband Clint, who asked that I use only their first names, belong to a small subculture of religious couples who practice “Christian Domestic Discipline,” a lifestyle that calls for a wife to be completely submissive to her husband. Referred to as CDD by its followers, the practice often includes spanking and other types corporal punishments administered by husbands—and ostensibly ordained by God. While the private nature of the discipline makes it difficult to estimate the number of adherents, activity in several online forums suggests a figure in the low thousands. Devotees call CDD an alternative lifestyle and enthusiastically sing its praises; for critics, it’s nothing but domestic abuse by another name.
Clint was in the room while I talked to Chelsea. They do everything together, including running their blog, Learning DD, which chronicles their exploration of domestic discipline. When Chelsea gets flummoxed by a question, she asks Clint for guidance in a voice so high-pitched that it belies her 28 years: “Honey, how long does the spanking usually last?” (About 5 minutes, Clint says.)
He has left bruises, Chelsea says, but it’s rare, and she attributes them to anemia.
You don’t have to be a Christian to practice domestic discipline, although many of its practitioners say they believe that domestic discipline goes hand in hand with their faith. Specifics of the practice vary by couple, though CDDers all seem to follow a few basic principles. Foremost, that the Bible commands a husband to be the head of the household, and the wife must submit to him, in every way, or face painful chastisement.
When a wife breaks her husband’s rules—rolling her eyes, maybe, or just feeling “meh,” as one blogger put it—that can equal punishments which are often corporal but can also be “corner time”; writing lines (think “I will not disobey my master” 1,000 times); losing a privilege like internet access; or being “humbled” by some sort of nude humiliation. Some practice “maintenance spanking,” wherein good girls are slapped on a schedule to remind them who’s boss; some don’t. Some couples keep the lifestyle from their children; others, like CDD blogger Stormy, don’t. “Not only does he spank me with no questions asked for disrespect or attitude in front of them, but I am also required to make an apology to each of them,” she writes.
“He enjoys seeing the person he owns become the thing God wants her to be.”
After discipline, many wives report being held and comforted. More>>>
For about a year and a half, President Obama had been calling for the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria and at the same time --aside from a very modest and covert CIA mission to train Free Syrian Army trainers in Turkey and/or Jordan -- Obama has opposed providing any military aid to the Syrian rebels. Over the past year he has ignored the advice of his national security team to act more boldly.Obama’s anti-Assad rhetoric on one hand and his passivity on the other, are a contradiction in terms that has become clear over the past year as Assad’s artillery and air forces has increasingly fought the war by devastating if not leveling towns, villages or urban neighborhoods held by the rebels and in the process inflicting catastrophic losses upon the civilian population.The reason given for Obama reticence was concern that weapons supplied to the rebels might fall into the hands of salafist-jihadi fighters. But this has turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, for as the fighting continued to rage on, the number of salafist-jihadi fighters among rebel forces has dramatically increased over the past year, and well-funded by wealthy sympathizers in the region, they are now, quite on their own, often better armed that the Free Syrian Army.Instead Obama had pinned his policy to the dream of an improbable political settlement given Russian insistence that Assad remains President during a transitional phase, and with Iran and Russia shipping arms and ammunition to Assad while Obama dithered. Without American leadership the Saudi and Qatari provision of arms has lacked systematic coordination and has been obviously insufficient. More>>>>
As violent protests rock Istanbul, another cataclysm is building beneath the city.Just 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the center of Istanbul, the last domino is waiting to fall on the North Anatolian Fault. Since 1939, massive temblors have marched westward on the fault, moving closer to the city. When this section of the fault finally topples, an earthquake of more than magnitude 7.0 will strike one of Europe's biggest cities. Now, researchers think they've pinpointed the spot where the earthquake will start, according to a study published today (June 18) in the journal Nature Communications.The likely epicenter is a seismically dead zone on the Princes Island segment of the North Anatolian Fault, just south of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara. After four years of "listening" with earthquake monitors, researchers failed to detect any microearthquakes (down to magntitude-1.8) on a patch 18 miles wide by 6 miles deep (30 km by 10 km) of the Princes Island segment.
LONDON (AP) — Britain's Girl Guides have dropped a reference to God in their pledge.
Gone is the reference to loving God, replaced by a call to "be true to myself and develop my beliefs." The new pledge unveiled Wednesday does retain a reference to serving the queen.
The long established British scouting organization — officially named Girlguiding — says some 44,000 people responded to a call for consultations on the new pledge.
Chief Guide Gill Slocombe says she hopes the change will encourage more girls to join.
"We knew that some people found our Promise confusing on this point and that it discouraged some girls and volunteers from joining us," she said. "We hope that the new wording will help us reach out to girls and women who might not have considered guiding before — so that even more girls can benefit from everything guiding can offer."
The pledge was last changed in 1994. The reference to God da.... More of this article
NEW YORK – A small academy in Manhattan is teaching students as young as five years old how to practice witchcraft and become full-fledged Wiccan sorcerers.The Wiccan Family Temple Academy of Pagan Studies (WFTAPS), founded six years ago, is the first school of its kind in the New York City area, and offers a three-year witchcraft program. Topics covered in the academy’s biweekly classes include “Moon Magick,” “Pagan Parenting,” “Psychic Self-Defense,” and “Becoming a Wealthy Witch.”Even though most courses are designed for adults, the school also offers a “Dragon Academy” for elementary and middle school-aged students who are interested in witchcraft. According to the school’s website, Dragon Academy participants learn how to perform a variety of pagan practices, such as altar-building and spell-casting.WFTAPS was founded by Starr RavenHawk, a Wiccan “priestess” who regularly teaches classes at the school. RavenHawk claimed in a New York Times interview that witchcraft is very similar to other religions. “I know that sounds shocking t...
How would you stop an asteroid from hitting the earth? NASA is asking for your ideas.Armageddon isn't currently in the forecast but NASA still wants to hear from you.“We’re looking for ideas and concepts from you about better ways to do this, more efficient ways – things that will actually feed forward to other missions that we want to do in exploration, that we want to do in deep space,” William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human space exploration and operations told Florida Today.You can take action and possibly save civilization.
President will speak at the same place in Berlin where Reagan gave his "Tear Down This Wall" Speech. For more on this story, click here: http://abcnews.go.co...
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is celebrating a bitter-sweet one year anniversary at the Ecuador... euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe Subsc...
The Philippines have a rich and unique history. In the final edition of our four-part series... euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe Subscribe f...
The 17 member jury of the Asturias Award for sport has named golfer Jose Maria Olazabal as this... euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe Subscrib...
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge ruled Wednesday that cheerleaders at a Southeast Texas high school can display banners emblazoned with Bible verses at football games.
But the ruling might not have settled the issue of whether the banners are protected
The Positions Of Jesus (Part Three)
By: Curt Klingerman
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
PHILIPPIANS CHAPTER 1 - PART 1-F - GRACE AND PEACE - THE BLESSING - PART 2
By: MAXINE PINDER
Philippians 1:2
"Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."
GRACE AND
By Michael Allen, Sun, June 16, 2013A serious Glenn Beck warned his audience on Friday's radio show that "we are living in Biblical times" and added "we are at the end" (video below).Beck cited the Book of Mormon, which was supposedly given to founder
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