Church teaches how to 'correct' babies
Thursday, August 23, 2001
A Canadian church is under investigation after launching a guide to beating children who are naughty.

The parenting guide belonging to the Church of God, in Aylmer, says babies as young as six months old can be punished.

Child welfare officers are investigating the 190-page guide found after two church members were taken into care.

Entitled Mommy, Daddy, We Would See Jesus! - Training our Children for the Glory of God, the guide covers many facets of child-rearing. Several pages detail how parents should strike children.

It says: "I know of a 10-month-old who learned to lie quietly in his crib and go to sleep by himself without being rocked - after only two nights of training.

"She had to persistently lay him back down when she found him standing up, and spank him for not obeying. That is training."

"That's abuse," said Peter Jaffe, executive director of the Centre of Children & Families in the Justice System told the London Free Press.

"There seems to be a lot of advice directing parents to be abusive to their children," he said. "What's most shocking are the descriptions of hitting kids two years and under and spanking six-month-old infants."

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