No Longer Quivering
Michael Pearl of No Greater Joy is answering one of thos suspicious letters he and his wife Debi receive asking for advice. This letter is from a lady wanting to know how to raise her boys. She makes the observation that giving her son work to do helps. Michael chimes in comparing breaking mules and raising boys.
I would be afraid to allow Pearl around any mule I owned. Mules and horses are best broken with regular consistent handling, not killing their spirits. Nothing benefits from having it’s spirit cruelly crushed.
No, no, NO, that’s not how you train any animal, much less a mule or a boy! You have to impress upon the animal that obedience has rewards, that going along is better for the mule. Brute strength and pain cannot accomplish that. You’ll just end up with a mule that obeys out of fear of pain while all the while looking for an opportunity to either escape or take some well earned reciprocity on it’s tormenter.
While I’m pretty sure Michael does not use a twitch on boys, I would not put it past him to gain obedience of his mules with painful nose twitches.
Listen to the way Michael talks about his wife Debi here, he describes her as ‘whining’. And she is upset that she commands no authority over her sons? Children mimic their elders. Michael fully modeled for those boys what disrespect of women looks like, treating Debi as their house slave.
I will agree with Michael on one thing. You cannot complain to someone else that you are not respected and actually get any sort of respect.
But at the same time what Michael Pearl is describing here sounds like a verbal version of twitching that mule’s nose to get obedience. Fear, loathing and pain is not a great motivator in the long run. You’ll just breed people and mules looking for any escape.
Please don’t treat your kids like Michael treats his mules.
He forgets that mules will kick and they will bite. Obedience does not last forever.
Stay in touch! Like No Longer Quivering on Facebook:
If this is your first time visiting NLQ please read our Welcome page and our Comment Policy! Commenting here means you agree to abide by our policies.
Copyright notice: If you use any content from NLQ, including any of our research or Quoting Quiverfull quotes, please give us credit and a link back to this site. All original content is owned by No Longer Quivering and Patheos.com
Read our hate mail at Jerks 4 Jesus
Check out today’s NLQ News at NLQ Newspaper
Contact NLQ at [email protected]
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In