Pastor Instructs Congregation On How To Hit Children To Cause Maximum Pain But Not Be ‘Inappropriate’

Verity Baptist Church/YouTube, @hemantmehta/Twitter

October 5, 2021, 5:44 am*

A pastor who made headlines in 2016 for praising the shooter who killed 49 people at an LGBTQ nightclub is making waves again, this time for controversial comments he made in support of spanking children.

Featured Video
Hide

Pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California, held a conversation on camera with one of his deacons regarding corporal punishment for children, insisting that it’s important to teach parents “how to properly discipline their children.”

While a rational person might think that means talking to parents about not hitting their children, Jimenez seemed instead to be referring to teaching parents to hit their kids in a way that causes maximum pain without leaving any marks.

“We teach parents that you never want to hit your children with, like, a closed fist. You never want to hit them somewhere where it would be inappropriate, like their face,” he said.

Advertisement
Hide

Instead, he suggested making sure parents always hit their children in the more conventional rear.

“There’s a lot of nerve endings there. And there’s a little extra cushion. And that’s a place where you can administer a spanking in a proper way and you’re not going to injure the children,” the pastor continued. “We, of course, want the spanking to hurt. If you’re spanking your children, and it doesn’t hurt, you’re not accomplishing anything.”

Nothing to see here. Just two fundamentalist Christian pastors bragging about how they hit their kids and why everyone else should do it too.

“If you’re spanking your children, and it doesn’t hurt, you’re not accomplishing anything.” pic.twitter.com/xS2N0MIVhk

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) September 26, 2021

Watching someone — a pastor, no less — encouraging parents to hurt their children didn’t sit right with a lot of people, regardless of any claims of “discipline.”

They hit the kids on their rear ends precisely so there are no obvious marks that would cause someone to report them to CPS.

— Vincent Gannuscio (@VGannuscio) September 26, 2021

“Learn to obey your husband” I fucking can’t take Christians seriously since I was raised that way and was told dads hitting you “because he loves you” https://t.co/xSr73yjAsp

— buildthedeathstar (@j_turnip95) September 26, 2021

This is sickening. Study after study has found that ANY form of corporeal punishment can have lasting serious negative psychological effects on children. These sickos are advocating for child abuse.

— Mereel401 (@mereel401) September 26, 2021

Advertisement
Hide

“We need to teach our kids to obey their bosses at work.”

Ah, so it’s not about raising healthy children. It’s about grooming them into capitalism.

Fuck you sideways. https://t.co/Hwt3lXTtZR

— Charles Moss (@MossAnimation) September 26, 2021

I never once spanked my children and they are perfectly respectful and disciplined. It’s called parenting. It’s not hard to be a respectful parent while addressing misdeeds and bad behavior.

— Scoobie (@AaronMuellner) September 26, 2021

Well, that checks out with the (dubious) morality of the Bible. For example, God never says “Don’t enslave people.” He explains whom you can enslave, and the limits of how you can abuse them.
Explaining how to beat children goes right along with this ethic.
It’s monstrous. https://t.co/uAUH1hYxqk

— Daniel Midgley (@tdanielmidgley) September 26, 2021

Jimenez defended his position in the video by claiming that spanking is the method given to humans by God himself to discipline children, while the deacon chastised “the world,” which he says will “demonize spanking.”

They both also insisted that spanking will create respectful, obedient children — although “fearful” might be a much more appropriate term to use if we’re breaking it down.

Share this article

*First Published: October 5, 2021, 5:43 am