310 thoughts on “Punching Kids”

  2. If God can speak through Balaam’s old donkey He can use anything. The end doesn’t justify the means and certainly not here.

      1. God used Balaam’s ass to put across an important message, this preacher, like so many, is merely preaching through his.

  3. One can only conclude that this so called preacher/pastor/ pulpiteer has been to the Sammy Allen/Phil Kidd School of How to get Results in Ministry.

    Jeremiah 14:14
    And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.

    They stand and tell lies, self aggrandizing tales of personal exploits, thinking that they are glorifying God. What will be the judgment for those who use Christ as a prop for their own ministries? I shudder to think. I believe that Matthew 7:21-23 is written as a warning to such as these.

    1. Indeed. I think this is one of the defining characteristics of fundamentalism. They believe they are of God and sent by God, but they have been sent by their own emotions and prejudices.

      They talk about Grace as if it is a second chance. Don’t blow it! The gospel is for getting saved, not for living. To live you have to have law, rules, school-masters, lack of freedom. Decisions have to be made for you. Harsh punishments are needed to put the sinner in his or her place. And God loves you enough to beat you to a pulp when you need it – which is often.

      These self-deluded prophets see themselves as bringing people to Christ as they bring people to themselves. They stand in the place of God. They are your umbrella of protection, your authority. You cannot possibly know things they don’t or have perception better than theirs.

      “Vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind.”

      1. yep and something about making 10 fold more children of hell as well.

        *sigh*

        oh, and you hit the nail on the head regarding the Gospel… it’s a means to an end to them. It’s only to be used to get a decision, to get them to the Altar Call™ and get them on the church roll. Once that’s accomplished the Gospel is set aside. To the Church Growth philosophy of the IFB (and Baptists in general) the Gospel is mere milk… Once they have made a decision and said the magic incantations of the sinner’s prayer the sheeple must be trained to eat the meat of the Law.
        **smh… walks away mumbling to self

        2. “Behold, the world is a mine, and the natural resources are waiting to be exploited. Go ye therefore into the mines and bring forth the ore to the “Christian manufacturing facility” where it can be melted under hot, strong preaching and then stamped into “Christians.” Following the “bright dip,” thou shalt labor with me as quality control inspectors as the parts move down the assembly line. Those that are out of specification shalt be cast into outer darkness. And lo I am the alpha dog and thou art the omega– Haymen!”

          Found in too many “Fundy Bibles”

        4. This kind of error is encouraged and compounded by the presentation of salvation as a one-time event, not an ongoing and dynamic process.

      2. Rtgmath, I have personally know a *lot* Christians who are *exactly* like this. I mat have been a bit like that myself at times. I hope I’ve grown out of it.

        1. Oh, I know I was that way. I didn’t realize it then. I thought I was being reasonable and loving. Yes, loving. Isn’t love harsh? Doesn’t the Lord get out the whip and use it on His children? (Heb. 12). Doesn’t God send us trials to test our faith?

          I thought that. I am sick of it.

  4. I decided to write him. I think this is my first post here. I’ve lurked forever.

    Dear Eric Dammann,

    I saw your video where you mentioned you punched a child to bring him to the Lord. I didn’t know Christ had the elders of his Church beat children. I can’t wait to try it. All this time I thought it was love, patience, and forgiveness were the examples to be set. I was wrong. Maybe I can improve on your technique, and punch them right in the testicles. Maybe force them to kneel on a tack strip, or drag them behind my pickup truck across pasture land. The possibilities are endless.

    Thank you sir!

    4. Welcome aboard “The Black Pearl of Great Price Before Swine” Glad to have you sailing with us!

        1. He does that a lot since the last server move, as well as with block quotes and sundry other text commands. I think he has hired some minions to assist him.

  5. Fundies seem more prone to this because they love getting “amens” and telling whopper “war stories”. I always heard this in church: “You must break the will of the child” (which is impossible seeing what the Bible teaches about unregenerate people’s natures before conversion). With that, and a lot of the arrogance that only they do things right, I can see why this “pastor” did what he did. Notice there was no apology in the sermon, but an excuse and rationalization of why he did punched a teenage boy in the chest. Im sure he probably has an out of context verse that is obscure in the KJV that he uses to justify what he did.

  6. I’m confused. Was the video from 13 years ago? If so, his apology would make sense. Someone brought up these issues to him AFTER this video, he saw the error of his ways and he then proceeded to apologize to Ben and to the church. If, on the other hand, this video is recent, then his apology is a total fabrication. Clearly when he delivered that sermon he was not thinking he did anything wrong.

  9. Link to the New York daily news article that says the sermon was in July.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pastor-punches-youth-not-lord-serious-article-1.2074291
    He said in the article his point was that God can even use our mistakes to lead people to The Lord. I admit, I didn’t listen to his whole sermon, but I DID hear him say that sometimes it takes something like that – referring to the punch – and I did not hear him say God can use our mistakes.

    1. While it’s possible he said that, the clip I saw he said that sometimes you have to do that (punch someone). That doesn’t jive with admitting it was wrong later. Unless later in his sermon, he realized and came to be sorry, and tried to steer the subject in a different direction.

      1. Correction, “There’s times where that might be needed.” I refuse to believe God deliberately drives me to do something immoral in order to bring out a greater good.

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