To Cane Up a Child – Amazon you disgust me….

So for those of you that are new to this disgrace, Amazon and a few other retailers were/are selling a parenting book called ‘To Train Up a Child: Turning the hearts of the fathers to the children’ by Michael Pearl. In a nutshell, this book advocates the use of a switch (stick or cane), belt or flexible plumbing hose to ‘parent’ your child.

Understandably, many retailers have been mortified to discover this book for sale on their shelves. Wesley Owens, the Christian book seller even went so far as to apologise when a customer email brought the matter to their attention;

“This is not a book we would ever stock or would ever want to stock, and I can only apologise that it has been mistakenly listed on our website. We will deal with this as soon as we can.

Once again, thank you for brining this to our attention. I can only apologise for the presence of the book on our website.”

 Equally Foyles stated;

 “Thank you for your email drawing attention to the availability of How To Train a Child by Matthew and Debi Pearl our ebook website: this was the first we had heard about the book, so we appreciate your highlighting it.

We rely on third-party feeds to keep our databases of available titles up-to-date and while we do limit this feed as much as possible, the sheer number of titles now available means that it is not always feasible for us to examine the credentials of each title individually; this means that occasionally titles that we would not wish to carry have slipped through.

We agree with you that this is an entirely unsuitable item and we have now removed all versions from our site.”

Many other retailers, such as Waterstones have now withdrawn this title and good on them – they  will all certainly be getting my business this Christmas.  So what say Amazon? Are they withdrawing it? No. In fact they have stated categorically that they won’t.  What makes this different from the other books on child abuse that Amazon have withdrawn? I have no idea. Perhaps Amazon would like to explain? Amazon exactly WHAT distinction do you make between the different categories of child abuse? Is it because one is sexual abuse and one physical? Is physical violence less ‘obscene’ to you? Scotland certainly doesn’t think so, as it has been illegal there to use any implements other than an open hand when disciplining a child since October 2003.

So moving to my next point Amazon, how does selling the book in Scotland work for you? Because in my opinion, surely by doing that you’re kind of encouraging an illegal act aren’t you? Maybe you can put me straight on this one.  Even if it’s not illegal, it’s still immoral. What leaves an unpleasant taste in my mouth is that as your customer, you think I care more about having ‘all’ books available than I do about preserving children’s lives. Children such as Hana Williams, Sean Paddock and Lydia Schatz. As far as I know, no-one died as a result of ‘The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct’ but you withdraw it. Children die from parents interpreting this  Train Up A Child ‘guide’ yet you refuse to remove it. You have lost me. In EVERY sense of the word.

I have cancelled my Amazon Prime Account, and will shortly be cancelling my Amazon credit card. Amazon, you seem to think the definition of ‘corporate social responsibility’  means ‘the person organising the office Christmas party’. It doesn’t. You might want to follow the link and look it up some time. I will also be boycotting Amazon until it withdraws this book from sale in all formats. No Black Friday sales for them from me that’s for sure.

If you’d like to join me, PLEASE PLEDGE to promise the same HERE – let’s show them how much business they are losing from not listening to their customers. In the meantime, as it’s Friday, please PLEASE change your picture on Facebook/Twitter to the Boycott Amazon picture above, and feel free to retweet the link that led you here or the following….

I pledge to boycott @Amazon until ‘To Train Up a Child’ is withdrawn from sale #BlackoutFriday #BlackFriday Please RT if you agree

Also feel free to SHARE SHARE SHARE this article or anything on Facebook, and if you haven’t yet signed the petitions, you can find them all HERE on the Facebook page or click on the following links. ..

Pledge to boycott Amazon until they remove “To Train Up A Child” from sale worldwide in all formats. https://www.causes.com/v2actions/1763954-pledge-to-boycott-amazon-until-they-remove-to-train-up-a-child-from-sale-worldwide-in-all-formats

Amazon: Remove from both print and Kindle sale ‘To Train Up a Child: Turning the hearts of the fathers to the children’ http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/amazon-remove-from-both-print-and-kindle-sale-to-train-up-a-child-turning-the-hearts-of-the-fathers-to-the-children

Amazon.com: Remove the book “To Train Up a Child” by Michael and Debi Pearl  http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-com-remove-the-book-to-train-up-a-child-by-michael-and-debi-pearl?

Amazon: Refuse to carry books which advocate the physical abuse of children.  https://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-refuse-to-carry-books-which-advocate-the-physical-abuse-of-children

If anyone has any other ideas that may be helpful, please please contact us or follow me here on Twitter or here on facebook for updates. Thanks so much guys, we’re getting somewhere.