"The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment is a truly important work-one that should be required reading not only for church leaders, but for all sober-minded laypeople as well."

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Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author and web designer. My first book, "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment," is now available everywhere.

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06/24/04
Comments (2)

Babywise & Other Ezzo Nonsense

Just a few weeks ago I had no idea who Garry Ezzo was and how controversial his childraising programs are. I had looked over his book “Growing Kids God’s Way” but had never really read it. Then Matt Hall posted about Babywise and a little bit about the controversy. This article drew me especially and I was amazed to see that this Babywise stuff is very nearly a cult!

If you’re interested in the subject, TulipGirl has some great articles that describe her own experience with it as well as the experiences of some other women. All their stories sound eerily similar as they come to the realization that what they thought was helping their child was in reality starving their child.

This Babywise thing sounds like yet another substandard Christian version of a secular program. Filled with bad theology, terrible exegesis (God forsook Jesus on the cross and in so doing provided the ultimate example of why parents should leave their children to cry) and bearing just enough resemblance to a Christian program to keep people happy, it draws in millions of Christians.

So if you are interested in the program, I would highly recommend reading through those resources before committing yourself (and your child)!

Babywise & Other Ezzo Nonsense

Comments (2) »


1. Hank Osborne
April 7, 2006
10:25 AM

Tim,

You have been sucked into the gossip vacuum without fully researching the facts on “Growing Kids God’s Way” (GKGW). I commented on another post of yours a few minutes ago concerning my disagreement with your stating, “Here it is - undeniable proof that the Bible contradicts itself!”

Now here you post a clear contradiction in that you do not practice what you preach when passing judgement on parenting material:

“I had looked over his book “Growing Kids God’s Way” but had never really read it.”

“So if you are interested in the program, I would highly recommend reading through those resources before committing yourself (and your child)!”

Tim, please take the class or read the entire book before making such statements. I am not sure what you mean by “looked over the book”, but you clearly stated that you “had never really read it.” Skimming the material is not an acceptable solution to passing judgement on something as you stated in your statement of the post.

Go to Ezzotruth.com and you will find plenty of examples in the “Testimonials” section found in the side bar to support the GKGW program. Other than my own family testimony found under the GKGW Testimonies, one great example is from my good friend Robert Turner, MD found under the Physicians Testimonies. He has two delightful teenage daughters that have been raised using the GKGW material. He states very well in his testimony, “… the biblically-based materials of Growing Families International are among the best tools available anywhere.”

I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Hank O


2. TulipGirl
April 9, 2006
4:59 PM

Hi, Hank!

Pretty harsh approach to Tim, don’t you think? Flies, vinegar, honey…

Anyway, along with the mostly-vague “testimonials” at the site Hank recommends, all parents interested in implementing the Ezzo ideas owe it to themselves to read the accounts of those for whom these ideas didn’t work:

http://ezzo.info/voices.htm

Grace and peace, TulipGirl


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