Do not forsake discipline in the home- Pastor

He made it clear that he was against children being brutally beaten by parents. Reverend Wellesley Blair, administrative bishop at the New Testament Church of God however issued a charge to Jamaica's leaders, that the distinction must be made at all times, that correction should be enforced in the home.

Speaking in the presence of Prime minister Andrew Holness, as he addressed the 13th staging of Heal the Family, Heal the Nation conference yesterday, Blair said that the impression should not be given that children should not be disciplined.

"If a man does not have God in his life, he cannot bring up his children right. God has said in his word, and I want to make this abundantly clear, that I cannot and will not agree with any parent brutalising their children, but correction must be given at home," he declared at the National Arena in St Andrew.

"Train up a child in the way he should grow and when he is old he will not depart from it. You need one (parent) who will rule his house, having his children in subjection. It must be done in love however, but the correction of children is spoken of in the scriptures," he said.

Dr Patricia Holness, vice chairman of the Jamaica Pentecostal Union Apostolic (JPUA) expressed similar sentiments in her address, as she spoke on the topic 'Raise Good and Godly Families'.

"We know that they are your darlings and sweet little ones but don't spoil them, let them grow. Correct them when they go wrong. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction drive it far from him," she said.