"Hot Saucing" opponents.

"He says Christians frequently believe that the battle for a child's heart and soul is fought on the outside-with rigid rules and boundaries-when in fact just the opposite is true. He underscores the importance of communicating the unconditional love that Christ offers and affirming this timeless message of grace to one's family.....Kimmel asserts that this 'radical' mode of parenting will meet the three essential needs in kids' lives: for security, significance and strength. He assures parents that these needs can be met with grace-laced love, purpose and hope."

When interviewed by the Washington Post about hot saucing, he said:

"Just because something works, that doesn't mean it's a good idea.....Fear can be very effective as a discipline technique, but it's overkill. You haven't corrected the problem, and it means nothing in terms of building character. Our job as parents is to build character, not to adjust behavior....The tongue doesn't do the lying, the heart does the lying. When you direct a form of discipline to a body part that created the problem, it's like in [other cultures] when they cut off your hand for stealing." ₂

"There's no room for pain and humiliation and fear in disciplining healthy children. I think it's a rather barbaric practice to say the least. The state of Virginia, for instance, calls this practice bizarre and finds it an actionable offense."

"I am extremely disappointed, outraged in fact, that you have a story presenting a person who favors putting hot sauce on the tongues of children. ...Hot sauce can cause gag reflexes and tears to the throat lining. Shame on all of you who ok'ed this story. ...You have undermined the work of child abuse professionals across the country." ₄

"Our concern is that ABC's irresponsible reporting of the issue could be construed as advocating this abusive practice. ... Responsible investigations and reports have repeatedly demonstrated that inappropriate or violent discipline damages the emotional, intellectual, and growth processes of the child. Many studies have shown that violent punishments not only teach violence, but also can lead to other forms of violence....In our experience, parents who use hot-saucing with their children are likely to engage in other forms of abusive behavior. We recently dealt with a case in which it was reported that a small child, who was being professionally evaluated due to 'behavioral problems,' was being force fed hot-peppers when he spoke disrespectfully to his parents. The assessor dismissed this practice as 'idiosyncratic, non-abusive, and culturally appropriate.' Never mind that hot-saucing or force feeding of peppers to children can result in anaphylaxis or cause significant burns and damage to developing tissues in the mouth, esophagus, intestinal walls, stomach, and colon. Within a few short weeks of this assessment, the child was found dead after being severely beaten in the head by his parents. Need we say more?" ₄

"It's painful even to contemplate the amount of force or intimidation required to enable one person to introduce hot sauce into another person's mouth. There is an instinctive reflexive response that guards the buccal cavity against the intrusion of noxious or irritating substances, and any creature that lacked it wouldn't survive for long. Nevertheless, Lisa Whelchel, -- a mom who presumably cares about the survival of her children -- has written a parenting book in which she blithely describes thwarting that protective mechanism in her children." ₄

"We also do not believe some discipline methods are appropriate -- such as applying hot sauce to the mouths or tongues of children. It is our prayer that the Lord blesses all the parents on CHFWeb with His wisdom and direction in bringing their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!" ₅

"I'm not saying that it probably doesn't work for some children. I think for some children it probably will. They'll probably stop for fear of that happening again. Again, that's parenting out of some fear and that's a powerful parenting technique. Spankings are fear based." ₆

"My disagreement is with the idea that a child must physically "feel" pain in order to learn a lesson. The article often mentions "hot-saucing" a kid if they swear or lie, but in what way is this preferable to some other non-corporeal punishment? A good grounding or the loss of TV or video game privileges can teach the exact same lesson. I suspect that part of the appeal is that "hot-saucing" is immediate, but over within minutes, while grounding or the restriction of privileges requires parental oversight over-time to ensure compliance. I can certainly understand the impulse to use the immediate and certainly effective saucing punishment, however I still can't justify the practice when perfectly good non-physical punishments are available." ₇

"I think that the consensus these days is that it is not recommended as a form of punishment; when a child sees that his behavior has really upset or provoked the parent, it is felt that they sense power in their actions, and tend to perform in the same manner more frequently. It's probably best to simply reward good behaviors and withhold privileges for negative behaviors." ₈

"Religious Right activists constantly extol the virtues of the family and proclaim their love and concern for children. But, as the controversy over 'hot saucing' proves, at the same time they seem to be awfully creative when it comes to thinking up new ways to inflict pain on misbehaving youngsters." ₉