
Child corporal punishment: spankingQuotations showing diverse opinions
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Anon: "Spanking is simply another form of terrorism. It teaches the
victims that might makes right, and that problems can be solved through the
use of violence by the strong against the weak."
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Dr. Ralph Welsh, who has given psychological exams to over 2,000
delinquents has said:
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"...it is now apparent that the recidivist male delinquent who was
never struck with a belt, board, extension cord, fist, or an equivalent
is virtually nonexistent. Even after 10 years, the full impact of this
discovery is still difficult to comprehend." |
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"As the severity of corporal punishment in the delinquent's
developmental history increases, so does the probability that he will engage
in a violent act." 3
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"I have yet to see a repeat male delinquent that wasn't raised on a
belt, board, cord, or fist."
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From an Email by a visitor to this web site: |
"In the 19th century, Christians gradually realized that human
slavery was profoundly immoral, even though it was recognized,
permitted, condoned, regulated and accepted in dozens of biblical
passages. This was a great shock to people who had assumed that the
Bible was 'the Good Book.' They were forced to realize that the Bible
promoted an immoral institution, and that 19th century
morality was superior to that of the Bible. We are now in the 21st
century and Christians will be going through the same process with
regard to the whipping of children."
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Ken Gallinger, "Ethically Speaking" columnist for the Toronto Star:
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"Spanking is an act of violence, so ethically, it could be justified
only if there was absolutely no other way to improve the way kids act."
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American Medical Association, (1985): "Infliction of pain or discomfort,
however minor, is not a desirable method of communicating with children."
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Mark Benedict, Christian Family
Foundations: "I also believe the scriptural reference to the "rod" best
corresponds to a switch or perhaps a flexible paddle."
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Dawn
Walker, Canadian Institute of Child Health: "Children need discipline but not hitting."
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Sharon "I have heard terrible stories of children becoming spoiled, drug
using, atheists if they aren't spanked."
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Dr. Benjamin Spock: "If we are ever to turn toward a kindlier
society and a safer world, a revulsion against the physical punishment of
children would be a good place to start."
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Comments by Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE)
from their website at www.NoSpank.net:
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"Spanking does for a child's development what wife-beating does
for a marriage." |
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"At this time in the United States, the only people who can smack
someone on the buttocks as part of their paid professional duties are
schoolteachers, prostitutes and performers in the pornography filming
industry."
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Quintilian (circa 35 - 95 CE)
from his "Institutes of Oratory." This was written about the same time as
the Gospel of Mark.
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"I disapprove of flogging, although it is the regular
custom... because in the first place it is a disgraceful form of
punishment and fit only for slaves, and is in any case an insult, as you
will realize if you imagine its infliction at a later age. Secondly if a
boy is so insensible to instruction that reproof is useless, he will,
like the worst type of slave, merely become hardened to blows... And
though you may compel a child with blows, what are you to do with him
when he is a young man no longer amenable to such threats and confronted
with tasks of far greater difficulty? Moreover when children are beaten,
pain or fear frequently have results of which it is not pleasant to
speak and which are likely subsequently to be a source of shame, a shame
which unnerves and depresses the mind and leads the child to shun and
loathe the light....I will not linger on this
subject; it is more than enough if I have made my meaning clear. I will
content myself with saying that children are helpless and easily victimized, and that therefore no one should be given unlimited power
over them."
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Boris Sidis, from a
lecture on the abuse of the fear instinct in early education in Journal
of Abnormal Psychology, 1919. |
"As long as the child will be trained not by love, but by fear,
so long will humanity live not by justice, but by force. As long as the
child will be ruled by the educator?s threat and by the father?s rod, so
long will mankind be dominated by the policeman?s club, by fear of jail,
and by panic of invasion by armies and navies.?
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The Bible, Proverbs 23:14. The authorship is traditionally attributed to King Solomon: "Thou
shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
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Part of a burlesque poem by Samuel Butler written in the 1664
CE
discussing sexual activities between a overweight man and a widow. This seems to be
the source of the well known pro-spanking phrase. 2 "Love is a boy by poets
styled. Then spare the rod and spoil the child."
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Robert Larzelere, Boys' Home:
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"...optimal disciplinary responses begin with less severe
tactics, such as reasoning, but proceed to firmer disciplinary tactics
when the initial tactic achieves neither compliance nor an acceptable
compromise."
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Andrew Grogan-Kaylor, University of
Michigan. |
"Even minimal amounts of spanking can lead to an increased likelihood in
antisocial behavior by children."
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Alvin Poussaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School: |
"Researchers have also found that children who are spanked show
higher rates of aggression and delinquency in childhood than those who
were not spanked. As adults, they are more prone to depression, feelings
of alienation, use of violence toward a spouse, and lower economic and
professional achievement. None of this is what we want for our
children."
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Reference used:
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Ken Gallinger, "The Bible is simply wrong on spanking," Toronto
Star, 2007-DEC-15.
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From the essay "Spanking Strikes Out," (1999), at:
http://nospank.net/
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Adah Maurer & James S. Wallerstein, "The Influence of Corporal
Punishment on Crime," The Natural Child Project, (1987), at:
http://www.naturalchild.org/

Copyright © 1995 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2009-MAY-31
Author: B.A. Robinson

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