How many “social scientists” do you think would be allowed in state schools who support spanking children as a form of child discipline? The Bible without doubt teaches spanking as a method, a required one, for child discipline, so for successful child discipline. Parents, who would obey God, are required to do it this way.
Elizabeth T. Gershoff is a professor of human development and family sciences at The University of Texas at Austin and CNN published just yesterday, November 6, 2018, an article she authored against spanking children, entitled, “The era of spanking is finally over.” Gershoff gave her opinion, but was also reporting that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended in a new policy statement published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, November 1, 2018, that “parents not spank, hit or slap their children.”
I believe the Bible is the Word of God and what Gershoff wrote clashes with scripture. It also contradicts what I see with my own eyes with years of experience. As spanking has diminished good behavior in children and adults has also decreased. She says, however, in her first line that “years of research have shown that spanking children is ineffective and potentially harmful,” and later that “spanking does not make children better behaved in the long run, and in fact makes their behavior worse.” My instant thought is, “what planet is she living on?”
It is easy to see that Gershoff is spewing her own propaganda for whatever reason, especially evidenced by both this statement,
[W]e need to stop hitting our children in the name of discipline. And yes — spanking is just a euphemism for “hitting children.” We do not allow adults to hit each other, but for some reason American society has decided it should be legal and even desirable for adults to hit children. We need to end this double standard and provide children with the same protection from hitting that is given to all adults.
and these ones,
We consistently find that the more a child is spanked, the more aggressive he or she will be in the future.
Spanking also teaches children that it is acceptable to use physical force to get what you want. It is thus no surprise that the more children are spanked, the more likely they are to be aggressive or to engage in delinquent behaviors like stealing.
These are false statements. Calling spanking, “hitting children,” and comparing adults hitting each other, are atrocious, abhorrent lies. It is a serious attack on God, the Bible, the Christian faith, Christian parents, and religious freedom. Spanking is not hitting children. It does not encourage or cause violent behavior. It is just the opposite. Children, who are not spanked, are far more greatly out of control, and more likely to get violent with others.
I don’t trust the studies. They are disputing scripture, flying in the face of God. I do. not. think or believe that children, who are not spanked as a form of child discipline, are better behaved. A lot of the “studies” or “research” of psychiatrists and in the social scientists are junk science. I’m saying they are not science. They are fake. This has been proven many times. Very often the “studies” or “research” contradicts each other. There are many examples, but even the Smithsonian in a massive project proves that more than half of psychological studies, when replicated, got different results.
It’s actually worse than “they’re wrong.” When they’ve been wrong, people have moved to follow their “science.” They’ve been given the respect of science. People have to change now, because their studies show. They don’t, and they can be proven wrong. Most of the time, their false results proceed from their own presuppositions. They want to find a result, so they do. People don’t want a God, so they use “science” to prove He doesn’t exist. Studies show. Studies showed that self-esteem was important and we entered the self-esteem era, ruining children and people, and now they say, we were wrong, so we live in a narcissistic society. Ooops. A generation of parents did it wrong, telling their children how great they were, speculating about every possible problem due to low self esteem. Meanwhile, horrific damage. No children think they are as great and wonderful as American children.
“Studies” have to be done. People have to prove they are studious and students. It helps if someone can come up with something new that no one has heard before. It proves how smart the student is. He found this. No one else had. It doesn’t make you look smarter to say, this is something people have known for centuries and it works, so keep doing it.
Gershoff is a progressive. This is the curse of progressivism, where people think that they will progess, in their own depraved, proud thinking. They think we’re evolving and we need to progress to evolve further. It is also at the base of Marxism and almost entirely of these “social sciences.” They have been given the elevated status of “science,” what scripture calls “science false so called” or how we would put today, “so-called science” (1 Timothy 6:20-21). Observations of men are not superior to revelation of God.
I do believe that parents abuse their children in the name of spanking and religion. They don’t follow the biblical pattern. I believe far more unbelievers, who don’t believe in spanking, actually abuse their children and do not get in trouble for it. Their children become criminals and murderers and they take no responsibility, because they did the favored thing of not spanking and trusting the government institutions for the behavior of their children, “taking a village,” code language for “not taking responsibility.” They’re fools.
Enemies of the biblical way latch a hold of any parent who does a bad job of parenting, that uses spanking as one of the methods as proof that it’s a bad way. No, it’s one bad parent, who really isn’t following the biblical way. Abusive methods abound, even abuses of spanking. Yes, parents can “beat” their children and “hit” them, but this is not related to biblical spanking.
Something Gershoff is very happy about is that there is less spanking today, giving her encouragement that the world can be rid of spanking totally, even as the title of the article explains. She seems to be encouraging the forces against spanking to keep up their good work, their war against spanking. There is less of it. Governing regions and institutions have done away with it, made it illegal. She celebrates that and is calling for more regulation against. She wants to stop it. She wants to take away the right, criminalize it.
Why is there less spanking? It’s not because the state has done a good job of persuading. It hasn’t. There is less of it, because there is less obedience to God, less Christianity. It’s hard to be a good parent. It takes discipline of the parent to discipline of children. There is more laziness. In general, there is more sin, and that’s why there is less spanking. I foresee more sinning and less good parenting, less spanking. It is a symptom of more falsehood, turning away from God, more apostasy. It does not portend for anything good in the future, only evil.
Brother Brandenburg, I am glad someone is teaching this. There are so many important promises tied to proper discipline.
Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
(17) Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Proverbs 23:13-14 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. (14) Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
And others. Clearly, the correction of the Bible is beating with the rod (Proverbs 23:13).
My only problem with what you wrote is you contradicts the biblical definition of correction. You say, "Yes, parents can "beat" their children and "hit" them, but this is not related to biblical spanking."
You should say, "Yes, parents can "spank" their children and "hit" them, but this is not related to biblical beating."
The Bible never says to spank your children. The only physical discipline it ever mentions is beating them with a rod. Spank could include using a belt, your hands, a shoe, a hairbrush, a ping-pong paddle, or whatever. But there is no promise associated with any of those things.
The Bible never says, "The belt and reproof give wisdom." It never refers to "The hairbrush of correction." It never says, "If thou spankest him with the ping-pong paddle…thou shalt deliver his soul from hell."
The only Biblical physical discipline is to beat with a rod. It is not spanking. If you spank with a belt (paddle, shoe, etc) you cannot claim any of these promises. They are only given to those who beat with a rod.