By 
Spare the Rod – Spoil the Child has reached new heights of sadistic and barbaric torture of children. A device called “The Rod” is made in Oklahoma, for the sole purpose of whipping babies and children on their bare skin. The device is sold together with specific and explicit manuals such as: “To educate a child” and “Shepherding a child’s heart” [both sold at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble] that recommend spanking babies one year of age or younger.
“The Rod” is touted as the next best thing since sliced bread. It is sold as the ideal tool for child training. Child training? It sounds more like someone is talking about training an animal, but animal cruelty is considered a crime, so you won’t see “the stick” advertised for training your dog. If a person hits an animal with “The Rod” as intended, those who administered or allowed the abuse to be administered would be arrested for cruelty.
The ad for “The Rod” cites the following features and benefits:
Characteristic:
o Flexible nylon rod: leaves the right amount of sting without injury
o Padded vinyl grip (made for bike handle): easy on parent’s hands and prevents strain on hand/arm muscles
o Balanced: ensures accuracy
o Lightweight: your hand/arm does not get tired during use
o Safety tip: prevent the nylon from developing rough edges
o Convenient – fits easily into a purse or diaper bag
o Affordable – buy one for the kitchen, bedroom, car, wherever
o Unbreakable: will last a lifetime
o Guaranteed: satisfaction or your money back
Benefits:
o Spoons are for cooking
o The belts are to hold the pants
o Hands are for loving
o Rods are for punishment – Proverbs 23:13-14 AND Proverbs 22:15.
Those who believe that punishment is recommended in the Bible, specifically in the book of Proverbs, have misunderstood the Bible. There is a distinction between the practice in King Solomon’s day of hitting people on the back and the modern American habit of hitting, punishing and spanking children on the buttocks. The latter is not prescribed anywhere in the Bible. Furthermore, it should be noted that the Old Testament contains passages that could be (and in some cases have been) interpreted as divine endorsements of wife-beating, race warfare, slavery, stoning to death of rebellious children, and other behaviors that they are outrageous by today’s standards. As Shakespeare once wrote: “The devil can quote the Scriptures for his own purpose.”
Punishment, also known as hitting/switching/spanking/corporal punishment, can weaken a survivor’s immune system according to Dr. Frank Putnam of the National Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Martin Teicher of Harvard Medical School. Putnam conducted studies of 170 girls, ages 6 to 15 (half had been subjected to ‘corporal punishment’, the other half had not) over seven years. The abused girls presented symptoms such as:
o Abnormally high stress hormones, which can kill neurons in areas of the brain crucial for thinking and memory
o High levels of an antibody that weakens the immune system
Teicher completed a series of brain studies on 402 children and adults, many of whom had been physically abused. His findings revealed that physical abuse creates:
o Stunted growth of the left hemisphere of the brain which can hinder the development of language and logic
o Growth of the right hemisphere of the brain (the site of emotion) at an abnormally early age
The result of a weakened immune system includes more profound and rarely recognized physical side effects such as: vaginal, ovarian, prostate, testicular, or breast cancer, PMS, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, to name a few of the most common diseases. prominent as a result of surviving physical abuse. Louise Hay in her book Heal Your Body: Mental Causes of Physical Illness and Metaphysical Ways to Overcome Them, cited her own vaginal cancer as an example of a weakened immune system due to physical/sexual abuse and how metaphysical healing can heal the body.
Our laws and our cultural values are unequivocal about adults physically attacking or verbally threatening adults. Such behavior is recognized as criminal and we hold offenders accountable. So why, when the stakes are so high for society, do we accept the convoluted thinking and excuses of child molesters, all in the name of religion?
Why do we become interested in the needs of children only after they have been terribly victimized, or have become criminals who victimize others?
The answer is not complicated. People cannot empathize with abused children until they can honestly acknowledge the abuse from their own childhood experiences and examine the shortcomings of their parents. To the extent that they feel compelled to defend their parents and keep their secrets, they will do the same for others. They will look the other way. They will continue to use the misunderstood biblical passage. By continually insisting that “it turned out okay,” they reassure themselves and divert their attention from deeply unpleasant hidden memories.
That’s why, when someone says, “‘spanking/punishing’ is abuse,” many people react as if a door locked from childhood has been flung open. This unconscious barricaded door has prevented them from committing the most dangerous and unforgivable act of disloyalty imaginable, disloyalty to their parents. They fear that by opening the door to the truth they will fall into an abyss, abandoned and deprived of any possibility of reconciliation with the parents they love. Fear is irrational. Denial, about what was done to you and now what you are doing and allowing to be done to this generation, is the present danger and the real sin.
The following books are excellent resources for healthy parenting:
-Case Against Spanking, Irwin Hyman
-No spanking or pampering, Elizabeth Crary
-Instead of Spanking-1001 Alternatives, Vol. 2, Ada Maurer
-Discipline without shooting or whipping, Jerry Wyckoff
-One hundred and one alternatives to scolding, yelling or spanking, Alvin Price
We are responsible:
“Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.” -Sartre
“We are not only responsible for what we do, but also for what we do not do.”
–Voltaire
“The worst way you can choose is to choose neither.” –Frederick II
“Every choice we make, every thought and feeling we have, is an act of power that has biological, environmental, social, personal and global consequences.” –Carolina Myss
It is time to do everything possible to stop the sanctioned and barbaric practice of child abuse, disguised as a biblical mandate.