In fact, we are on the same page. I am passionately opposed to the corporal punishment of ALL children and greatly admire those countries that have banned corporal punishment.
It was never my intention to justify the spanking of male children.
I was just trying to elucidate the difference between what the Bible says compared to what fundamentalists actually practice.
Incidentally, there is research on spanking in which parents wore sound recordings and spanking behavior was monitored. The results: half the time, parents were angry and were not calm, loving parents administering controlled discipline. Also, parents hit their kids FAR MORE OFTEN than they told researchers. Children were hit when some were seven MONTHS old. Most of the people in this study were female, college educated, and white.
Hitting a smaller, weaker person because the ADULT was angry is nothing but abuse. Pure and simple. Cultural and biblical sanctions do not change this simple fact.
The practice continues because it is convenient for parents.
And it is profoundly damaging to children.
I would never take a literal reading of the Bible as a guide to child rearing.
After all, the Bible is full of genocide, misogyny, and the toleration of slavery, among other things.
I guess what I was trying to point out is the punitiveness of people who want to read more into the Bible than what it actually says.
