Christocentric

Nothing infuriates me more about the topic of spanking children than hearing people say, “if you spank your children – you’re abusing them!” Also when they say, “children who are spanked become more angry, aggressive, and violent.” And the clincher: “According to leading sociologists, spankings may lower a child’s IQ.”  Really now?  According to a new study by University of New Hampshire sociologist, Murray Straus, spanking will not only make a child more aggressive and less trusting of the parent, but will lower the IQ by five points! A finding that I tried very hard not to laugh at.

Well, there’s a country that is putting this recent study and all other statistics and grumblings to shame: Singapore! Why Singapore? I just found it interesting that in a country that’s known for it’s low crime rate (7.15 per 1000 compared to 80 per 1000 for the US) and math scores higher that our country’s scores , that it practices corporal punishment.  It’s citizens can experience this form of discipline called caning from early childhood through college, and most notably in its prisons as well!

What is caning? In terms of Singapore’s use of caning, it is described in Wikipedia as:

“a form of corporal punishment in primary and, especially, secondary schools, and also in one or two post-secondary colleges, to maintain strict discipline in school. This is only applicable to male students. The punishment is administered formally in the British schoolboy caning style.”  (And that style is usually a cane sometimes soaked in water and administered to the buttocks.) see Wikipedia

Only to males students? Just imagine if the boys in our country would be caned for discipline problems. Would we even have gangs today? Would teachers be spending so much time in classrooms trying to restore order instead of actual teaching? It’s so interesting that in our country where corporal punishment is nonexistent in most schools, that we have just as many discipline problems – aggression from boys and even girls!

If modern sociologists were correct in spankings lowering IQ’s then Singapore should be the dumbest nation in the world! But it isn’t and that fact alone should immediately prove our US sociologists are the dumb ones for even coming up with such fallacious reports.

Singapore seems to be a country closest to the model of biblical discipline, in spite of it being mostly Buddhist nation.  What does the word of God say we should do in disciplining our children?

Proverbs 13:24
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

Proverbs 22:15
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

The rod is an instrument to inflict pain, a message that Singapore gets.  America doesn’t and we are spending hours and hours of wasted time trying to “reason” with a child who’s mind isn’t even fully developed to even comprehend why they are acting up to begin with!  Case in point: a woman shared in one of the forums of the spanking discussions that she had told her toddler not to run into the streets and reasoned with them that they could get hit by a car.  The child acknowledged her and as soon as the mother turned around the child darted into the street ANYWAYS! The mother caught the child in time and gave her a spanking. Her child did get THAT message and didn’t run into the streets again!  This mother shared that if her child didn’t get spanked for disobeying her, she could be dead!

The instructions to discipline a child still come with much responsibility as a parent needs the wisdom to determine WHEN a child needs to be spanked.  As a mother of five children who were all spanked to some degree, the rule of thumb was to discipline when a child disobeyed or acted in defiance.  Some of my children a mere ‘no’ was sufficient and at times just a tap would do before the child was sobbing in deep remorse.  Some of my more strong-willed children needed more stringent discipline which required a “beating” with a belt or paddle.  Not beat to injury, but beat to inflict pain.

My methods of spanking varied from the pulling of the pants down, underwear left on so not to humiliate the naked child but also to prevent bruising, to a tap on the hand for my less temperamental children.  Usually a red bottom would result from the spanking, redness that’s gone from the next day.  Of course, if a child went to school and the teachers would ever see redness on the behind, that would more than likely result in a child abuse charge but I always told my children they would have to arrest me to keep me from spanking them!  Not one of my five children ever called 911 on me either!

Those five children are either graduated from college, or in college right now.  One of my five is working on her Master’s degree.  I am a college graduate and so is my Ph.D dad who did most of the spanking in the family and as a man who was also spanked as a child.  None of us have ever been to jail for being overly aggressive.  In fact if you talked to most people who’ve ever received a spanking or gave spankings, in most of those cases they also came out quite normal with their intelligence in tact!

Somehow those sociological reports just don’t add up.  We Americans spank less (because of the fear of child abuse charges and the ridiculous brainwashing that somehow reasoning with a temper tantrum throwing child is more beneficial), yet we have more crime.  We don’t use corporal punishment, yet our students have some of the lowest academic scores for us to be such an industrialized nation.

Now I would never advocate the same type of caning that the Singapore prison system uses, but discipline that makes use of an object to inflict pain and not injury and done consistently would make quite an effective mode of discipline.  And discipline only for the child that needs it as not all children even need to be spanked.

If we need an example of what happens when the rod is taken away, we needn’t look further than our own nation which is leaving biblical principles further and further behind.

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UPDATE 1/04/10

Study: Spanked Children May Grow Up to Be Happier, More Successful – Fox News

The following excerpt is from Obama’s speech at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington D.C. yesterday (Transcript here):

“You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.”

Obama has tried to come off as a person who merely wants the homosexual to be treated fairly, which most of us also desire. But that fair treatment is taken a step further into biblical compromise when Obama clearly equates their relationships as the same as a relationship between a man and a woman.   Outside of the Bible this doesn’t really mean anything, but when one calls himself a Christian, certain expectations are present – and that is the expectation that a Christian believes what the bible says!

President Obama shows his disdain for the scriptures by calling upon us all to admire that which God calls an abomination and shameful:

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” Leviticus 18:22

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. ²⁷ Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” Romans 1:26-27

This isn’t the first time that Obama has shown contempt at biblical commandments.  At least he’s consistent to what he wrote in his best-selling book, “The Audacity of Hope.” In that book he considers the verses above in Romans as “obscure” while somehow hinting that the Sermon on the Mount supports homosexual civil unions.

“I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitations or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.” p 222.

Video where Obama claims obscurity of Romans passage in the bible (audio is a little off):

He goes on to say in that same book on homosexuality:

“I was reminded that no matter how much Christians who oppose homosexuality may claim that they hate the sin but love the sinner, such a judgment inflicts pain on good people — people who are made in the image of God, and who are often truer to Christ’s message than those who condemn them.” p 223

These are the words of a man chosen to be PRESIDENT of the USA! If a man believes that hating the sin instead of the sinner is still hurtful, then that says it all as far as his work regarding homosexuality is concerned.  His heart rules instead of God’s word and we can imagine that all of his work for the gay community as president will be centered upon not “hurting” the homosexual. His poor theology will guide decisions in the White House. That will affect the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), the DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell), the human rights bills, same-sex marriage and on and on.  That’s why it’s so important that we don’t separate what a man personally believes about God from his work life.

Now that the honeymoon may appear to be over and people aren’t falling all over Obama as they once were, perhaps now they can see that Obama is not the man of God that he calls himself to be.  Calling abominable acts of perversion as admirable will make anyone who loves the Bible wonder how this man can call himself a Christian!

Rich Ross (Getty)

If anyone has been bothered by Disney’s Gay Days at their theme parks, then perhaps we’ll have even more to wonder with the selection of an openly gay man to head their movie studio. This is a man who’s been partnered with another man, Adam Sanderson, for over 20 years.

Rich Ross isn’t new to Disney as he had been heading the Disney Channel, even responsible for discovering the Jonas Brothers. He is credited for reviving the Disney Channel and turning it from a little kiddie’s only TV station to a channel that attracts the pre-teens and teens with popular shows such as Hannah Montana and High School Musical.  His expertise has launched the careers of Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, and Shia LaBeouf – just to name a few.

Questions abound like: will Ross handle the movie studio as he’s handled the children’s TV station – with more traditional values or will he make this an opportunity for more gay themed movies?  Will there be more Gay Days at the theme parks or gay themes incorporated into the Disney brand? Just a couple of questions that I have about a name brand I grew to love but now am very saddened in how things are changing in the land of Disney.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Disney isn’t making a big noise about the fact their new chief is gay. It could be that it won’t make any difference in the way he handles business or it could mean that they don’t want folks to know he’s gay because of possible backlash.

This is interesting news and for this to be a secular business, my view is to just wait and see.

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References

Disney’s Rich Ross: Hollywood’s first openly gay studio chairman – Los Angeles Times

Rich Ross had a Mouse ear for ‘tween’ talent – Los Angeles Times