Enlighten Me

How would Dr. Sears explain this verse?


Do not hold back discipline from the child
Although you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
YOU SHALL BEAT HIM WITH THE ROD, AND DELIVER HIS SOUL FROM SHEOL.

Proverbs 23: 13-14

echidna

Now if my father were to strap me down & beat me until my back bled, I think I might use those words. But a few smacks which are painless 30 minutes later, no, that needs to be put in context.

If you use the words "cold clooded assault" to describe a smack, what words do you choose to describe a gang beating which ends with the victim in hospital ?

Presumably a quick clip over the ear would also be a "cold blooded assault" ? A push to move a child away from the lolly shelf of the supermarket is maybe also a "cold blooded assault" ?

This is where I find that Political Correctness borders on a secular version of the Ten Commandments.

sugarbeth

Hmmm...it doesn't say "beat" in the translation I have...it says "punish".

In any case, I wonder if fundies would beat the baby Jesus with rods.

Enlighten Me

My edition is The New American Standard....

The AntiChris

So nothing less than a vicious "gang beating" is worthy of the description "cold blooded assault"?

It seems to me that what you described fits the description perfectly.

I, too, remember the terrifying wait for the "painless smacks" and, like you, I understood what I'd done wrong, but unlike you, I knew it was an inappropriate response. Unfortunately this permanently affected the respect I had for my father who was basically a good man.

I hope you never have the "urge to smack".

Chris

Leesifer

I don't usually respond to upper forums - just lurk.

However, after having been smacked occasionally by my parents as a child and caned at secondary school, I don't believe this has had any negative affect on me whatsoever.

In fact, I was more pissed off that I was innocent when I got caned at school, rather than the caning itself.

[edited 'cos I'm an eejit]

MollyMac

Echidna, you seem to be suggesting that I am misusing the English language. I am not. The verb 'assault' means to deliberately inflict offensive physical contact and the noun covers a broad range of behaviour. Under UK law the most minor assaults are charged as 'common assaults' and they range from spitting at someone to giving them an open-handed slap or a shove - anything which does not result in a physical injury such as a bruise or a graze.
The term 'cold blooded' in this context simply means pre-meditated or not done in the heat of the moment.

When we assault our own children we use special words like 'smack' and 'spank' in order to sanitise the act, to make it sound like something less than it is. But if a complete stranger walked up to the first person in the queue at a bus stop and slapped them hard on their bare arm, leg, or anywhere else - wouldn't the victim be entitled to say they'd been assaulted?
Or should they just be dismissed as being too 'politically correct'?
What if the assailant is a big burly bloke and the victim a fragile 80 year old woman? Why is it OK to hit small people just because they are our children?


I had a boyfriend beat the shit out of me once and I don't think this had any negative effect on me whatsoever.

So is that all right then?

Leesifer

Of course that's not alright but we are talking about smacking a child here.

Please don't assume that I would think somebody getting the shit kicked out of them as being alright.

MollyMac

I didn't assume it, but your point seems to be that corporal punishment of children is OK because it doesn't inevitably have a long-term negative effect. So why shouldn't this argument extend to any act of violence?

You might argue that a more serious beating is much more likely to have a negative effect than just a slap and you'd be right. But as you said, we are talking about hitting a child. A CHILD. Might there not also be a possibility that on a younger, smaller, weaker, more vulnerable, more dependent etc. etc. human being , a much lesser assault could also just about conceivably have a negative effect? Who are we to generalise just on the basis of our own personal experience?

Maybe my example was too extreme. Here's a milder one: my boyfriend slapped me because I did something that angered him. Is that all right?


edited to correct typos

Mike Rosoft

I was sometimes physically punished by my parents. And I don't believe that it was a good way to run a family; it taught me that violence is an acceptable way of dealing with people, and encouraged me to treat my younger brother similarly.


Mike Rosoft