Just checked it. Gawd, what a disgusting emanation from a collection of sadistic bastards! And they're so damned self-righteous about it! I don't see anything remotely Christian about that catalog of so-called "Biblical" discipline of children.

My criterion for what is "Christian" is what Jesus is supposed to have said. Not anything from the Old Testament, or from Paul, or from "John the Revelator." Just the "red letter" editions of the Gospels. And considering the research that some theologians have done lately (the "Q Gospel" research project into the presumed authenticity of the sayings of Jesus) I don't take the Gospels as Gospel. If the teachings of Jesus are consistent at all, I can't see his condoning anything like that kind of corporal punishment for children. And if he didn't, it can't be justified as "Christian." It's just somebody else's half-assed idea--as is so much of what some people are trying to claim is "Christian."

I think it's been fairly well established that corporal punishment of children produces adults who are a whole lot less averse to using violence when it suits their purpose. They're taught right from the start by their parents that physical violence is acceptable behavior.

When a person--or a nation--resorts to violence, it's because they have lost control of both the situation and themselves.

Don Firth