But this article was so disturbing because it wasn’t that. It was like a Limbaugh or Robertson screed put together in cold, calculating political fashion to justify the unjustifiable and make human the inhumane.

Why thank you! I imagine that comes mainly from being treated as extraordinary? ;-)

And, you probably noticed the irony in the New American article, too:

This is why we must never, in the name of “science,” dispense with what G.K. Chesterton called “that forgotten branch of psychology”: common sense.

So, even while citing the “science” (quotes, his) that backs up the author’s itentionally ignorant beliefs, he exalts “common sense” – confirmed by Bible verses, of course – over science. All while crawling crablike toward darkness.

Somehow, I missed that post about Young Son. You have such extraordinary children, you know. :)

It is harder to use reason and logical consequences to parent. I happen to think spanking is the lazy parent’s go-to response.

Good points, Audrey. The reasoned approach also requires perspective, self-control and maturity that not everybody has. Most spanking parents seem to use hitting as a “go-to response” or a “first resort” (as Tom put it) or a way to vent anger.

“There are souls which, crablike, crawl continually toward darkness, going back in life, rather than advancing in it; using what experience they have to increase their deformity; growing worse without ceasing, and becoming steeped more and more thoroughly in an intensifying wickedness.” — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

I’d like to think there’s a natural human progression (as opposed to regression) in each generation being more enlightened and doing less hitting, shaming, controlling and indoctrinating than was done to them.

I’d like to think that, too, JJ. That’s my problem with “timeless” scripture verses that put a grinding halt to that process. :(

why do these folks so often seem to turn out to be religious conservatives?

Good observation. :) You’d think that if spanking was so darned effective, the practice wouldn’t be so limited to one segment of the population.

On occasion, I’ve mentioned that one of the more interesting I found while attending my first Christian homeschooling conventions is the lavish attention given to defending spanking (and condemning homosexuality). Often, discussion of academics took a back seat to the preoccupation with child discipline, especially as it related to the same themes from the article.

This is a messy subject. My three children are all grown now, were (almost) never spanked, and are all good, kind, productive people with no more than the usual quota of issues and problems. Between them, they have three high school diplomas, 2.5 college degrees, 2.5 jobs, 0 criminal records, 0 unwanted pregnancies and 0 STDs. (When I can convince the final one to move out, they will all be perfect, IMHO.)

Only an idiot thinks you can “reason” with a baby or a toddler. However, it does not follow that using violence is the way to raise children. Small children do need to be restrained from time to time, and given plenty of age-appropriate opportunities to learn that actions have consequences.

I suppose that the occasional swat on the backside is unlikely to do serious long-term damage, but there are many problems with this. For one, some people use studies based on mild physical disipline to justify severe beatings (why do these folks so often seem to turn out to be religious conservatives?)–. For another, I am not aware of any study that demonstrates the superiorty of mild physical discipline over intelligent and consistently-applied non-violent measures. I strongly suspect that the “odd swat” theory of discipline is proportionately just as bad as a severe beating, but that (being mild intead of horrific) the bad results are too minor to be measurable. Finally, I am opposed to teaching children that violence should ever be the first resort for anything, or the subsidiary lesson that might makes right.

Bottom line, spanking, at best, probably doesn’t do anything positive, but has negative effects that vary from negligible to severe.