VIEW FROM THE TOP
LELAND ACKER chreporter@mediactr.com
Is it good to spank a misbehaving child? Or does it damage their self esteem and instill a spirit of violence in them? This question will be brought to the forefront of the debate on proper child-rearing because California Assembly woman Sally Lieber has outlined a bill which would ban spanking children younger than four years old.

Okay, let's focus. Forget the fact that Ms. Lieber is not a mother. Forget that this bill infringes on the rights of parents to rear their children the way they see fit. We will not even discuss the vortex of trouble for which this bill could set as a precedent. No, today, we will discuss the faulty logic behind this bill.

After reviewing articles from the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Bay area's "NBC 11," the only logic I can find given for this bill is that there is "no reason to slap a child under threeyears old." Ms. Leiber's Web site makes no mention of the bill.

Bear in mind that we are not discussing child abuse. We are discussing spanking, a process which involves slapping a child on the gluteus maximus. There is a difference between spanking and abuse.

Since "there is no reason to slap a child" does not really qualify as logic, here's Biblical logic on this issue.

Proverbs 23:13-14 says, "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."

This verse teaches us that if we spank our children when they deserve it (i.e. when they need correction), they (1) will not die and (2) their souls shall be delivered from hell.

When I spank my daughter, she yells like she is going to die. Sometimes the neighbors think she is going to die, but she will not. I spank her only in times when the situation calls for it (such as when she went too far in a fight with her brother). Since my spankings consists of three swats on the behind, I know she will not die.

The other promise in this verse is that their souls shall be delivered from hell. "Hell" means the grave. If you see your child playing in the middle of U.S. 69, you need to spank them. Through the course of Godly parenting that involves spanking according to the Bible, the child will hopefully be saved.

However, this does not mean go overboard and spank the child continually, as Ephesians 6:3 tells us "not to provoke our children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."