On Christianity, Fundamentalism, Spanking, And What Constitutes Child Abuse

On 2009-04-11 07:55:13 -0400, Crash Karr said:

All of these conclusions seem to have implications for children
placed in a fundamentalist Christian environment. Associated Content, in
a May 2007 posting, The Effects of the "No Spanking Law" on Child Abuse
in Sweden, discusses a law passed in Sweden in the 1970's that made
spanking a civil offence. Before the law, the family violence child
death rate in 1970 was 18%. In recent years it has been 0%. By 1981,
only 26% of Swedish parents supported spanking. Now it is less than 11%.
In 1996, there were 57 reported cases of child abuse per 100,000 people.
At the same time in the US that figure stood at 4,500/100,000.

http://domesticworkerscreening.com/6...ild-Abuse.html

Crashing

Karrs has got you a little dizzy, my friend. I don't have an argument
with there being a major problem with physical abuse of children by
Fundamentalists in America, but your statistics are way beyond reality,
and do no good for your credibility.

According to the Census, the population of the USA on 7/1/96 was
265,228,572. 26% were children, or 68,959,429. 1.5% were confirmed to
have been abused by Child Protective Services, but only 24% of these
were physical abuse, yielding a total of 248,254. That gives you a rate
of 278 per 100,000. Way to many, but an awfully long ways from your
figure of 4,500 per 100,000.

May I also point out that if "the family violence death rate in 1970
was 18%," there would have been no living children in Sweden in 6 years?

Paul

Most compelling of all reasons not to spank are the following (which can be verified by people who were actually spanked themselves by doing a little research):


"Even without sexual motives on the part of the punisher, spanking can interfere with a child's normal sexual and psychological development. Because the buttocks are so close to the genitals and so multiply linked to sexual nerve centers, slapping them can trigger powerful and involuntary sensations of sexual pleasure. This can happen even in very young children, and even in spite of great, clearly upsetting pain."
Tom Johnson Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children

“...The buttocks are the locus for the induction of pain in a child. We are familiar with the argument that it is a safe ‘locus’ for spanking. However, the anal region is also the major erotic region at precisely the time the child is likely to be beaten there. Thus it is aptly chosen to achieve the result of deranged sexuality in adulthood...” 1971 (p. 113)

David Bakan, Slaughter of the Innocents,1971 (p. 113)


“Advocates of corporal punishment in schools should examine very carefully the weight of evidence now available and, particularly in light of the pornographic component, consider whether they can justify the continuation of a system with such a capacity for exciting unhealthy interest.”
British Psychological Society, “Report on Corporal Punishment in Schools” (1980)

“But what you would not so readily believe upon my affirmation, was that there are persons who are stimulated to venery by strokes of rods, and worked up into a flame of lust by blows... A strange instance what a power the force of education has in grafting inveterate ill habits on our morals...”

Johann Heinrich Meibom, physician, 1629


Unpleasant as this information is, we do our children a great disservice when we fail to acknowledge its truth.

Had we not turned a blind eye to the unpleasant phenomena of clergy abuse of children 40-50 years ago, many children would have been spared its consequences.


To learn more about this issue, visit www.nospank.net

Just a FEW trying to educate the public on why you shouldn't hit your kids:


American Academy of Pediatrics

Center for Effective Discipline

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Christians For Non-Violent Parenting

Parenting in Jesus' Footsteps
- www.parentinginjesusfootsteps.org

Global Initiative to End All
Corporal Punishment of Children

PsycHealth, Ltd.,
Behavioral Health Professionals

Originally Posted by PDeverit

Just a FEW trying to educate the public on why you shouldn't hit your kids:


American Academy of Pediatrics

Center for Effective Discipline

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Christians For Non-Violent Parenting

Parenting in Jesus' Footsteps
- www.parentinginjesusfootsteps.org

Global Initiative to End All
Corporal Punishment of Children

PsycHealth, Ltd.,
Behavioral Health Professionals

Thanks to share this nice informative post with us.