Parenting is highly individualized and each child is unique. The type of discipline one child responds to may not be the type of discipline that another child or even a sibling responds to. To assign one major discipline technique and use it in a cookie cutter approach to discipline and behavior modification is at least dangerous if not abusive. This topic could essentially go in many different directions.
Talking about spanking could lead to parenting styles i. Attachment Parenting , child personality development, conduct disorders, and so forth. The main goal of this section, however, is to discuss the idea of spanking and the dangerous manner in which the Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination teaches and promotes it. I will also be talking about the abusive manner in which the Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination promotes spanking and the parents who blindly follow the instruction without regard to child differences, parenting style or any other unique facet of parenting and child growth and development.
I did a meta-analysis in my Masters Program on spanking and the empirical evidence both against and for spanking is inconclusive at best. I have made the Introduction section of my paper available online. If you would like to read it Click Here to open it in a new window. It is in. One of the things that makes me so angry about this issue is the blatant misuse and misinterpretation of the scripture used to support spanking.
The reason for this misinterpretation is due to the use of the King James Version. But is that were we should stop when interpreting scripture? Absolutely NOT!!! When a group makes a literal interpretation of a verse or a group of verses and neglects to consider them within the contextual theme of the passage, chapter or book, misinterpretations abound. The Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination has made such an error. Taken literally, the Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination promotes the idea of physical punishment as the best means of child discipline.
If you read the context surrounding the major verses used to promote spanking, you can see that there is a different theme to the passage than one of corporal punishment. Furthermore, anyone who has even the least amount of training in child behavior or child development knows that corporal punishment is not only the least effective way to discipline, but also carries with it the risk of backfiring and the risk of abuse.
