Sale of spanking tool points up larger issue [BARF ALERT]

The Boston Globe ^ | Monday, January 10, 2005 | Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

[Momaw Nadon]

ARLINGTON -- On a spring day, Susan Lawrence was flipping through a magazine, Home School Digest, when she came across an advertisement that took her breath away. In it, ''The Rod," a $5 flexible whipping stick, was described as the ''ideal tool for child training."

''Spoons are for cooking, belts are for holding up pants, hands are for loving, and rods are for chastening," read the advertisement she saw nearly two years ago for the 22-inch nylon rod. It also cited a biblical passage, which instructs parents not to spare the ''rod of correction."

The ad shocked Lawrence, a Lutheran who home-schools her children and opposes corporal punishment. She began a national campaign to stop what she sees as the misuse of the Bible as a justification for striking children. She also asked the federal government to deem The Rod hazardous to children, and ban the sale of all products designed for spanking. Lawrence says striking children violates the Golden Rule from the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament: ''In everything do to others as you would have them do to you."

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Spanking is not attacking and violently hurting somebody

Yes, it is. As the recipient of several beatings, I can attest to that. And if there's a difference between a spanking, a beating, or a swat - my parents didn't know it. The slightest mess-up would bring on a beating.

[ocos]

I to was spanked and my parents knew the dirrerence. I would say to you that a parent who flies off the handle is abusive period, probably in more ways that just physically.....