Here is an article in one of our broadsheets that is passing on findings in America that don't suprise me, but which I am glad are being 'aired'. I have no problem believing that they would be true of children in the UK too.
The issue for me on smacking (and the broader issue of 'discipline') is not so much what 'works' according to somebody's set of criteria they have drawn up and measured in a sample of the population, but rather we need to answer these questions:
what does God requires of parents?
what does God deem to be damaging in a lasting way?
what God says about the dignity and worth of our children?
what does God say about our children's capacity for sin? And how should we handle that?
what does God say our children need?
does this vary with that age of the child? if so, how?
does this vary with the sex and/or temperament of the child?
And then, having answered those questions from his authorative word, the Bible, we should do that immediately, thankfully, in faith and by his Spirit. And we should do it with the attitude and demeanor he requires of us.
And given Hebrews 1:7-11, if we don't then we can expect his disciplining of us!
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