This isn’t long enough for a full post, but one of the more interesting additions to the Baptist Faith and Message after the fundamentalist takeoever of the Southern Baptist Convention was the following (adopted in 1998):
Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth [emphasis mine].
Notice again, the subtle replacement of the traditional Baptist hermeneutic with the vague appeal to “biblical truth,” substituting rote obedience to one’s pastor for a prayerful, personal walk with Christ.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. So, what is this “loving discipline” the SBC speaks of? Well, the verse they cite in support is Proverbs 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
Now, the faithful, contextually aware reader will immediately recognize the reference to the shepherd’s staff and the shepherd/flock imagery that abounds throughout the Bible.
Another might see the analogue between this parent’s rod and the heavenly father’s rod of judgment (Cf. Psalm 2:9, Revelation 2:27, etc.).
The “literal” Southern Baptist reader, of course, reads this and naturally decides that the passage means he is required to beat his children with sticks. Out of Christian love.
I could quote verse after verse, and write out an entire journal article, or three, on how this interpretation is not consistent with the witness of Christ (the standard by which the SBC used to interpret scripture).
But, as any good author knows, showing is usually more effective than telling. So, for all my evangelical friends who believe they are biblically obligated to spank their children, please do the following:
Google* the term “spanking.” Take a look around at the results (both websites and images). Now answer me one simple question: Is this a good, healthy, biblical, Christian way to discipline** your kids?
Clearly, it isn’t. Or, as I like to say to parents who ask my advice, “of course I believe in spanking – just not children.”
That tends to get the point across.
*First make sure that “safe search” is turned off. You’ll want a full and accurate idea of what you’re dealing with here.
**Not only is spanking an inappropriate form of childhood discipline, the American Academy of Pediatrics has found it to be woefully ineffective.
