Of corporal punishments and the rhetoric of the West

By Eden Kironde

The liberals in New York recently stunned their conservative counterparts across the US when they legalised abortion up to the point of birth, repealing a 50-year-old law that prohibited abortion beyond 24 weeks unless the woman's life was at risk.

The conservatives referred to this as extreme infanticide especially seeing that under the previous somewhat prohibitive law, approximately 60million babies were aborted. Assuming that for every baby killed a woman's life was at risk, then perhaps pregnancy should be approached with the same caution reserved for smoking, complete with warning signs in public places; "Pregnancy can be harmful to your life".

But that's not the subject matter for this piece; it's rather the rhetoric displayed by the West that I find rather disturbing. The minds that celebrated the passing of the abortion law, are the same that advocate for children's rights so zealously that it makes a parent that has just given their child a Disney world treat come off a tad unloving.

Specifically here at home, the children's rights groups have been very active especially in regard to ending corporal punishment. Their advocacy machine has been very well oiled over the years that in 2016 corporal punishments were banned. Yet this has not dulled their voices at all. At the tail end of last year, a group of child rights NGOs launched a collaborative measure with the main objective of ending violence against children.

Supported by damning stats such as; 94% of girls and 86% of boys that have suffered any form of violence it was first at the hands of a teacher, and the way spanking is portrayed almost as barbaric as Shaka Zulu killings by the stake, these NGOs make some of us that went through this system feel like World War survivors only without the medals and insignia.

But all this begs the question; how can the minds that are celebrating killing babies by the hundreds of thousands per year under the guise of protecting women's rights turn around to champion children's rights? Can the same tree bear both good and bad fruits?

This calls for an extra examination of the merits of the drive against corporal punishment. A quick internet search points to its growing acceptability in various countries as a measure of its success. But while this is good, acceptability has never been the wholesome measure of the success of any ideology/belief or right.

In this case, since the fight against corporal punishments targets children, the quality of life of the children in the communities where spanking was first outlawed should offer us the ideal measure of success. After all, any wisdom is judged by the quality of life of those that adopt it.

What is the quality of life of the children in Sweden, a country that first banned corporal punishments in 1979; are they wiser, more disciplined, more emotionally stable than elsewhere in the world?

In his book Strength of Character, Joseph Kabuleta notes that; "Sweden registered a very sharp rise in teen crime and suicides 14 years later (after banning corporal punishments). Is there a correlation between the two? Of course, there is. But most experts do not think so. They believe the sharp rise in teenage delinquency is because more people report crime these days. Ostensibly many people suffered silently before 1979. Most people will believe it because the experts said so."

Ultimately this is a battle between God's wisdom against the world's wisdom. The Bible calls for the spanking of children and this is stipulated in a couple of verses some of which are highlighted below;

Proverbs 29:15 The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13 Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die

The liberals are firmly against this but Kabuleta highlights the gloomy end of these "rights", "When parenting became too legislated, parents generally left children to their own craft. Many such children turn out emotionally fragile and vulnerable teens who can be drawn into anything destructive, including suicide, to prove their courage."

And Jesus stated that "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." The same people pushing and celebrating wanton abortions cannot be the champions of children's rights. Never.