Here's a sad case. I know of a 20 yr old upc raised young man who spanked his 2 yr old daughter. apparently to hard. The closed fist to the thigh broke her leg.
I visited this kid in county jail for over a year while he was going thru the legal system (Illinois) His mother goes to my church, he actually goes/went to a neighboring upc.
This was his first offense.
During the trial the wife did state that he had spanked the child once beofre to hard and left bruising.
Long and short of it in illinois causing harm to a chiild is a class X felony.
He was sentenced o 11 years in Prison and under Illinois law he will do 85% of that sentence or about 8 years.
He was acrive in his church and in fact had just come in from teaching a home bible study.
My thoughts are that the harsh sentence was over the top for a first time offense.
At his trial the court gallery was full of long hair and long dress's from his church and they played up that he was a good boy, a good Christian.
The "hey, I'm a Christian" did'nt set well the judge, who could have given him the minimum sentence of 6 years.
He's been in State prison 6 hours away from his family now for about two years.
If this dad had been attacked by either a stranger or someone he was familiar with, he would have probably pressed charges.
He would have expected the court system to work "for" him.
To say the bible doesn't teach spanking is error. It does say use a rod which was a switch like thing that would be flexable causing pain but not injury. I use the belt, left welts a few times, ain't gonna kill em.
Proverbs 23:14 (Whole Chapter)
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell
Proverbs 23:13 (Whole Chapter)
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die
30The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.
TS, there are several--okay, MANY--practices of punishment and discipline in the Old Testament that we do not participate in. We can take the gist of them as a guideline, but unless you plan on stoning the next fornicator you come across, then save it.
The guts of those verses is that withholding discipline or training will harm a child, and if you do discipline the child, it can save him from destruction. I obviously agree with that. But if you take verse 30 literally, then you are saying it's okay to leave bruises (wounds/blueness), and "stripes." I don't believe that is necessary, fruitful, effective, and it certainly isn't a good WITNESS in a day and age when such acts do not portray gentleness. (a fruit of the spirit)
Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't see Jesus beating a child, and leaving stripes and bruises. We are living in an age of grace and mercy, and whatever discipline a CHRISTIAN parent offers should be firm, but also reflective of our theology. Children learn about their future relationship with God from their present relationship with their parents--especially their father.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
TS, there are several--okay, MANY--practices of punishment and discipline in the Old Testament that we do not participate in. We can take the gist of them as a guideline, but unless you plan on stoning the next fornicator you come across, then save it.
The guts of those verses is that withholding discipline or training will harm a child, and if you do discipline the child, it can save him from destruction. I obviously agree with that. But if you take verse 30 literally, then you are saying it's okay to leave bruises (wounds/blueness), and "stripes." I don't believe that is necessary, fruitful, effective, and it certainly isn't a good WITNESS in a day and age when such acts do not portray gentleness. (a fruit of the spirit)
Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't see Jesus beating a child, and leaving stripes and bruises. We are living in an age of grace and mercy, and whatever discipline a CHRISTIAN parent offers should be firm, but also reflective of our theology. Children learn about their future relationship with God from their present relationship with their parents--especially their father.
WOW! I know wisdom when I see it and you are full of it Miss B
Thanx for a great post.
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God has lavished his love upon me.
Not as indepth as I know she's done, I was good friends with her while she was writing her book (http://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Paren...reative=380737) although have drifted over time. I got to read a lot of the stuff before she published her book though, very good stuff IMO.
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You become free from who you have become, by becoming who you were meant to be. ~Mark from another forum I post on
God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. ~Romans 3:24 from The Message
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