I’m not advocating parents to beat their children senseless and I do not know the severity of the cases involving the church but I’m guessing it must be bad enough to make news. Although now days even a light swat could be enough for child services.

I doubt anything will happen to the church even if the individual parents are prosecuted. That whole strength in the face of trials thing Christianity advocates makes me believe that even if they get shut down, relocation would be easy enough.

I used to snap my belt and that usually was enough. Even if a weak swat on the butt which didn’t even hurt but hurt their feelings and made them think twice about hurting their little brother of sister again. Spoiled children often never recover, looking for charity rather than work and expecting that life owes them a living.

I say a little swat on the arse does wonders, even though Dr. Spock didn’t agree. From what I have read concerning corporal punishment, as long as the child has clear knowledge that you always love them, such punishment is often later recognized by the child as being a good thing. Never in anger however; maybe an hour later. I called the belt the black surprise “that will dance a little on your pontums (bottom) if you badly misbehave.

I can’t see how religion would fit into this kind of punishment excepting maybe by tradition. Unless such punishments were brutal I believe society should leave child rearing to the parents. The laws are in place but sometimes applied in a trivial manner.

At least that’s my take on it.

your friend forrest

Even if one concedes that the Bible is literally the word of God, in the sense that is inspired by God, it does not mean that that word has to be interpreted literally. It is mere human opinion that the everything written in the Bible is to be taken literally. In fact, no one takes everything in the Bible literally, not even those that claim to do so. If those that claimed to do so actually took everything literally they would be Catholic. The Catholic Church takes literally the words of Christ and claims the Eucharist to be the Body of Christ. On the other hand, the Catholic Church does not take everything in the Bible literally. Other denominations take the same words of Christ symbolically, which means they also do not take everything literally.

Those that take the creation story literally do not take everything else literally, so they actually have no argument. They do not explain how there could be seven days of creation when the day as we know it was created on the fourth day.

It can be demonstrated that a literal interpretation of everything in the Bible is not divinely inspired. If it were then Christ would have taken everything literally; he did not. He was asked about Elijah the prophet coming before the messiah. He responded by saying he had already come. Elijah the prophet had not come. Jesus was referring to John the Baptist. John the Baptist is not literally Elijah. John the Baptist came in the power and spirit of Elijah rather than in person.

If Christ did not take everything literally, though there could be literal interpretation, then it does not seem Christian to take everything literally. In fact some people become unchristian by taking everything literally.