THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508040008
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
I write on behalf of all the thousands of children who will be spanked today, many with rods and leather straps, thanks to the writings of Dr. James Dobson, whom you featured in the Daily Break as a Christian psychologist dedicated to the family (``Family Doctor,'' July 25).
I write to parents who think they are following Jesus when physically assaulting their young children: Nowhere does Jesus advocate or condone corporal punishment of children; and the phrase ``spare the rod and spoil the child'' is not a quote from Scripture.
I write as one who knows firsthand the fear, anger, humiliation and depression that come out of the emotional and physical abuse of spanking by parents who thought God wanted them to ``break my will,'' and that I ``asked for it,'' and that they acted from ``Christian love.'' I write as a Christian and ordained Presbyterian minister to say that there are models of family living and child-rearing other than the authoritarian and controlling model espoused by Dr. Dobson.
I write as a parent of four to say that our children need us to be adults who understand and love them, not who label the emergence of their personalities as ``willful disobedience.''
People are not for hitting. That includes our children.
Rev. REBECCA L. KISER-LOWRANCE
Fellowship of the Table
Virginia Beach, July 27, 1995 by CNB