"Home School Digest" Magazine - Advertises "THE ROD" - For "Child Training

[matcom]

<snip>

ARLINGTON -- On a spring day, Susan Lawrence was flipping through a magazine, Home School Digest, when she came across an advertisement that took her breath away. In it, ''The Rod," a $5 flexible whipping stick, was described as the ''ideal tool for child training."

''Spoons are for cooking, belts are for holding up pants, hands are for loving, and rods are for chastening," read the advertisement she saw nearly two years ago for the 22-inch nylon rod. It also cited a biblical passage, which instructs parents not to spare the ''rod of correction."

The ad shocked Lawrence, a Lutheran who home-schools her children and opposes corporal punishment. She began a national campaign to stop what she sees as the misuse of the Bible as a justification for striking children. She also asked the federal government to deem The Rod hazardous to children, and ban the sale of all products designed for spanking. Lawrence says striking children violates the Golden Rule from the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament: ''In everything do to others as you would have them do to you."

Her effort exemplifies the passionate debate among Americans over the role of corporal punishment in modern child-rearing and highlights the clashing interpretations of religion that underlie many cultural divisions in the United States.

Where some see a time-honored form of discipline, others see a sanctioned type of child abuse. Both sides cite biblical passages and scholarly pediatric research to back their views, as well as anecdotal evidence of children who went astray because of too little -- or too much -- spanking.

MUCH MORE:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/10/campaigner_targets_spanking_tools_sale/

[alexisfree]

1. that shit really hurts!!!!!

[Maddy McCall]

2. Yay for Susan. I homeschool, and of all the homeschool parents I know

NONE whip their children. Even in Mississippi, most of the people who homeschool treasure their children and do not beat them.

Ironically, it was the physical and emotional abuse my son experienced at the public school here (which still advocates corporal punishment and USES IT) that led to me pulling him out and homeschooling him.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

12. I was surprised to find out that some of these public schools

in the deep south still use corporal punishment too. My husband teaches high school in Orlando, and the schools in this county are not allowed to use corporal punishment. I assumed it was the same way through out Florida. When on of those hurricanes was about to blow through here last year we decided to go hang out in southern Alabama for a few days to avoid it. We met a kid from a town in the pan handle area of Florida. He looked to be about a freshman or sophomore in high school. He had a major southern accent and talked a lot about going hunting with his "kinfolk". He said that he's been spanked before at school. He seemed to not like school very much for this reason. We told him that they don't do that at most schools in the United States any more.

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. What the fuck is wrong with people?!?

that they need to market a tool used specifically for child abuse? I was never once hit by either of my parents and I came out perfectly fine!

[GOPisEvil]

4. Doesn't anyone send the kid out to cut a switch anymore?

:eyes:

[matcom]

5. YES!!!!

make THEM cut their own torture device! :eyes:

[GOPisEvil]

6. The thin, whippy ones hurt more!

Just a little word of advice for you young'uns out there.

[Maddy McCall]

8. With all the leaves pulled off,

Which my mom did in one motion. She quickly pulled the switch through her other hand and all the leaves were removed in a nanosecond, leaving only one or two at the tip of the switch.

Again, ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch!! :7

[GOPisEvil]

10. This will hurt me more than it hurts you.

:spank: I dunno Mom, this f*cking hurts!

What did you say? :spank::spank:

Ow! Shit! Stop it!

WHAT?!??!?! :spank::spank:

Yeah, I can relate. :7

[Maddy McCall]

7. Just your mention of that made psychosomatic welts rise in my legs.

Oh how often did my mother make me go our to that huge "bridal wreath" bush in our yard to pick my own switch.

Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch!!! :7

[underpants]

9. Looks like a plastic supply line to a toilet

Boy! Go get me the toilet!

[Cuban_Liberal]

11. If you hit an adult with that, you'd be arrested for aggravated battery.

Because it's your kid, that somehow makes it hunky-dory?

:wtf:

[jmowreader]

13. According to the article, the "manufacturer" has stopped making these

This is partially because the company who made the cushioned grips for The Rod had pulled out of the venture.

Okay, let's see here: Our little buddy is selling a tool for wall-to-wall child rearing and he's discontinuing it because mommy and daddy's hands might start hurting after a few hundred whacks.

I mean, come ON! Don't you fundie freepers know you're supposed to follow the Reverend Phelps' example and use an axe handle to flog your children?

[MrScorpio]

14. When are these fools going to get it through their thick heads

That the "Rod" that was mentioned in the Bible is the unit of measurement and not a tool for punishment?

The passage should be paraphrased as "Spare the standard, leave the child without guidance."

Only a bunch of sadistic assholes would read it otherwise.