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http://enigmamyjourneyofselfdiscovery.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-am-i-not-enough.htmlI wrote this small response to this very important post.
God bless you. I am very sensitive to your pain which makes me want to act and do something positive. I know there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who share your feelings and experience. Thanks so much for your courage. Your courage has advanced all of our collective learning.
I would like to ask anyone who would like to share with me any ideas to work to develop more tools to provide individuals like Sarah information to help them share information with parents who spanked them to help their parents better see their viewpoints and hopefully to get them to change their minds. Might be worthwhile to think about having a YouTube page where all of us share video testimonies which can be sent around cyberspace: A page dedicated to what was the piece of information that changed my mind about corporal punishment. Could be powerful. I would also like to ask if anyone has any moving photos or can point to a film or some type of visual media to share. I often think about the imagine of Rev. Dwight Moody kneeling at his child's bedside weeping and asking for forgiveness for speaking crossly to one of his children (This is mentioned in Philip Greven's book "Spare the Child...").
This for me personally was a game changer.
We have so many images in our media which contribute to the normalcy and acceptability of spanking children (I mean if you look at the web images [Google images and add test "spanking children"] of parents spanking children, it is almost a part of Americana culture with these horrifying Saturday Evening post images, but very few images of where mom and dad tell their kids, "Sorry, I was wrong. Will you forgive me?" Unfortunately, the Roman maxim which says: "if you are not beaten, your not educated" still prevails in our Western culture, but the tide is turning slowly.
In this regard, I will post something on my blog about what I saw was really the tipping point in changing my mind about corporal punishment of children. I actually have dug out the very first paper I wrote on this subject in 1995 and have been looking at it. Maybe if I knew more stories or anecdotes from others about their experience, it might make for a more convincing presentation. I think so.
I only have a limited experience with reaching out to people who are opposed to my views, but I have had some success and remain connected to people who have been convinced that their previously held views were unbiblical and I believe that I can do a better job in this area and also believe that if we work together, we can have a much better collective result to share why we believe spanking children is hurtful, misguided and wrong. It was wrong yesterday, it is wrong today and it will be wrong tomorrow, but I think the more we think how to convince people with facts and to help provide them with the same spiritual anchors we were all holding onto in our own tumultuous and and often frightening journeys to where we are today and help them to change their minds and be spiritually renewed like we all have been, the greater chance we have for a better collective tomorrow.
Just as we today are doing our best to hold our little children's hands and walk with them on the collective path towards Christ, it is up to us to use the tools our Lord has given us to embrace the need to do the same thing with those who hurt us. Just as we today feel bad when we let our own children down, our parents have and had these same feelings.
What happened to all of us was evil. Thankfully we can overcome that evil with good.
Sam Martin
