Christian Theologians who advocate against spanking - Pt. 2
Announcement: As of May 4, 2012, Samuel Martin's book "Thy Rod and Thy Staff, They Comfort Me: Christians and the Spanking Controversy" is now available for free - Download it here - http://whynottrainachild.com/2013/06/22/download-martins-book/ or
http://parentingfreedom.com/samuelmartin.pdf
In Part Two, I would like to refer you to a previous post - http://samuelmartin.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-bradshaw-his-influence-on-my.html. In that post, I spoke about my experience in learning about the teachings of John Bradshaw, who, of course, is still living.
Early
in my studies I came across the following quote which was really super
important to me at that time. In fact, it was one of the very first instances I
can point to where a highly respected Christian scholar/psychologist/child
rights advocate was speaking out against corporal punishment. Note what John
said through his important video series that appeared on public television some
20 years ago.
Dr.
Bradshaw summarized his view in this regard in the following quote: “We do not
have one piece of data that is proven to us that knocking somebody around helps
them. ... Who has a study that can prove that it helps children’s self-worth to
knock them across the head or pull down their pants and swat them. There is not
one iota of evidence to support that.”[i]
The context in which we find Dr. Bradshaw’s comments is significant. This is
because Dr. Bradshaw by training is a theologian who studied for the Roman
Catholic priesthood for almost ten years. Note what it says in his biography
from his own website in this regard -
"He later studied for the Roman
Catholic priesthood at a Basilian seminary where he remained for nine and
one-half years, leaving just a few days prior to being ordained. During
that time he earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master degrees in psychology,
philosophy, and theology from St. Michael’s College at the University of
Toronto, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He continued his post graduate
studies at Rice University and earned a Masters of Spiritual Psychology at
University of Santa Monica. Throughout his education, John was the
recipient of many merit awards, including, the Trustees' Scholarship, John
MacDonald Scholarship in Philosophy, Cardinal Mercier Gold Medal in Philosophy
and the Trustees' Gold Medal for Academic Excellence."
-http://www.johnbradshaw.com/johnsbio.aspx
Dr.
Bradshaw’s theological qualifications are impeccable and it is within an
environment of Biblical scholarship at the highest level we find him making his
comments about spanking. He is, of course, also a highly accomplished
psychologist and has also studied philosophy, so he comes from a distinct and
clear academic background.
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