I’m a book reviewer and teacher, right? I’m not a great theologian, and I’m still a pretty new parent. Granted, I’m a parent twice over, but I’ll just come straight out with the fact that my parenting methods have yet to really be tested. However, there are some things I’m beginning to form pretty strong opinions about.

If you scroll down, you’ll see my opinion on The Shack. Some things from my own past have recently come to light to help me understand why I feel so strongly about these things. Let’s take a look at Matthew 18:10, for example:

See that you do not disdain one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Balancing this with other Scriptures that talk about the meek and mild Christian, who in the world thought it would be a good idea to spank children? Are you telling me it’s OK simply because we have been doing this for the last couple hundred years–after we lost the ability to discern that the rod and staff referred to in Proverbs is for comfort and direction? 

I mean, we have Christian branches that have their stuff together who don’t believe in going to war. And yet I hear (otherwise) perfectly sane people defending causing pain to a child who is dependent on that person for sustenance and teaching.  We won’t hit our coworkers to teach them sense, and yet we defend hitting our children (I don’t care where it is–the bottom was not designed for receiving blows), who are too young and weak to defend themselves in any way. WTF? Guys, Christians defending spanking now is like the Christians who defended slavery a hundred years ago. Just because it’s tradition doesn’t mean it’s Scripture, and doesn’t mean it’s good. Satan quoted the Bible, people. God gave us the whole book so we could interpret Scripture according to the Spirit of the Word. This was to help prevent us from twisting it.

I like this verse, because, among the other verses where God tells us to be like children in our faith, Christ is reminding us that children have the hook-up in Heaven. Their angels converse with the Father face-to-face. There’s a privilege implied there–an importance. You mistreat one of the little ones, you better believe God’s gonna hear about it. And the chickens will come home to roost.

Before I really spent some time contemplating this, I was meditating on the fact that children are closer to Heaven than we are. Think about it: If you believe that this physical body, to which we are bound, enslaves us to sin (and Christ breaks the chains for us), then children, who have spent less time in their bodies (and therefore have been exposed to less corruption) are closer to Heaven, closer to the Father, than we are. We should be honoring children. They are holy. They are here to teach us. We help guide, we help mold. We can’t leave them open to just any influences. But children are so teachable. Sure, they test us. My husband playfully says “Testing 1,2!” to refer to our precocious daughter’s tantrums. However, she responds so much better to loving, patient redirection rather than swats of any kind. We get compliments all the time on her disposition. Sure, it requires more energy to use time-outs, redirections, explanation and loving bear-hugs. It definitely requires a lot more time. But fear is no way to parent. Children who are hit learn that hitting someone smaller and weaker than they are is the answer. And that’s not an answer of any kind.

Jesus came to give us light and love. Shouldn’t we share that with our most precious resource, and our greatest charge? 

Just in case you needed more evidence, go to nospank.net. The stories there will chill your bones. And trust me, hitting of any kind is a slippery slope. Think about it.