One of the most controversial issues in child raising is corporal punishment. Spanking a misbehaving child is seen as a despicable act to people today. There are politicians in Canada who would even like to make it illegal.

One of the arguments used to discredit spanking is that it teaches children that violence is okay. “Mommy and Daddy use violence against me when I’m bad, so it’s okay for me to use violence to get what I want too.” That’s what the anti-spankers claim anyway. The antispankers are against violence and since spanking is violence it is obviously bad.

Hmmm. Are the anti-spankers really against violence? Let’s look at this a little closer. Suppose the anti-spankers get their way and corporal punishment of children is criminalized. A Christian parent is struggling with a child throwing a tantrum, and thus spanks the child on the bottom to bring the child under control.