Corporal punishment ‘scripturally unsound’

The New Testament does not record one occasion in which Jesus used violence as a way to relate to people, or as a form of discipline, let alone in his treatment of children — and yet for centuries Christians have been among the most ardent supporters of corporal punishment of children.

And, while a strong international movement has resulted in bans on corporal punishment of children in many countries, Australia still lags noticeably behind.

Garth Blake is a Sydney barrister and Senior Counsel, and a member of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia.

He has been extensively involved in devising policies and procedures to deal with the issue of child abuse in the Anglican Church over the last decade — and he believes churches need to take a lead in advocating for a total ban on corporal punishment of children, which he says is not only ineffective, but also scripturally unsound and a breach of fundamental human rights.

Mr Blake spoke at the Religion, Children and Violence seminar on the case for a total ban on the corporal punishment of children in Australia.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child, established under the auspices of the United Nations, includes smacking and slapping in its definition of corporal or physical punishment.

In Australia, states and territories have legislative authority over the corporal punishment of children and laws differ across the country.

Corporal punishment is still lawful in independent schools in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, and in both government and independent schools in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

It is unlawful as a disciplinary measure in correction institutions in all states and territories other than Western Australia and the ACT (but there are no juvenile detention centres in Australian Capital Territory and young offenders are accommodated in New South Wales facilities).

In the home, corporal punishment is lawful throughout Australia under the right of “reasonable chastisement”.

By contrast, there are now 23 states worldwide, including 18 in Europe, where all corporal punishment of children is prohibited in legislation.

In 2007, New Zealand became the first English-speaking state to achieve the prohibition of corporal punishment, including within the family home.

In Sweden, there has been a marked shift in public attitudes to corporal punishment of children since it was banned completely in 1979.

Whereas in 1965 a majority of Swedes were supportive of corporal punishment, a recent survey found only six per cent of under-35-year-olds supported the use of even the mildest forms, and the change in attitudes towards hitting children has facilitated early supportive intervention in individual cases.

Theology challenged

Religious justifications for the corporal punishment of children have come primarily out of the Old Testament (for example, passages in 2 Samuel and Proverbs).

The key New Testament text cited in support of harsh physical punishment of children is Hebrews 12:6-7.

Historically, numerous parenting advice books have drawn their inspiration from the same sources, such as Larry Christenson’s 1979 book The Christian Family, which claims that “the scriptural method of discipline is simple and unequivocal: the rod.”

Mr Blake says recent research shows that these attitudes are still influential in some contexts.

“Studies of parenting practices in America have shown that Catholics, Protestants and Jews alike cite the Old Testament as support for their use of corporal punishment,” he said.

“And conservative Protestant parents consistently report using corporal punishment more than parents of other religious affiliations, which appears to be an extension of their beliefs in human nature as evil, human sins as requiring punishment, and the Bible as an infallible guide for parenting practices.”

He says traditional understandings of the Old and New Testament texts that have been used to justify corporal punishment of children have recently come under challenge.

In 2007, the South African Council of Churches, supported by Save the Children, produced a document which argued that, in the New Testament, discipline is intended as a means of teaching and guiding the disciple to act appropriately as a human being, and that the “rod” as it refers to discipline should be seen figuratively as a “rod of correction” rather than a literal instrument of pain, suffering and retribution.

And in August 2006 the World Conference of Religions for Peace, comprising over 800 Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Shinto, and Zoroastrian and indigenous leaders, endorsed a declaration entitled A Multi-Religious Commitment to Confront Violence against Children.

It called on governments to adopt legislation to prohibit all forms of violence against children, including corporal punishment, and to ensure the full rights of children consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international and regional agreements.

Emma Halgren