There are a number of 'christian' child training books that advocate spanking, in some cases quite extreme. Authors include Roy Lessin, James Dobson, Gary Ezzo and Debi & Michael Pearl. All have strong religious links and use the bible to justify spanking.. There is plenty of material about them if you search on google, supporting and criticising. If you look at the reviews on Amazon you will see ones accusing them of being child torture manuals, baby whipping books etc, and other ones saying they are fantastic and transformed family life. Some of them suggest just this type of treatment of babies.
I remember being told in bible classes that our parents should be spanking us - it was God's word. This was from one of the older teenagers who taught our junior classes. Was I supposed to go home and ask my mother for spankings? In our house you didn’t need to ask, and maybe all the children in that class were in the same position?
At home we had the book written by Roy Lessin and called 'Spanking, Why, When and How'.
It was promoted at my family's church which strongly advocated corporal punishment. Probably, as they did with a number of other books, they bought in bulk and passed on to the church goers.
There is a letter published here from a girl whose family knew Lessin [
www.geocities.com]
The Lessin procedure in this letter pretty much as I remember it - cut from the letter cited above , in italics,
my comments:
The first step is to use the right instrument; if a parent uses their hand, the child might become fearful of the parent's hand.
In our family a flat wooden soled exercise sandalThe second step is to spank promptly.
The third step is to find a private place in which the parent can conduct the spanking.
The fourth step is for the parent to explain to the child why they are going to be spanked.
I'd be asked to explain myself, what I had done wrong, which commandemnt I had brokenThe fifth step is to get the child into a good spanking position (when my parents and other adults—such as your wife, Char—spanked me, the ritual involved removing the child's clothing); you recommend bending the child over a bed, or bending a smaller child over the parent's lap.
In my case over my mothers knee, or over a chair when i was older, and yes, I had to bare my bottomThe sixth step is to hit the child on the buttocks with a stick or other spanking implement.
The seventh step is to continue spanking until the child yields a broken cry, which indicates a broken will.
I learned to do this quicklyThe eighth step is reconciliation. You recommend that parents comfort the child until sufficient time has passed, and then ask the child to stop crying. You recommend that parents spank a child who displays a "wrong attitude" by continuing to cry too long after a spanking. `
I had to be quiet promptly afterwards, then kneel down for a prayer which my mother would say and I would 'amen' . I had a number of second spankings, presumably for the 'wrong attitude'Child abuse manuals in my opinion and something I feel strongly enough about to post. There are gullible, desperate people who blindly follow the advice of so called 'respected' leaders published in these books, and promoted at churches such as the one I attended. In many cases, especially now, this kind of treatment is illegal, so why can they publish books promoting abuse, illegal acts, and worse still have them sold by mainsream sellers like Amazon?