Samuel Martin Book
Friday, May 02, 2008 5:59 PMI am honored to have Samuel Martin’s complete book, Thy Rod and Thy Staff They Comfort Me: Christians and the Spanking Controversy, at this link on my website:
http://parentingfreedom.com/samuelmartinbook.pdf
His website, http://www.biblechild.com, has the following facts:
Fact: The Bible does not teach that spanking a child will save him from Hell.
Fact: The Bible does not teach that spanking a child should bring tears.
Fact: In Bible times, the texts concerning spanking children found in Proverbs were not applied to young children under the age of about 10 years!
Fact: Many respected Christian theologians including St. Augustine, Dr. Karl Barth and Rev. Dwight Moody rejected spanking children.
Fact: Many Biblically conservative Jewish Rabbis, who have the Old Testament as their Holy Scripture, reject spanking children today.
Fact: The main Christian advocates for spanking children now are not usually trained Christian theologians teaching in universities, but most often are conservative fundamentalist Christian pastors, Christian politicians, Christian psychologists, lay church members and Christian school leaders.
Fact: Well meaning Christian advocates of spanking children have developed doctrines surrounding what they believe the Bible teaches about spanking children which are not found in the Bible at all.
Fact: Well meaning Children’s Rights activists, who are not trained Bible scholars, have entered this debate attacking the Bible with disastrous results.
4 Responses to “Samuel Martin Book”
By alyssa on May 2, 2008 | Reply
Thank you! This was so helpful for me. I’ve just read the introduction so far, but I really appreciate this information. Thank you again!
By TulipGirl on May 2, 2008 | Reply
I heard of his book several years ago, but procrastinated in ordering it. Now that I have it at my fingertips, I’m looking forward to reading it. Honestly, I’m going to look at it with a very critical eye, as I’m very wary of books related to parenting and very cautious with books that relate to theology. Still, from the little I’ve heard and seen, I’m really looking forward to it!
By carol on May 5, 2008 | Reply
Welcome Alyssa!
I look forward to hearing what you both think of the book.
By TulipGirl on May 6, 2008 | Reply
Well. . . It’s slow going. Totally fascinating about the stages of development from a linguistic point of view. Though I had heard bits and pieces of that, I’d never seen it laid out clearly.