ON SPARE THE KIDS BY DR. PATTON

ON ‘SPARE THE KIDS’ BY DR. PATTON 

Several years back, I spanked our son the one time in the presence of my mom who had only spanked me the one time.

I used to be proud of that fact until I heard about Dr. Stacey Patton from my FB feed and her book: Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America.

After reading the book, I became ashamed. When she later asked for online testimonials, I didn’t offer for fear of being labeled ‘one of those’.

After praying about it and meditating on it for a long time, I developed a conviction. It’s like my reasoning skills had atrophied and I was learning to walk again.

After all, I would NEVER put hands on someone else’s CHILD or any of the chess students that I teach.

Or imagine if I were to say, ‘I only had to spank my wife THE ONE TIME.’

In short, my morality was bypassed due to socialization.

Dr. Patton’s book delves DEEPLY into the scriptures commonly interpreted to defend spanking as well as the impact of slavery on our ‘upbringing’ and so much more with an exhaustive bibliography of references and studies, making this a book that I’ll revisit for years to come.

This whole process also opened my mind up as to why many christians today readily accept the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ philosophy based on some scripture, ‘civilian affairs’ comes to mind while ignoring others which clearly state that we should ‘speak up’ for those in trouble.

I call this phenomenon the socialized gospel.

Not to be confused with the social gospel movement of putting your religion into practice by looking after the poor and defending their cause in an unjust world, which is something that scripture has said all along but we just got around to repenting of it about a century ago.

I’m basically talking about how we’ve been conditioned to see THE CHRIST as approving of our society’s values (yes, including the way that he’s depicted) instead of us repenting in order to strive to be more godly and spiritual.

An excellent book that speaks on this manipulation is How the Republicans Stole Christmas by Bill Press.

The social manipulation of deciding what is a sin and what is a SIN! And it’s clearly not just relegated to conservatives or even this ‘modern’ era.

The Christ faced the same problems, like when a woman was brought to him caught in the act of adultery demanding that she be stoned as scripture dictates. 

As one woman had to point out to me decades ago, ‘If she was caught in the act, then shouldn’t the guy she was doing it with have been caught too? Or do different rules apply?’

Anyway, if you’re a staunch believer in the spanking scriptures as I was, you should check out Spare the Kids.

Be well.