This particular blog could get me into big trouble.   It may get me in trouble with some members of my church who disagree with me.   It could certainly get me in trouble with the authorities in Queensland.

My problem is with an article that appeared in Brisbane’s Courier Mail at the end of August.   The headline read, “Court stops parents from smacking child”.   That headline conjured up for me visions a court official being appointed to move in with a family and overseeing the discipline administered by the parents and that court official then physically restraining those parents anytime they attempted to smack their child.   Of course it wasn’t quite like that.   No!   The Federal Magistrates Court had simply ordered the parents not use, or even threaten to use, a wooden spoon, or slipper or any other instrument to punish the eight-year old girl in question.

It was not child abuse that brought this matter before the court.   It was arguments between the biological parents fighting over custody of the child that led to this coming before the courts.   In the attempt to gain custody one parent had apparently dobbed on the other parent that corporal punishment was being administered.

Okay... I’m not advocating child abuse – but there is some ancient wisdom in the book of Proverbs that makes more sense than the wisdom dished out by the Federal Magistrates Court in Queensland.   It reminds us that “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.” (22:5).   There are moments of pure rebelliousness in the life of a child that cannot be dealt with by means of reason, nor even by depriving them of some privilege or sending them to their room – for some children it’s not a punishment to be sent to their room.   Sometimes only the harsh reality of a brief infliction of pain will bring a child to its senses.

I must add that it was not this political correctness of the anti-smacking brigade that particularly upset me when I read this newspaper article.   I’ve heard that too often before.   What particularly stuck in my craw was the assessment that this eight-year old girl had been diagnosed with an Oppositional Defiant Disorder.   This ODD – the newspaper reported – is marked by persistent anti-authoritarian behaviour.   Stone the crows!   Rebelliousness now has a psychological label that a child can conveniently use as an excuse for its naughty behaviour.   The court also heard that another child in the family, an 11-year old lad, had “threatened, abused and hit his mother”.   So a child in such a situation can now say, “Sorry Mum, you really can’t hold me responsible because I have Oppositional Defiant Disorder.”

I prefer the diagnosis of the book of Proverbs: foolishness!   And foolishness can be corrected with the “rod of correction”.   When we go against the divine wisdom in the Word of God then we set ourselves up for problems.   Proverbs had something to say about that too: “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.”   (29:15).

John Westendorp