Bible advocates corporal punishment

The following article was taken from The Dominion
newspaper, 5 November 2001, headlined Bible advocates corporal punishment, says
principal

"A headmaster wanting to bring back the cane has told a
court that corporal punishment of children is advocated by the Bible.

Philip Williamson, head of the Christian Fellowship School in
Liverpool, produced a series of Old Testament passages for Justice Elias in the
High Court at London.

John Friel, lawyer for Mr Williamson,...told the judge that
parents who believed in corporal punishment on religious grounds should be able
to authorise teachers, who were acting in loco parentis, to smack their
children.

He said that it was a matter of doctrine to mete out physical
chastisement.

Passages from Proverbs offered to the judge included: 'Folly
is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline will drive it far
from him'; 'If you punish him with the rod he will not die. Punish him with
the rod and save his soul from death'; 'The rod of correction imparts wisdom
but the child left to itself disgraces its mother'; and 'He who spares the
rod hates his son.'

Another verse, from Psalm 23, was: 'Your rod and
your staff they comfort me.'...

The School Standards and Framework Act, 1999 brought private
schools into line with state schools, where beatings were banned in 1987. Mr
Friel said the law breached the European Convention on Human Rights because it
prevented parents from freedom of religious observance and practice...

Schools that continue with corporal punishment face closure
and teachers who administer it are open to criminal and civil prosecution.

Justice Elias reserved judgement."

There is no doubt about it, the world has gone crazy and
those in power pretend not to recognise the difference between discipline and
violence.

We now pick up The Dominion newspaper, 1 November
2001, and read the headline: "Award quashed -– A Sydney man awarded more than
A$2.5 million (NZ$3 million) earlier this year for being strapped at school 17
years ago was stripped of his payout yesterday by the NSW Court of Appeal which
ordered a new trial."

This author has been looking for a way to make money in order
that we might build our Bible School here at Pelorus. Therefore, looking back
over my history at school, having spent many hours either in the corridor
outside my room, or in the headmaster's office receiving the board of
education to the seat of learning, I feel that I may have stumbled onto
something here -– i.e. that bad behaviour ultimately leads to financial
freedom.