According to this pastor God wants us to spank our children. I wonder if God would like me to give this pastor a taste of his own medicine?

Parents who belong to the Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante are told in no uncertain terms: Spank your children or oppose God's will.

The church, which also runs the 200-student Bethel Christian Academy, discourages parents from using their hands and recommends using a "rod" or flexible stick to swat children until their will is broken. But an eight-panel church pamphlet with corporal punishment instructions does caution against using instruments such as hairbrushes, cords or two-by-fours.

"Corporal punishment is not something you do to the child, it's something you do for the child," said Bethel Pastor David Sutton, who wrote the pamphlet. "Your goal as a parent is to correct the child or get him back on the right path."

According to the pamphlet, parents who do not practice corporal punishment are depriving their children of the only method God says produces wisdom, and risk directly opposing God's will.

If nothing demonstrates just how primitive the lessons within the bible truly are, it is this practice which flies in the face of what we now know to be true.

Now I am not somebody who thinks that slapping a hand or popping a child on the bottom occasionally is going to scar them for life. I will admit to using these practices myself in the past.

But if you resort to spankings for almost every one of your child's infractions, if you spank without utilizing time outs or other behavior modification methods, and if you spank when you are angry, then you are wrong. In other words if spanking is the first, best choice in your parental arsenal, then you are not trying to raise the best person that you can.

I work with some of the most difficult children in my state. I am not allowed to use corporal punishment to modify, what can be some very challenging behaviors, and yet the children in my charge are doing far better then anybody could have hoped for. I accomplish this by being very patient, being very fair and flexible, and paying close attention to the times that the kids do well just like I do to when they don't do so well.

It is an approach that has provided some huge dividends in positive behaviors and happier children.

I would be happy to teach this neanderthal pastor my techniques if he would like, especially if it would keep this simpleton from telling parents to beat the "devil out of their kids in order to allow God into their hearts". That was a quote I heard from another religious asshole to justify the parents of his church using horrible abuse to make their kids compliant.

Kids need love, not pain from their parents. If you find yourself hitting your children, then you should seek help in your community. Sometimes it just takes knowing some other simple disciplinary techniques to keep parents from feeling overwhelmed and angry at their kids.