Letter of the day - Bible culture and 'sparing the rod'
published: Thursday | January 29, 2004
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I AGREE with Father Ho Lung (The Gleaner 26/01/04) that the way we flog children in this country is disgraceful as it is counter-productive. Generations of young people have been raised to respond only to violence.
However, I would like to suggest that a large part of the cause stems from the church and the sort of vulgar Christianity that is prevalent in most of them. The dictum 'Don't spare the rod and spoil the child' has been evoked by generations of parents as justification for flogging. Our 'Bible culture' has produced a mentality ruled by a sort of self-righteousness in too many of us, who readily call down 'judgement' on those we deem wicked.
Even Father Ho Lung himself evokes the wrath of God, threatening divine violence on those who do not obey Him. He writes: "The good Lord, as we know, will punish us with the fires of hell if we do not worship Him and serve our neighbours. But it's because we deserve it." Maybe the lady in question was merely following in the Lord's footsteps and simply meting out her brand of eternal punishment.
The truth is that the Bible itself is filled with violence and Christianity has historically bred violence. As Thomas Paine has said, it has served primarily to 'brutalise mankind'.
