Thank you for your comment. Your heart for children is evident in your post, and I commend you for that. I also thank you for the tone of your comments given the sensitive nature of the issue we are discussing. I did want to take just a minute to respond to a couple of the points you made. I hope I can do it as graciously as you.

First, with regards to the study, I understand why people would not want to “out” themselves given the sense of shame, isolation and frustration they feel. I pray that people in that situation would find the love of Jesus Christ who can take all of those things away. My only point in raising the issue of the studies is that I believe many conclusions are jumped to when it comes to spanking based on limited data and isolated examples. Rousseau would be a prime example. He traced his fetish, rightly or wrongly, to spankings received as a child. But, there is nothing to indicate that his experience is the norm, and no additional information regarding how the spankings were administered is available which might help to explain his issues. By way of analogy, it would be a fallacy to conclude that I died from eating simply because I choked on a ham bone. My point is this – there are way to many factors involved to isolate spanking as the cause for any sexual abnormalities, and I can find no studies that make such a link.

Ultimately, I believe there will never be such a study because I do not believe God would prescribe something as a means of discipline for children that would cause them lasting harm. That said, we live in a fallen world full of fallen people, including parents and caregivers, who could very well abuse spanking as a form of discipline and harm children in unforeseen ways. That is why it is important for parents to consult the whole counsel of God found in his Bible when it comes to raising kids. However, continuing my prior analogy, just because some people may not eat there ham cautiously and will choke on the ham bone, that is no reason to throw the ham out altogether. Instead, our efforts should be focused towards educating parents when it comes to raising children biblically and especially when it comes to spanking.

I would encourage you to read Mr. Tripp’s book, even if you disagree with spanking, because it addresses the issue of how the Bible directs parents to raise there kids in a godly manner. Spanking is not the end-all and be-all. It is simply part of the process of parenting.

With regards to your final comment on postulating, my comment was intended to mean people in a better position to interpret the studies. As I said earlier, properly administered, I do not believe there is any risk to spanking kids, and in some instances, I believe there is a risk to NOT spanking them. Our Heavenly Father who loves us with a love beyond comprehension, clearly allows for spanking children, and calls parents to a high standard in raising their children. That God, who loves us with an eternal love, orchestrates nothing in our lives that is not ultimately in our best interest. Even when we can’t see it, God has our best interest in heart. Even in a spanking.

I hope this helps to clarify where I stand on this issue. In short, it is my goal stand upon the Word of God alone.

May God bless you,

Wayne

I will make another comment.

You are correct that there have been few studies that directly show or “prove” that spanking causes spanking fetishes. There are even limited resources to read what it is like to live with this sort of psychosexual abnormality.

And why is that?

The main reason is that many people with spanking fetishes live lives of shame, frustration and isolation. Few people are eager to “out” themselves in order to educate the general population about a fetish they did not want in the first place, and which could mark them as freaks in their families and communities.

But, in fact, the sexual consequences of spanking, and similar corporal punishments, have been discussed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Rousseau wrote in the 1700s about the origins of his spanking fetish:
“Who would believe this childish discipline, received at eight
years old, from the hand of a woman of thirty, should influence my
propensities, my desires, my passions, for the rest of my life, and
that in quite a contrary sense from what might naturally have been
expected? The very incident that inflamed my senses, gave my desires
such an extraordinary turn, that, confined to what I had already
experienced, I sought no further, and, with blood boiling with
sensuality almost from my birth, preserved my purity beyond the age
when the coldest constitutions lose their sensibility; long tormented,
without knowing by what, I gazed on every handsome woman with delight;
imagination incessantly brought their charms to my remembrance, only
to transform them into so many Miss Lamberciers. Even after having
attained the marriageable age this odd taste still continued and drove
me nearly to depravity and madness.”

As for the “people in a better postiion to postulate on these things than” you?

If we have to postulate, should we be spanking children? If there is ANY RISK WHATSOEVER of harming a child’s sexual development. in a way they will live with for life, I beg parents to take the road of caution.

I also feel like the comment deserves a response. I was struck by the claims made in the comment, so I did a little bit of research to be in a better position to respond. It turns out that all the studies I could find which reflect the results discussed by the commenter to spanking are suspect at best. It is impossible to isolate spanking as the cause of any deviant behavior and the studies ignored other influences which could equally, or perhaps more plausibly, lead to the deviant sexual behavior that was the subject of the study.

It also strikes me, though I did not read the studies themselves, that it would be impossible to distinguish between those children who received spanking from loving parents who administered the spankings as a means of discipline and those parents who spanked out anger. Any punishment dished out selfishly by the parents without regards to the well being of their kids will have negative impacts. That includes spanking and other type of punishment. When spanking is done in a loving manner as a means of correction, there is no evidence that it has a negative impact.

Finally, as the means of correction prescribed by God, it is clear that spanking administered in a biblical manner cannot have a negative impact on children. God would not prescribe a method of discipline that would have a lasting negative impact on kids. To the extent such a negative impact does exist it is not because God prescribed the punishment but because fallen human beings have warped and misused God’s prescribed method.

I do take issue with the accusations that “I don’t think that we will ever be able to reason with committed spankers like Tripp and his followers.” To me this reads “I am right, and anyone who disagrees with me and is not willing to accept that is deluded.” Despite the numerous assertions in the comment, the commenter does not point to a single strand of evidence to support their claim. I also think it is a bit of a fallacy to refer to Tripp’s “followers.” As much as I enjoyed Tripp’s book and have enjoyed blogging about it and incorporating parts of it into my parents, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, not Tedd Tripp. I think that is true of most Christians.

Finally, I believe the idea of criminalizing spanking is a scary prospect whether you agree with the practice or not. Let me explain. When we allow government to dictate to parents how to raise their kids, we will have given up a fundamental freedom, and their is no turning back from that. This country was built on the family structure and has survived on the foundation of family for hundreds of years. We have already poked holes in that infrastructure. Placing government in the position of raising the future generation instead of parents threatens the very core freedoms that we enjoy.

I welcome further discussion of this issue from people who are in a better position to postulate on these things than me.

It’s not a fashionable idea because the Internet has exposed the vast and varied number of people with spanking fetishes.

These people have in common that the fetish was unbidden and started exceptionally early. By and large, they explain that they did not understand the sexual element until adolescence or later.

Christians keep promoting spanking, in spite of the evidence that it creates fetishes in some people and that those people will have permanently altered sexual interests which will affect the rest of their lives.

I don’t think that we will ever be able to reason with committed spankers like Tripp and his followers, and the only real solution is to make spanking illegal.

Maybe then the sexual DAMAGE produced by spanking will be alleviated and more children will have a chance to live normal lives outside of the bondage of an abnormal sexual interest that most of them would NEVER have chosen to have.