Corporal punishment is biblical

THE EDITOR: Please publish this article so that, hopefully, at least one person will know the truth.

I refer to an article in your newspaper dated Friday August 1, 2003, with a headline ‘Ban licks at home.” And it started by stating that (I quote): “Former Independent Senator Diana Mahabir Wyatt thinks the country should consider outlawing the hitting of children in all circumstances.” I want to state without any animosity whatsoever that the previous government erred by banning corporal punishment in schools. (I am not speaking about indiscreet flogging by a teacher or parent). Now there is a suggestion that consideration should be made to do so in homes. This will certainly open doors for more crime.

May I refer you to the Bible which says in (and this still stands) Proverbs Chapter 13, Verse 24. ‘He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.;
Proverbs 22: 15 ... Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
Proverbs 23: 13 ... Withhold not correction from the child, for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die. Verse 14 says ... you shall beat him with the road and shall deliver his soul from hell.
Proverbs 29: 15 ... The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
Many crimes being committed by young people today may be as a result of no corporal punishment. Again I am not referring to odd cases of indiscreet beatings.

GERTRUDE EDWARDS
Tacarigua