He that swarth his rod hateth his son: but he that liveth him chastenth him betimes. These words provided generations of American Christians with the justification for physically disciplining their children, in ways that range from spankings to brutal beatings. This book examines both the religious roots of corporal punishment in America and its consequences -- in the minds of children, in adults, and in our national tendencies toward authoritarian and apocalyptic thinking. This book is one to those rare works of scholarship that have the power to change our lives.

This book gives an excellent look at the effects and motivations of corporal punishment. The conclusion of the book strikes at the heart of the religious motivation of corporal punishment by stating that love and fear do not belong together. He quotes John's epistle saying, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." Fear is a result of punishment, but love cannot abide with fear. (I Jhn 4:16-21) ( )

Though overarching in nature, *Spare the Child* is quite convincing with its case that hitting a child for any reason is ineffective and causes repercussions not only to the child, but to the adult that child becomes and the culture the adult lives in, especially if such violence is endemic. In terms of such punishment having its roots in religion (more specifically, evangelical Protestantism) it is less convincing inasmuch as it does not look at other possible "roots" of this tendency. It does make a case for laying *some* blame on fundamentalist religion, both historically as well as promoting physical punishment into at least the 90's (it was published in '91; there is certainly current anecdotal evidence linking fundamentalist religion to what could rightly be called child abuse; however, I haven't done research on this.)
Overall, makes enough good points that parents should read it, assuming they are the type to be swayed at all, which some will never be.
The discussion of the the part played by the Book of Revelation and the concept of The Rapture is especially intriguing, and occasionally downright frightening. ( )