- Warning: Contains descriptions of child abuse
As regular readers of this column will know, I was born and mostly grew up in Indiana – the funny-shaped state just south of Michigan. I was raised in right-wing evangelical Protestantism and given a Christian nationalist education at Heritage Christian School in Indianapolis.
“Spare the rod and spoil the child” is not just the norm where I come from – it is prescribed from the pulpit, and parents who refuse to spank their children are frequently shamed. My sister and I were sometimes spanked with a wooden spoon growing up, but many conservative Christian kids had (and have) it worse than that.
In Christian schooling and homeschooling communities, parents discuss which objects they can beat their children with to inflict considerable pain without leaving the kind of marks that could get them reported to Child Protective Services (CPS), a part of the government hardcore “parental rights” advocates believe should not exist. Many prefer industrial glue sticks.
