Exhibit A is William Adams, a county judge in Texas who was captured on video beating his then-16-year-old daughter with a belt while cursing and shouting for some seven minutes. The 2004 video recently went viral after Adams' daughter posted it online. The judge was suspended from the bench with pay pending an investigation, but he is unlikely to face criminal charges.
In many other countries, however, any physical punishment of a child is by definition criminal. Starting with Sweden in 1979, 31 nations have passed laws barring parents from striking their children. Another 70 have banned corporal punishment in schools.
Puritan influence
So why not America? It begins with our Puritan foreparents, whose true motives are often blurred in the turkey-fed haze of Thanksgiving. Rather than seeking religious freedom for everyone, as many Americans still believe, the Puritans wanted everyone to follow the dictates of their religion. So they set up rules and institutions reflecting biblical teachings, including that of Proverbs 13:24: "He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him."
And chasteneth they did - with rods and more. "Surely there is in all children a stubbornness, and stoutness of mind arising from natural pride, which must in the first place be broken and beaten down," one Puritan minister wrote. "For the beating, and keeping down of this stubbornness, parents must provide carefully."
