FOOD FOR THOUGHT	 CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
	Fr Francis Marsden

Strong and emotional reactions on this subject are common. Those who advocate use of the cane in schools, or the birch (only recently suspended in the Isle of Man), are often denounced as bloodthirsty sadists. Others go to the opposite extreme: they see the return of corporal punishment as the miraculous solution to society’s ills.

Of course, in the sense of locking offenders away in prison for years, society has never found any alternative to corporal punishment. It seems unavoidable. In the end, society imposes the law and punishes the guilty by physical force. However, what about slapping, caning or even birching as forms of punishment, in the home, school and courts?

Let us first examine the wisdom of God’s own word. The Biblical tradition regards physical punishment as normal and acceptable. The Book of Proverbs tells us: “Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to kill him. A stroke of the cane and you save him from Sheol.” (Prov. 23:13—14) Indeed “The man who fails to use the stick hates his son, the man who is free with his correction loves him.” (Prov. 13:24)

Similarly Prov. 29:15 advises “The stick and the reprimand bestow wisdom, a child left to himself brings shame on his mother.”

For the ancient sages therefore, punishment has an educational purpose. It is done out of love to train a child, to teach him to respect moral values. “Innate in the heart of a child is folly; judicious beating will rid him of it.” (Prov. 22:15) It is not unpredictable or uncontrolled anger, nor the sick pleasure of a sadist.

In fact, parents who fail to discipline their children for wrongdoing are far more cruel to them in the long term, than parents who are loving and strict. To let a child grow up thinking he can get away with evil-doing is to rear a hooligan or a criminal. It is to teach him that right and wrong do not really matter. It is to betray his soul into the devil’s clutches. Spoilt and selfish youngsters or adults are a pain to themselves, and spread unhappiness amongst others.

Inconsistent punishment — excusing a child a serious offence one minute, and whacking it the next for something trivial — will just confuse its moral values. Children have an innate moral sense and expect punishment graded to fit the crime. Otherwise little Johnny grows up thinking that to pick his nose is much worse than to shove his baby sister into the gas oven.

The cruellest punishment is not a well-deserved beating, but the threatened withdrawal of love. Mummy says: “If you do that, then I won’t love you.”

This breeds insecurity. We need unconditional love. Better to copy the Lord in His promise to David’s descendants: “Should they violate my statutes, I will punish their crimes with the whip, but never withdraw my love.” (Ps 89:31—33)

Do not make love conditional upon good behaviour. How many teenagers have rebelled against this sort of manipulation? “My parents love me only so long as I fit into their conventions, and fulfill their ambitions.” Surely, it is better to carry out straightforward punishment, but with an assurance of loving faithfulness.

What replaces the cane when it has been abolished in schools? The non- physical abuse of sarcasm and ridicule can injure a pupil’s personality far more deeply. The cane hurts the skin, but cruel words can torture the soul. Suspension and expulsion dislocate an entire school career?

Recently at a Catholic Youth Day, I was surprised to find a 2:1 majority of 14—16 year olds in favour of corporal punishment in schools. Why? Because they were tired of general indiscipline, wrongdoers not being properly punished, and frustration over lessons continually disrupted by troublesome minorities.

Every person’s views are influenced by his or her own experience. During my own schooldays at St Joseph’s Leigh and De La Salle Salford, I was caned on a few occasions, but I had deserved it, and it taught me a lesson. Neither school had a ‘reign of terror’, and overall punishment was just and seen to be just.

The real problem is that our materialistic society has a very selective conscience. It is sold on physical pleasure and appalled by pain. It makes the avoidance of physical pain or discomfort one of its: highest priorities. Without the Gospel, it can make no sense of suffering.

Therefore, people say, better give morphine to the terminally ill or severely handicapped and put them out of their misery. They campaign against foxhunts or seal culls, but ignore the abortionists cutting human babies to pieces in their mother’s wombs, clinically and invisibly done in the abortion chambers.

This same selective and sentimental mentality abhors corporal punishment, on emotional, not rational, grounds. This “let’s be nice to everybody” morality is physically oversensitive but blind to spiritual values and original sin. To excuse or be lenient to evildoers is not necessarily to be loving. It fails to make the offender face up to his full human and personal responsibility. It may excuse his wrongdoing and encourage him in evil against his best spiritual interests. It can undermine the whole moral climate of society. It betrays the lack of a sense of moral absolutes.

Some atheist philosophers deny free will and personal responsibility. They see man as little more than a rat in a cage, responding to stimuli, totally determined by his environment. They explain all crime as due to social conditioning. As Christians, we can accept that family background and social conditioning play a part. However, all people have free will, and ultimately are responsible for their actions, unless insane or possessed.

If family life were healthy, disciplined, and full of love, we would face far less violence and crime. The law is an instrument of education. Its punishments should reflect divine justice, giving evildoers a minor taste of what they can expect in eternity unless they change their ways. violent crime is barbaric. Just punishment, corporal or otherwise, is not. It has a valuable teaching role.