Smacking Kids: my religious right?

As you can see from the story below, a Christian school has petitioned for the 'right' to spank children. Part of me laughs, part of me is frightened by the fact that people do this kind of thing. The most ironic thing about this is that they're arguing that it is a matter of 'human rights' to get to smack around little kids. I suppose it's right up there with the 'right to burn a cross in your black neighbors lawn' which has so callously been taken away from us.

I can imagine kids' parents coming up with a "Who Would Jesus Smack" bumper sticker or some such thing. Oh well, like I said, part of me laughs. You can laugh too. And maybe, just maybe, you can go out and smack the next rowdy kid you see as an expression of your God-given right to religious freedom.


School asks for spanking approval
From correspondents in London
02dec04

A PRIVATE Christian school that says corporal punishment is part of its religious beliefs asked Britain's House of Lords today to uphold its right to spank misbehaving pupils.

The Christian Fellowship School in Liverpool, northwest England, says a 1996 government ban on corporal punishment in schools is out of step with the wishes of the public and infringes the rights of Christians to practice their beliefs.

The High Court and the Court of Appeal have both rejected that argument.

James Dingemans, representing the school and headmaster Philip Williamson, said it was an established principle of law that parents had the right to inflict corporal punishment on their children, and could delegate that right.

"The Court of Appeal was led into error by creating and applying a doctrine of non-interference," he told the lords, who are led by Lord Bingham.

That, said Dingemans, had meant that "one of the most important human rights is near worthless."

In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said physical punishment for an offence committed at school could be achieved by contacting the pupil's parents and leaving any punishment to them.

That way, there was no question of parents' religious freedoms being in conflict with the ban on smacking in the 1996 Education Act, the appeal judges said. The case is continuing.

Adapted from: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11563985%255E1702,00.html