Spanking kids is God's will, church says

Doctrine may conflict with rod-sparing bill in state Assembly

Parents who belong to the Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante are told in no uncertain terms: Spank your children or oppose God's will.

The church, which also runs the 200-student Bethel Christian Academy, discourages parents from using their hands and recommends using a "rod" or flexible stick to swat children until their will is broken. But an eight-panel church pamphlet with corporal punishment instructions does caution against using instruments such as hairbrushes, cords or two-by-fours.

"Corporal punishment is not something you do to the child, it's something you do for the child," said Bethel Pastor David Sutton, who wrote the pamphlet. "Your goal as a parent is to correct the child or get him back on the right path."

According to the pamphlet, parents who do not practice corporal punishment are depriving their children of the only method God says produces wisdom, and risk directly opposing God's will.

The debate over spanking goes beyond just one church's policy, and a bill making its way through the state Assembly could force changes at Bethel Baptist.

The bill, which passed the Assembly's Public Safety Committee last week, would allow adults to use an open hand to spank a child but prohibit hitting with a stick, switch, rod, closed fist, electrical cord or other objects.

Bethel Baptist has had problems with its corporal punishment policy. Earlier this year, the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office removed a foster child from the care of a church family, Sutton said. CFS and the sheriff's office declined to comment this week on the removal, but Sutton said it was related to corporal punishment.

"We guide our lives according to the Bible, not (Children and Family Services)," he said. "We believe (CFS) was wrong."

Church policy on corporal punishment is sometimes misunderstood or exaggerated, said Pastor Kent Brandenburg, the leader of the independent church, which is not affiliated with any denomination and bases all church activities on the word of the Bible as written.

"People think all we do is turn our kids into hamburger or that we don't love them," Brandenburg said, adding that the church strongly prohibits using insulting language toward children. "The thing is, it's fair and we're not hurting them in terms of injuring them, and afterwards, the guilt is gone. The kid doesn't have to sit around and think she might be a pig."

Read the church's doctrine HERE

Listen to interview HERE