"Help me, Marshal Dillon!"

"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of
a child, but the rod of discipline will
drive it far from him."
Proverbs 22:15

A scene from an episode of Gunsmoke shows a man thoroughly paddling his son out in the middle of Dodge City Main Street. Someone runs into Marshal Dillon's office, arousing him from his nap:

"Marshal Dillon, Marshal Dillon, come quick!"

"What is it?" the marshal asks, reaching for his hat and gun belt.

"There's a man whippin' his boy out in the street!"

Marshal Dillon yawns and lies back down. "The law has no right to tell a parent how to discipline his own child."

I remember a road trip we were on when I was about six or seven. I don't remember why or how I was misbehaving, only that my mother told me that when we got home I was going to get a spanking. I straightened up immediately, because although it was still a couple of hundred miles to home, I knew my mother would NOT forget. You see, the REAL punishment was dreading the spanking. By the time we were turning into the driveway, I just wanted that spanking over with quickly. Sure enough, as soon as we unloaded the car (she tortured me just a little longer), we headed to the bathroom where the hairbrush awaited me. Even Marshal Dillon couldn't help me now! The difference in my mother and most parents today is that she never threatened over and over to paddle and then never came through with the goods. She always told us that whatever she promised us, good or bad, would be delivered! That way, she assured us, we could always trust what she said.

Although a delayed punishment can be very effective, on-the-spot discipline is usually more so. I once jerked up both of my sons in a grocery store and paddled them thoroughly after they climbed up into a refrigerated case and destroyed about twenty decorated cakes. They were about ages three and five. They were MODEL children from that time forth whenever we went into ANY store. I spanked my eight-year-old stepdaughter in the middle of an amusement park, and the rest of the day was quite pleasant. My sister tells a hilarious story of her two young daughters in a department store around the time of Easter. There were racks and racks of girls' Easter dresses. Her daughters had been warned not to play inside and around them, but did anyway. As one rack began to fall over, it created a domino effect and every rack fell all down the line. Her oldest daughter looked up at her mother and said, "We're going to get a spanking, aren't we!" Sure 'nuff!

It is unfortunate that a parent can no longer freely discipline his own child in public. Little by little our government is attempting to usurp parental rights and authority. Last summer H.J.R 97 was introduced by Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.). It basically stated that it is a fundamental right for parents to direct the upbringing of their own children. The bill failed, but thankfully, is being reintroduced with much more support. J. Michael Smith, of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, says this: "It's possible that in the near future the United States may significantly weaken the rights of parents to raise their children. Crucial decisions that parents are accustomed to making, such as what our children read, who they associate with, what kind of discipline is used, whether we take them to church or how we educate them, all become decisions of the state if the United States ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child." Disturbing.

I understand that child abuse exists, but we are raising a politically-correct society of brats who defy authority beginning with their own parents. It's as though parents are afraid to raise their own children. And guess what: even if law after law is introduced, child abuse will STILL exist! I do not suggest that a spanking is always the strategy for discipline, but some of the scenes I've witnessed out in public certainly warrant consideration of such, if only for the benefit of others around those children. Sadly, most parents no long have that option in public.

I find it appalling that it has become necessary to protect by law common no-brainer values and rights such as marriage and parental authority. No laws or politicians can save us when four unelected judges, such as in Iowa very recently, decide that homosexual marriage would be ok there now. I believe there is hope, but it is to be found in an awakening to God all across this nation, just like with Jonathan Edwards in the 1700's. Study that out sometime and see the parallels to our present day society. Colonial America in 1726 was in moral and spiritual decline. The challenges of frontier life and a series of brutal wars had demoralized many. Many existing churches had degenerated into formal religious institutions with no power to bring much-needed change. Sound familiar? Along comes Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. Benjamin Franklin, who did NOT profess to be a Christian was a close friend of Whitfield and gave credit to him as having great impact on the people. After Edwards' great sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it was reported that there were far-reaching implications. Reports in New England showed over 150 new churches and a drastic change in the moral climate of colonial America. Harvard professor William Perry stated that the Declaration of Independence of 1776 was a direct result of the evangelical preaching of the evangelists of the Great Awakening.

I hope and pray that our rights and freedoms will not slip away one by one. Marshal Dillon had it right: the law has no right.