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Talia Lavin
@swordsjew.bsky.social
journalist, author of Culture Warlords, sword collector, schmoe. newsletter: buttondown.email/theswordandthesandwich buy my new book!! www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/talia-lavin/wild-faith/9780306829192/ contact: talialavinwrites@gmail.com
33.4k followers1.4k following8.5k posts
TLswordsjew.bsky.social

on Christian faith, private abuse, and public policy, in The Cut today - an excerpt from my book Wild Faith: www.thecut.com/article/the-...

Corporal punishment is legal in schools in 17 states, and approximately 160,000 children are subjected to it every year. In many of these states, parents must sign consent forms signaling their willingness to have their children spanked by strangers with hands or wooden paddles - absent the child's input about their own body. The regularity and implacability of physical punishment are two features that abuse survivors remember keenly. "I was young, probably around age 4, and I remember this experience very clearly yet remember almost nothing else from that age," Mary, age 30, wrote to me. "We had been out in public. I'm pretty sure that the initial infraction was I started crying when my dad went to zip up my coat. ... By the time we got home the punishment being dealt was 100 hits without any pants or underwear. My dad didn't skip a single one. I just remember hearing my own screaming and wondering if it would ever end."
The belief that obedience to God requires doing violence to children continues to shape American public policy toward children, including in public schools. In March 2023, the Oklahoma legislature was presented with a bill that would have outlawed the physical punishment of disabled students, including slapping, spanking, and paddling. One Republican legislator, Jim Olsen, presented a fierce mien on the statehouse floor as he advocated against the statute. "God's word is higher than all the so-called experts," he said. "Several Scriptures could be read here. Let me read just one, Proverbs 29: 'The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. So that would seem to endorse the use of corporal punishment." The bill to protect disabled children failed, 45-43.
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WLwicked-lizzie.bsky.social

The violence I would bestow upon someone who put their hands on one of my kids is immeasurable.

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FGfloridanative64.bsky.social

This was so difficult to read. I was not raised religiously, but had a rage-filled alcoholic father. Beatings with belts, screaming, belittling comments filled my childhood. As a 60-year old, I still fight self worth issues, critique my every decision, always think someone is mad at me. Sad.

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dilliontony.bsky.social

xCTiqG

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CWclairewillett.bsky.social

I don’t exactly want to say “i can’t wait to read this book!” because that sounds a little too breezy and I know it will be a dark read (though I did just preorder the audiobook so I feel like you’re talking to me), but I really have been anticipating it quite strongly and the excerpts are intense

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TL
Talia Lavin
@swordsjew.bsky.social
journalist, author of Culture Warlords, sword collector, schmoe. newsletter: buttondown.email/theswordandthesandwich buy my new book!! www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/talia-lavin/wild-faith/9780306829192/ contact: talialavinwrites@gmail.com
33.4k followers1.4k following8.5k posts
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