Recent media discussion has been dominated by the debate around whether parents should be banned from smacking their children.
The rights and wrongs of smacking have been discussed in countless articles and debates. What is often missed by Christians is that the crusade to ban smacking by Britain's liberal elite is the inevitable outworking of a world and life view that now underpins almost all debate and discussion. For Christians it is this world and life view that we must confront and oppose.
Pre-Christian world
In recent decades the last vestiges of our biblical heritage have unravelled and we have reverted to the pagan worldview which dominated the pre-Christian world. The dominant themes of this prevailing worldview are freedom and self-expression: life is about the realisation of all the potential that lies dormant within the human spirit. According to this creed, human beings are essentially good and left to their own inclinations and desires will find themselves and their freedom. Everyone has the right to construct his/her version of reality for themselves based on their own experience. What stands in the way of human beings finding themselves? According to this creed it is centuries of traditions, taboos, self-serving hierarchies and authorities, most of these the legacy of the Judeo-Christian heritage. Society has become aware of the errors of previous generations and can finally liberate itself from such repressive ideas. Traditional, conservative or Christian perspectives are seen as a brake on the road to a better world and liberation for the human spirit. Opponents are labelled as dangerous heretics who must be ridiculed and marginalised.
