Flogging and sexual impulses
You could read? Me too! And I am glad, because that means people can’t just come and spit in my mouth and tell me that is wine I just done swallow!
For example, when people speak about ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’ I could read for myself and I could tell you that you wouldn’t find that particular quote anywhere in the book they say they are citing it from: the Bible. As a matter of fact it is a man by the name of Samuel Butler who wrote that in one of his highly satirical and sexualized poems, since 1662! Read with me an excerpt from the poem Hudibras:
“If matrimony and hangings go
By dest’ny, why not whipping too?
What med’cine else can cure the fits
Of lovers when they lose their wits?
Love is a boy by poets styl’d
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child.”
The scenario here is one where Sir Hudibras is ‘imprisoned’ by a widow whom he had been wooing. They have discussed the possibility of matrimony. She offers to free him but only if he would consent to a flagellation or whipping like the ones suitors of that time would endure for their ladies. The woman is a bloody dominatrix, you can’t see that! To those who may be fond of such liaisons, I apologise about the way I have described the overzealous widow, but you can plainly see that this phrase has to do with rearing and disciplining children!
Allow me if you may to exact my heretical concepts. Let’s go into the New International Version of the Bible to find out more about this renowned rod. King Solomon is the only person who seems to advocate the use of the rod on a child. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him (Proverbs 22:15). Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. (Proverbs 23:13)
It is generally argued that this ‘rod of correction’ is figurative, and addresses discipline as a whole which is similar to saying ‘the long arm of the law’ which isn’t really an arm but a measurement of the extent of the law’s reach. But let’s for a few moments take everything King Solomon said literally. He was a wise man who loved a lot of women and became husband of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Jehovah was not the only god that King Solomon worshipped and received ‘wisdom’ from. He “did evil in the sight of God” and worshipped at least three other ‘foreign gods’ whom his wives introduced him to.
Ashtoreth was a Semitic goddess of love and fertility. Chemosh may have been her mate and a god of war known as the destroyer, subduer, or fish-god. Young children were offered in sacrifice to Molech whose image had the head of an ox, and outstretched human arms. The children were placed in its arms to be slowly burned, while to prevent the parents from hearing the dying cries, the sacrificing priests beat drums.
It has been shown here that youth floggings involve deep subconscious drives, both sexual impulses (Ashtoreth) and violent impulses (Chemosh, Molech). At this point, I insist on indicating that if the supporters of beating are still not slightly aware of the sexual factors at work in the beating system it is as a result of obligated ignorance or of sexual repression, or both at the same time.
Perhaps the story of Solomon’s sons carries the real message of what happens to children when they are beaten with rods. The people of the kingdom came to Rehoboam after his father’s death and said, “your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labour and the heavy yoke he put on us and we will serve you.” (II Chronicles 10:4). The brothers insulted their father’s memory by telling him to say to the people, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.” (II Chronicles 10:10-11). Rehoboam continued, “My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”
I assure you that the cup which I just held over your mouth and asked that you take a sip was none other than the world’s best non-alcoholic wine. But, don’t swallow just yet, research and read for yourself!