In Daniel Patrick Moynihan's memorable phrase, deviance has been dumbed down. “Everybody has a deviance they need to open up, and the rest of us are supposed to be a 'support group' for their deviance. Is there anybody out there who doesn't have a support group?”

"Healthy" and "sick" have replaced "good" and "evil."
Dennis Prager tells of one day playing in the park with his 2-year-old son. A 5-year-old boy walked over to him, threw him onto the concrete. The 5-year-old's mother rushed over to her son and demanded: "Honey, what's troubling you?"

Where is the reprimand? Where is the sense of wrongness to throw another human being to the ground, or away?

Self-esteem is now deemed more important to teach our children than self-control. In fact, in a recent book called Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1997), Roy Baumeister has found four "root characteristics" of the most violent criminals. One of them is "high" self-esteem. Parents that focus all their rearing on building "high self-esteem" are increasing the likelihood of creating a criminal child.

What do you think?  The Bible gives us guidelines to help us raise our children.  Some of those passages include:

"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb 12:6) “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” (Pr 22:15) “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” (Pr 29:15) And “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” (Pr 13:24)

Discipline is as much an integral part of childrearing as love is!  May we love our children enough to discipline them when needed.