You do cannot change the heart of the spanker, nor, for that matter, of the wife beater, the bigot, the polygamist and the drunk driver by passing laws. But you do change their behavior. And the upcoming generation will be less likely to engage in behaviors it hasn't witnessed and experienced. That's how, in a civilized society, the law teaches, and how major social reforms take root and become the norm. Today, husbands can no longer physically chastise wives, employers can no longer whip apprentices, the flogging posts have been removed from the parade grounds and the prison yards.
Children alone remain beatable.
Until we muster the moral courage and intellectual honesty to address this outrage, we will continue to live with its consequences. In fact, they are innately responsive to tenderness and affection. Tragically, this precious capacity is often squelched by unimaginable rejection and cruelty in places like Faith Temple Pentecostal Church. That's why children need to be protected. They need the most vigorous protection of all because they are the most vulnerable of all, and because the consequences of their early mistreatment are irreversible.