I have just submitted the following letter to ’The Belfast Newsletter’ in response to the wicked and blasphemous campaign of the NSPCC in Northern Ireland.
Added note: Further evidence of the lawlessness of the undisciplined generation raised under the philosophy espoused by the NSPCC!
Clapham locals fearful after ‘unsettling’ nights of chaos in London: ‘You don’t feel safe!’
Dear Editor,
The views of Caroline Cunningham, Policy and public affairs manager, NSPCC Northern Ireland, as expressed in her letter, published in your newspaper, are most offensive to those who love and live by the Bible, believing it to be the very Word of God.
The Bible teaches very clearly that ‘corporal punishment’ is essential to proper disciplining of a child.
Here is something of what is stated in the Bible on this matter.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes,” Proverbs 13:24.
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him,” Proverbs 22:15.
“Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell,” Proverbs 23:14.
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame,” Proverbs 29:15.
“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul,” Proverbs 29:17.
There is no justification offered in these verses for the brutalising of children that is often the consequences of alcohol or drug taking. Such treatment undoubtedly ‘harm children’s wellbeing, damage relationships of trust, and increase the risk of behavioural and emotional difficulties later in life.’
For this reason the NCPCC ought to be campaigning against the availability of all dangerous drugs, especially alcohol.
The ban that the NSPCC would have all support, is an example of the usual folly of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’!
The problem is not the Bible’s code of correction and discipline but the cruelty of depraved and sinful adults!
There is no more harm in Bible discipline, indeed most often far less, than that suffered by a child undergoing surgery or other medical procedures in order to restore health and often to save its life.
Why does the NSPCC include not the sufferings in the children’s hospital in their condemnation?
Obviously because such is necessary for the restoration of the health and welfare of the child that undergoes such treatment.
The physical punishment commended in the Word of God is FAR MORE BENEFICIAL THAN THAT OF ANY LIFE-SAVING PROCEDURES IN A HOSPITAL!
I repeat one verse already quoted.
“Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell,” Proverbs 23:14.
The Word of God declares that our Heaven Father engages in disciplining His spiritual children.
“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Hebrews 12:5-11.
The example set by our Heavenly Father is to be noted and copied, irrespective of the ungodly and anti-God campaigning of the NSPCC.
The fruit of a failure to obey the Bible’s counsel on child discipline is demonstrated on the streets and in the schools of the nation.
Those engaged in knife crimes and rioting, looting, and general defiance of authority are not just the progeny of homes dominated by alcohol and drugs.
Rather, I am sure that many of the young people who engaged in what the newspapers recently termed, ‘Mob Of Youths Ran Wild In Clapham Once Again’, come from homes with all ‘mod cons’, especially when it is noted that the mob was mustered together by the use of social media etc!
The ‘Rules of life’ set forth in God’s Word have been set aside at the behest of false prophets, modernists in the main churches and benighted organisations such as the NSPCC.
Society, under the most foolish guidance of such, has utterly forgotten that it is stated: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:30-31.
On that day, the ‘disobedient’ amongst mankind, who have lived to defy God and His Word, will suffer the consequences of their folly.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire,” Revelation 20:12-15.
On that day, the NSPCC and all who support its evil notions, will wish most fervently that they had not despised and rejected the Word of God.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Friday 3rd April 2026