[Buddha-l] Re: fundamentalism

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Richard Hayes just wrote,

> The professor who taught me ethics in my undergraduate years has earned
> a reputation for his impassioned defense of the proposition that
> biological parents should be required to get a parenting license before
> being allowed to bring up their own children.

Interestingly (to me, anyway), one of my father's colleagues in child  
psychiatry has been indefatigably arguing for parental licensing for at  
least a decade. My parents and I were just debating the issue, last  
week. Luckily (again for me, anyway) the licensing idea was not in  
force in Austria in 1960, nor Los Angeles in 2004, or I surely would  
not have been born nor become a parent. A quick presentation of Dr.  
Westman's pro licensure arguments can be found at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/little/readings/ 
westman.html

Mandatory Buddhist content:

   Young man, parents show compassion to their children in five ways:
     1) They keep them from doing harm,
     2) They encourage them in doing good,
     3) They train them for a profession,
     4) They set them up for marriage,
     5) When the time comes, they give them their inheritance.
   (Digha Nikaya, 31, Sigalovada Sutta)

Cheers,

Franz Metcalf