a) Hitting a kid is flat-out retarded. The biggest flaw with it as a method is that, while the more sane defenders of the tradition say that it should only be done rationally, not out of anger, and for the child's own good, primarily it's an excuse for parents to take out their anger on their own kids and be able to defend it as their right. It's extremely damaging. And if you can approach it rationally and calmly and don't have to hold down a screaming kid, you're already pretty much at the point where you can use another means of discipline. Hitting a child works in the short term for the same reason torture does; pain is a very effective means of getting people to do what you tell them to do. It doesn't impart morality or decision making, however, and the damaging effects it has on a child's ability to interact socially are well documented. There's absolutely no evidence that's even been observed that kids who aren't struck as children are more likely to commit crimes or be delinquent or drop out of school, and plenty that show the opposite. If you're a halfway decent parent, the type that would only use "appropriate" physical discipline anyway, you should be more than capable of avoiding it all together.

b) Hell is a corruption of the Christian dogma based on loosely worded passages and the influx of Greek mythology into the freshly born Church. You'll find no mention of it even existing in all of Judaism and the Gospels. Suspicious, that.

c) This story was idiotic, and God has never expressed any particular dislike of smoking marijuana.

d) Jordyn is 100% right. That mother was acting in a stereotypically asinine Christian manner, beating and yelling at her kid instead of trying to educate him to the message she wanted to impart. This story is so blatantly idiotic that I'm almost tempted to assign it to the chambers of Christian parody, and that anyone is actually defending it is kind of pathetic. Billy, I know you love your internet tough guy routine and you love feeling like some lone voice of reason fighting teh gay liberal zombies who want to eat the souls of America and shit in your apple pie, but perhaps you should conserve your battles to cases that have the least fucking bit of merit behind them.