DWM - Did you ever read John Bradshaw?
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VGCn ... m=6&pgis=1 You might find him interesting - a lot of his stuff is about what parents do to their children.
John - I've been wondering about this myself - what the compulsion behind some of these arguments is and by that I mean primarily what drives
me in that kind of discussion - is it insecurity or a desire to win or convert or what - I much prefer the kinds of discussion where people can explore ideas together and get insights from different individuals or traditions as I think is happening in the Lewis/Anscombe thread at the moment.
I used to go on a site where the guy who ran it was a Christian and had this vision to change the world through what he was doing. As you might guess he got very frustrated at all the bickering and ended up closing down all the forums. I don't think it's only Christians though - there was a question in New Scientist a few months ago about why these arguments break out on forums and I suppose it could be the lack of face to face contact. Perhaps we'd all get on fine if we just met in a pub somewhere. Then again we'd probably all get really sheepish and mumble at each other.