Punishment of children: Why it should be banned (and why God's Law already bans it)

More and more parents these days are switching to attachment parenting, and not punishing children physically. Over 60 countries have banned all corporal punishment of children, at least as an educational law, and many more have committed to banning it in the future. However, around 60% of parents still use force in parenting in the United States. God's Law is above the law of the land, and the punishment and controlling demeanor towards children is prohibited under God's Law. The secular authorities should catch up with God's Law, and ban all punishment and controlling demeanor towards children everywhere.

The centerpiece of an attached Christian parenting home is Christian Agape love for children, as denoted by the Greek root word αγαπαο (Latin: agapao), and refers to prioritizing children first, and yourself as a parent last, in a fearful and convicted way leading to dutiful and selfless submission to children and their every vulnerable need, expecting absolutely nothing in return from children and others, with children resting safely and securely in the good works of parents. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. This form of respect for parents is not borne out of fearful compliance, but instead out of restful trust in parents, with children feeling safe confiding into parents about anything and everything that is on their mind, including admissions of wrongdoing and non-conforming traits, expecting absolutely no punishment or reprisal in return. Attachment parenting was the established norm in biblical times, with such parenting being mandated under customary law. That customary law is lifted up for all to see by this commandment.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or abuse, namely child abuse in this context. Child abuse, as defined under biblical law, at minimum, is the slightest of personal offense perceived by the child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was understood and intended, in its original context, to prohibit all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor towards children. The Apostle Paul was rebuking a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking children into the church. Some Greek Christian parents were misusing the book of Proverbs even then to justify their punishment habits. Punitive parenting such as spanking does not come from the Bible, but from the Roman Catholic Church pandering to the customs of European pagan cultures who beat their children into submission, with each Roman province having its own cultural method of punishing children. The rod verses - all seven of them - do not refer to parenting, but a dated, archaic form of judicial corporal punishment where ADULT children were issued 40 minus 1 lashes with the rod of correction for committing a capital offense, warning the errant son that if he continued with his criminal habits, he would be put to death on the spot. Ultimately, the Apostle Paul was challenging these parents to see the big picture, meaning Paul was advocating that parents love their children as their neighbor, and not provoke them to anger. Paul was lifting up the Jewish command of "love your neighbor and do not provoke them to anger" and applying it to Christian parenting.

In the Early Christian church, church ordinance prohibited all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor towards children. An errant parent, usually a father, who spanked and whipped his children was put under surveillance by the church, with there being brief, impromptu lines of questioning that were masked in nature. Then, the offender was put on trial, and all the witnesses to the child's abuse turned on the offender. The punitive parent had to answer "yea" or "nay" to the charges, and their answer was screened for entitlement, in which case the pro-spanking parent was excommunicated from the Christian Churches of God. This context should guide our laws on punishment such as spanking and corporal punishment.

What can a parent do instead of punish? All children cry for the same reason a baby cries - they want love. So why not give them some love? Time-in is an ancient tool to help a child calm down and be reassured that parents are there to listen, but it must be done the correct, biblically authentic way. The idea is to hold a crying child to the bosom of mothers, head first, and for mothers to wear appropriately low necklines in order to accommodate their child. This stops the tantrum with 1-2 minutes, and then children are ready to talk, and then parents and children should talk things out with each other. This is how mothers in biblical times dealt with temper tantrums.

Children in biblical times went naked wherever they went, and women also went naked traditionally within the family home, with women going naked in order to serve their husband and their children, separately. Mothers served their children with nourishment and sustenance, meaning breastmilk (up until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness I (including in co-sleeping) and intimacy respectively. By day, children ranged next to mothers, and sometimes clung to her. By night, children slept next to children, in a co-sleeping fashion. Mothers wore their children in swaddling blankets and a papoose bag when going out in public. Children called the shots in biblical parenting, meaning they demanded a want/need, and parents provided, being righteously enslaved to their children. The every want/need of a child was a lawful and binding order on parents, and children self-advocated for their own needs readily, usually by crying. Children were seen as lawful extensions of God to salute and obey, as children were heavily deified in biblical times - parents referred to their children, in passing, as "my little god" (in the case of boys) or "my little goddess" (in the case of girls). Deifying statements were seen as terms of endearment for a child then. All of this warmth and charity in parents led to children following the example of parents, including the religious example of parents, with children looking up to attached parents and wanting to be like their parents...The parenting context contained herein might be dated in some ways, but most of it can be applied, albeit with some tweaking.

America is a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian family values. Those values command attachment parenting. We as a nation get inspiration on how to live from the Holy Bible. We, throughout our history, have learned more about our values. We learned that slavery and Jim Crow were wrong. We now have to learn that there is nothing in America's book, the Bible, condoning punitive parenting, and everything opposing it. God's Law is above the law of the land, and Divine Law prohibits any punishment or controlling demeanor, as perceived by the child and the child alone.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.