What is a criminal?: Understanding the link between punitive parenting and criminality

Many parents think that not punishing children leads to criminality, and many law enforcement organizations back that up. Police unions, in states where a ban on corporal punishment was proposed, refused to enforce such a law if it was passed. Not all police are pro-spanking, but there is a strong stigma in police circles to admitting to anti-spanking views. This has more to do with the police personality necessary to fighting the high crime rates that plague the United States. But, where does crime come from?

A criminal has a cognitive disability where they cannot behave in a peaceable and orderly way without some sort of punishment to fear. This is because they grew up in an environment where fear of punishment was used to control their behavior. Anyone can become a criminal, under the right/wrong conditions. This doesn't mean everyone will. But, if an ordinary person in an apartment that they rented gets evicted, and tossed onto the street, due to an addiction they have succumbed to, they will learn to be a criminal to get their needs met. There may be better options, but that's why we say being a criminal is a choice for most people. But, people who were punished as children will choose to do the wrong thing if they won't get caught. Many criminals will beg to go back to prison, and that is because they grew up with that kind of structure, and thus can't function without that structure.

What is the solution? Teaching by example, instead of by rule of punishment. The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and refers to, officially speaking, want, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, the word refers to the slightest of unattainable want. If wanting something leads to a temper tantrum when you hear the word "no", don't want it. Children can't help but throw temper tantrums, as they have a flawed nature. But, YOU can help it, so just don't want things you'll tantrum about, as a temper tantrum is the test that denotes whether a person is entitled or not. Children are watching and observing our every move. If they see a parent acting entitled, THEY will act entitled, especially if they are treated in an entitled way - parental entitlement is actually the first entitlement problem you should work on as a depraved and entitled sinner. 

A good Christian example needs to be backed up somehow. Punishment simply begets the need for more punishment, by way of causing a dependence on being punished in order to behave in a peaceable and orderly manner in society - the very definition of a criminal. Also, punishment alienates children from your example, and hampers their internalization of your example. Attachment parenting is the way to back up a good Christian example. The centerpiece of an attached Christian parenting home is Christian Agape love, as denoted by the Greek root word αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers to prioritizing children first, and yourself last as a parent, in a convicted way leading to dutiful and selfless submission to children and their every vulnerable need, expecting absolutely nothing in return from children or 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. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, sacrificing for their children just as Christ sacrificed for His children, with children resting in such sacrifice. Parents labor, toil, and work to win over the trust and affection of children, and children rest in such love and good works, without a worry in the world, being revered and feared as extensions of God, and their every want/need being a divine command and summonses. Attachment parenting was the established norm in Ancient Israel and the Early Church. Attachment parenting was mandated under Jewish customary law in Ancient Israel, and was also mandated by church ordinance in the Early Christian church communities.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or abuse, including child abuse in this context. Child abuse, as defined under biblical law, 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 intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in context, as prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor towards a child. Spanking and other forms of punitive parenting do not come from the Bible, but instead come from the Roman Catholic Church pandering to the European pagan cultures who whipped and beat their children as a form of punishment. Jewish law, including Christian church ordinance, forbade parents from striking or punishing their children, deeming it a form of kidnapping, and this commandment spells it out completely to a group of Greek Christians that were out of compliance with Divine Law against punitive parenting.

The national parenting of the Ancient Jewish people, including the Early Christians, was a special form of attachment parenting that deified children, in the form of pro-social deification and pro-social child worship. Children were heavily deified in biblical times. Children were worshipped and venerated as extensions of God. The every cry and demand of a child was seen as a lawful and binding summonses on parents, and parents were legally commanded to give children whatever they wanted except if it was harmful or otherwise unattainable, in which case parents simply reassured children of their presence, listening and validating their child's every upset. Children felt safe crying about their every need, since they had no concept of what it was like to be punished for crying too much. Children, by day, ranged beside mothers, sometimes clinging to her. By night, children slept next to mothers, soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. Children went naked wherever they went. Women went naked in the family home, traditionally, in order to serve their husband and their children, separately. Mothers served their children with nourishment and sustenance, meaning breastmilk (until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy (during co-sleeping). Fathers nurtured too, but from a distance, encouraging the child's religious education. Fathers interacted with children on formal terms, until the child "broke the ice" and allowed for casual conversation, and even then, mothers could overrule the child for safety's sake (most fathers had a parent attraction towards their own children).

Attachment parenting prevents criminality, not promotes it, as it allows for children to think critically, and reason for themselves as to what is right or wrong, based on a parent's loving and gentle example. Punitive parenting relies on punishment to "beat discipline into" children, which makes children reliant on more punishment as time goes on. But, there will not always be someone to punish you in the real world when you do something wrong - and that is when people become criminals. Even when people simply jaywalk when the police don't enforce pedestrian laws - and that is how you can understand all crime. We need a country that can police itself, with minimal police intervention. We will always need police, but we will need them less and less in the decades following a ban on punishing children. We are a Christian nation, with God's Law being above the law of the land. If we can get it to a point where we can police ourselves, pretty much, that would be great. But, first, people have to internalize morality, and punishment does not allow for that to happen - punishment then becomes the morality, not God, and God and punishment are equated, leading to atheism in our young people.

Attachment parenting makes children want to follow the example of parents. Punitive parenting drives children away from the good example of parents, and doesn't back up the example of parents properly. Children being treated as extensions of God make children like their parents, and makes them want to follow the good Christian example of parents.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast in 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!