Punishment of children: Why it should be banned (and why it is already under the unwritten law of the land)

Many parents think it is acceptable to punish a child to get them to do what you want them to do. It is sure accepted in America to punish or control a child. But, just because something is accepted in society doesn't mean it is acceptable, nor does it mean it ever will be. Punitive parenting will never be accepted in the eyes of God, and so it should not be seen as accepted in the eyes of the law of men.

God's Law already prohibits the punishment of children. See Colossians 3:21 KJV:

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely 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 the context in which it was given, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor towards children. Patrias potestas is translated from the Latin as "power to the father" and "power to the parent", and refers to a father's right under Roman law to use force as he saw fit to control his home. No analogous law existed under Jewish law during the time of Christ. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children too many times. Parents were charged with kidnapping, which constituted any damages or offense stemming from hostage-taking - punishing children was seen in biblical times as holding a child hostage for things they did wrong. Paul was lifting up this legal context for a group of Greek Christian parents that brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing their children into the church. No such custom existed among the Early Christians, as the Early Christians shunned all violence, including family violence. The only exception was mutual accountability between spouses, which was rare next to non-existent. Wives were subject to the law of their husbands, and were to be disciplined as such, whereas children were not legal subjects under the Law. Children were seen as simply learning the Law, and thus since they were ignorant to most of it, were not expected to keep it like a wife was. Parents kept the Law for children so that children did not have to worry about things of the Law early in life.

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. Our nation, and our culture, gleans from the Bible and its context for wisdom. Being anti-spanking is as American as apple pie and baseball, as it is a valid interpretation of our values, and the correct one at best. Nowhere in our founding documents - especially the Bible - does it legitimately say that it is okay to strike a child. The rod verses regard enduring hardship, likening endurance of hardship of adult descendants to enduring a form of judicial corporal punishment - there is no Hebrew word for "descendant" so Proverbs says "child" and means ADULT descendants or children. That is not an excuse for legalized physical abuse at all. Banning spanking is part of the unwritten law of the land. I shun punitive parents, and don't even speak to them.

An unjust law is no law at all. The legal principle of "reasonable chastisement" is an evil and unjust law that allows for the legalized punishment of children, in which case there is no justice for these children. The law must change if child victims of lawful physical abuse have a route to justice and safety when their parents lash out at them, physically or otherwise. 

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