The attachment parenting traditions of the Bible

Many parents think that punitive parenting, including punishment and controlling demeanor towards children, is part of our traditions. This is a common belief among parents, and that is why so many parents still punish their children today. The fact of the matter is that attachment parenting is a Christian tradition. Attachment parenting needs to become the norm in America.

The Greek root word denoting Christian love in the New Testament is αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers not merely to a feeling or an action, but to a state of being, where you prioritize your neighbor's needs above your own, meaning the needs of everyone around you come first. Under this state of being, the most vulnerable come first, and you last. Children were seen as the most vulnerable among Judeo-Christian society then.

Attachment parenting is inscribed in the Bible. It says in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing under 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 parents surrendering to and submitting to a Godhead which is children, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Attachment parenting was the established norm in Ancient Judeo-Christian society. In Ancient Israel, attachment parenting was mandated under Jewish customary law, and was also mandated in the Early Church under Christian ordinance. This commandment lifts up the attachment parenting context for the relevance of all.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages and 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 the child. Patrias potestas is translated from the Latin to "power to the father" or else "power to the parent", and refers to a father's right under Roman law to use force as he saw fit to control his own home. No analogous law existed under the Judeo-Christian law of the time. 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, with "kidnapping" referring to any damages or offense stemming from hostage-taking - punishing a child then was seen as holding them hostage for things they did wrong. Paul was lifting up this moral legal context to a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. No such custom existed among the Early Christians. 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 husband, whereas children were not under any Law. Children were seen as simply learning the Law, and thus, since they were ignorant of it, were not expected to keep the Law. Instead, parents kept the Law for their children until they came of age, and were ready to keep the Law on their own. 

The national parenting of Ancient Judeo-Christian culture was a special, distinct form of attachment parenting that deified children, in the form of pro-social deification and pro-social child worship. Children were worshipped and venerated as extensions of God, with parents struck with reverent fear and terror for their child's every need, with parents being compelled in the Lord to submit to and surrender to their child and their every vulnerable need, with parents/adults being the enemy of all children, just as mankind is the enemy to God, and is to be subservient as such. Children could issue lawful and binding orders, and the every need of a child was seen as Divine Law. Children could take their parents to court, in which case the case was already decided - in favor of the child. 

In biblical times, children went naked wherever they went. Women also went naked, in the family home, as a means to serve their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of nourishment and sustenance, namely breastmilk (until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy (especially during co-sleeping). By day, children ranged next to mothers, sometimes clinging to her. By night, children slept next to mothers, with mothers guarding them from all threats external and domestic, and with children soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. Fathers also nurtured, but from a distance, usually encouraging their child's religious education. Fathers were on formal terms with children, until children invited fathers to "break the ice" and engage in casual conversation, with mothers serving the role of vetoing the interaction if it was unsafe. Most adult men in biblical times were pedophiles towards their own children, but in an abstinent type of way, meaning most fathers simply had a connotational sexual attraction to their children, and not a driven attraction. Both parents took orders from their child, with the child bossing them around.

Attachment parenting is in our Christian traditions as a nation. Most of us as American adults just don't know that yet. We are a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We as a nation glean from the Bible and its context to know as to how to behave, and how to run this country. The Bible nowhere legitimately supports striking a child, and where it says "child" in that tense, God means it to mean "adult descendant".

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them forever 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 stake!