Child punishment: Why punitive parenting is already banned under the unwritten law of the land

Many parents think that it is okay to punish a child to control or discipline them. This is a common view among American parents. Most parents in America use punishment or other forms of controlling measures to deal with childhood behaviors. Many of these parents, if not most, use the Bible as an excuse for their punitive parenting of children. The fact of the matter is that punitive parenting is banned in the Bible, and such is the unwritten law of the land.

Parental entitlement is the number one threat to children in the United States, and we all have it. Parental entitlement is prohibited explicitly in the Bible, and is prohibited in offense format. 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 its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any forms of punishment or controlling demeanor towards a child. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children too many times, and after many warnings that their punitive parenting habits were in violation of the Law. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damage or offense stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen as holding your child hostage merely for things they did wrong. Paul was lifting up the Law to a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any punishment of a child. In fact, you wouldn't find a single Jewish parent, including in the Early Church, support striking or punishing a child for any reason. Jewish society, then and now, has never condoned any form of child abuse, including punitive parenting. Judaism is the root religion of Christianity, and thus, the Christian parent should go by the Hebraic context of the Bible, which clearly prohibits any sort of punishment or controlling demeanor towards a child.

The Greek root word denoting entitlement, including parental entitlement, in the New Testament, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés), and refers to, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, parental entitlement is wanting anything from children, period. When that imposed want leads to the child being offended in any way, that is child abuse. It is not good to want anything in life, including from children, but we all want something from children, so ask politely, and accept when your child cannot give you what you want from them. Children usually do not listen to parental instructions due to not being able to understand what is asked of them, usually due to immature brain development. 

Parents in biblical times didn't get angry with their children, at all. That emotion was missing from their complexion. Parents instead were driven by worry and concern for their child. Any parent that was driven by anger was a social pariah once that anger was discovered, with the parent being seen as a viper and a monster by all of society, with the revelation of parent anger directed towards a child being met with righteous anger of a protective sort by society. Parents did get angry, but only on ceremonial occasions when they needed to protect their child, or else a child in another household that wasn't being protected. Otherwise, parenting was driven by righteous anxiety. I myself am one of a few adults who cannot get angry at a child. That emotion is missing. I am driven to care for them, when I get the chance, but I would be more driven by concern, in the form of paternal instinct to care for a child. If a child cried, I would automatically go into reassurance mode and reassure the child frantically, not getting angry one bit. Fathers should reassure from afar, and mothers up close. 

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We as a nation glean from the Bible and its context to figure out how to operate as a country. Nowhere in the Bible does it legitimately say to strike a child, with the only corporal punishment being allowed in the Old Testament was towards a young adult as a sentence for a crime. We have been wrong before as a society, just as we were with slavery and Jim Crow. The great thing about America is that things can change here, and can change for the better. God's Law is above the law of the land, and His Law prohibits all punitive parenting of a child. Therefore, we already have a ban on punitive parenting here in America. The secular law just needs to catch up.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descent 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!