Child punishment: Why punitive parenting is already banned under God's Law

Many parents think it is okay to strike or punish a child. Some parents believe punishment is a command from God. Most parents who spank or punish children in America do so due to religious advice. Most parents believe that the Bible at least recommends punitive parenting, or else commands it. The fact of the matter is that the Bible not only does not condone child punishment, but actually prohibits it as a mortal sin worthy of death. 

Punitive parenting is an aspect of the sin of parental entitlement, which is, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Parental entitlement is dealt with specifically in the Bible, and is dealt with 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 punishment and controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children too many times, and also after receiving 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 damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen as holding a child hostage merely for things they did wrong. Paul here 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 and all punishment of a child. Paul here was advocating for children growing up in Greek and Roman Christian homes who were being brutalized and beaten, educating their parents on proper Jewish parenting. Jewish parenting, then and now, had always supported a warm and loving home, and never condoned any sort of child abuse, including spanking. The Early Christians followed Jewish custom on parenting, and used attachment parenting as a means to form a secure parent-child bond with their child.

The Greek root word denoting entitlement, including parental entitlement, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and refers to, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Unofficially, the word refers to wanting things from children, period. It is good not to want anything from a child, but since we all want things from children as depraved and decadent adults, it is good to ask things from children politely and appropriately. Any want imposed on a child is parental entitlement, and when that imposed want leads to offense, that is the very definition of child abuse. Anything the child perceives as offensive is child abuse, and once a child is offended by an adult's actions, everything the adult did leading up to that comes into question. So, it is good to avoid offense in one's child, and this avoidance of offense should lead to lack of entitlement in parents. 

In Ancient Israel and the Early Church, parents did not get angry with their children. Parents were devoid of any parent anger then, except aside of a child in the form of protection from a hostile or offending party. Apart from when a child was being endangered by an interloper, parents never got angry, ever. Instead, parenting was guided by righteous anxiety and worry. No matter how ramped up children got, parents didn't take it personally, instead laughing with children when they did mischief around the home. Jewish and Christian parents in the Bible operated on the child's level, with both fathers and mothers seeing parenting from the child's vantage point. Parents who controlled their children with anger were seen as vipers and monsters. I myself don't get angry with children. That emotion is missing. I simply get concerned about their welfare. I just don't know what it is like to get angry with a child. I instead get angry at who is hurting them.

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We as a nation glean from the Bible and its context, as the unwritten law of the land, and we still are a Christian country, by far. We have been wrong on our values many times. Think, for example, slavery and Jim Crow. Now, it is about time we change our view as a nation on children, and recognize them as a valid minority. God's Law is above the law of the land, and any anger or punishment towards a child is the moral crime of parental entitlement, with all parental entitlement being banned. It is about time that the secular law caught up.

The parent entitled parents who provoke their 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 descend into the abyss which is the Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!