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

Many parents think that it is okay to strike or punish a child, or else impose controlling measures. This is a common view amongst American parents. Most American parents believe that it is acceptable to punish or be controlling with a child. The fact of the matter is that punitive parenting is not in our founding values, as the Bible - God's Law - prohibits punishing or being controlling with a child as a mortal sin.

It says in 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 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. Parents who punished their children, in biblical times, were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen then 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 was opposed to any and all punishment of a child. Paul, here, was educating Greek and Roman newcomers to the Christian Church on the proper Jewish way of parenting, which was attachment based. The Early Church was seen in the 1st Century as a sect of Judaism, and thus, Christian parents shared their parenting customs with their Jewish predecessors. 

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, this word refers to wanting anything from children, period. We all want things from children as depraved and decadent adults, but we are deserving of absolutely nothing from children as depraved adults. But, on the other hand, we all want things from children, so it is good to ask politely and appropriately, without demands or sexual approach. Parental entitlement is want imposed on children, and when this imposed want leads to offense, it becomes child abuse. Child abuse is whatever the child victim perceives as abusive or offensive, meaning the slightest of personal offense imposed.

Parents in biblical times didn't get angry like they do today. Parents in biblical times were devoid of any parent anger, except aside of children in order to protect them from threats external and domestic. Parents in biblical times were not motivated by anger when instructing and teaching their children, but instead by righteous anxiety and worry. Parents who even showed anger towards a child were seen as vipers and monsters, and were shunned from all existence by society. In the Old Testament, anger towards a child was seen as the first sign that a parent needed to be put to death. In the New Testament, parental outbursts of anger towards a child were secretly documented, and then parents were confronted on the way out of the church with their moral crimes against their child. Parent anger directed towards the child was seen as a form of parental entitlement.

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We, as a society, glean from both the Bible and its context. We have been wrong about our Christian family values before. Think slavery and Jim Crow. Child oppression is an issue just as pressing as segregation was in the 1960s. We learned our lesson not by banning religion and prayer from schools and public institutions, but by getting better religion. A child should never be punished. Punishment is an act of law, and children should be exempt from the Law due to the fact that they are still learning it. God's Law is above the law of the land, and punitive parenting is prohibited under God's Law.

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 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!