What is a criminal?: Why punitive parenting breeds crime (not solves it)

Many pro-spanking police officers have called for the preservation of the American custom to spank and punish a child. The argument is that spanking and corporal punishment stops children from having to be punished later by the legal system. However, most people do not know what a criminal is, or else they would be anti-spanking in a jiffy.

What is a criminal? Someone with a cognitive inability to function in society without fear of punishment. A non-criminal has a moral compass that operates apart from punishment. A criminal simply waits for the next punishment to keep them in line, or else they will do whatever they want when no punishment is available. Many criminals commit crimes just to get into prison. This all starts at home, where children grow up relying on punishment to signal when they are doing something wrong. Then, they turn out needing prison to recreate the strict structure they had in childhood.

What is the solution to crime? Children need a good role model, and they need love modeled to them. Christian love is denoted by the Greek root word αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers to prioritizing your neighbor first, and yourself last, to the point of dutiful and selfless submission to your neighbor, expecting absolutely nothing in return from others. True Love does not come from praise or desire, but instead a place of fearful conviction, where you come to the knowledge that you are a depraved and decadent sinner deserving of absolutely nothing, with this change of heart leading to the sinner paying due penance for their sin nature by serving their neighbor. Serving your neighbor selflessly is an excellent lesson to model to your child. Love is a disciplined state, to the point of being charitable to others above your own needs. Children will naturally break themselves down to the point of an undeserving attitude on their own, as long as parents take an undeserving and non-entitled attitude alongside their children.

Every disciplined and loving example needs to be backed up by something. Punitive parenting makes children dependent on punishment, in which case they would need the legal system to punish them later on, as adults. Attachment parenting is time-tested and time-honored to produce self-disciplined children. Attachment parenting provides for a safe place for children to develop self-discipline on their own. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV: 

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto 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. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, sacrificing for their children, just as Christ Sacrificed for His children, with children being a Godhead for parents to serve, with children resting in the submission of parents, owing absolutely nothing in return to parents. Parents are the enemy of children, just as mankind is the enemy of God, with parents being subservient to them just as they are to Him, expecting absolutely nothing in return from children or anyone else.

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 a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a 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 one last time. 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 as holding a child hostage merely for things they did wrong, treating them as a slave instead of a child. Paul here was lifting up this legal context to a group of Greek Christian parents. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

Children, in biblical times, wore no clothing, at all, until they were adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, otherwise going in the nude, in order to serve their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely breastmilk (until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy, respectively. The core aspect of Christian attachment parenting in the 1st Century was skin-on-skin co-sleeping, where mother and child cuddled and snuggled in the nude. By day, children ranged beside mothers, sometimes clinging to their mother. When mothers went out and about to run errands, children up until age 6 were held to her bosom by way of swaddling blankets. Attachment parenting such as this fills a child's cup all the way, and when that happens, they grow up disciplined and resilient enough to not commit crimes, as long as the parent models disciplined and loving attitudes towards children. Children who are modeled discipline and love form those traits on their own, without the necessity for punishment of any kind. Attachment parenting creates a safe place for children to emulate the traits of their parents, no matter what they may be.

A criminal is someone who is dependent on punishment in order to reason morally. Punitive parenting can cause children to rely on punishment as a signal that they are doing something wrong. The problem with that is that, in the real world, there usually isn't going to be somebody to punish you for doing the wrong thing. Most Americans received a punitive upbringing, and thus most everyone in the United States is capable of committing a crime, under the right/wrong conditions. Most crimes involve an element of opportunity, meaning it appears to the would-be offender that they would not be caught. 

Think, for example, jaywalking. Here in my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, jaywalking ordinances are not enforced, and so everyone here jaywalks. They just walk, or sometimes run, right in front of cars. If the police actually arrested the jaywalkers, they wouldn't dare do it again. That goes to show we live in a criminal society, and thus, we need police. But, we also need to stop punishing children, because fearing punishment is not the same as having your own moral compass. A criminal fears punishment, and wants it at the same time, because they can't function any other way.

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 ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!