Child punishment: Why God's Law prohibits all forms of punitive parenting

Many parents think that it is acceptable to punish a child. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents support the idea of striking or punishing a child, or else subjecting a child to other forms of punitive parenting. The fact of the matter is that God's Law is above the law of the land, and prohibits all forms of punitive parenting, including corporal punishment of children.

The Greek root word denoting entitlement, including parental entitlement, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. It is good not to want anything in life, including in relation to children. But, since we all want something from children, it is good to ask politely and appropriately for what you want from them, accepting when they can't or won't give you what you want them. Want is the core of our sinful nature, and wants from children is at the core of our wants. We all as adults, for wanting things from children, are depraved and decadent sinners, who are deserving of absolutely nothing, from children or anyone else. Deadly entitlement is want, imposed. Deadly parental entitlement is imposed want on children. Once this imposed want leads to offense taken by the child, it constitutes child abuse. 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, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statue prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor. 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 were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up this legal context in order to convict 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.

The way the abovementioned moral statute was applied in the Early Church was that parents were liable for the slightest of personal offense perceived by their child. That meant things such as crying and upset, which had to be accompanied by the adult with comfort and sustenance, and possibly breastfeeding for very young children. Attachment parenting was the mode of parenting in biblical times for parents, meaning children received nourishment and sustenance from their mothers, meaning breastfeeding and skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance. All of this refers back to the commandment not to provoke your children to anger, meaning simply refusing to comfort your child, preferably with sustaining warmth, is a form of child abuse under Divine Codified Jurisprudence.

How does a parent or other adult stop themselves from punishing a child? Child punishment comes from parent anger. Parent anger comes from a deserving attitude towards children. The idea is to flip that attitude upside down, and come to the conviction that you are a depraved and decadent sinner/adult, who is deserving of absolutely nothing, from children or anyone else, thereby turning the parent anger in the parent inward facing. Taking this attitude makes you feel worthless, and so you earn your worth by being dutifully and selflessly submissive to your child, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

Here in Pennsylvania, child punishment is usually protected by way of the "reasonable chastisement" defense. An unjust law is no law at all. That law that allows for parents to strike and punish their children is offensive to me to the point of non-existence. I hate that sort of thing more than anything else, and I mean it. The child abuse definitions, as we have them today, are too complex. The secular law should simply criminalize anything that the child perceives as abuse. That would make parents treat children with the reverent respect that they deserve.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke 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!