Child punishment: Why God's Law prescribes a ban on child punishment

Many parents think that it is acceptable to use force in parenting. This is a common view amongst American parents. Most American parents support the use of force in parenting. Most parents get their parenting views from religious sources rather than scientific sources, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. But, the Bible itself is clearly an anti-spanking document, when understood in context.

The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, 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. Unofficially speaking, parental entitlement refers to wanting things from children, period. It is not good to want things in life, including from children. However, since we all want things from children from time to time as depraved and decadent adults, we need to ask politely and appropriately, accepting when children can't or won't give us what we want. Ask, and you shall receive from your child. Demand, and you get nothing from children. Want is the core of our sinful nature as depraved and decadent human beings, and wants from children are at the core of our wants as depraved and decadent adults. Deadly entitlement is when this want directed towards a child leads to imposition, meaning imposed want. Once that imposed want is perceived by the child, that constitutes child abuse. See Colossians 3:20-21 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 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 punishments 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 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 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.

How were children treated in biblical times? Ancient Israel and the Early Church were child worshipping societies, not child sacrificing societies. Parents submitted to their children, just as parent believers submit to God. Children were seen as extensions of God, meaning installments of God called to be righteous judges of the charity of adults. Children in biblical times were seen as having a deity of their own, with parents seeking to win over the good graces of that deity. Children were seen as wrathful, but with parents being expected to please and appease the wrath of their children, seeking to keep their children happy. Parenting manuals listed the every vulnerable need of children, and then said that if one iota of the needs commanded in the manuals were neglected, the parent would end up spending eternity in Hell. Parenting advice then came from church leadership, and it wasn't friendly to the parent, but instead convicting in a searing way towards the parent, forcing the parent, by way of religious pressure, to conform to the established norm, which was attachment parenting. Mothers especially provided nourishment and sustenance for children, meaning items such as breastmilk and skin-on-skin co-sleeping.

God's Law, as a whole, prescribes a ban on all forms of child punishment in the United States, including corporal punishment. We are a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. God cast a dominion over all of America - the Holy Bible - yet only a few will heed the warning. The Bible is a founding document of this country, and is codified law binding on this country. This religious law should be further codified into secular law. Since the Bible clearly prohibits all punishment and controlling treatment of a child, that Christian law should be codified into the secular law. A ban on corporal punishment is unlikely to happen anytime soon. However, once the actual biblical research on parenting in the biblical context is known, parents will stop punishing their children on their own. The actual context of the Bible favors attachment parenting, not punitive parenting, with that attachment parenting being of the pro-social child worship variety.

How do you stop spanking and punishing your child? Punishment habits are an anger addiction, meaning parents who punish their children and swear by it are addicted to the anger. The idea behind quitting any addiction is the first step, which is admitting you have a problem. The second step is to place your addiction into the hands of a Higher Power. Follow the Twelve Steps for your anger addiction towards your child, as catered towards your anger addiction for your child. In order to deal with any addiction, however, you must deal with trauma in another context. The idea is to go cold turkey without lashing out at your child at all, stifling all anger towards your child, while declaring yourself a depraved and entitled sinner for your punishment habit, who is deserving of absolutely nothing from children or anyone else. It is possible to purge yourself of all anger towards your child, in an irreversible way, but first, you need to humble yourself to your child, and hearken to their orders as to what they need from you, instead of feeling like you have the right to demand from them. Declaring yourself a depraved and entitled sinner who is deserving of nothing turns your anger inwards at yourself, in order to percolate away to nothing. You, as a parent, deserve absolutely nothing from your child merely for being capable of angry outbursts towards your child, and the anger turns inward once you come to the knowledge that you are a depraved and entitled sinner/parent who is deserving of absolutely nothing, from children or anyone else.

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!