Child punishment: Why punitive parenting violates the unwritten law of the land

Many parents think that it is acceptable to punish or be controlling with a child. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents support punishing or being controlling with children. This punitive parenting can come in many forms, including spanking, time-out, loss of privileges, grounding, or other forms of aversive, punitive treatment of children. The fact of the matter is that this form of treatment of children is considered child abuse under Christian law. Christian law should be the law of the land.

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. Unofficially speaking, it refers to wanting things from children, period. It is good not to want anything in life, including from children. But, since we all want things from children as depraved and decadent adults, we need to ask politely and appropriately for what we want from children, and accept when children can't or won't give us what we want from them. Want is at the very core of our sinful nature, and wants from children is at the very core of our wants as depraved and decadent adults. Deadly entitlement is defined as want, imposed. When this imposed want leads to a child taking offense and/or suffering damages from the entitlement, 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 a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming 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. 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 them 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. 

What can parents do in order to curb their parent anger, and not punish their children? The hourglass method works just fine. Simply find fault in your parent anger, knowing that it is immoral and perjorious to get angry with children - children could do no wrong, according to the righteous judgment of the Early Christian church communities. Then, declare yourself a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing, from children or anyone else. This turns the anger inwards. Without exception, parent anger comes from a deserving attitude towards children. The idea is to flip that attitude around and take an undeserving attitude towards children. You are not entitled to respect from anyone if you haven't earned it, and children are no different. Over time, the parent anger will percolate, and then dissolve, until you are left with no parent anger. You will still be able to set limits, but only out of genuine concern for the child. Anger is not genuine concern, but is a form of entitlement. Any time you try to control another human being, including a child, it becomes entitlement. Parents should only be angry when protecting their children from an interloper. 

When punitive parenting comes out as sexual punishment, know that you have unmet sexual needs. Simply turn the plank inwards, and follow that sexual thought to the end in masturbatory fantasy. Then, tar yourself as Hell-bound in the case that you approach that child for the same lascivious reason. I myself am a pedophile, and I keep safe by masturbating pretty much daily for health reasons, meaning mental health reasons pertaining to child safety. I am in total control of my sexual actions, and can simply choose not to sexually abuse a child. Lust in the Bible is denoted by the Greek root word επιθυμέω (Latin: epithmeo), and refers not to ordinary sexual desire, but to sexual entitlement, meaning, officially speaking, sexual want, to the point of sexually motivated approach. Thus, the actual moral crime in relation isn't looking out of sexual desire at a child, but looking with the gutteral desire to approach a child for sexual or flirtatious reasons. 

The depraved and decadent 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 torrents, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!