Christian attachment parenting: The attachment parenting traditions of the Bible

Many parents swear by punitive parenting, up and down. They defend their so-called "right" to punish their children. Punitive parenting is characterized by parents and their allies as a family tradition handed down from parent to child. However, that tradition is absent in the Bible, when understood in the Bible's original context. Instead, attachment parenting is the tradition we should heed as a country.

I myself am a Christian dominionist, meaning I support our founding Christian family values, and I support them enacted into law. God has cast a dominion over all of America, yet only a few will heed the warning. The Bible not only is the inerrant and infallible Word of God, but is also codified law above the law of the land. That codified law mandates Christian attachment parenting, meaning parents are to form a secure attachment with their children.

Christian attachment parenting is based off of the doctrine of mutual submission. Parents are to submit to the every vulnerable need of children as they would God, and children are to rest in the submission of parents. 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, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children as one would God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Children are to rest safely and securely in the presence of parents, with children trusting parents in everything, and children following mothers especially around like a gosling to a mother goose. 

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, 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 them as a quartered slave. Paul 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? Children were seen as extensions of God, meaning sentries of God called to righteously judge all adults, including their own parents, as to how charitable they are, then reporting to God. Children were worshipped and venerated in biblical times as having their own deity, which was representative of God. Parents sought, sometimes frantically, to win over the deity of their children onto their side. Parents avoided incurring the wrath of their children, seeking to appease and please the fire that was their wrath, working hard and diligently to keep children happy. Ancient Israel, and the Early Church, were child worshipping societies, meaning not child enslavement societies or child sacrificing societies. 

Children, in biblical times, wore absolutely no clothing, at all, until they became adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, and otherwise went in the nude, in order to serve their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely attachment parenting items such as breastfeeding and skin-on-skin co-sleeping. Mothers, by night, slept next to their children, guarding them from predators and the sexual entitlement of their fathers. By day, mothers co-snuggled in skin-on-skin fashion with children at home in order to soothe and reassure their upset, saying to children softly "this too will pass". Out and about, children up until age 6 were wrapped up against the bosom of mothers, in swaddling blankets, with children older than age 6 following mothers around like a gosling to a mother goose. Fathers stood guard, protecting the mother and child with his rod and staff, beating intruders (meaning NOT children) who posed a threat to the mother and child. Fathers also formed a secure attachment with their children, by witnessing skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy between mother and child. However, most all fathers developed a sexual attachment to their children, of the connotational type. The religious authorities recommended to fathers that they follow the sexual thoughts about their children to the end through masturbatory fantasy. This sexual awareness improved the relationship between father and child. Usually, fathers developed an attraction on their daughters, and their daughters were attracted to them. This created a mutually unrequited sexual dynamic between father and daughter, and this sexual dynamic was a sign of sexual purity in the home, as long as it stayed unrequited. Actual child sexual abuse was rare and next to non-existent in biblical times, in both the Old and New Testament, but when it happened, people were outraged, and the sex offender was seen as deserving of death. Parents in biblical times were caregivers, not lawgivers or lawmakers, as the goal then was not to be in charge of a child, but to take care of a child. Mothers cared for children up close, and fathers cared for children from afar.

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!