Christian attachment parenting: Keeping the Christian tradition

Many parents are authoritative parents. Authoritative parents usually control their children by way of frequent time-outs, and the occasional disciplinary spanking. Most parents still punish their children, and some still do so severely. Most parents see punitive parenting as a Christian tradition. The fact of the matter is that attachment parenting is the actual Christian tradition.

Christian attachment parenting can be understood in the context of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Ephesians 6:1-4 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long upon the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in tbe nurture and admonition of the Lord.

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 in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children as they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, revering and fearing children as vulnerable extensions of God.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to wrath" is παροργίζο (Latin: parorgizo) 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 punishments or controlling demeanor towards children. 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 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 that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law 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 in his writings.

The Greek root word translated "nurture" is παιδεία (Latin: paideia) and refers to, in this context, modeling Christian discipline to children. The standard of Christian discipline is deserving of absolutely nothing, therefore grateful for everything, coming from a depraved and decadent sin nature. In the Early Christian church communities, parents worked to center their entitlement, and children followed in the footsteps of parents. When children were caught emulating the disciplined example of parents, they were lavishly praised and encouraged by fathers to "keep going down the right path". Children in the Early Church were, instead of caught being bad, caught being good. "Good" here means avoiding entitlement, and when children were caught avoiding entitlement, they were lavishly praised and encouraged in their efforts to overcome their sinful nature. For example, if a child accepted the word "no" or avoided something they really wanted, they were praised for it. Sometimes, children need direct instruction from parents. The Greek root word translated "admonition" is νουθεσία (Latin: nouthesia) and refers to direct parental instruction. Parents could not issue lawful orders to their children, with children being the lawful authority issuing orders. Parents instead made polite requests to their children, from the bottom of their heart, saying "please" and "thank you" in the process. The hope was that children would listen due to have a secure attachment with parents, which all Christian parents in the 1st Century strove for. 

Children are in the providing custody of parents, primarily that of mothers, and secondarily that of fathers. Children, for the first 6 years of life, were in constant closeness to mothers, never leaving her side, being wrapped up to either her bosom in swaddling blankets, or worn on her back in a papoose bag, when out and about. Mothers and children were both naked in the family home, and children were naked wherever they went until adulthood. Christian attachment parenting is unique in how it stresses child nudity and motherly nudity as a means to bond better with children, and gain more ease in giving children skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance. Children, around age 6, started to venture further and further from home, playing outside with neighborhood friends, then retreating back to the closeness of mothers come nightfall, in the form of skin-on-skin co-sleeping. Children usually slept next to their mothers until puberty, when they wanted to sleep on their own.

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We have a secular government, balanced by a religious society, and historically traditionally, that religion has been Christianity, in all its denominations. The Bible is a founding document of this country, above even the Constitution itself. All of our criminal statutes and civil torts are based off of Judeo-Christian moral standards. Since we now know that the Bible commands attachment parenting, we know that attachment parenting is a tradition in this country that we have overlooked for most of our history. When a Christian teaching becomes popular enough in a country like ours, it becomes enshrined into law. God's Law is above the law of the land, and thus Christian attachment parenting is the unwritten law of the land.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to wrath 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 rhe 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!