Recently, a video revealing a Texas Christian judge whipping his 16 year old daughter was released on the Internet (http://tinyurl.com/3bflmh6). Her crime? She allegedly downloaded some music or video to her computer despite her parents’ wish and that was enough to warrant a violent whipping of a child. One can also hear the menacing and threatening of the child’s mother enunciating in the most unfeminine manner. Is this the case of a crazy man or is this behavior sanctified by the Bible?
The Bible teaches that a parent should violently discipline one’s children and insists that a parent should strike a child with a rod to discipline him or her. Oh yes, parents need not have any feeling of remorse for after all striking with a rod is not going to kill a child (Proverbs 23:13-15). It even teaches that one that does not strike one’s son with a rod hates the child and the one that strikes the child with a rod actually loves the child (Proverbs 13:24). It justifies such violent exhortations by claiming that a child’s mind is filled with follies and that striking with a rod cleanses the mind of any folly (Proverbs 22:15). It gives the parents complete dominion over their children and the children are expected to obey them unconditionally (Ephesians 6:1-4). What for is this obedience sought? Because that is what Christian god wants (Hebrews 12:5-11). It is the same irrational and bigoted god that is obsessed with male foreskins.
Conservative Christians take the Bible as the literal word of god. Since the Bible requires them to punish their children violently, conservative Christian parents often resort to such brutal attacks on their own children. Such violence is enshrined in many state laws in the USA. Most of the time children do not report the violence they have been subject to by their conservative Christian parents because, as the girl testifies in the video, they are dependent on their parents. Even if they choose to come out, what justice can they expect from a system where it is legal to “discipline” (read beat) one’s own child violently and where the judges themselves are often conservative Christians? So, most of the children never come out with the truth.
It is likely that America’s conservative Christian children are among the most abused by their parents in the world and a study to explore this is in order. This violence leads to a vicious cycle, and once these children grow up and become parents themselves they also beat their children. Many crimes such as the wars America wages perpetually and the genocides it commits everywhere (Iraq, where over 1.3 million innocents were killed, is an example; Vietnam, where 4.5 innocents were killed, is another) can be traced to the violence conservative Christian children are subject to in their childhood. This is an unacceptable abuse of children by their own parents, and deserves to be condemned and discussed openly. It is time to recognize that conservative Christian parents are a threat to their own children, and that the Bible is the source of this threat. It is time to discuss ways by which this threat can be dealt with and eventually eliminated.
Liberal Christians usually desist from beating their children like conservatives do. Liberal Christians usually do not take the Bible literally, and often, by their actions, repudiate the violent teachings of the Bible and Jesus. Since they still claim to be Christians one must conclude that they are hypocrites insofar as religion goes but it is better to a hypocrite than a sincere follower if one must be a Christian though it would be better to altogether cleanse oneself of the debilitating influences of Christianity and seek another noble path.
