The Devil's Highlighter

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

Interpretation: The whole chapter (Deuteronomy 21) concerns various laws for how to deal with transgressions (and it gets even more messed up). These verses fit right in with the rights of the family that are outlined in this chapter. It is very obvious that God detested disobedient children and wished them dead. Not only that, but he wished that other children see this and be afraid of death. We are still indeed bound by the old law and even though no one in their right mind would agree that disobedient children should be killed, God commands it. Even if we were no longer bound by this law, God once commanded that disobedient children be slain and we all know that God is an unchanging God. The only way to reconcile the obvious contradiction caused by an all-loving god demanding the death of disobedient children is to come to the realization that God does not exist. Such laws were merely in place as a means of social control. Luckily, we've learned enough about child psychology and development that we no longer require the threat of death to encourage obedience. One would imagine that an all loving and all powerful god would simply have informed the Israelites of proper parenting techniques that did not require the threat of large rocks... or maybe he just likes killing kids. Print This Post