Unkindness to Children.
I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because its teachings respecting the treatment of children are cruel and unjust.
It advocates the use of corporal punishment for children.
“Thou shalt beat him with the rod” (Prov. xxiii, 14).
“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die” (Ibid xxiii, 13).
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Ibid xxii, 15).
“The rod and reproof give wisdom” (Ibid xxix, 15).
It advocates capital punishment for children:
“If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey 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 all the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he die” (Deut. xxi, 18, 19, 21).
It advocates the indiscriminate and merciless slaughter of little children:
“Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes” (Isa. xiii, 16).
“Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces” (Hosea xiii, 16).
“As he [Elisha] was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him.... And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them” (2 Kings ii, 23, 24).
It advocates the punishment of children for the misdeeds of their parents.
“I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Ex. xx, 5).
“I will stir up the Medes against them, ... their eye shall not spare children” (Isa. xiii, 17, 18).
“I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children” (Lev. xxvi, 22).
David prays that the children of his adversaries may become vagabonds and beggars; and Jeremiah, that the children of his enemies may perish by famine.
God kills Bath-sheba’s child:
“And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore unto David, and it was very sick.... And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died” (2 Sam. xii, 15–18).
Poor babe! tortured and murdered for its parents’ crime!