When You Have To Punch A Child For the Lord

Dear Evangelicals:

You love, love, love stuff like this, don't you?

Well, "love" isn't exactly the word. Your, ah, impulses toward this sort of thing are more like the kind of feverish excitement that, well, secures people a place on the sex offender registry.

If we're lucky.

Oh, but the Bible, the Bible!

We'll discuss what the Bible says about what you are pleased to call "corporal punishment" in a minute. First, let's discuss the legal definition -- you know, the one that's enforced in this great country which we should all love or leave if we don't want to obey its laws?

This is, in fact, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse, full stop. The friend who shared this on Twitter compared this youth minister (How is this ministry? Would you like your pastor to haul off and hit you?) to ISIS and the Taliban.

He's not wrong. Like you said, the Bible. Here we go with your favorite verse on this subject, Proverbs 13:24 (NKJV):

He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

And here's a verse from another favorite of yours, Psalm 23, verse 4:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Hmmm. Does the maniac in this video sound as though he was trying to comfort poor Ben? Are we talking about different kinds of rods in each verse? If so, where's your proof? Scholars say they Hebrew word is identical in both cases.

There's another verse that you always fail to consider, Ephesians 6:4, which reads:

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

And another, Colossians 3:21, which says this:

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Watch the video again. Does this maniac look and sound as though he's trying to avoid discouraging young Ben? Do you think this maniac managed to avoid provoking Ben to wrath? Or worse?

Me neither.

This video has been around a good while, and has received worldwide media attention. That means nothing without action.

I hope and pray that someone has identified this church and this ... humanoid. I hope that someone with investigative skills -- a journalist, a police officer, a social worker -- has tracked down this criminal and brought him to justice. I hope that Ben is okay, but I know from long experience that, if Ben is still alive, things will get worse instead of better.

I hope they found him in time. I hope, wherever he is Ben is, at long last, part of a real family and beloved by someone besides his Creator.