What does it take?

Tee asked the question, “What does it take to beat a child to death?” My answer is, evil.

It also takes complacency for a public to read of this, have sympathy for the child, the mother, the father and continue accepting that it is wrong to advocate a strong family structure with both parents concerned for their child’s welfare.

God’s plan was laid out in the Torah and confirmed by Christ before a crowd of witnesses:

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:3-6 KJV)

There’s no discussion of another on the side to provide happiness. We saw in the first example, Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, that scenario brought tears and separation. So did the life and death of this beaten child.

But wait, God allowed divorce, didn’t he:

They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:7-8 KJV)

We asked for it, we got it – and now we live with the consequences.

Besides the beater, who erred in the death of this child? The mother? The Father? No more so than every one of us who accept the hardness of our own hearts and decline to speak in favor of God’s plan for the family. One man. One wife. One flesh, seeking the best for each other.

Christians are supposed to take it a step further:

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:21-25 KJV)

Do NOT take that wifely submission out of context and degrade it. We all submit to some things. How better to submit to a husband who loves Christ and understands that love offers more than life. Thank you, but I do not wish to trade what I have for less.

“What does it take to beat a child to death?” Evil. Call it selfishness, jealousy, hate, anger – or call it complacency with children being ignored in life’s decisions. Innocent, didn’t ask to be born, children.

Do we care what happens to them? How do we show that caring?