Preacher: Bible Mandates
Execution Of Rebellious Children
Positive Atheism Forum
Preacher: Bible Mandates
Execution Of Rebellious Children
From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: <Undisclosed.Recipients>
Subject: PosAth/ PA Preacher: Rebellious Children Must Get Stoned
Date: Monday, February 22, 1999 3:03 AM
Here's a wild one from Americans United. Don't think these people are just nuts. They believe in it, and are working hard toward accomplishing some semblance of it. Dust off your copy of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (or get it from the library) and realize that it can happen here -- if we let it.
Bible Requires Death by Stoning Mercersburg Activist Insists The Bible mandates death by stoning for rebellious teenagers, according to a Pennsylvania preacher and Religious Right activist. The Rev. William O. Einwechter's article, "Stoning Disobedient Children," appeared in the January issue of Chalcedon Report, a monthly journal published by the Chalcedon Foundation in Vallecito, Calif. In the article, Einwechter cites Deuteronomy 21:18-21, which advises parents to take "a stubborn and rebellious son" before city elders to be stoned to death if he will not change his ways. Einwechter's viewpoint drew criticism from church-state separationists. "Rev. Einwechter reminds us all of why we need a clear separation between religion and government," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group. "I doubt if most Americans think we should turn America into a fundamentalist Christian version of Iran." Einwechter says the death penalty should be applied to "a grown son (and by extension to a daughter as well) who, for whatever reason, has rebelled against the authority of his parents and will not profit from any of their discipline nor obey their voice in any thing." Writes Einwechter, "[T]he execution of the rebel in view is just, merciful, and preventive. Just, in that the transgressor deserves to die; merciful, in that his quick death prevents the destruction of the family, society, and others; preventive, in that it strikes fear in the heart of other would-be rebels and restrains them from taking a similar ruinous course." The Chalcedon Report is the leading publication of the "Christian Reconstructionist" movement, the most extreme contingent of the Religious Right. Reconstructionists reject democracy and believe Christians should take "dominion" over American society. Under their version of "biblical law," the death penalty would be required for over a dozen offenses, including adultery, homosexuality, witchcraft and spreading "false" religions. Although the movement's numbers are relatively small, its ideas have often filtered into other Religious Right groups. Einwechter, a Mercersburg, Pa., resident, is vice-moderator of the Association of Free Reformed Churches. He also serves as vice president of the National Reform Association, a Pittsburgh-based group that advocates Christianity in government. Susan Hansen |
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
From: "Jonas S. Green"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Re: PosAth/ PA Preacher: Rebellious Children Must Get Stoned
Date: Monday, February 22, 1999 8:32 PM
Bible Requires Death by Stoning for 'Rebellious' Teenagers, Says PA. Preacher
Mercersburg Activist Insists Bible Mandates Execution by Susan Hansen Americans United for Separation of Church and State
The Bible mandates death by stoning for rebellious teenagers, according to a Pennsylvania preacher and Religious Right activist.
Yes I agree that the Bible does mandate that, it is clearly written in most of the King James Varients found in your average hotel room. However that the Bible says so does not mean I have to follow it. - Boy it's handy to not be a fundamentalist Christian, and have the freedom to think for myself.
In the article, Einwechter cites Deuteronomy 21:18-21, which advises parents to take "a stubborn and rebellious son" before city elders to be stoned to death if he will not change his ways.
The Bible also says it is sin to wear cotton & polyester clothing, fortunately I don't have to follow that rule.
HEADLINE:
Gang of thugs attacks preacher, and rips tags off of Preacher's shirt.
... explained the head thug: "Well we needed to be sure she practiced what she preached."
Einwechter's viewpoint drew criticism from church-state separationists.
"Rev. Einwechter reminds us all of why we need a clear separation between religion and government," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group. "I doubt if most Americans think we should turn America into a fundamentalist Christian version of Iran."
No No No! That reminds us why American Law should not be carved in unchanging Biblical code. Currently several families can claim religious reasons for allowing their infant children to die from easily treatable diseases. As they refuse to seek proper medical help, and rely on Prayer. Do you want to extend "Religious Freedom" to allow capital punishment by parents?
Bobby: "Teacher, Why isn't Jimmy in school today?"
Teacher: "Well Bobby, remember when you and Jimmy stayed out late, and your parents got all worried"
Bobby: "Yeah, Mommy sent me to my room, and grounded me for two weeks!"
Teacher: "Well Jimmy's parents had him executed!"
Bobby: "What??!!??!?!?!?"
Teacher: "Now Bobby, we must respect other people's beliefs. They have a right to raise their children the way they see fit."
From: "Timothy Gorski"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Re: PosAth/ PA Preacher: Rebellious Children Must Get Stoned
Date: Monday, February 22, 1999 5:21 AM
Yes, just take a look at their website: www.chalcedon.edu
From: "Bill Garrett"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Forum:_Death_By_Stoning_For_Naughty_Kids_9673
Date: Thursday, August 03, 2000 5:14 AM
I looked up one of the articles on stoning on their website. The author makes it clear that stoning is only for disobedient adult children. Young children are to be reproved with the rod. I'm glad he cleared that up -- I feel better!
Here's the article:
http://www.chalcedon.edu/report/99jan/einw_stoning.html
Bill G
From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: "Bill Garrett"
Subject: Re: Forum:_Death_By_Stoning_For_Naughty_Kids_9673
Date: Thursday, August 03, 2000 11:55 AM
Even the Pharisees of Jesus's time squirmed with the wording on this one, falling over themselves to try to mitigate this law's meaning and impact. This prompts me to believe that "adult children" is not the obvioius reading in any sense.
Now, do we sit and wait for the Twelve Steppers and co-dependency people to try to mitigate the "adult child" aspect of the new reinterpretation?
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
From: "RCJ21483"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Forum:_Death_By_Stoning_For_Naughty_Kids_9673
Date: Saturday, January 27, 2001 7:34 AM
Cliff,
This issue aggravates me since it is clearly an error in the Bible's understanding. And, the priest commenting on this issue gave an answer that still aggravated me by showing how religion spawns a specific mindset to rob imagination.
In John 8: 1-11, an adulterous women is saved by Jesus from an execution of public stoning. The legal advisors in favor of her execution claimed to be deriving their law from the Bible (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21), but Jesus ceases them from killing her. His general claim is that the Bible is not to be read literally; rather, it is open to interpretation. I have heard several religious experts and believers make this claim, yet, in reading several of the quotes from this web site's letters, other web sites and books, I see that everyone seems to take a passage as literal. But, in reading these passages and pondering them, one has to ask themself, "how else am I to intepret this than literally?" I think the notion of reading the Bible as metaphors is simply an excuse that the churches of Europe made during the Catholic Reformation to keep themselves legitimate and remain in power. I will admit, some Bible passages do offer multiple ways of being read; but several do not and literal reading is the only way that they can be seen.
In this article, a priest -- who to my knowledge, is supposed to be very well educated in the Bible's teachings -- is reading a "book of metaphors" literally. This makes me question the education that comes from the Bible in its millenia of study since proof in it exists to show that its supposed to be metaphors, and even hundreds of years after Christ, it's still read literally.
If the Bible is to be read non-literally, and no other way of interpreting a passage exists other than literally, how can it be seen as fruitful information? If literal reading is the only option available in studying the religious text, it seems to cause a lack of creative thinking in a religious mindset and a narrow, one-way method of viewing life, whereas free-thinking allows room for alternatives.
-R.J.
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