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Is God punishing America? – Revisited
From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee
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| Chum For Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters |
Is God punishing America? – Revisited
I used to play a computer game called SimCity. I discovered
that when you cleared a block for redevelopment that contained a church, a
tornado would come ripping through the town. I thought that it was a clever
joke by the programmers. However, some people think that this is how God
operates, and how fathers should operate, and how political leaders should
operate.
I do actually believe that there is a narrow window during
childhood when punishment is sometimes appropriate. This period starts when the
young child can distinguish the connection between their choice of behavior and
the resulting consequence. It ends when “Because I said so” stops making sense.
During this brief time, however, this is what they can understand and this is
how they can be motivated.
And then things start to change. Children develop the
maturity to start making responsible choices. These children start to ask “why”
and they start to be able to understand why. After that, a responsible father
starts to
