GOP Candidate Endorses Death Penalty for Rebellious Children, Cites Scripture
Republican legislator Charlie Fuqua is running for re-election this year in Arkansas, and he may have a bit of difficulty doing so thanks to his own words. In a book published earlier this year, Fuqua endorsed "the death penalty for rebellious children."
Fuqua based his philosophy on the Biblical text taken from the book of Deuteronomy, which provides the explicit guidelines for dealing with unruly children. In his book, "God's Law," Fuqua cites the text, which reads as follows.
"If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. Then all of the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you," reads the New International Version of Deut. 21:18-21.
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"The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline," according to Fuqua. "Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents."
Fuqua also wrote that the love of Christ should overrule any punishment, but his words have left a mark on the people of Arkansas as well as the rest of the Republican Party. Ironically, Fuqua was once a lawyer for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has "strongly condemned remarks by … Charlie Fuqua" in a speech and on Twitter.
Other Republican officials have also spoken to Fuqua about his comments, which come at the same time the GOP is dealing with the fall-out from another Arkansas legislator's opinion that "slavery may have been a blessing."
