One of the most debated passages in all of scripture comes from Exodus 20:5, where God declares that He is "a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."
It's a provocative idea: the notion that the sins of a parent can, and will, be inherited by their offspring.
Theologians have wrestled with this verse for centuries, with many arguing it speaks less to divine punishment and more to the painful consequences that ripple outward when parents make destructive choices.
But here's a question worth considering: what happens when you flip the script?
What does faith – and the law – have to say about the sins of the son?
That question is now a hot topic of debate across America after a father was convicted on charges related to a mass shooting carried out by his child.
Father Convicted For Shooting
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted of murder and child cruelty charges stemming from a 2024 mass shooting in Georgia. He was nowhere near the scene; the shooter was his 14-year-old son, Colt Gray.
Colin Gray did not pull the trigger, but prosecutors argued he handed his son everything he needed to do so, including an AR-style rifle, gifted to the boy for Christmas – even after police had questioned the teenager just seven months earlier about online threats to commit a school shooting. Prosecutors painted a damning picture of a father who ignored obvious red flags.
"After seeing sign after sign of his son's deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school-shooter obsession," Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors, "the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off. And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator."
The defense, naturally, pushed back – arguing that Colt, not his father, made the conscious decision to commit the attack, and that it is the son who bears the moral and legal responsibility for those deaths.
The jury disagreed. After only two hours of deliberation, Colin Gray was found guilty. He now faces a minimum of 30 years in prison.
Setting a Precedent?
Gray’s conviction marks only the third time in U.S. history that a parent has been held criminally liable for a mass shooting carried out by their child. The first high-profile precedent came in 2024, when parents of the teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
Could this set a precedent of more parents being charged in cases where their children commit crimes that may have been preventable?
The legal landscape is clearly shifting. But the moral and theological questions behind these cases are far older than any statute.
Whose Sin is Whose?
Many faith traditions wrestle deeply with the concept of inherited responsibility, and where exactly the line should be drawn.
The same book of the Bible that introduces the "sins of the father" doctrine also contains its counterargument: in Ezekiel 18:20, the prophet declares plainly that "the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son."
And yet, most religious traditions also speak to the sacred duty of parents to guide, protect, and form the moral character of their children. Proverbs 22:6 instructs readers to "train up a child in the way he should go."
Across Islam, Judaism, and Christianity alike, the parental role carries enormous spiritual weight. Neglect of that role is clearly a moral failing, but is it also a legal one?
Where does the responsibility of a parent end and the agency of a child begin? And when a tragedy of this magnitude unfolds, who should be held accountable?
43 comments
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Joseph Grieco
In this case, I agree with the Jury. This man, by his willful ignorance of problems his son demonstrated on a daily basis to everyone, enabled him to carry out what was essentially executions of innocents. His claims to not see his son's problems doesn't wash, and the Jury didn't believe them either. If the parent's actions enable the crime, they should face the same justice.
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Cisco
Even though a lot of what everyone is saying is true to a point but here's the reality of it all. We as parents do have an obligation to our children to steer them in the right direction and to teach them right from wrong, know when or children are in distress and take action to correct it before it gets out of hand.
Now here's the harsh reality of it all believe it or not. Today's children are faced with bullying not only physically and mentally at school, but now that we got cell phones that a bully can text social media where kids can bully another kidvwithout no one ever knowing until it's too late. These are the things that make it hard for parents to know.
The other issue is we are no longer parents, just observers looking in nowadays. Here's what I mean. I grew up with parents who didn't go to church regularly, only on special occasions believed in discipline and the belief of Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child and it take a village to raise a child meaning any adult family, friends or neighbors saw or caught you doing something wrong your parents would be told and when you got home the rod was never spared literally and you learned never to do whatever it was again or be more careful not to get caught again, hopefully. Did our parents get in trouble for our sins, NO. In fact it was encouraged, especially if the police came to your home and basically telling your parent it's ok too. Nowadays the government and the police has taken that right away from parents by telling our kids if we discipline them to call the police and report their parents for child abuse and if you don't discipline them and they get in trouble it's your fault for not doing your job as a parent. Bottom line is this until the government stops interfering with our religious beliefs of how discipline or kid's will never learn right from wrong no matter how hard we try and teach them. In the end it's free will and we can't control that.
Now as far as the father is concerned, yes he knew and it's accountable for his child's actions but at the same time. The same can be said about the bully and their parents. Most parents know their kids are bullies and actually encourage their kid's to be bullies in one way or another by praising them for not being weak as some say. These parents and children need to be held accountable as well if this is where the law is going.
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Karen Field
The father should not be in jail for this , the shooter should, here is what I think is stupid if California state can say your child can do whatever they want with there body and not tell the parents , and the schools can help them without telling the parents, why should this father be held accountable for his kids crimes or anything the kid does.
if your going to give a child a gun you need to do the safety courses and teach them and also have the gun locked up and they need to have permission to get it and use it. With parent with them .
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James Riggle-Johnson
This isn’t about teaching a child gun safety. It is about giving a disturbed child a gun, knowing that the child had fantasized about killing others at school. The father knew this and gave it to him anyway. The father did not commit murder, but should have some responsibility for the crime after arming the perpetrator when the warning signs were there.
Finally, contrary to conspiracy theories, California schools do not let children do whatever they want to their bodies. Nor do they help them do things to their bodies. That’s BS! If a child tells a teacher they think they’re gay but believe their family won’t accept them—then they don’t call the parent up and put the child in danger. They talk to the child and try to get them help to tell the family safely. Kids really don’t go to school in California a boy and come home a girl.
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Donald V. Dunham
I’m tired of people dragging in foreign customs, foreign laws, and cultural side arguments every time something like this happens. None of that means a **** thing here. This is America. We have our own laws, our own responsibilities, and our own standards for protecting children and the public.
When there are repeated red flags, prior threats, obvious instability, obsession with violence, and warning after warning, then parents do not get to play dumb after the fact. At some point, “I didn’t know” stops being believable and starts becoming negligence.
That father was wrong. Period. If the signs were there, and they were, then failing to act is part of the problem. We keep seeing these cases unfold the same way: afterward, everybody discovers there were warnings, there were disturbing behaviors, there were chances to intervene, and the adults either ignored it, minimized it, or refused to face it.
People need to stop hiding behind excuses and start telling the truth. Parents have a duty to pay attention. If your child is showing serious danger signs and you ignore them, you are not innocent just because you didn’t pull the trigger.
You can also make it hit harder like this:
Enough with the foreign-law comparisons and the pointless side noise. This is America. We deal with American law, American responsibility, and the consequences of people refusing to act when the warning signs are right in front of them.
The father was wrong. There were red flags. There were signs. There was advance warning. And like so many of these cases, the truth comes out afterward that people saw the danger and did nothing meaningful about it.
That has to stop.
Parents are not automatically guilty for every evil thing a child does. But when they ignore obvious danger, excuse violent behavior, or fail to act when the signs are screaming at them, then yes, they bear responsibility too.
We do not need more excuses. We need adults who are willing to see what is in front of them before another disaster happens.
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Rev. Kev
This has nothing to do with "sin" or the Bible. It has to do with responsibility for a crime. The parents in these cases can be seen as aiding and abetting the crime. Especially as the legal adults and guardians of the minor perpetrator. It's like a person providing all the tools for a crime and they can see the person has intent or threatens to commit the crime but keep it to themselves and doing nothing. Making them an accessory.
This isn't opening any gate to charging parents for any crime their children commit.
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Patricia Ann Gross
A lot of things are wrong here:
1) Bullying and violence in schools (and other places of work) is real, especially for people that others perceive as "different."
2) Children are not held accountable for the consequences of their actions until something causes injury or death of another person (sometimes not even then).
3) Access to high powered and multi-shot weapons is way too easy, and in many cases done without any checks to make sure the one purchasing it is trained in how to use it and stable enough to use it properly.
Are parents responsible for the actions of their children? In many cases the parents are the ones who trained the children on how to be bullies/violent. Domestic violence has reached a point of nearly half (up from 25 percent) of all women have been sexually or physically abused by a domestic partner. Children tend to mimic what they witness, so if they see that violence and bullying gets someone what they want, they are likely to try it.
I am not one who wants to abolish the 2nd amendment, but I do want to stand up to it, because the weapons today were never imagined by those who penned it, nor were they aware of weapons of mass distruction that could wipe out cities with a single strike (sorry for the weeds on that comment).
I grew up on a ranch, where we had single shot 22 calliber rifles and 30-06 hunting rifles (also single shot) to protect our livestock and supplies from non-human threats. There were deer and antelope where we allowed hunters to come in during season to hunt. I remember a time when a cousin's 10-year old child came to the ranch and wanted his uncle to take him out "rabbit hunting." I sat him down and asked him if he really wanted to shoot a bunny. He was fixated on "rabbit hunting," and nothing I could say would change his mind, so his uncle reluctantly took him out, showed him how to aim the rifle, and the kid shot a rabbit. Rather than coming back rejoicing in his "kill," he came back in tears because he had killed an innoscent little bunny. It was a hard lesson for the kid, and I doubt he has ever picked up a gun since. Even though I know how to safely store and use a gun, this is the reason I will not allow one in my home.
I have heard too many stories of "accidental" shootings caused by not knowing who was in the room, or the gun "just going off," or not realizing there was a bullet in the chamber. I have lost loved ones to those "excuses." If we are going to have a 2nd amendment right to bear arms, we also need to have some federal guidelines/laws that make sense (for heaven sakes, we must be licensed in order to drive, and a car can be as much of a weapon as a gun.) Gun shops should not be able to sell to a person without a common-sense waiting period (if the person is desparate to have one now, that should be a red-flag). They should also have a background check to ensure they are eligable according to statutes to order one. No guns for convicted felons of violent crimes, sex offenders (at any level, even misdomeaner), or drug addicts (with the potential for grace if they have been certified as clean and sober for more than 2 decades). I also wouldn't oppose a mandatory psych evaluation.
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Roy S. Thorpe
First I know the old line fire and brimstone thumpers will be on me, BUT the old testament is a collection of old Hebrew laws, sayings, and stories! If we follow our beloved Master in what his thoughts might be we'll all be enlightened to a higher degree of insight into real people's thoughts and feelings!
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Rev. B.D. Rees
I can't tell you how WRONG this is on sooooo many levels!! FIRST: a 14 year old BOY and I do emphasize BOY gets maybe a BB gun for his birthday, certainly NOT an ASSAULT RIFLE!! Were the parents wrong in supplying the boy with the weapon in order to facilitate the killings..... YES they were!! I am almost 70 years old, I certainly got spanked when I did wrong, therefore giving me a sense of right and wrong! Believe me, it never hurt me, and I never thought of anything so terrible. All my mother had to do is give me "THE LOOK", I always knew what that meant.... and they were not above spanking me in front of the Principal!! Did the Father deserve what he got? You bet your boots he did!! He enabled that child to do what he did, and in my eyes scripture or not, of which I think it's very foolish to bring scripture into it, it is a matter of Right or Wrong nothing more nothing less.....I will go one further, the boy should have gotten some time in a juvenile facility....... just sayin.....
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Joseph Grieco
In this case, an unstable youth was given an AR-15 for his birthday. A kid with a history of being bullied, and who daily expressed antisocial tendencies. Tendencies that were ignored by the same parent who gave him a gift that cost four families their loved ones lives.
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Sharon Faye Shores
The male brain is not fully developed until about their mid twenties. Physically, a 14 year old male- is still a child. While I agree it was inappropriate to give this child a gun, it appears that the family may have been in survival mode. What is not being addressed is that Mr. Gray was a single father raising 3 children. His wife had lost custody due to failing a drug test. In other words it was no doubt a very dysfunctional situation. It makes me wonder if he had any support from his community-church etc. When a person and or family is in survival mode, sometimes common sense goes out the window.
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Salvatore Antonio Rossano Jr
If it can be proved that a parent was negligent in allowing a child access to a weapon, then there should be some consequences to the parent. Based on what has been shared in the media, Regarding Colin Gray, it sounds like there was a known issue that the son was a risk. In this case, providing a gun to an unstable child is negligent and the parent(s) has some responsibility.
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Rev Rick
Charge the parents for the laws they’ve broken , nothing more. Buying for or allowing an underage individual to possess a firearm without adult supervision is illegal. Access to firearms is also allowing. If parents are charged for their child, how long before the child is charged for their parent. Example; person hit a killed by elderly driver. We have so many laws , even our federal government can’t put a number on how many
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Patricia Ann Gross
There are a lot of nuances to this problem:
1 - A real problem with bullying of children who are in any way different and neither parents or schools acknowledge or punish it.
2 - A real problem with domestic violence, which is where children most often learn to be violent/bullies.
3 - A real problem with mental illnesses and disorders that can escalate to violence that are so stigmatized neither the parents or the children want to address it.
4 - A real problem with gun control that puts the weapons in the hands of people who are all of the above.
This was a real situation where the outcome was absolutely predictable, and for whatever reason everybody not only ignored the warning signs, but enabled the person who committed the violence. To that all I can say, is what did they expect to happen?
I grew up with guns in the house, since we lived on a ranch and needed them from non-human threats to our livlihood (wild animal preditors). I was bullied heavily in school and by family for anything from being the "middle child," the "smart one," the "one who didn't look like the others (blonde hair, blue eyes instead of brunette, brown eyes), and an awkward tomboy unstead of a graceful "girly girl." Although these things wore on me, toughened my skin, and helped shape the person I eventually became, they never reached the point that it broke me to the point that I ran off the rails like these kids are doing. That said, it really scares me that it could have, and therefore, I refuse to have guns in my home, and have from the time I left home. It is a consious choice, I'll admit, and I am not one who is aganst the 2nd amendment, BUT, with gun ownership comes great responsibillity. Licensing should be required (we require one to drive a car for God's sake) and any parents who give one to their child without requiring the same sort of education on the consequences of shooting something.
I had a cousin's 10-year old kid come to the ranch and wanted his uncle to take him "rabbit hunting," and obsessing about it. I sat him down and asked him if he really knew what he was asking to do, and he just fixated on going "rabbit hunting." His uncle relinquised and took him out, showed him how to aim the gun and he killed a rabbit. That same kid came back into the house in tears because he had killed a living being, a poor innoscent bunny rabbit, and I doubt he has ever touched a gun since. We can blame everything from cartoons to movies to violent video games that mask the real consequences of gun violence all day long, but in the end the blame goes to the one who pulled the trigger. A parent who puts a gun in a child's hand that is a weapon of mass destruction (as in this case), especially with all the warning signs is as guilty as the kid who pulled the trigger.
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Rev. Miche'al Yosef Dixon
First; I'd like to point out the government is using this cases to justify when they are ripping the children out the home and raise them like the Nazi and Stalin did. Second; the whole title and issue is wrong. This is not a "faith" issue or "religion" issue. Who ever started that is fueling the division of the faiths, and those that actually agree on this subject. Third; on the legality of the issue. I know first hand where this parents are and feel. Let my point out the little stated but people haven't a clue what they are saying FACT. The State of Louisiana is ruled under "Napoleonic Law" and it is a "Police State" as stated in its Constitution. What "Napoleonic Law" means is the law of France (even today) which doesn't grate "innocent until proven guilty" and "crimes of family members may be used in court against the accused." I don't know about the law in Collins state but in Louisiana they can use every crime every blood relative committed against him. fourth; my personal experience, my neice was 8 years old and there was a boy at her school who kept touching her on her private parts. She told the teachers, head master (preacher) and her parents. No one would help her, the boy is the Preacher's son. I taught her a few basic martial arts moves to protect herself. The next school year she broke the boy's arm. I was arrested for "Crimal Assault of a child". I also was arrested for "reckless endangerment" as while I was in jail my nephew I had custody of took my truck on a joyride while I was in jail for teaching his sister to defend herself. The children's guardians without any religion involved are legally held responsible for the actions of the children in there care. Right or wrong that's the law of the United States of America people. Get over it.
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Rev Ned
So…like the baker who, by baking the cake, is participating in the wedding, is the FFL dealer who sells a firearm that is later used in a crime also participating in the crime?
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Brian Hand
It’s a ridiculous analogy. Did the car manufacturer participate in the drunk driver killing someone? People need to be held accountable for their actions. The father purchased and gave the gun to his mentally unstable son. He’s responsible!
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Joseph Grieco
Except they aren't going after the licensed firearms dealer, or the gun manufacturer. They convicted a man who, by willful indifference in his son's mental and psychological state, bought him a gun that cost the lives of four innocents.
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Elvin St. James
Teach Your Child the way they should go and it will never depart from them.........HM?
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
You mean spare the rod and spoil the chid? Hmmm.
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Elvin St. James
Hmmm....
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Barbara Harris
On a recent news cast in my area, teachers were being asked if they had ever been abused by a student. It appears that 75% of them have either been verbally or physically abused. Some of the ones, who have been physically abused, have ranged from being bitten, that required stiches, to injuries that resulted in time off from work to recover. The school district won't expel the kids and the parents, when spoken to regarding the injuries have all sorts of excuses that range from the teacher provoked it to you know how kids are.
This is definitely a parent problem. They are refusing to step in and discipline their children from the very beginning. The teacher that was bitten, taught kindergarten. Parent's response - they knew she had an issue with biting others and figured she would outgrow it.
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Sir Lionheart
Yes I’m sure the loving German parents of cute little Adolf thought he would eventually grow out of it. 🤭
🦁❤️
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Joseph Grieco
First of all, he was Austrian, not German. By all accounts he was a good kid at home and in school, excelling in many subjects. Second, his anti-social tendencies started when he was denied a position in Art school in Vienna due to lack of appreciable talent. Then he was denied permission to enlist in the Austrian army in 1914 because he couldn't prove one of his grandmothers wasn't Jewish. They were expanded after he was injured in battle during WWI, had difficulty finding work, and ended up having to be a paid informant for the Police.
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Sir Lionheart
Very interesting information. Thank you so much for that education.
🦁❤️
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Pastor George Day
Sir Lionheart
He was demon possessed !
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Sir Lionheart
There you go, making claims again that you cannot support with any demonstrable evidence, mainly because we don’t even know what “demon possession” is. I don’t see that anywhere in any scientific medical literature, or journals.
🦁❤️
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Michael Bernard Wolf
As a parent, when we were raising our daughter we were involved in everything she did. We checked her homework and I framed every one of her awards she won in school and praised her for doing well,....letting her know how proud we were of her. A parent needs to know what their children are doing, who they are hanging out with and what they are watching on TV. If a parent sees a child going down the wrong road it is that parent's responsibility to get involved and help that child see the follies of their mistakes and correct them so they can get back on track. If a parent doesn't get involved with what their child is doing they are doing a disservice to that child because children need, not only love, but guidance. Plus a parent can't be a friend.......a parent has to be more than that. Also a parent can do all the right things and still a child can go on a bad path, we just have to hope what we say to them they listen and understand right from wrong. Remember, that child didn't ask to be born, we wanted them and as parents that is a job that we have to undertake to the best of our ability. Children are a GIFT FROM GOD, how we raise and love them is OUR GIFT TO GOD!!!!!!
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Michael Bernard Wolf
As a parent, when we were raising our daughter we were involved in everything she did. We checked her homework and I framed every one of her awards she won in school and praised her for doing well,....letting her know how proud we were of her. A parent needs to know what their children are doing, who they are hanging out with and what they are watching on TV. If a parent sees a child going down the wrong road it is that parent's responsibility to get involved and help that child see the follies of their mistakes and correct them so they can get back on track. If a parent doesn't get involved with what their child is doing they are doing a disservice to that child because children need, not only love, but guidance. Plus a parent can't be a friend.......a parent has to be more than that. Also a parent can do all the right things and still a child can go on a bad path, we just have to hope what we say to them they listen and understand right from wrong. Remember, that child didn't ask to be born, we wanted them and as parents that is a job that we have to undertake to the best of our ability. Children are a GIFT FROM GOD, how we raise and love them is OUR GIFT TO GOD!!!!!!
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Michael Bernard Wolf
As a parent, when we were raising our daughter we were involved in everything she did. We checked her homework and I framed every one of her awards she won in school and praised her for doing well,....letting her know how proud we were of her. A parent needs to know what their children are doing, who they are hanging out with and what they are watching on TV. If a parent sees a child going down the wrong road it is that parent's responsibility to get involved and help that child see the follies of their mistakes and correct them so they can get back on track. If a parent doesn't get involved with what their child is doing they are doing a disservice to that child because children need, not only love, but guidance. Plus a parent can't be a friend.......a parent has to be more than that. Also a parent can do all the right things and still a child can go on a bad path, we just have to hope what we say to them they listen and understand right from wrong. Remember, that child didn't ask to be born, we wanted them and as parents that is a job that we have to undertake to the best of our ability. Children are a GIFT FROM GOD, how we raise and love them is OUR GIFT TO GOD!!!!!!
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Father Frederick
Sadly, I've had to minister to two families where the parents were oblivious to their children's thoughts and actions.
A common thread in these situations is the denial a parent will have in what their child did, even when graphically evident. An illegal or immoral act is something most parents do not wish to acknowledge. In one of those cases the parent was even the enabler, pushing the child to "take care of business."
Sometimes it comes to the parent trying to reverse the tables, as in one child who beat another to the point where he lost his left eye, and used the excuse that "he was disrespected". And the parent even went to court saying that their child was innocent be of being disrespected, but under cross examination neither the child or parent(s) could cite the situation which spawned the attack.
Its hard to explain what allows a parent to think this way. In some cases I think it's protecting the child from what will inevitably be prosecution and jail. In other situations I believe there are feelings and thoughts from their past which allow the parent to justify the criminal action.
And when you try to talk with them, pointing out scripture, there is that moment of anger at times where you wonder if its just a defense mechanism, or a demon.
I don't know what the answer is, but there is historical evidence to show that the justice system is not doing its job, and in many cased the parents, who are the enablers and teachers of violence, do not get a piece of the verdict. They should.
However, look around your community and you see all sorts of violent and questionable behavior, all of which is dismissed not only by parents, but communities, and the judicial system. Nowhere is more evident than the rage on our streets due to politics. We had a case locally where one person was beaten by another at a protest, and the reason given in court was, "He got what he deserved. I didn't like his sign."
Again, a lax judicial system which dismisses crime is how these things foster and build between generations.
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Michael Bernard Wolf
As a parent, when we were raising our daughter we were involved in everything she did. We checked her homework and I framed every one of her awards she won in school and praised her for doing well,....letting her know how proud we were of her. A parent needs to know what their children are doing, who they are hanging out with and what they are watching on TV. If a parent sees a child going down the wrong road it is that parent's responsibility to get involved and help that child see the follies of their mistakes and correct them so they can get back on track. If a parent doesn't get involved with what their child is doing they are doing a disservice to that child because children need, not only love, but guidance. Plus a parent can't be a friend.......a parent has to be more than that. Also a parent can do all the right things and still a child can go on a bad path, we just have to hope what we say to them they listen and understand right from wrong. Remember, that child didn't ask to be born, we wanted them and as parents that is a job that we have to undertake to the best of our ability. Children are a GIFT FROM GOD, how we raise and love them is OUR GIFT TO GOD!!!!!!
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Mary Kristen Haddock
When a child acts out in public, it directly reflects parenting, or the lack thereof. Do not forget in Mosaic law, a 14 year old is, by law, a man. While the father gifted the son a firearm, it was ultimately, the son, who chose to commit the act of terror. Thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ was sent to save us. With Jesus, came a new covenant. Mosaic law is null and void. The responsible party committing such crimes is the trigger puller. His father was negligent in observing past behavior cues. 30 years is lengthy.
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Elvin St. James
AMEN!!!!!!!
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
If a xtian father fails to instruct his son in the ways of Jehovah then he should suffer the same punishment as the son/daughter. If his son/daughter gets a parking ticket he pays the same amount as a ‘Failed Father Tax’. If the son/daughter commits murder the father is executed along with the son/daughter. If the daughter has an abortion then he is executed along with the daughter. (If they at any point lived in Tennessee.)
Makes perfect sense if you base your worldview on a Bronze Age religion that thinks all humans are under threat of eternal torture because the first two humans took dietary advice from a talking snake.
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Lori-Ann Neeb
The first line claiming God is a jealous God is enough to dismiss the entire premise. God has never been a jealous God. That is a human weakness which God does not suffer. The corrupt church of the time was full of it when they picked and chose which ones to include or not as they fit into the churches own agendas . Even the ones they did choose, they edited further to fit into their agendas. The focus needs to a spiritual one and a sense of right and wrong and the innate heart that does not need a manmade book to dictate to it.
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Rev. Kev
If I understand you correctly, you dismiss the first sentence because you don't believe in the Bible. Correct? That's certainly your right. The planet is full of different beliefs. But the article is based entirely on the general Christian worldview based on texts they more or less believe to be true. And there are certainly Bible passages to support that belief of a jealous God.
"You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me" Exodus 20:5
"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Deuteronomy 4:24
"For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth." Deuteronomy 6:15
"The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies." Nahum 1:2
"But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins." Joshua 24:19
"The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven." Deuteronomy 29:20
"Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth." Zephaniah 1:18
There are others but I think these should suffice.
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Lori-Ann Neeb
The beginning line quoting biblical scripture saying God is a neAlous God is proof the concept iswho published the wrong from the vet go and the Bible is inaccurate. God has never been a jealous God. That is a human weakness the humans (church) who were full of it wrote into their published book . So scrap the whole concept of the debate and focus on a spiritual concept of right and wrong.
Humans need to accept their own and sole ownership of the hatred, bigotry, racism and cruelties they committ on each other all. Y ourselves.
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Robert Gagnon
The traditional meaning is that the stigma of something your family did lived on, sometimes for generations. As for these parents now getting prison time, they facilitated the crime with gross negligence. In other words it wouldn’t have happened without their looking the other way while arming a murderer. Baby can’t do no wrong don’t hold up in court.
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Colleen McAllister
This is a hard one and needs to be decided on a case to case basis. A parent giving weapons to a child. Guilty. Did the parent train the child in correct usage? Or did they encourage anger and bitterness? Not a simple answer.
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Pastor George Day
Colleen McAllister
Nice to see you sharing :-)
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Dr. Zerpersande, NSC
If the father is a xtian then he failed to properly instill in his son the spirit of the 10 commandments. If the son is convicted both should verily forfeit their lives.
Something changed from the day when we would be spanked as punishment. When a child fantasizes about shooting up a school—you don’t put a gun in their hand. The parent is responsible at that point. Maybe not 30 years in prison, but something.