What The Heck Is Wrong With Arkansas Republicans?

One Arkansas Republican candidate for State Legislature has some rather unique ideas for solving the problems created by all those kids who won’t get off his lawn:

The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. 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. The death penalty for rebellioius children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given in Deut 21:18-21:

(…)

This passage does not give parents blanket authority to kill their children. They must follow the proper procedure in order to have the death penalty executed against their children. I cannot think of one instance in the Scripture where parents had their child put to death. Why is this so? Other than the love Christ has for us, there is no greater love then [sic] that of a parent for their child. The last people who would want to see a child put to death would be the parents of the child. Even so, the Scrpture provides a safe guard to protect children from parents who would wrongly exercise the death penalty against them. Parents are required to bring their children to the gate of the city. The gate of the city was the place where the elders of the city met and made judicial pronouncements. In other words, the parents were required to take their children to a court of law and lay out their case before the proper judicial authority, and let the judicial authority determine if the child should be put to death. I know of many cases of rebellious children, however, I cannot think of one case where I believe that a parent had given up on their child to the point that they would have taken their child to a court of law and asked the court to rule that the child be put to death. Even though this procedure would rarely be used, if it were the law of land, it would give parents authority. Children would know that their parents had authority and it would be a tremendous incentive for children to give proper respect to their parents.

Last week we had an Arkansas politician extolling the virtues of slavery. This week, we have one saying that the law should provide a mechanism to allow parents to sentence their children to death.

Seriously, what the hell is going on down there dudes?

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. B. Minich says:

    Ummmmm . . . I blame the Razorbacks and their horrible season?

    Yeah, I got nuthin.

  2. Ron Beasley says:

    What The Heck Is Wrong With Arkansas Republicans?

    That’s easy, it’s been taken over by the ignorant Evangelical Christians and Dominionists. It has some how been transported back to the 15th century if not further. May also have something to do with cousins marrying cousins.

  3. stonetools says:

    If you are hooked into the Republican reality distortion feedback loop, such views are not sensible-they’re respectable.
    What the hell is wrong with Virginia Republicans why they thought that it was fine to mandate a trans vaginal ultrasound for women seeking an abortion? They were all hunky dory with that till it made national news. Barring that, your guy Bob Mcdonnell would have happily signed that bill and Cuccinelli would have enforced it.
    What’s horrible is that in 2010 a public fed up with high unemployment voted slightly less conservative versions of such nutballs all over the USA, in the vain hope that these idiots would do something about unemployment. I’m hoping the public will learn their lesson and vote them all out again.

  4. Jeremy says:

    This is wacko even by GOP standards.

  5. Dave A says:

    Obama said there are 57 states. Both sides do it.

  6. KansasMom says:

    What the hell is right with Arkansas Republicans?

  7. mantis says:

    Seriously, what the hell is going on down there dudes?

    They believe the Bible.

  8. wr says:

    How much do you want to bet this guy is a fervent opponent of abortion rights? And that he calls himself “pro-life”?

  9. Tsar Nicholas says:

    I think it’s a thumperbot thing. Hell, even out here in California we’ve got like-minded people who on occasion run for elected offices.

    This Fuqua character’s literal interpretation of scripture is not all that uncommon amongst the extreme elements of Protestantism. Have you ever been to a Southern Baptist church? And that church is quite tame by comparison to a few of the sects which fall on the extreme right side of the Christian bell curve.

    These are fundamentalists. So much so that often times you actually can see their eyes glazing over as they speak. It’s unfortunate that they’ve glommed onto the GOP. C’est la vie.

  10. legion says:

    This is exactly what is expected when you have a system that rewards unquestioning obedience to dogma over actual reality. You can see it in any number of religious sects, all across the spectrum, and it’s what the GOP has become – not “rugged individualists” but blindly obedient worshipers. It’s what they’ve been turning their base into for years.

  11. Anderson says:

    the law should provide a mechanism to allow parents to sentence their children to death.

    But only AFTER they’re born.

  12. Graham says:

    I’m not Christian, but I spent most of my youth attending Catholic (mom’s) and Episcopalian (dad’s) church services, and while I never believed in any of that stuff, I always remember them talking about Jesus as a guy who forgave and redeemed everyone from prostitutes to the guys who murdered him.

    I get that these southern republicans are still generations away from getting on board with science, but you’d think they could at least read the new testament.

  13. giantslor says:

    @Dave A: At first I was like wut and then I was like lol

  14. gVOR08 says:

    Since Friday OTB has had posts about another Arkansa pol who thinks slavery was good for blacks, the gop congressman who thinks the theory of evolution came from the pit of hell, and now this guy. Where do Republicans find these people? And why?

  15. “Even though this procedure would rarely be used, ”

    This is the second time this week I have come across a conservative (the other was a comment elsewhere) making the argument that harsh Old Testament punishments were designed in a way that they would rarely be used. Is this some new meme to try and explain why the OT and extremist Sharia can be distinguished.

    I have been in church since i was young, and this is a new one. Usually the harshness in the OT was either a) ignored, or b) elided by pointing to the NT.

    I am likely reading too much into two comments, but it feels like a meme, Anyone else noticing this?

  16. Franklin says:

    @Dave A: I see at least 8 people as of this writing did not get your joke.

  17. Geek, Esq. says:

    Decades of having the worst education system in the country (maybe Mississippi edges them out), and then concentrating the worst of the worst in one party.

  18. Barry says:

    @Dave A: “Both sides do it. ”

    Where ‘it’ is two very different things.

  19. Barry says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: “I am likely reading too much into two comments, but it feels like a meme, Anyone else noticing this? ”

    ‘Trust us, we won’t *actually use* this power. ‘

  20. Graham says:

    @Barry: I was wondering today if a similar argument wasn’t ever made in favor of the Shariah law those people so despise. “Oh, you know, no one would want to *actually* stone their daughter to death in the street, but we need this deterrent to ensure proper behavior!”