If there was ever a case that proves once and for all why the Bible has never been and should never be the basis for American law, this is it.
Diana and Samuel Franklin are the adoptive parents of a 15 year old girl. And they never should have been allowed to adopt any child whatsoever. Over the last two years, the Franklins have been torturing the girl by locking her up in a chicken coop for days, locking her in a small claustrophobic outhouse, and forcing her to wear a shock collar controlled by a remote. Authorities also found a leather belt that may have been used to beat the girl.
Why did they do this? The Georgia parents allegedly did these horrible things to teach the girl how to do chores correctly; chores such as picking up trash and tending to the yard in extremely hot conditions. And what’s worse, according to a neighbor, the parents allegedly claim they were just following the Bible.
WTVM reports that one neighbor said that,
“Diana Franklin would often punish her daughter for not doing chores and working the “right way.” The neighbor said that Diana Franklin would only feed her daughter bread and water as punishment for days on end. The neighbor says that Diana Franklin told her that she was “doing what the Bible says.”
Diana Franklin faces 12 counts of cruelty to children and 4 counts of false imprisonment, while Samuel Franklin faces 8 counts of cruelty to children and 8 counts of false imprisonment. Weeks before their arrests, the girl was taken into temporary custody by the Department of Family and Child Services.”
This isn’t the first time parents have used God or the Bible to justify the way they brutally deal with their children. Just last year, fundamentalist Christian parents were arrested for spanking their child to death in the name of God. These are the same fundamentalist Christians who would love nothing more than to declare Christianity the national religion and replace the Constitution with what they interpret as Biblical law. Cruel punishment of children is common in the Bible. From beatings to stonings, it is indeed there. But the fact is, in American culture, this is wrong, and it’s precisely why we have a separation of church and state. It’s why the Bible is most certainly NOT the basis for American law. But Christian fundamentalists such as those on the Christian right want incidents such as these to be legal and protected under the guise of religious freedom. Being cruel and committing violence on behalf of God or because a book says so doesn’t make it right. It makes those who would commit such acts dangerous to our laws, our culture, and to the human population. As I said at the start, if there was ever a reason to insist that religion be separate from government and that religion stay out of laws made by government, it is this one. Because it is clear that fanatical religion poses a serious threat not only to adults, but to our children as well.
