I'm not seeing this reported elsewhere on Daily Kos. But Charlie Fuqua, a GOP candidate running for the Arkansas House of Representatives, has been diaried for other reasons. As gf120581 reported yesterday, Fuqua pronounced in his new book God's Law (it already sounds like a winner of a book, huh?) that all Muslims should be deported to take care of the "Muslim problem." This, in addition to a book by Arkansas State Representative Jon Hubbard which called slavery a "blessing in disguise" for African Americans, has thrown the state GOP into a bit of disarray. Fuqua, for his part, was then shocked--shocked, I tell you--that his comments caused so much outrage. He had this to say:
I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people.
Well, there's more craziness coming from Fuqua's book. Shocking, I know--who would have expected a book called
God's Law to be dripping with right-wing Christian theocracy? Although, this is pretty grotesque, even for a fundie like Fuqua. Now, it's being reported that Fuqua has written in his new book in support of administering the death penalty to "rebellious children." And no, I haven't been tricked by
The Onion--this is all way too real.
The Huffington Post has the story:
In "God's Law," Fuqua's 2012 book, the candidate wrote that while parents love their children, a process could be set up to allow for the institution of the death penalty for "rebellious children," according to the Arkansas Times. Fuqua, who is anti-abortion, points out that the course of action involved in sentencing a child to death is described in the Bible and would involve judicial approval. While it is unlikely that many parents would seek to have their children killed by the government, Fuqua wrote, such power would serve as a way to stop rebellious children.
Some people support corporal punishment...Fuqua just supports killing children in accordance with Old Testament law. But hey, at least he's "pro-life."
Here is exactly what Fuqua wrote, as reported by the Arkansas Times:
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 rebellious 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.
And this guy wants to have a seat in the state legislature. A guy who wants to institute a death penalty for children to deter bad behavior because fucking Deuteronomy said so. I wonder if Fuqua's comment still stands for
this:
I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people.
Are they, Charlie? Tell me about it.
Oh, and here's the best part...on his website, Fuqua brags about his experience on the Children and Families Committee after he was elected to the legislature in 1997.
I just...I have no words. Is there any doubt anymore that a vote for Republicans is a vote for insanity?