Is it a sin to call Child Protective Services on your dad?

Question:

Is it a sin to call Child Protective Services on your dad? I had like one beer and got caught by my brother who's a snitch. He took me home and my dad got mad and slapped me, but it wasn't as if I was drunk. He didn't have to hit me. Would it be bad to call CPS on him?

Answer:

If a parent is causing harm to his children, then it would be right to notify someone in authority to deal with the problem. But this isn't the case here. I don't approve of slapping children, but at the same time, a slap is not what Child Protective Services is there for. The truth is that you are wanting revenge on your dad and that isn't proper.

Let's start at the beginning. You were drinking, but you are not 21. You broke the law and whoever gave you that beer broke the law. Not only that, you knew that drinking was against your parents' rules as well -- but you did it anyway. It is right and proper for a rule-breaker like yourself to be punished. The nature of that punishment is up to your parents, not you.

By the way, what you will find is that if you get someone, like the Child Protective Services, involved, the focus will be your delinquency and why your parents aren't able to keep you from breaking the law. A pattern of being defiant will eventually lead to you being placed in a home for misbehaving youth. I've seen it happen before. What is sad is the young people blame everyone else, refusing to see that it is their own sins that are putting them where they are.

If you don't want people mad at you, don't break the rules.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1).

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