UnReligious Truth

I learn most from what I see ...

An abusive husband will cripple his children.  They will be shaped by his behavior, and it will affect their lives, their relationships, and how they raise their own children.

Modern psychology and sociology understand how it works, and so do the rest of us.  It passes from generation to generation unless it is dealt with and changed.  The cycle has to be broken for the persistent harm to come to an end.

That's practical truth, not religion.  Interestingly, that's a biblically valid truth as well.

"... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

source

The way out: confession, change, restitution, reconciliation.  That's the practical advice from the same book.  Interestingly, professional help available (from psychology and sociology) or even Dr. Phil will offer the same path.  All practical, all real-life useful.

Religious speakers, it seems, often expound what sounds like spiritual fairy tales from what's offered in the book.  It helps to understand that there's practical truth being offered there.

More unreligious thinking here.

Just a note on the passage:  His teaching to the nation of Israel is that if one passes their sin down from generation to generation, training their children in wrong thinking and disobedience, there's a price. Punishment will follow (as in 'you harvest what you've planted'). Those who teach what is against the good they've been given will have their children’s children acquire the practice from their parents and suffer for it.  They were instructed about that: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)  Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)  There's a wealth of breadth to the subject, of course.