Give my Preacher cousin his 15 minutes of fame

[A Theist]

No. You're only reading the scripture in part...He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him. Then the next verse reads that He shows mercy unto thousands who love Him and keep His commandments.

He's saying that he visits wrath upon the generations of children who follow in the sins of their fathers but shows mercy to all who turn from the sins of their fathers to love God and keep His commandments.

I haven't read the Bible much in a year, but wouldn't they then have their own iniquity? Like why add the fathers inquity? It seems like it would be a rather redundant way to say "Yep, they'll get what they deserve," if that's what you mean. I guess where I got the interpretation of people suffering because of what there ancestors did was, years ago when I went to a Pentecostal Church they did a thing for generational curses and that scripture was mentioned in it.

The whole concept seemed off to me but I was willing to try it with the issue I had.

In any event, since I don't find the scriptures to be sacred or anything I would rather people believe less unjust interpretations of scripture whether it's what the author intended or not.

Yes, they were responsible for the iniquity that they committed, and the iniquity that they had chosen for themselves was to follow after the very sins that their fathers had committed. What I meant was, and what is repeated throughout the Bible, that while God will mete out consequence for the sins they committed He is quick to extend mercy to those who seek Him for it and who turn from their sins. The guy was getting hung up on just the one verse about the sins of the fathers being handed down to the generations of children following their sins but leaving out the next verse where God said that he would show mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments. Basically, what the verses were saying is that while there's a consequence for the sins we commit there's also mercy if we seek Him for it and forsake those sins. That theme is repeated throughout the Bible.