Let’s begin here: If you say that spanking your child is hilarious, you’ve already left the Bible, and child development research, behind.

This week, Bachelor alum Madison Prewett and her husband Grant Troutt sparked widespread backlash after saying they plan to spank their infant daughter “in a loving way.” That’s a phrase I’ve written about before and challenged. There is no way to spank in a truly loving way. (For more on how I demonstrated that, click here.)

But it was Grant’s additional remark that got my attention: “It’s going to be hilarious when we start spanking Hosanna.”

That sentence shook me.

Because nothing about inflicting physical pain on a child should ever be described as hilarious. If anything, it should break your heart. And if it doesn’t, if the very idea of inflicting pain on a small, vulnerable child makes you laugh, I have to wonder: What kind of pain did you experience that made you think it would be funny?

Let’s talk about the verse so often quoted in these conversations: “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” First of all, that quotation is actually from a poem. The true verse says, "Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves them is careful to discipline them" (Proverbs 13:24).

The “rod” mentioned in Biblical Hebrew isn’t a baton or a cudgel. It’s a shepherd’s staff, a long wooden stick with a crook at the end. Shepherds didn’t beat their sheep. They guided them gently, nudging them away from danger and back onto the path. The crook was there to pull a wandering lamb close, not strike it. That’s why Psalm 23 says, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Not hurt. Comfort.

To “spare the rod” doesn’t mean to withhold hitting. It means to withhold guidance. The verse isn’t an endorsement of spanking; it’s a call to responsible, relational

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