On corporal punishment.

The Bible, of course, mentions it. It also mentions slavery. Many people still practice it. I'm not going to tell you how to live your lives. If your parents practiced it and you look on that fondly, I'm not going to say anything about that, either ("What did you say about my mother?"). However, when modern child development experts do include it on their list of "things you can do", it's last on the list and has a lot of caveats about how to do it properly. If done wrong, it has bad consequences. More importantly, it's very easy to overuse. Therefore, it's probably not a wise idea to categorically endorse it and it's a bad idea to say anything against people who don't do corporal punishment. If you do, you're wrong.

However, a certain prominent Russian Orthodox cleric has come across recently in conversation as if he is advocating this:



I realize that, with some caveats, laymen are not supposed to criticize clerics exercising their priestly ministry and all that jazz. However, he's full of shit.

But, then again, St Theophan the Recluse said to beat your kids every day whether they need it or not[1]. That's the only way they'll gain the phronema and believe the world is 7521 years old as the Bible says.

In a conversation about the article I'm referring to but not linking to, somebody said the following, "I wish more parents would give their kids a good smack, especially when they roll around on the floor with toys (!) during the Divine Liturgy."

This is completely wrong. Beating the children at church will make them hate church, rolling on the floor is perfectly fine for somebody under the age of 6, and children under a certain age will also generally have some toys. Deal with it. It's wonderful. If your parish doesn't accommodate this behavior, by the way, your parish is wrong. This is part of the problem with pews. No rolling room.

[1]: He did not say this.