Thankfully, no attention was paid to the fact that April 30 was End Spanking Day as proclaimed by a group calling itself End Physical Punishment of Children, or EPOCH. As you will see, facts don't matter to these folks. They don't like the idea of spanking children; therefore, spanking is bad. They could be dismissed as a bunch of people with too much time on their hands if it weren't for the fact that EPOCH has had minor success in persuading activist judges and state legislators to make unconstitutional rulings from the bench and introduce bills that would outlaw parental spanking nationally. It obviously matters not to the zealots at EPOCH that child abuse actually increased in Sweden after the passage of laws banning parental spanking.

It rarely fails that when I open the floor for questions at a speaking engagement, someone will ask if I believe in spanking. My response is always that whereas I do not believe in it in the sense of promoting it, I do feel there are times when a spanking is the optimal response to certain misbehaviors.

Over the years, I've written several columns in which I've said essentially the same thing, and those columns never fail to provoke near hysteria among the usual suspects. They accuse me of "promoting child abuse" and other absurdities.

Unfortunately, the cultural debate over whether to spank or not to spank has devolved into a shouting match between extremists. On the right, we have folks who believe that God insists that parents spank. Having done research into the various uses of the word "rod" in the Bible and consulted with Old Testament scholars, I can say with confidence that when used in the context of the discipline of children, "rod" is a metaphor. It does not exclude spankings, nor does it prescribe them. On the left, we have people who believe that a swat to a child's rear teaches that hitting is OK and is child abuse. The fact is, research done by people who have no ideological axe to grind clearly supports the view that occasional spankings cause no psychological harm. One long-term study of parenting outcomes, regarded as one of the best in the field, found that children who are occasionally spanked score significantly higher on measures of well-being and adjustment than children who have never been spanked. (Please note the emphasis on the word "occasional.") The research also finds that spankings work best with young children, and lose their effect after age 5.

Family psychologist John Rosemond answers parents' questions at www.rosemond.com.