Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word...

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

God designed sex for us to have fun and enjoy each other. In our sexual relationship with our spouse, we learn to please each other first and then, of course, receive pleasure ourselves. This whole process must involve honoring each other, and preferring each other. You cannot be involved in anything that degrades you, physically or psychologically hurts you, or that is clearly contrary to Scripture.

You have to determine if your husband's desire for spanking is something playful and enjoyable for him - and if it might also be enjoyable for you. If yes, then spank away! Your conscience need not be sensitive about it. If this activity is only designed to bring pain, humiliate, and make your husband feel demeaned then it is not healthy and needs to be dropped altogether.

Well, I'm a practising Christian and I've personally never felt that there was any contradiction between my religious beliefs and my occasional spankophile practices. Early in our marriage my vanilla wife did seem to find it difficult to reconcile her religious beliefs with playfully or erotically smacking my seat for me, but as she's become more liberal theologically she's also become more tolerant of my spanking-related desires.

From what I've seen of it, so-called 'Christian domestic discipline' (which appears to be exclusively M/F in orientation) is based on the biblically-based claim that the husband is always the head of the household and may employ loving, moderate corporal punishment, the figurative 'rod of correction,' to control his less-mature wife's behavior when necessary. (A few spanked wives have admitted that being thus 'corrected' seems to have improved their sex lives as well, but that's generally attributed to their feeling 'cleansed' of all resentment and disobedience toward their supposedly more mature, paternalistically wise husbands.)

In my experience, right-wing fundamentalist Christians tend to approve of wife-spanking in much the same way that they do of child-spanking: "It's a good idea as long as nobody enjoys it," i.e. it has to be pure punishment not tainted by eroticism.

The more liberal Christian denominations generally are more accepting of kinky sexuality among consenting adults, particularly if they're married partners, presumably based on the concept that God doesn't find human eroticism to be sinful of and by itself.

It is my understanding that even the most conservative Christian churches think that consensual foreplay between married couples, including mild S&M, is permitted.

I don't think the church has any kind of stance on the issue - certainly my last pastor knew of my kink and it didn't bother him, as many people in church were struggling with far more serious life and relationship issues and we are a happily married couple involved in church activities.

I suspect traditional Anglicans in the UK would simply see spanking between couples as kinky - and would disapprove of that kind of foreplay. In a more DD context, it would be seen as abuse, and the participants urged to seek counselling! Quite different for children, for whom the 'spare the rod' principle still holds sway among many, even if they're more discreet about saying these days than they once were. For myself, anything done with love works for me!

Spanking was very much a part of the religious culture I grew up in. It was taught from the pulpit. I distinctly remember our preacher describing his own youthful punishments in sermons. He would conclude by tearfully saying that his mother "loved him enough to punish him" (with her nodding in the audience) and then he would tie that mother's love to God's love, thus reinforcing the message.

To the lay community, as addressed from the pulpit, self-flagellation was never encouraged, neither was spousal discipline - for Catholics that is. I remember Pentecostals promoting child CP but, offhand, I can remember nothing in any of the gospels where Christ spoke of CP. He was a tolerant liberal!

To me, spankos and Christians can be a great mix. Just because there are people who enjoy the scene and participate in spanking, doesn't mean they turn their back on any type of religion. I never did. The spankos I know are good, honest people. They take pride in their home, work, religion, and themselves. It's called 'meeting of the minds'.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.