SIR – Re “Modern Thinking” (Letters, September 30) in which Mr A Anderton quotes 1 Cor 11:3 regarding the headship between the sexes. This verse, however, is an instruction to the Church about conduct when it assembles. 1 Cor 11:11 amplifies this statement with “In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman”. These instructions are not necessarily for non-believers.

His paraphrase of Proverbs 13:24 requires amplification, it is – “He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” This instruction has been tried and tested and seen to be successful until Parliament intervened about 22 years ago.

The law banning corporal punishment can now be seen to have failed monumentally; our streets are the stamping grounds of hooligans whose mantra is: “you can’t touch me.”

Mr Anderton uses the words “physical abuse”. May I suggest it’s a “good hiding”! It usually worked, but we have discovered today that words alone do not carry authority.

The book from which he quotes is “the word of God which lives and abides forever” – 1 Peter 1:23. Modern thought is ineffectual for the times in which we live. It’s time to look into the Book again!

Walter Metcalfe, Central Avenue, Shipley