Problem. The Bible doesn’t say to strike the child with the rod.
LOL!
The bible clearly delineates between the "rod" which was used to provide corporal punishment and the "staff" which is used to gently lead someone in the right direction.
To say that the Bible does not say to strike the child with the rod is ludicrous. To simply say that correcting a child verbally is using the rod is clearly a stretch since Proverbs 29:15 states that it is necessary to use BOTH the Rod AND reproof to impart wisdom.
Now there is no commandment to use a rod (i.e. physical punishment), but there is an admonishment to do so and there is a warning that the man who refuses to use the rod HATES his son.
These are the facts of the Bible. You can ignore them and even twist the scriptures to show some alternate meaning. But the meaning of this passage is as old as the bible itself and only in the last half century has anyone tried to pretend that the verses about using the rod to correct a child does not mean actually striking the child with the rod.
Wisconsin is free to outlaw striking the children with any object including an open palm. But that does not mean that the Bible did not teach that using such a method for correction and imparting wisdom was not only acceptable but advised.
So the question is now whether it is a felony to read these verses out loud in Wisconsin? If some parishioner takes these verses as a license to beat their child, then it would appear that the pastor who taught this as a biblical truth could be convicted of a felony.
This is a bad precedent. Not unexpected. But certainly bad.