Never before has so much advice been available to parents. There are thousands of books full of tips on how to raise smarter, healthier, better behaved kids. But one book promotes a controversial and ancient way of parenting: The Bible. As part of Five’s popular documentary strand Hidden Lives Raised By The Hand Of God explores the secret and authoritarian world of biblical parenting where all TV and reading material are censored and smacking from infant age upwards is routine. Twigs, switches, rods and spatulas are the tools of choice because ‘a parent who does not chastise his child, does not love his child’. In an age when smacking is seen as increasingly taboo this programme aims to open up the debate on parenting methods by telling the stories of families who have gone against the current secular tide in order to bring up their children in the way they feel is best.