"Mistress Jennifer…" began Alyson Frazier.
"Yes Ally?" she replied.
"I have really been struggling with the religious aspects of this kingdom, particularly with what Linda just said about husbands being 'high priests.' I know for sure I'm not ready to marry any 'high priest.' So I've begun to wonder if there is some sort of connection between being a conservative, and believing in a God. I ask this because it seems to me that I have to believe in one, in order to believe in the other.
"I guess what I am saying is that I really do like what I see in this kingdom, but I'm just not buying into it, so to speak. But if I have to believe in one in order to believe in the other, then I just don't know how to get started. Do you have any advice?"
"There most definitely is a connection." Lady Jennifer pondered her approach for a few moments then began, "There is a saying among conservatives that they like to use to describe the difference between them and liberals. And that is a person either believes in big G, God, or little g, government. If you believe in God, then you are likely to be a conservative, but if you believe in government, then you are likely to be a liberal.
"I personally believe this saying is true without exception, but a large number of Christian liberals would certainly take issue with it, and so would the few conservative atheist. I am particularly reminded of an atheist named Ayn Rand. While I would disagree with some of the reasons she has used to draw the conclusions she has, anyone claiming to be a conservative intellectual would be hard pressed to disagree with much of the principles she points out in her book, Atlas Shrugged. I would even go so far as to say that I don't know how you could call yourself a conservative intellectual without having read it.
"So rather than argue with the liberal Christians and conservative atheists over this saying, we in this kingdom prefer to describe a conservative as someone who has put more faith in God's creation of man, rather than in man's creation of government.
"There really is no intellectually honest way a liberal Christian can argue with this because they clearly have no faith in their fellow man. They firmly believe that elites must decide what is in everyone's best interest, from what their children should be taught in schools, to what health care they should have. They basically believe that anything that needs to be decided on, should be someone's governmental job to do it, and never be considered as anyone's personal responsibility.
"As for Ayn, with this saying she is not required to believe in a God, but if you were to read even her earlier works like Fountainhead, you would clearly see her describe the divine spirit of man, even though she doesn't recognize the source of that divinity.
"Is this helping any?" she asked. Alyson's expression could only be described as skeptical. "OK…" Lady Jennifer continued. "Let's try this from the other direction.
"When Karl Marx stated that religion was the opiate of the masses he was not making some offhanded remark, or some side observation. This was something that was central to his vision of communism. A tough, but necessary understanding that you must come to is that if you follow communism to its logical conclusion, you wind up with atheism, and what most liberals refuse to understand about what they believe is that they are only 'communism-light.'
"In other words, the only difference between communism and liberalism is a matter of degree. When you try to get a liberal to define the line between what the government should decide on, and what should be left for the people to decide for themselves, you wind up with wishy-washy answers like, 'the government should only decide what is necessary.' Ok then, what criteria is used to decide what is necessary, and who gets to decide that criteria?
"Don't ever expect a satisfactory answer to this question, because if you take a look at our government, you will see a behemoth that is only growing in size. It is in a continual state of finding new things that it must decide for its people, and never really giving up on anything it has claimed."
She paused a second. "…There is so much you need to learn about communism versus capitalism in order to understand these principles… I'm not sure how to put it any better with what you know so far. Any closer now?" she again asked, but without any confidence.
"No Mistress Jennifer," Alyson replied. "Not at all. What you describe about conservatives I only see as hypocrisy. Conservatives don't seem to mind using the government to tell me I can't have an abortion."
"You're absolutely correct, Ally," said Lady Jennifer. "And lets not forget things like our war on drugs. I can show you a whole host of things where conservatives are showing much more faith in little g over big G. But pointing out an hypocrisy does not, by itself, refute my point. It only shows that conservatives are human.
"But I can show you one big difference, and that is in the names we use. The people that conservatives want to use the full force of government on, they call criminals. The people liberals want to use the full force of government on, they call citizens.
"You know, I'm glad you brought this topic of hypocrisy up. Liberals love to call corporate CEOs evil, and all manner of nasty things, but you know what you never hear them called? Criminal. Liberal politicians like to bemoan corporations, but they aren't calling for them to be put out of business. Heavens no. For liberals, corporations are a two'fer. With them they have another source of tax revenue to confiscate, and they have a faceless entity that they get to demagogue against that can never garner any sympathy. Liberals are perfectly willing to allow corporations to make their 'evil' profits as long as they get their 'cut of the action' like a bunch of crime lords after the fact.
"We're going to get into this a lot more when we cover capitalism, and how corporations are nothing but government entities that are more suited to socialist nations than capitalistic ones."
Lady Jennifer paused and took a deep breath. "I probably should not have taken this path at all. I think the best advice I can give about believing in God is one that I heard given by a sex therapist on one of those call in talk radio shows. She was advising a woman who said she had never had an orgasm in her life, and her advice to this woman was to fake it. She said that by going through the motions of an orgasm she would eventually figure out what it takes to have one.
"That's my advice to you. Fake it. Just go through the motions of having faith, and I'm pretty sure you'll stumble across it. I'm also fairly confident that this is how everyone comes to God. They begin by associating with people they admire, and want to belong to, and then 'pretend' to have faith in order to fit in. Eventually they realize they aren't faking it anymore, and actually do have faith. Your problem, like many others, is that you keep waiting to have faith before you jump in, but you need to jump in, before you can have faith.
"Does that work for you?"
After a moments pause to think, she replied, "What you describe sounds more like how people become delusional, Mistress Jennifer."
"Fair enough," she said. "But from the outside looking in, faith always looks delusional regardless of what you believe, or the process you use to arrive at it. No matter how well reasoned you believe an idea of yours is, anyone who can't or refuses to grasp your reasons will see you as delusional in some way.
"Enough of this for now. There are two girls who must not have their fate delayed any longer." She said the last as she looked over at Allison and Sandra. "I want you two to lead everyone into the parlor." As they got up, and began a slow walk to the door, she continued. "I want you standing in between the couches and the other girls lined up behind the near one."
Marcia got up, and as Allison and Sandra walked past, she got in behind them. The two girls in front of her went where they were supposed to, and Marcia stood at the corner of the back of the couch just inside the parlor. As the rest of the girls came in, they lined up to Marcia's right.
When Linda came in, she sat in the love seat — obviously eager for this afternoon's entertainment to begin. Lady Jennifer was the last one in, and she immediately went to her left. and pulled the leather strap off of the wall. She then casually strolled to the center of the room next to Sandra and Allison.
While swinging the strap back and forth she said, "As I stated earlier, this kingdom is very harsh, and very painful. For you two to take full advantage of what this kingdom has to offer, you must accept this without this slightest bit of reservation. You are going to be punished and humiliated often, and usually when you do not believe you deserve it."
She directed this next part to all of the girls. "If there is one thing that I cannot overstate is that the very, very, very, very last thing that submission is, is getting to decide what you deserve. The worst thing you can ever do before you are punished is to claim you don't deserve it. When punishment has been declared, discussion is over, and acceptance is the only course of action."
She looked back at the penitent ones. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, Mistress Jennifer," they replied in unison.
"But this doesn't mean I'm not allowed to change my mind," she continued. "I think I would like to be entertained before I only spank Allison. But don't think you're getting off easy Sandra, because what I have in store for you could turn out worse. What I would like to see is you over Marcia's lap for good sound spanking."
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2s4d5g/next_generation_christian_kingdom_ch07_marcias