"I know you girls are going to remain skeptical of what I am about to say long after this evening has ended. Yet if you give what we have to say a chance, we are confident that you will reap the benefits we have seen. We are so confident that you will that we are willing to 'put our money where our mouths are.' It's called a buy out. I know some of you have heard of it, and wondered if it was true, well, it is. We don't pay women to stay in this kingdom, we pay them to leave. From the moment you are declared a maiden within this kingdom, your minimum buy out price is one hundred thousand dollars.
"I want to be very clear about this. If at the time we have deemed you to be worthy to be a maiden, yet you are so little convinced of the benefits to this kingdom that you would rather have the money, then we really do want you to go. Please, for our sake and yours, take the money and go.
"And it doesn't stop there. As time goes on, your buy out price continues to grow. Within a year it will be two hundred thousand. When you get married the minimum buy out is five hundred thousand dollars. My own buy out price is thirty seven million — and I get this manor. Think of it as my guaranteed alimony in a divorce, and that doesn't include child support.
"We in this kingdom take a great deal of pride in our buy out prices. It's a testament to how sure we are of what we are doing by how few have actually taken up the buy out. So what exactly is it that we are so concerned with that we are willing to put that money where our mouths are? Let's get in to it.
"Some of you had a great deal of difficulty getting over my lap when I spanked you the first time. The only reason you did it was because of the obvious benefits you saw in belonging to our kingdom, so you were willing to suspend your disbelief that this was the right thing to do. For you, I don't expect you to fully grasp what we are going to present this evening. Our patriarchal kingdom took many years even for us to fully comprehend, so it will probably take you awhile also.
"For the rest of you, you slipped easily into the submissive role, and took no convincing whatsoever to be spanked. It's important for you to understand that your willing participation is not good enough. You must fully comprehend why we are doing what we are doing for you to be of real benefit to us.
"As I said earlier, we began looking at everything in the Bible, and religion in general, with a fresh perspective. We did not look at one thing until it was resolved; we began looking at many things to find the 'low hanging fruit,' which we found with things like sacrifice.
"Many of the questions we sought to answer seemed unrelated, such as: 'What is the true nature of our relationship with God?'; 'What is the proper relationship between a husband and wife?'; 'Why do religions such as Islam attract so many new followers?'; 'What is with this obvious dichotomy to life that the Chinese refer to as the yin and the yang?'
"These things appeared unrelated, but as time went on, there seemed to be a common thread running through them. There is no way we could run through what we learned in a linear fashion tonight, so our time tested method will be to throw out some questions for you to answer and see where we go from there.
"To begin with, let's take a look at a modern relationship where the man and woman are considered equal partners in it. Nobody is in charge, at least that is the intention the man and woman had when they began the relationship. Now let's throw in mutually exclusive opinions they have on some non-trivial matter that needs to be decided. Each has laid out their evidence on why their decision should be the correct one, but neither has conceded to the other that the other is right.
"What happens now? How does this couple make the decision that needs to be made? Anyone?" Lady Jennifer paused and looked around the room. She saw Marcia had raised her hand. "Yes Marcia."
"Mistress Jennifer, don't we need to know what the issue is so we can decide who is right?" she asked.
"Why?" replied Lady Jennifer. "Do you think some arbiter needs to come in to decide when couples have differing opinions? Who decides who the arbiter is going to be?
"Let's speak plainly here. Who is right and who is wrong no longer matters, because that will probably never be known. All that really matters is that each believes that they are right. So again, how does a modern couple that claims neither is in charge resolve their difference so a decision can be made?"
After a few moments of silence, Lord Jacob said, "For such a diverse group of girls, I'm surprised by the lack of any opinions." Then to his wife, "I think you're just going to have to give it to them."
Lady Jennifer nodded her head in agreement, and then said, "The word I am looking for is intimidation. Both of them engage in acts of intimidation that come in the form of physical, psychological, sexual, or emotional threats until one of them decides that the issue is more important to the other, and it's just not worth continuing.
"Sounds brutal, doesn't it? Considering the fantasies we humans like to live in, the truth often comes off as quite brutal.
"And there is no bigger fantasy like the notion of an equal relationship. Couples maintain this fantasy by avoiding certain subjects, and immediately caving on issues that intimidation has already established a victor. With this view of a modern relationship, it makes sense why it is so difficult to find a mate. You need to look hard for someone with no substantive differences with you, yet unless this is a homosexual relationship, can there be anything more different than a man and a woman?
"I personally think that there is a fundamental flaw in any system to determine how a husband and wife should relate to one another where the ideal mate is someone who is exactly like you.
"Think what you like of my relationship with my husband, but there is absolutely no intimidation in it. I do as I am told, so my husband has no need to intimidate me. This leads to my next question, how many of you believe this makes me a doormat?" As Lady Jennifer finished say this, she raised her hand to encourage other girls to raise theirs. No one appeared to want to comment, but finally Marcia did raise her hand. "OK Marcia, why do you believe I am a doormat?"
Marcia began, "Mistress Jennifer, it's obvious that you are no doormat. Anyone can look at you and see that. It's just your words are not matching what we are seeing. Without knowing you, and by just using your words, then of course, the inescapable conclusion is that you are a doormat."
"This is actually a problem you are having with words," replied Lady Jennifer. "When the words don't match what you see, then you need to throw out the meanings you have applied to the words. As we'll cover tomorrow, don't let words dictate how you define reality. Let reality define reality.
"The fact of the matter is I can say whatever I want, and I can question any decision he makes. The only thing I am not allowed to do is challenge his decisions. The difference between questioning and challenging is that I don't threaten him with consequences if I don't get my way.
"In our relationship, he never gets defensive about anything I bring up, because he trusts me not to challenge him. Because he doesn't get defensive, he is far more likely to give anything I say the respect it deserves.
"I may have to do things I would not have chosen if the choice were mine to make, but I have never had to compromise who I am. And remember, just as we said that God cares about who you are, not what you do, so then what you do is not who you are."
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2pyf2k/next_generation_christian_kingdom_ch03_marcia