“when the longsuffering of G’d waited in [the]
days of Noah
while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls,
were saved through water:
while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls,
were saved through water:
which figure also now saves you, baptism,
not a putting away of [the] filth of flesh,
but [the] demand as before G’d of a good
conscience.” – 1.Pt.3:20-21
15 Pisces 37 Rx
SALVE
....
How do we do this? We will start each blog with
a historical introduction and then look at the lessons we can learn from that. Then
we will apply the relevant factors from the biblical concepts of Mastery and
slavery to our current ideas about consensual slavery; isn’t that sexy? WWMD;
what would master do …
Then: The good conscience and theology
Despite
that many contemporary believers think to know Christianity, it predominantly comes
to us in the garment of either, traditional, pre- or post-modern interpretation. As a result, it
is by no means clear what some biblical rituals have meant over time, let alone
that we would know their original meaning or the authors intention. So, there
is good reason to believe, that many doctrines and rituals have changed
considerably and with Christianity being an originally Jewish movement – John
the Baptist, Jesus and his disciples were Jews, many from Galilee, even at that
time a backward rural area – two millennia of Jewish/Christian history might prevent
us to get in touch with how it all started.
This is
particularly true when it comes to baptism. In the time of the reformation, frightening
amounts of Anabaptists have been slaughtered on the altar of dogmatic truth by
the Holy Church of Rome and the Founding Fathers of the Reformation alike. Many
fights about baptism have been fought, North- and South-American first nations
have been forced baptized and, in many traditions, pious families were torn
apart when it comes to the water that divides. Most of the cases, the issue concerned
the amount of water, church-membership or authority regarding doctrine and hardly
ever it was concerned with the meaning of baptism in its historical context.
This
remains unchanged till today, where Anabaptist arguments still fuel the battle
on baptism between traditional churches - where children are being baptized - and
neo-romantic assemblies -where the baptism of adult true believers (the so-called
born-again Christians) is regarded as the only legitimate Scriptural baptism. However,
any reader can see for themselves, that when it comes to baptism in its historical
Jewish context, the essential meaning was never about sin, forgiveness, true
belief or the amount of water. In fact, most Christians do not seem to realize,
that their own Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus himself, or most of his apostles apparently
were never baptized with a Christian baptism. In fact, many disciples never
heard that there was a Christian baptism at all! (Acts 19:1-5)
And it
took quite a while to get a written teaching about baptism by St. Paul. And is
it not this Apostle of the Gentiles who states in 1Col.1: 17 that “Christ has not sent me to baptise, but to
preach glad tidings”? So, what does mainstream get wrong here? Why would an
apostle, a missionary builder of the church, not baptise? And, when it is not
about the amount of water or about joining a church or about burying the living
and washing the already cleansed, where is baptism about then, and what – for g’d’s
sake - would connect baptism to kink or slavery?
A rite of passage
Without
going into exegetic details, I wish to draw your attention to the view on baptism
as a rite of passage. Not in the sense, that the one being baptised is doing or
performing something by themselves, but as we see with a) the baptism on Moses,
b) the Arc of Noah, c) Jewish proselyte baptism and d) the baptism of John the
Baptist, there is a transformational movement from one side, one state, one
land or one position into another. From the condemned Adamic world that got
buried under the water of the cleansing flood, from wicked Egypt into the
promised land through the Red Sea, from non-Jew to partaking in the blessed
position within the covenant, to the baptism as act of repentance, as “the
kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh” (Mt. 3:2). And even the baptism that St.
Peter the Apostle of the Jews preached about in Acts 2:40, speaks about this
transition: “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
Now, I
admit, this last is a tad double, but it finely shows the point: baptism is a
process to set you apart. Apart from previous states, beliefs, contexts,
positions and through the water – as an image of the water we all have been
born out; the forewaters – the person being baptised is set apart by
spiritually, or literally, entering a blessed realm that G’d had prepared for
those who love him.
Initiation
Few of us
kinky folks will have been initiated into leather by means of a ritual. But
that BDSM itself is highly ritualistic and religiously charged will not be
denied by the close observer; one only must regard terms like ‘deflowering’,
‘novice’, ‘collaring’ or ‘Goddess’ to see the obvious. And like with baptism,
to actively take the first step on the kinky road to bliss, there are obstacles
we must conquer: the moral belief systems of the ‘old’ world, the fire of
judgement and bath of rejection that we may encounter and not at least the
inner turmoil we have to go through; the sweat of nervous fear prior, the
overflow of emotions that almost drown us and the need for acceptance and a
safe stronghold once we wake up in the new-found land.
Once
baptised, you belonged to a new community of changed persons. With kink, as a
rite of passage, it is like that. Through experience of ritualized alt-sex and
role-play, we change and free ourselves from concepts that in many ways have
lost their attraction or validity in modern times. And, as with baptism, we
still have work to do, then even when being in the realm of a new Master, this does
not mean you have already reached a kinky or other kind of heaven.
Like Jesus
the Lord himself told his disciples in Mt. 28, when he commanded them to make
all nations to his disciples by baptising and teaching them, the ritual of
passage was just a start. The next step was for those who entered a new realm
of reality and experience, to get acquainted with the rules, customs and
rituals of their new Lordship and his Dominion. This may just be the concepts
of SSS, of being nice to each other and to accept each other as belonging to
the same ‘fellowship’ or go as far as give up your civilian life and enter full
service, where the cellars and cells of the abbey resembles the 24/7
sanctuaries of our dominions.
Conclusions
Despite
the initial quirky feeling that may arise when we see baptism and kink getting
connected, the view of them being a rite of passage, though change and
initiation, made clear that the purpose of transformational rituality is a
worthy one. Leaving one world, mindset or place to arrive at a better, safer
and more profound environment where new rules, lordship and practises
facilitate further growth and development, is indeed a rewarding conquest.
Monsignor C. Cameloni
Outlook
In a following post, I will go into further
aspects that arise from comparing baptism and kink from the perspective of
these representing a rite of passage, particularly the concepts of conversion,
slavery and commandments. Please note, that all comparison is to be regarded as
analogical, not as a one-on-one comparability.
