Hideous kinky Christians

As I predicted, my post below about Christian Domestic Discipline generated some email, but none of it has actually been angry (dammit).

One emailer took issue with my categorization of CDD:

You referred to CDD as 'kink', and I think you may be off there. When kink (the kind we are discussing here) doesn't involve meaningful consent, it is just abuse.

'Meaningful' can be tricky though.

Yes, consent is a tricky matter when it comes to someone who wants to give up consent. I certainly wouldn't claim it's simple. And automatically applying the label "victim" to someone who has willingly given up day-to-day consent in her relationship strikes me as a bit too simple. It disallows the possibility that she may be happiest in this kind of power arrangement -- or, worse, suggests that our comfort is more important than her happiness.

Of course, my main point was that this discussion of kink and consent has virtually nothing to do with Christianity. One emailer felt that Christianity could be an aggravating factor that turned kink into exploitation, however:

I think what has so many people freaked out about Christian Domestic Discipline is it's such an unselfconscious kink. From what I've seen, the CDDers seem to be unable to admit they're doing kinky sex. What they're doing is sanctioned by God, goddamnit! It fairly well guarantees there won't be any sense of "let's not be stupid about this." That gives it the potential to be really creepy.

"Sanctioned by God" is not necessarily a more dangerous explanation than "the way of the natural world" or "the way things should be" or even "what works for us" or "what everyone else at the Renaissance Faire is doing." If you take away the woman's agency -- in other words, consider her a child without the ability to make her own rational (and irrational) decisions -- then, yes, it is obviously highly exploitative to trick her into believing in a vengeful supreme being who has determined her place in the world whether she likes it or not. That kind of brainwashing, which is routine for many religions, is obviously abuse.

On the other hand, if two adults have freely decided on a TPE relationship and simply dress it up with Biblical justifications, it's hard to see how the addition of Bible verses suddenly renders this relationship abusive. Kinky people are allowed to believe in fairies and gods, too.

Finally, the following comment is not for the squeamish:

And the best part about that CDD site is that, in the store where they're selling these crotchless bloomers, the sizes are HUGE!

Apparently a size 10 is "Extra Small" in the world of CDD.

And the available bloomer sizes go to "Extra Large" and beyond.

The implications are staggering.