"Our Daddy who art in heaven, hallowed [1] be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done [2], on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread [3], and forgive us our trespasses [4], as we forgive those who trespass against us [5]. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever [6]."

1. When something's hallowed, you don't tread there lightly, or without commandment. Why are people afraid of graveyards (hallowed ground)? Because they don't know what happens there, they don't understand it, and they're afraid of getting smacked. Same with God.
2. Total abasement, praying that God accept the complete subjugation that is offered, rather than beating the worshipper again.
3. Begging for basic sustenance.
4. "Please, don't hurt me, I didn't know that you'd be displeased by me sipping balsamic vinegar instead of wine at Communion!" Or any other relatively meaningless precept of faith. (This is almost as bad as the Judaistic prayer shawl... loosely translated, the prayer includes the phrase "...and may this act [of putting on the shawl and blessing it] be sufficient to carry out the 187 commandments that require it to be worn..." I'm not certain about the exact number, but it's very large.)
5. Classic "Do as I say, not as I do" -- this entire prayer is about complete abasement before the Lord. However, just like children (especially bullies, or the ones who get into fistfights over the "my dad can beat up your dad" argument), the people who pray this way completely forget it until the next time their training is called upon, which is usually the next time they go to church.
6. Moderately meaningless flattery -- but again, it shows that the worshipper is abasing him/herself utterly before God, and essentially throwing him/herself back into the mental attitudes of feudal Europe (noblesse oblige [the Lord has the right to do whatever he wants with the people he protects, as the price of his protection], a severe lack of any control over what they want to do, etc).

Rather interesting little meme the church came up with, to enforce subjugation of the populace. But the entire reason for this post is because 'Daddy' has a specific connotation in the B&D/D&S/S&M community -- someone who takes care of their boy (or girl), in return for rights to do whatever they want with or to their boy (or girl) within reason. This is a standard response to emotional, mental, or sexual abuse as a child, which leads to the following concept:

Why are so many Jewish people into BDSM? Because they have an abusive-father relationship with their God. And it's the same with Catholics, who accept their punishments from the church.

Ah, BDSM. Wonderful concept. Wonderful people. Wonderfully perverse.

So why is it so damned hard to find a good top, or a good dominant? I'm currently talking with a friend of mine, on the MUCK called Tapestries (http://www.fur.com/tapestries/ for information), and he's telling me that he doesn't feel he fits well into current society, and would feel better with someone to take care of him. In exchange, the person taking care of him would be "in charge" within and without the relationship... including sexually.

Gee, this sounds like a perfect recipe for slavery to me. (Note: That link is to a copy of my own slave contract, posted on Everything2.com.) Abdicate rights to your Master, and your Master returns them if and when He sees fit. A kind of "noblesse oblige" concept... "I take care of you, therefore I get to do whatever I want with you."

In my case, I don't trade freedom for safety or security. (Well, maybe I do, to an extent.) I always have the freedom to walk away and say "no". The contract I signed... well, it's unenforceable. But it is still signed, by me, with full faith to uphold its terms. (I stayed up until 8am for three nights in a row to write the damned thing, wrestling with myself over and over again over the issues that I came across... what would I be willing to give Him, what would I reserve for myself, what things could He expect me to give Him, what things could I expect from Him... important stuff like that. Eventually, we bounced versions back and forth, and we came up with the version that we signed on 24Mar2001.)

And now? It's more than 6 months later, and I'm still with Him. And I realized tonight that He's truly the first man I've ever been committed to, enough to not really want to play sexually with many other people. (Even though I still will -- He doesn't seem to have that high of a sex drive, especially right now. I need a bit more sex in my life than He's willing to give me right now...)

Oh well. I should stop rambling. Wanted to talk about BDSM, ended up talking about my specific instance thereof. Sheesh.