tweakabelle
Posts: 7522
Joined: 10/16/2007 From: Sydney Australia Status: offline
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While it's just a tad off topic, the story of Matt Talbot might be helpful here. Talbot was a poor Dubliner who died in 1925. By all accounts, he was a wretched alcoholic, even by Irish standards, which tend to be a bit more generous than most in this area. After many years of heavy drinking, he "saw the light", stopped drinking and became a devout believer. When he died it was discovered that, for many years, he had been wearing a heavy chain that had been wound around his waist, with more chains around an arm and a leg, and cords around the other arm and leg. My mother who told me this story, interpreted Talbot's self mortification as a sign of his piety and asceticism, in line with the traditional Irish Catholic interpretation. More contemporary interpretations would have it that Talbot was a masochist into severe self denial and pain. There are, I believe, numerous other 'saints' with similar stories. Was Talbot a saint who practiced self mortification in order to atone for his sins or was he a recovering alcoholic masochist? Or perhaps, both? Are there numerous cross over points between BDSM and Christianity (and other religious traditions), especially within the ascetic tradition? It might be worthwhile recalling that Christian symbolism and BDSM symbols/accessories (eg. a St Catherine's Wheel, Jesus was flogged on his way to crucifiction) are often so similar as to be identical.
< Message edited by tweakabelle -- 3/4/2013 11:14:25 PM >
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