Ahhh...my specialty....I have extenisive time spent in the study of religion and a BDSM lifetsyle does not fit a "religous" system of belief and order in the purely "western sense." However, religion is by design a method by which we explain our purpose and our place in the greater scheme of things...so we could at least call the lifestyle a "spiritual"pursuit. Now on to my Christian friend. Although a topic avoided by most evangelistic Christians, we know...yes we know...that most of Christianity was borrowed from more ancient religions...starting with a little tale called Genesis that Moses made changes to from the Egyptian story of Geb and Nut. We also know that historians of Jesus' time missed all the miracles of Jesus, that Nazareth did not exist until 75 years after Christ's alleged death, that the words of Jesus in Mathew are different than in John...where Jesus moves from Son to God himself...and that most of the ceremonies were borrowed from the Pagans....that being said, although I am not a practitioner of BDSM nor a Christian...please don't use as evidence a book written by a bunch of folks who slayed so many in the name of their borrowed god. I respect your right to keep your own faith, but not to cast judgement under the guise of curiousty - "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)