The congregation froze in reverent silence. All eyes were fixed on the all too familiar ritual that was about to take place. A massive wooden frame was carried in and placed in the middle of the stage. It consisted of four massive legs made of solid oak with ornately carved decorations that were connected by two crossbeams as thick as an arm. Everything was pinned together in solid, traditional carpentry style. There were several striking leather drawers hanging from the front crossbeam. And the fact that the rear beam was significantly higher than the front one.

A young woman was led down the long aisle between the fully assembled congregation, escorted by two burly men whose firm grip left no doubt that they took their task seriously. She wore a simple cotton dress that reached down to her ankles according to local custom and decency. Of course, it was high-necked, but some of the faithful felt that it was cut a little too close to the skin. They didn’t need much imagination to picture the contours of her well-proportioned body. According to tradition, her hair was not cut and formed a long, black splendor that fell almost to her hips.

She was positioned behind the massive wooden frame, standing upright and facing the congregation, then finally let go and stood reverently for a moment. At a signal, she took up the position that was probably expected of her, hesitantly, but ultimately with the obedience required. Like countless women before her, she bent over the raised crossbeam at the back so that her lower body bent at the hips. The bar was so high that she had to stand on tiptoe. She lowered her head until her upper body came to rest on the front crossbeam facing the congregation. With her arms stretched out to the sides, she held on to this beam and, without resistance, allowed several of the leather straps specially attached to the beam for this purpose to be looped around her arms until she was firmly secured.

It was not the first time that the congregation had seen a woman who was almost perfectly prepared to receive a chastisement. Her head and face disappeared completely under her long hair, which reached almost to the floor. The magnificent rear curves, which had already magnetically attracted every man’s gaze as she made her way through the assembled congregation, were now invitingly arched upwards and formed the highest point of her bent-forward body.

The women and girls present visibly shuddered, but their eyes remained fixed on the scene that had been arranged in front of the entire congregation. The expressions on the faces of the men, all of whom were fully bearded, showed unmistakable satisfaction. They were obviously pleased to see a woman put in her place. Presumably, every single one of them would like the privilege of carrying out the necessary punishment of an unruly woman themselves.

For example, Brother Joseph, a burly man in his fifties. He owned five women, each of whom was prettier than the next. The youngest of them, Cathy, was just seventeen years old and the oldest was probably barely over thirty. Joseph was known as an unyielding patriarch, whose house was governed by strict laws, the flouting of which was inevitably punished with the cane. Everyone knew that he had a secret preference for women with a certain tendency to be unruly. After all, they always provided a welcome opportunity to perform the millennia-old dance of pain under his punishing blows. He appreciated a woman with expansive forms and was firmly convinced that a magnificent woman’s ass was intended by the Lord God solely for the purpose of receiving the rod of discipline.

In contrast to the wives present, several of whom usually sat on either side of a man, the sinner was not wearing a black skirt with a matching white blouse, but a brown dress. Everyone present therefore knew that this was an ordinary maid who was to be punished for some offense. A particularly beautiful maid at that, who, judging by her young face, had probably not yet had twenty years behind her.

Brother Henry followed the action with a serious expression on his face. His eyes wandered to the left and right to check whether his four wives were also paying attention to what was being shown on stage for their warning. He was an extremely successful farmer who ran the largest vegetable farm in the valley and employed a whole army of young, hard-working maids for the associated field work. Henry was one of those men who rejoiced in the fact that, according to Old Testament law, maidservants were part of a man’s property, just like his own wives, sons and daughters. In practice, this meant that he had practically unlimited rights over them and could also rule over them with the necessary severity. In his opinion, there was only one effective means of keeping young girls under control and that was the fear of a supple riding crop that left fiery red marks on exposed buttocks at any sign of recalcitrance, rebelliousness or laziness. For him, the female body was at its most beautiful when it was hanging completely naked from a hemp rope and writhing with convulsions, while the mouth belonging to it let out shrill screams.

Brother Nathaniel had also arrived for the service. His hand slid slowly down the back of one of the women sitting next to him and wandered unabashedly to the base of the soft curves of her buttocks. He wondered when he had last given her a good spanking and remembered the wide, tattered leather strap that hung on the frame of the door leading to his bedroom as a constant warning.

The only single person among this group of polygamists was probably Brother Kevin. He was regarded as a respected teacher who worked diligently to educate the younger generation. Knox knew that this educator had not opted for the blessings of married life for good reason. He was less interested in adult women than in the very young girls with their small, firm bottoms. He loved to lay them across a table and drive out any disobedience with a bundle of hot hissing willow rods. It was easy for him to expose their tender flesh, because like every female in the community, they wore nothing but bare skin under their long, wide skirts.

According to these God-fearing people, a woman was never allowed to wear pants, not even underpants. Pants were considered a man’s privilege, while it was considered proper for a woman to cover her body only with dresses and skirts that reached down to her ankles. The same naturally applied to young girls, whose compulsory schooling in the church of God was not tied to a specific age, but rather extended until the year in which they had fully developed from children to women. The girls were thus removed from the teacher’s grasp at the moment when the initially tender down between their legs had become a thick wool and it was time to give the ripe fruit into the possession of a man.

The prophet entered the pulpit, a dignified old man with a long beard, who had the reverence of the entire congregation. He waited until the restless murmuring in the room had died down and opened a large Bible with a meaningful expression. Then he turned to his congregation and began his Sunday sermon:

Dear brothers in the spirit. The Lord has truly bestowed upon us an infinite number of blessings. He has shown us the way out of the darkness of this world and let the light of his wisdom shine upon us. He has revealed his will to us by giving us his word, in which we can read daily to draw from the fullness of knowledge. Thanks to his undeserved kindness, we have been snatched from Satan’s world and rewarded with the privilege of living here in this valley according to his righteous commandments. He has given us a land that is full of fruitfulness and rewards our hard work by pouring out its bounty upon us. We have all experienced first-hand what it means to have the grace of the Lord and to live under his shelter. We were allowed to experience that the Word of God is a light for everyone who is prepared to act strictly according to its laws. In contrast to the rebellious world of old, where children did not respect their parents, we have learned that it is the rod of discipline that produces obedience and reverence. Whereas in the old world, sinful young girls would become pregnant at a tender age without having experienced the blessings of marriage, we keep a watchful eye to see that our daughters remain undefiled until the right master is found for them. While Satan’s world was teeming with women striving to take the place of men and carrying confused thoughts of emancipation in their hearts, we faithfully adhere to the words of the Apostle Paul, which cannot be read often enough. I beg you, dear brothers, to open them once more so that they may burrow deep into your consciousness.“

There was an anxious rustling as each man in the congregation opened his Bible, even though everyone present knew all too well what the scripture in question said.
„In his first letter to the Ephesians, chapter six, verse five, Paul writes the clear words of pure truth that especially the women and girls among us should never forget. His command, inspired by the Lord, is: „I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, but the head of the woman is the man.“

His gaze slowly wandered over the congregation as he paused for a long time to allow what he had said to take full effect. Then he continued in the same insistent tone with which the sermon had begun:
„And you slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters, with all fear and reverence, just as you also show reverence to Christ.“

Brother Abraham and his family sat in the front row. He was an imposing figure with a pitch-black beard. A strong-willed man who knew exactly what he wanted and made no secret of his firm views. He was without doubt a God-fearing man who presided over his household in an exemplary manner and knew how to keep his wife and children in awe. He was a respected brother who had amassed an impressive fortune over the years. He currently had eight wives who had given him sixteen healthy children over the years. And he commanded a flock of around fifty maidservants, who were kept in check by four overseers.
In Brother Abraham’s eyes, women were basically not much more than children. Regardless of whether they were still of tender girlhood or had already grown to full physical maturity. On the one hand, they longed for their husbands to show them endless love and tenderness, and yet they only really seemed to appreciate the man who knew how to guide them with a firm hand. How else could it be explained that a young woman who had received a good spanking that evening would cuddle up close to her master the very next morning in order to reawaken his affection.

His wives were all very different in nature, but when it came to vying for his favor, they were all the same, Brother Abraham had let his guest know at the time. Instead of sticking together and protecting each other from punishment in the event of incidents that constituted a breach of the domestic rules, they were ready to betray each other at any time. They even seemed to take secret pleasure in it when they had once again exposed one of their sexmates to the hot hiss of the cane. So when the somewhat plump Chinese girl Martha shrieked under the punishing blows of her master while tossing her plump, naked bottom back and forth on the massive kitchen table, the master of the house could be sure that Miriam was already busy in the bedroom next door oiling her small, hazel breasts with pleasantly scented essences and then draping her slender body in a clearly seductive pose on the marital bed. And when Abraham once again had reason to let his youngest wife, Lauren, feel the treacherously flicking willow rod, he could assume that the only slightly older Tamara was not only grinning maliciously behind the door, but was already busy preparing her hot pussy for the greedy penetration of his cock. Because each of his four wives knew all too well that he not only considered it his sacred duty to keep his household submissive with rough spankings, but that he was always particularly aroused after a spanking and felt the need to satisfy his desire between the legs of a willing woman.

Just as he had chosen his wives very carefully in order to experience the pleasures of love and the satisfaction of power with as much variety as possible, Abraham also made sure that his numerous maidservants reflected the full diversity of female beauty. And his large household included both the plump stable maid with voluptuous proportions and expansive buttocks and the slender housemaid with hair down to her hips and a perky little apple bottom. As I said, four overseers were solely occupied with keeping this chatty bunch of women under control and reporting any misdemeanors to the master of the house that would otherwise have escaped his attention. The maids were also subject to the same strict regiment that applied to Abraham’s immediate family. The difference was that a maid was fully undressed for punishment and then strapped over the punishment rack to receive her chastisement, whereas he only expected a wife to bare her bottom and humbly present herself to him for punishment.

The maid to be punished that Sunday morning was Abraham’s property. Her name was Abigail and everyone could see a particularly satisfied smile flitting across Brother Abraham’s lips.

The prophet had finished his sermon. It had ended with the words that sinners must be punished most severely in order to keep the congregation pure and the temptations of the flesh at bay. And he had announced the decision of the elders to inflict twenty-four lashes on the young sinner. In return, that part of the body was to be exposed which the Lord, in his indescribable wisdom, had formed particularly luxuriantly in women. And the lashes were to be applied with freshly cut willow rods so that visible marks would remain on her skin for a long time.

An unmistakable murmur went through the congregation. The younger women held their breath in awe. The men nodded in agreement. And the older women smiled with satisfaction.

The floor-length dress of the sobbing sinner was worked upwards by strong male hands, where it finally formed a disorderly ball of fabric, while the young woman was naked from the waist down.
A wooden jug with freshly cut willow rods, as they grew by a small stream just behind the parish hall, was brought in. Behind her, to the left and right, one of the young men took up positions, having taken a bundle of three finger-thick rods from the jug, stripped of their foliage. An almost paralyzing silence spread. It was interrupted only by the unrestrained whimpering of a young woman who knew exactly what would happen to her in a few moments.

As different as the people who were gathered here were, so different were the thoughts that were now running through their heads. Some of the men were probably thinking about what a splendid sight the woman must have presented from behind. With her tightly stretched, fleshy buttocks, which presented themselves on the punishment trestle in an almost perfect way. And especially with the folds of her cunt between them, the sight of which, as was the custom with maids, was not marred by any pubic hair. And some of the women probably already instinctively felt the fire of the first blow, the merciless burning of which they had experienced all too often themselves.

A hot hiss heralded the first blow. Immediately followed by the merciless sound that is produced when the full force of a supple crop is cushioned by elastic skin. A sound that everyone gathered here knew all too well and which was inevitably accompanied by a shrill scream. No one could receive blows with a willow rod without screaming at the top of their lungs. Not even the young maid Abigail.
The two men knew their trade. They took it in turns to strike, allowing enough time between each blow for the full heat of the pain to unfold. Knox had no trouble imagining the thick welts that must have appeared on the unprotected skin. Strangely enough, he was completely unimpressed that the young maid was screaming her head off with every blow. She had just broken a law in her community and now she had to pay for it.

Only after a seemingly endless quarter of an hour and exactly twenty-four full blows did the two disciplinarians let go of her. They released her restraints and dragged the twitching and whimpering woman out of the room. The congregation joined in prayer and left the scene in silence.

(Excerpt from the book „Paradise on Earth“ by Wolfram Steffen)