Adultery can occur for many reasons; some of them are unforgivable. This is an attempt to explain a cause that most would not even consider. I refer to religious or other forms of superstition.
You must remember some religions are stricter in their enforcement of moral behaviors. Their standards are higher and more rigidly enforced in these groups. The thought patterns are most certainly outdated in relation to many of our modern beliefs. I have tried to represent the ways of persons of strict Anabaptist upbringing.
Many of the actions taken in this story are representative of the thought patterns and behaviors of people within the Anabaptist religions. There are multiple locations where these believers reside, I happen to live within one of them and have some interaction with these gentle people.
There is no group called The Children of Our God to the best of my knowledge. None of the people presented in this story are real.
Keep an open mind and be kind with your comments. Insults will be removed and stupidity will be exploited for everyone's entertainment.
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We are The Children of Our God. We are Christians. If you see us in public you might easily confuse us with the Amish or Mennonites. We dress in a plain, similar fashion and shun many worldly ways; though not quite to the extent of our previously mentioned brethren. The biggest difference is that we are from Scandinavia, not from Germany. The roads we traveled in life to get to this point in our existence have run parallel to theirs for centuries.
We both were outcasts in our native lands, held as slaves by cruel landowners and subjected to religious prosecution at the hands of many peoples.
This was all before we chose to relocate a few centuries ago to what was then called The New World; America. We have lived since then in peace and prosperity in an almost hidden existence. When we venture forth into your world we are looked upon as a sect of one of the more well known religions mentioned above. We have no problem with this confusion, as it allows us to live amongst the rest of the world with little interference from the outside. Of those who decided to remain in the old country, many were killed in the Holocaust along with the Jews and Gypsies.
An obvious way of telling us from the others is that we have no one named Glick, Yoder, Stoltzfus or any of their unique last names. There are a few overlaps such as my last name of King, but for the most we are Andersun, Jacobson, Isaacson and so forth.
Now that you know a little about our past I can tell you about my life in more detail.
Allow me to introduce myself; I am John King. My father is Jacob King and my mother was Katherine Isaacson, now King. I have 6 brothers and 7 sisters; their names are not important to this story so I will not list them here. As many of our kind are; my family members are all tall, blond, blue eyed and intelligent, inquisitive people. I might not be the most handsome man; but I am nowhere near ugly, very few of our people are.
To the outside world many of us look the same.
I have completed the equivalent of your 12th grade in school. We do it in 8 years instead. The educational requirements to move with the rest of our world are as strict as in your world. We do not graduate as you do; when we complete our schooling we are simply presented to the congregation as Men and Women. This is as opposed to being boys or girls before being presented.
As Men and Women we then train for our chosen vocation for 2 or 3 years. Then we marry and get on with life.
I have known the love of my life since my second year in school. Rebekah has always been the most beautiful person in the world to me. I could tell immediately that that she felt the same about me. People said we were joined at the hip, wherever one of us was the other was always nearby. Only one person ever challenged our love for each other. There was one boy, early on, that was interested in my Rebekah but she set the record straight with him and he moved on right quickly. It was known almost from the beginning that we were meant to be together forever.
My father ran a store, he sold general merchandise. We tried to sell a good product at a reasonable price. Our family always worked in the store doing anything required to keep it running. We lived very well, but as is the custom we never flaunted it. Vanity and pride are forbidden. When called upon we always donated to the fullest measure required of us and quietly covered the amounts not given by those who were not as fortunate as us.
I loved to be outside and chose to be a farmer instead of working in the store. I was the second son and would not have inherited it upon the death of our father. As such I sought a better, more independent life in another occupation.
I was lucky to be apprenticed to Rebekah's father. I moved to their farm and learned everything I could. Rebekah learned how to be a homemaker from her mother and maternal grandmother. Once again we were never too far apart.
There is one tradition that the Elders of our community seem to wish to continue. I think it is archaic, backward and demeaning to the young ladies involved. This tradition is commonly referred to as being the Corn Queen. It is officially known in the community as The Queen of the Grains. Many years ago it started when a younger maiden was chosen to give her virginity for the betterment of the community. The thought was that by doing so we would be guaranteed to have a bountiful harvest. I was not happy that she participated the last year, but had no control over her actions at that time since we were not married.
Years ago young virgin ladies from the age of 15 to 18 years competed for the honor; it is not so much of a competition as a time of preparation and a lottery. The authorities stepped in and made them raise the age limit to 18 and above. The Elders chose to only allow those 18 and 19 years of age at the ceremony. Without the increase in age there would be charges pressed by the police.
You already know about my opinion on the matter; some of the Elders thought it was a cute idea worth holding on to. I think it was because they had a chance to have sex with a beautiful, young female with the blessings of the entire community. I say a chance because the male in the event, called The Attendant, was also chosen by lottery from among the 25 eldest men in the community. There were some who declined the chance; they were replaced by the next Elder in line until there were 25. Any time other than the Corn Queen, sex outside of marriage was strictly frowned upon.
The girl who was chosen to be Corn Queen was brought into the sanctuary through a closed tunnel and placed on the area behind the altar that was to be used for the sacrifice. She would not be known until the act of installation was completed. The Attendant was expected to take the Queen's virginity in the middle of a special service on the 15th of March at precisely noon. He was required to do it quickly and with little regard for the feelings or comfort of the new Queen. Within a minute of the sounding of a special bell he was expected to make penetration withdraw and wipe the blood from his genitals with a white cloth and hang the cloth over the top of the screen used to block our sight of the proceedings. This was done to show her virgin blood. After that he would continue to have sex with her until he shot into her.
Sexing the Queen, as it was called, was a one time event. The girl wore only a simple white cotton dress. She lay down with it still on. The back of the dress was under her, with the front pulled up to expose her. Afterward the back was used to clean the excess fluids off of her in a way that it would show to all who saw her throughout the rest of that day. Upon completion, prayers and singing were offered as praise to our God for her sacrifice.
All of the Elders and Candidates for Queen were kept in separate rooms, with solid wood doors, so no one would know who was chosen. Slips were pulled and only the 2 doors were unlocked. The cloth used to proclaim her loss of virginity was placed over her face prior to the act and neither participant knew who was involved until the cloth was removed after the initial penetration. The Queen was forbidden to expose her Attendant. It was believed that if she did severe consequences would fall upon the community. As stated before the sex act was only allowed once.
After her installation she presided, with prayers and blessings, over the planting and harvest activities until October 15th and was then returned to her family.
Many, but not all, considered it a high honor to be selected. The down side to being selected was that a few of those who served never married due to their lack of virginity or their fear that all sex was done in the same violent way. Many never fully got over the pain and violence of the initial act.
Rebekah and I finished school at the age of 15. I immediately apprenticed with her father to learn the ways of farming. She learned how to be an excellent homemaker. We were married at 18 ½ years of age and lived in her father's house while ours was built on the farm we bought; much of the farm's cost was covered with the wedding gifts from the families and other members of the community. We still owed a little over half of the purchase price, even after our families paid to build the house and outbuildings.
While living in her father's house we did not have sex since it might have been heard by others. We moved into our new house after the first of the year. At this point it had been 3 months since we pledged our love and lives to each other.
It is not uncommon to wait for as much as 6 months before consummating the marriage. There are as many reasons as there are newly married couples.
The annual competition for Corn Queen was to take place in early March. Rebekah would still be in her 19th year and was still a virgin at that point. I soon came to realize that her Grandmother was encouraging her to remain chaste in a final attempt to become Queen in her last opportunity.
I was dead set against it since we were now married. The act of being installed as Queen stood in direct opposition to our wedding vows to keep ourselves only to each other.
Grandmother kept feeding her a line of nonsense about how it would be one way to assure our farm would always be prosperous.
I walked into the house one day and heard Grandmother mumbling about how she wished that her husband might be chosen to deflower Rebekah; just like her Grandfather had done to her. I quickly and silently backed out of the room before I was discovered and made a noisy reentrance to the house. She had the most evil grin on her face as she saw me pass the room.
Rebekah and I fought over this subject for over 2 months. It boiled down to the fact that I would not allow her to participate in this debauchery and she said I could not stop her since she fit the description of those eligible.
We had been sleeping in the same bed since the wedding. One day I moved 2 very small beds into our bedroom and fastened them to the floor so she could not move them together. The first night apart she was so angry with me that she went to her new bed willingly. In the middle of the night I awoke to hear her crying; every night after that she cried for much of the night about being apart.
