For the Kingdom of Heaven or The Skoptsy in America

Straha

Banned
Genesee County, New York, 1822. A failed merino sheep farmer from New Hampshire named Benjamin Johnson is reading the New Testament -- specifically, Matthew 19:12:

"For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."

A white light appears to him, and intones, "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." Johnson sets down his Testament, and goes to the shed where he keeps his animal husbandry tools...

By 1825, several hundred people have become Johnson's Lambs. Women are treated in an analogous manner, following Luke 23:29: "For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." Parents 'remedy' their children; some enthusiasts 'remedy' themselves, as Johnson did. They call themselves "The Elect", and claim that the world will end when their numbers reach 144,000...

What next? What if this replaces mormonism?

Note: In OTL the Skoptsy in OTL managed to survive and thrive until Stalin killed them off. For those of you not in the no the Skoptsy practice self castration.
 

Straha

Banned
Indeed. Wel lthis would definately butterfly out Darkest since he's a mormon and if the skoptsy repalce the mormons.. well
 

Darkest

Banned
*laughs*

... Hey, wait a minute. My ancestors were fanatical American frontiersmen, which means that they're likely to join some kind of strange cult. For all I know, this might make me a Skoptsyist! EEK!

*nearly faints*
 

Straha

Banned
Darkest said:
*laughs*

... Hey, wait a minute. My ancestors were fanatical American frontiersmen, which means that they're likely to join some kind of strange cult. For all I know, this might make me a Skoptsyist! EEK!

*nearly faints*
Click to expand...

This would make a nice addition to dystopic 19th century TLs...
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
Yeah, they'd eventually end up like the Shakers. The Russian Skoptsi managed to trick new converts into joining by telling them that they'd learn the secrets of mystical power if they would only pay the price of admission. Of course, once they did, they had no way of going back.

I don't think that appeals to cryptic New Testament passages will be enough to convince people. You need a bigger draw.

Of course, I could imagine a small, intimate group of converts, but eventually their zeal will flag and they'll end up like the Shakers.
 

Darkest

Banned
Tell me, how many Russians or Roumanians moved to North America in the mid-1840s? Maybe one of them could start it up, so that there could be Skoptsyism in both Russia and America.

Otherwise, if this is more successful, maybe a few more changes could be made to the sect:

1) Change of the 'millenial number' to something crazily insane, above 144,000 to ensure further growth (eventually... maybe... they might reach it).
2) Most are allowed to have one to four children before being 'baptised by fire' and volunteering to mutilate themselves.
3) The child market becomes much more formal and huge, calling for a greater political response to the moral question of the practice. The Skoptzyists in Russia stole or bought children to raise them, a lot, instead of having their own.
4) Maybe fuse this with a monastic order of some sort... castrated saints make great and efficient warriors. A whole 'perfection of the body' might become doctrine, with excersize, healthy eating, and other such arts being practiced near monastically.
5) Maybe the only ones that can reproduce are chosen by the leaders, because of their health or strength, leading to a primitive human breeding system and eugenics. These 'Men of God' become a race in themselves, often graduating to higher sects of the Skoptsyists.

I imagine self-sufficient Spoktsyist communities in the West, every member working to earn their fiery baptism, with a monastary of sorts allowing for healthy practices (and self-defense classes, of course... eunuch ninjas, anybody?). Some would secretly be child-thieves that ride to civilized centers and steal very young children, who are taken into a part of the monastary for a few years 'to be educated' before they are assigned to a couple. A eugenics program is breeding in a new generation of very hardy, strong, faithful individuals to lead the religion in the future.

Its a cool idea.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
The Mormons might win the right to be polygamous if they agree to destroy the Skoptsi for the US govt

They're going to war with them in any case. I don't care if they're 1000 miles away, the Mormons aren't likely to tolerate them, nor they the Mormons. In Russia they were highly politicial and finally wiped out for that reason.
 
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