A Filipino villager is nailed to a cross for the 35th time on Good Friday to pray for world peace
A Filipino villager is nailed to a cross for the 35th time on Good Friday to pray for world peace
A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
On Friday, over a hundred people watched on as 10 devotees were nailed to wooden crosses, among them Ruben Enaje, a 63-year-old carpenter and sign painter. The real-life crucifixions have become an annual religious spectacle that draws tourists in three rural communities in Pampanga province, north of Manila.
The gory ritual resumed last year after a three-year pause due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has turned Enaje into a village celebrity for his role as the “Christ” in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.
Ahead of the crucifixions, Enaje told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday night that he has considered ending his annual religious penitence due to his age, but said he could not turn down requests from villagers for him to pray for sick relatives and all other kinds of maladies.
Maybe I'm alone, but this seems fine to me. I think evangelicals should take a page out of his book. Spend less time being horrible, and crucify themselves instead.
As much as I don't condone needless violence, even against oneself...
You have a great point. They should be putting their money where their mouths are.
They can't even wash people's feet, despite all the superbowl commercials.
This is definitely closer to the spirit of the Christian religion than most other extreme manifestations.
Dunno why I remembered Frisians bricking people alive into dams in the Middle Ages.
Really sad people are hurting themselves over nothing.
Better themselves than others.
That's a large portion of the history of humanity.
Not over nothing, just for no results and under false pretenses
Gaza is undergoing forced starvation and genocide.
Cutting yourself might solve that.
To everyone saying "it isn't working" - you're reading an article spreading the message of a Filipino villager in US media.
It's not like that happens all that often.
So yes, it is working pretty well actually.
Not my choice for PR stunt, but to each their own.
absolutely the correct take
But to what end? 5 minutes of fame and then back to exactly how it was before?
What are you even talking about? His name on US media is all it takes for "world peace"? In what fucking sense of the word? What part is working?
the part where he did something stupid for attention? sure… okay… we totally needed that
We really need more people to learn the difference between good attention and bad attention. That is how we get morons blocking ambulances in London, throwing food at paintings, and people getting crucified.
Be the change you want to see in the world doesn't mean do performative stunts for likes, clicks, and views. It means you do the hard work of fixing issues.
Permanently Deleted
It’s what Jesus would have wanted, I’m sure.
How else would he want to be remembered?
Feeding the poor?
Loving the different?
Starting a damn riot because someone charged interest on a loan?
Surely his favorite part of life was being tortured to death for those messages, so let's all wear a tiny gold version of what killed him and forgot all that commie crap he constantly talked about
/s
I think you hit the nail on the hand with this comment.
"Fucking hell lads, I gave you the bread and wine thing. There's no need for this!"
Well after he's dead they start throwing around the line about needing to "carry the cross as I do."
So people who believe that was accurately attributed certainly might think that's what he wanted.
Well geez how much good has all that praying done so far?
Thoughts and prayers!
It's not working too well but maybe we should just try to crucify rich people
Yeah, they're definitely crucifying the wrong people.
Wouldn't world peace involve not nailing people to crosses?
Yeah, but this guy doesn't have a magical world peace wand so he's doing this as a form of protest instead. Same principle as a hunger strike, or chaining yourself to a fence.
Humans.
Good luck next year, everybody. Maybe the 36th time is the charm
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Matthew 24
Why pray for something that Jesus Himself said wasn't going to happen?
I thought this was an Onion article as I scrolled, wtf.
fuck these spiteful and useless comments.
disturbing and violent self flagellating protest has been a tradition throughout most of recorded history. name calling and holier than thou attitudes are blatant ignorance of both history and ongoing attrocity and violence.
there’s also almost certainly a racial element at play, given the language being used. like the words “freaks” “whackos” “backwards” just happen to show up when it’s not a white guy doing the protest. i truly hope this comment can help with some self reflection on why our knee jerk reaction is the way it is here.
edit:
CW: very edgy meme showcasing the racist undertones going on here.
35 times and so much peace accomplishment
Also nothing to do with race, what he did was pointless as well.
It’s protest. What protest accomplishes is messaging. Communication of violence, in protest of atrocity.
Thousands of people, including foreign tourists, came to watch the annual religious spectacle in San Pedro Cutud and two other nearby rural villages.
I swear just the other day we were deeply moved by the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell in protest of genocide. But when brown people do it it suddenly becomes “yikes this backwards culture,” “get a load of these whackos.” Really revealing our Western-centrism and implicit racial bias here.
To be clear, I also find it disturbing. That is the fucking point. But if your first instinct upon seeing this, like many of the comments here, is to speak derogatorily of this individual? You are the fucking problem.
re: your edit
don’t worry not accusing you of bigotry yet; it’s the other comments which are the problem.
I agree with your sentiment, but I felt compelled to comment on one crucial element here: what he has been doing isn't a protest, but some form of a religious pledge. It just so happened that this year, he's praying for world peace. This is akin to some traditions in India and other parts where self-flagellation is part of religious ritual, but only for those who pledge themselves to it. It's touched upon in the article, but he's been doing it since the 1980's as thanksgiving for his survival in an accident. Some people just do it once, but some devote their lives to it, and it seems to me that he's one of the latter.
Whether or not his actions will lead to results doesn't matter, as far as I see it. He's already devoted to the bit, and only old age (and poor health) will likely stop him.
i don’t disagree at all, except with your implication that doing it in a religious context somehow invalidates it.
at the core it’s the same thing as an atheist or agnostic performing a hunger strike or locking themselves to a fence. literally no functional difference, it just has different sociocultural aesthetics.
they are both fucking disturbing and controversial as hell. but to verbally come down on the perfomers of the protest is to entirely miss the point.
The backwards whackos are the religious people. Nothing to do with race. You'll see the same type of comments on any post about the latest crazy republican shit pulled in the US.
Holier than thou is thinking your stupid act is somehow powerful enough to magically fix problems in the world you foot snot. just like this guy and people with thoughts and prayers.
Is any of the money raised in the spectacle going to help the victims in Ukraine or Gaza? No? Then who's here being "holier than thou"?
if you think it's anything more than self-agrandizing act of "holier than thou", I've got a bridge to sell you.
Enjoy your "monotheistic" holiday tomorrow.
Now, now, it's not THEIR fault the Bible was dumbed down and sanitized through translations.
Most Christians don't realize the polytheistic undertones started from the very first line. It carried through into the Latin version but not much further than that:
"In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram."
"In the beginning the GODS created heaven and earth."
The only remnant, really, English speakers have left is the first commandment "^6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
^7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me."
Which makes sense if you understand that the Old Testament is the history of the Jews, not the history of humanity. Of course there are other Gods, but I AM YOUR GOD.
That un-confuses a lot of the Old Testament, such as "where did the wives for Adam and Eves kids come from?" Well, easy, Adam and Eve weren't the first people, they were the first Jews. The mysterious wives came from outside the faith.
It's like wandering into r/Atheism but even worse lmao
Need help with your nails? I'll help.
Surely it will work this time.
These whackos are so far gone they literally crucify themselves… talk about natural selection
They also got the crucifixion wrong because you're supposed to pin the victim to the cross through their wrist bones between the radius and ulna to ensure they don't fall down and actually properly starve them to death for everyone to see.
If you pin through the hands the victim can just fall over and escape.
The Romans were very efficient in low effort highly visible displays of punishment.
This just seems like blasphemy to me. He is trying to impersonate Jesus Christ with this reenactment. This goes beyond a church play to reenact the crucifying of Christ.
Certain people are hung up on suffering without ever moving on to what the Easter story is about: redemption.
He should be more like Peter who refused to imitate Jesus and was thus crucified upside down.
Religion is blasphemy in and of itself.
Really? I believe it is there to teach morals and principles. I feel like it’s a comfort for those who have lost others, or have lost hope. Some people take it to an extreme, and use it to justify actions that aren’t always moral. I don’t see how worship and faith are blasphemy, though. Could you explain a little more about that?
So if they nailed through their hands why isn't there any blood? Especially when the nail is pulled out in the video? I would assume it would cause permanent damage too.
It's like piercings that healed except the hole is in the hands? I want to believe he did something so that they didn't have to mutilate his hands every 35 times they did this... But at the same time the face he makes when they remove the nails is not reassuring me :/
I can't say I've ever seen John 14:12 interpreted this way elsewhere, but I also can't deny his conviction.
Fucking edgelords.
what he might have wanted people to understand: world peace, remembering people about current wars, people should know love should be put front forth all other things
what people in comments understand: "lol this guy has a fetish" "did that achieve anything, just get on with your work" "he's a freak"
thinly veiled racism. it’s not often lemmy gets to voice its most bigoted thoughts without fear of consequences so they are taking full advantage of the situation.
i wished lemmy to be a replacement of reddit but not in this way
It ain't working. Cut down down your losses and do something constructive.
... That has to be a fetish.