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.
It’s not working too well but maybe we should just try to crucify rich people
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
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
If his goal is to popularize his own stupidity, sure… it’s working.
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.
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.
and do you think it’s his mistake for trying to send a message even though it still hasn’t been achieved?
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.
I almost feel bad for those ancient Hebrews. They were just trying to understand their world with very very imperfect tools to do so.
They “knew” that every tribe had its own protection god and they knew that they were different from the tribes around them. So they built a narrative to explain the facts of their existence. “We are different than our neighbors, therefore we must have came from some places else. Egypt is some place else”. “Other tribes eat pork and we don’t. It must be because our protective god doesn’t like it. How did he tell us? Well there must have been some time when he told one of us.” They kept on reasoning backwards, trying to find the effect from the causes.
I feel a lot less bad for people in modern times who take these bronze age ideas seriously.
what the hell lmao
didn’t expect literal 8th century religious bigotry to show up on lemmy. cringe, buddy.
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 :/
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
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
… That has to be a fetish.
