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.
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.
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.
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.
Ah, my bad. I didn’t mean to imply that it being done in a religious context invalidates it, just that the religious context would inform us more about the man’s intent and whether or not they’d continue on doing so regardless of the result.
I used the term “pledge” earlier, but maybe it’s better to use the word “vow” to refer this. The term in Filipino is “panata” (which wiktionary translates to “vow”). It usually isn’t as dramatic as this, however. And as far as I’ve observed, a lot would do these vows after they deem their prayers to have been heard (usually recovery from illness or accidents, or recovery from financial ruin), and thereafter, no matter what, they’d try to fulfill their vows, whether that’d be a crucifixion reenactment, or attending processions, or even just as simple as foregoing alcohol or vices or letting their hair grow.
edit:
I must clarify my position here, I guess. I am neither in favor nor against the practice. But having grown up in the country where these practices occur, I just felt I have to clarify some things. Personally? I don’t mind. They’re doing these things with good intentions, and they’re hurting no one. As far as I know, they don’t force anyone to join them, but rather, make sure that those who are following their footsteps are sure they want to.
fair enough. it’s definitely a complex topic and i’m glad to see there are at least some individuals on here who don’t just divert to insults and thinly veiled racist remarks. thx 4 being chill and not like the guy who assumes i am christian and is currently trying to convert me via harassment? i assume?
lemmy has shown some interesting colors lately lolol
re your edit:
yes, neither am i for or against the practice. i value informed consent and i value when people bring attention to global violence. and when those come together in a disturbing way that hits the associated press, that’s also cool i guess.
not cool with people invoking bigoted rhetoric against the people protesting. guess that’s the tldr of my position.
Enjoy your “monotheistic” holiday tomorrow.
what the hell lmao
didn’t expect literal 8th century religious bigotry to show up on lemmy. cringe, buddy.
Hey I am not against you having your equinox party. Go right ahead and honor the goddess Estor. I just find it amusing that you lot call yourself monotheistic. It isn’t bigotry that I know your religion better than you do.
ok troll, tell me again what my religion is based off of pure extrapolation from nothing (you were wrong from the start)
Nietzsche said it best: Christianity is Platoism for the masses.
Paul and the Gospel writers took the very worst part of Greco-Roman thought and Judaism then combined it together. Then as it infected the Empire it grabbed holidays from various pagan groups.
35 times and so much peace accomplishment
Also nothing to do with race, what he did was pointless as well.
re: your edit
don’t worry not accusing you of bigotry yet; it’s the other comments which are the problem.
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.
Really sad people are hurting themselves over nothing.
Gaza is undergoing forced starvation and genocide.
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.
key difference is they aren’t trying to actually kill the person. they even sanitize the nails apparently and presumably get medical treatment after.
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
