Friday, March 21, 2008

People are just weird.


If, you know, by people, I really mean Christianist whackos:

Philippine devotees re-enacted Jesus Christ's suffering today by having themselves nailed to crosses in rites frowned upon by Roman Catholic church leaders.

Thirty-seven-year-old Fernando Mamangon was among the first of some 30 men scheduled to go through the Good Friday rites in three villages in northern Pampanga province's San Fernando city.

Five other devotees, including a woman, were nailed to crosses in nearby Bulacan province.

It was Mamangon's 13th straight year for the rite, which penitents endure to fulfil a vow or pray for a cure for illnesses.

But wait — it gets better.

The yearly tradition has become a tourist attraction, especially in San Fernando's San Pedro Cutud village, which sometimes draws thousands of local and foreign tourists.

On Wednesday, Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando city urged devotees not to turn Holy Week into a "circus."

Okay, seriously ... when the Catholic Church is telling you to stop making with the crazy, you’ve got serious problems. And could someone please explain how this any less barbaric and heathenish than this?

And furthermore. Just 'cause SQ asked for it.


7 comments:

Southern Quebec said...

Lulu: I read somewhere yesterday (I'm too lazy to find it) that the Philippine government came out and said, "Hey, if you're going to crucify yourself, please use clean nails."

And I think we would be remise, if we didn't play this on Good Friday...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1loyjm4SOa0

Cameron Campbell said...

Or, how it is any more or less barbaric than Shiite Muslim's Ashoura Day?

Oh, wait, that's different, somehow...

Lindsay Stewart said...

hi cameron! thank you for avoiding relevance. in the interest of greater clarity, let me note for the record, that with the possible exception of tantra, religions are a violently fixated set of mental aberrations. i don't claim to speak for cc or for LuLu but religions all seem to feature some sick ritual or actual violence as a purification rite or celebration of invisible, non-existent, terrifying creatures whose vast and immortal powers seem incapable of altering the lives and circumstances of their followers. we now return you to your regularly scheduled, spiteful bigotry. fuckwit.

Ti-Guy said...

Actually, I think everyone who's going to address issues like this should make distinctions between cultural practices and religious ones.

Or, how it is any more or less barbaric than Shiite Muslim's Ashoura Day?

You knew this comment would be irritating, didn't you, Campbell? Tell me, what possessed you to make it, on Good Friday, of all days?

Prole said...

Do they arrange for someone to take them down, or do they just leave 'em there like the Romans? How long do they leave them nailed up there, anyway? Do they get scourged, too? I mean, if you're going to go for it, GO FOR IT.

Mike said...

Funny how people will celebrate a event that never actually happened.

Cameron Campbell said...

Good god I was fucking agreeing with you.

The point I was making was that there are people in every religion that take things to the outer extreme and that the people on the right who blindly point to a small segment of a sect of islam and go "oh look they're crazy" while ignoring the people on "their" side of the religious/cultural divide are fucking bigoted trash.

But none of you checked and then you jumped on me.

Nice.

By "nice" I mean "fuck you for assuming that you have any idea what I meant and for not asking for clarification you fucking braying assholes who I'm embarrassed to be counted among".