15-year-old voluntarily crucified to celebrate Easter - is there a limit to the abuse fundies inflict on kids?
"A 15-year-old boy has been crucified in the Philipines today in a gory ritual to mark the death of Jesus Christ.
Dozens of Filipinos, including the boy and an 18-year-old girl, were nailed to crosses and scores more whipped their backs into a bloody pulp as the country's devout Roman Catholics marked Good Friday.
The voluntary crucifixions in the northern Philippines were the most extreme displays of religious devotion in this mainly Catholic country, where millions are praying and fasting ahead of the Easter weekend."
"The atmosphere was festive, with hawkers selling beer, ice-cream and souvenir whips. VIPs watched from a specially elevated "viewing platform"."
LOL - nothing like commercializing child abuse in the name of Jesus.
Anonymous2008-03-22T19:09:44Z
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As you state in your question, it is the ROMAN CATHOLICS -- not the fundamentalists -- who do this annually. Please don't insult fundamentalists that way.
My fifteen year-old son is sitting not 5 feet from me, playing XBOX-Live with his friends while I use his computer. He's slightly taller than me, with hair that lays in soft waves, and which really needs trimmed but he refuses a cut. He's thin, painfully so, and can't weigh more than 130 pounds. He and his friends are searching for glitches on the new Rainbow 6 game he bought yesterday, and from what I can tell they are having a wonderful time.
His Easter candy is in a bowl between his feet, and his bedroom floor is littered with Starburst wrappers. He knows I'm tucking some cash into his wallet for a planned trip to Pittsburgh on Monday, and he's done nothing but talk about the clothes he wants to buy at the mall after my doctor appointment.
This is what childhood should be. Playing with friends, eating candy and looking forward to a day in the city. Not beating yourself bloody and enduring crucifixion.
Dressing up the boy as a princess will not make him gay, or a serial killer, or depressed as he gets older. He may be embarrassed by it but who doesn't have any embarrassment from their childhood? If this was the other way around and a girl wanted to dress up in as a prince nobody would say anything. Is dressing up as a princess his idea or yours? It sounds like it is yours. My advice would just ask him what he wants or take him down the costume isle and let him pick a "boy" costume.
Jesus took the punishment so we don't have to. Imagine Gods position on this: get literaly SHREDDED to peices to defeat deaths hold on your children, and then they go out and abuse the crap out of theirselves. Would that not hurt God? It's almost like a spit to the face because it practicaly defeats the whole purpose of God doing it at all. But I'm sure their hearts are in the right place and that is what counts the most.
Note the word "voluntary". Philipinos take their religious displays very seriously, and there's nobody more devoted to a crazy idea than a worked-up teenager.