From Newsgroup: uk.religion.christian
Yesterday the Daily Mail carried a report and graphic pictures of Shia
Muslims "celebrating" Ashura by mutilating themselves.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15931877/Muslims-blood-cut-knives-Islamic-festival.html
The odious custom should surely convince any sane person that there is something seriously wrong with a religion which teaches that God is
pleased by such behaviour.
Yet at the same time I am aware of the exact same behaviour by a branch
of Christianity! One sniggers at the so-called "penitents" in their KKK
hoods parading through the streets in Spain, but that is just the
acceptable face of extreme behaviour. People are encouraged to whip
themselves or torture themselves in various ways "to show sorrow" for
their sins or, perhaps, as a corrective for sin.
Martin Luther reported that he scourged himself until the blood flowed.
The Horniman Museum in south London preserves spiked items which
religious in South America were encouraged or even forced to wear. There
are disturbing accounts of Mother Theresa (or her order) denying pain
relief to dying patients and instead telling them to "offer their
suffering to God", as if God is pleased at seeing us in pain.
It would be easy to point the finger at the Catholics, but there are
some pretty stupid Protestants as well, some pretty stupid Buddhists or
Hindus or animists. The problem is not one particular religion or even
one sect within a religion. The problem is the idea that God is pleased
when we suffer.
That is an idea I reject in toto. Whether it is scourging yourself with
barbed wire, kneeling or walking on sharp stones or broken glass, or
even just deliberately missing a meal because you think God will be
pleased by your hunger, Jesus came that you might have life "more
abundantly" and voluntary privations are a denial and a rejection of
what He did for you.
God bless,
Kendall K. Down
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