April 5, 2010
-
Censoring Jesus
A Christian group did a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus.
The re-enactment was shut down because the fake blood was considered too violent for children.
The Pastor of the church felt that the police had “compromised freedom of religion by shutting down the re-enactment.” Pastor Sarah Kenneally said, “I think it was pretty sad that a Christian group couldn’t express what Easter was truly about for one hour – it wasn’t like we were trying to take over the city or tell everyone they were going to hell.” Here is the link: Link
Do you think a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus is too violent for children?
Comments (82)
I fail to understand why this group would even do this reenactment if not to shock people. Everyone already knows the damn story.
Man, this is the crap that killed all the good cartoons.
Here we go again!
Well, yes. I mean, the whole point is that Jesus went through this awful death for us. It wasn’t a sissy clean death, and it shouldn’t be portrayed as one. I think making Jesus’ death acceptable for public view wasn’t exactly in God’s plan…
Kids watch violent movies all the time, why should we censor religion when we allow kids to watch 14A gorefests all the time?
@mrcolorful - Of course. It is about shock. I think they believe if they shock people into seeing what Jesus went through they will want to accept him as god.
A lot of Christians freak the fuck out about Halloween decorations being too scary.
I don’t think it’s out of line to show the crucifixion, but let’s not be hypocrites about it, huh?
It’s heresy to re-enact.
That looks pretty intense so I’ll say yes. You can teach the story without the graphic aspect of it, especially to children.
I don’t know. .. it’s like a cycle. They’ don’t want to be censored for what people might veiw as violent.. but I’m sure many people from a variety of religions are more than happy to censor other violent things.
I guess people probably shouldn’t be overly censored.. they should just warn so parents know what they should or shouldn’t expose their children to.
Yes it is.
@mrcolorful - And the city stops all business and schooling regularly for week long breaks to the jews can shock people, certainly. Civil war reenactments too. Bad bad people, the whole lot of them.
Kids play violent video games, watch horror movies… What is a little fake blood when it’s not on Halloween?… Chaos.
Why are they always taking away the blood, swears, and nudity from all my entertainment?
@AmeSoeur - You got a good point.
Jesus Freaks
Even as a Christian, I wouldn’t want to have my young child with me when running across such a scene in public. He will know the story and will see the graphic brutality of it, but at an age where he is able to understand and comprehend it, not at an age where it could give him nightmares and confuse him.
@mrcolorful - Agreed.
Of course I do. But it’s not like they haven’t BEEN telling children this story for years. They just decided to play it out for them this time.
i’m reading this
Yes.. that’s why the movie was rated R. DUH.
No. And as many have already stated, it is grossly inconsistant with video games, Halloween, war reinactments, TV, movies, and the like. All of these are easy access for children.
They allow children to watch some of the goriest stuff you could imagine on TV and in video games yet they stop something like this. Really? Reinacting the crucifixion in public I’m not really for, but not for the reasons that many are against it or because it’s too gory for children. I’m not going to get into what I think about it all because it isn’t important. What’s important is Christ defeated death for us and the tomb is empty. But not only is the tomb empty, so is the cross. Why do we keep putting Him up on the cross? As Christ said Himself “It is finished” He’s not on the cross any longer.
Jeez… everything offends everyone these days.
Well, it is kind of violent if you think about it. Realistically, it’s not worse than any action movie that’s out. Shrug
Shut down because of fake blood? Sheesh. A few weeks ago we were giving our 1st and 2nd graders a rather graphic description of what a cat of nine tails is and what it can do to people. Thing is, I’ve never seen people inspired to violence by graphic accounts of the crucifixion.
Well his death was violent, very violent and I do think that was too much for a child to see.
Whoever thinks that even a remotely accurate portrayal of this dude’s crucifixion (according to the made-up story, anyway) is not too violent for children is operating on ridiculous double standards.
Everyone knows the damn story. About how the Easter bunny freed the slaves and led a trail of colorful eggs to the promise land.
Who the hell is Jesus?
even though i am a christian i dont think that they should reenacment because there is only crucifixiction of jesus and that was over 2000 years ago we dont need to do it again
A ton of stuff in the bible is “not for children.” Watching Hanna Barbera’s rendition of biblical stories in the “greatest stories ever told” is pretty hilarious/painful though.
You mean they don’t get to crucify people on “Grand Theft Auto” video games?
Oh, thats right, they beat them with bats and machetes…
Jeez… things are getting rather ridiculous.
Considering the fact that a good portion of today’s youth sit for hours in front of violent computer games, no, I don’t really feel that the re-enactment was too violent.
I think it’s fine…depending on where they do it. I can see an issue if they’re doing this in a park for kids or something. I mean…it would be smart of them to put up signs around warning people with kids.
man… I’ve seen some crazy shit in the name of “shock-value-salvation”… lame
People are just weird sometimes
i would rather have my children see this than the bullcrap on tv nowadays.
but at a young age, i would probably not take them to see it. i don’t know if they could even grasp religion at such a young age anyway, so i’d rather not give them nightmares or anything like that.
I think these days as a whole our society is de-sensitized to this sort of thing. I think it’s gross, and wouldn’t want to see it. (I’m terrible with blood–real or fake.) But I think it’s BS they shut it down. They group was right. It’s infringement of the First Amendment.
They got it fucking wrong anyway, just like every other crucifixion painting. The nails are through the hands, which, if anyone knows anything about it, can’t be possible. Crucifixions had to go in between the bones in the wrist…the hand could never support your weight. If you’re going to do a re-enactment, get it right.
Anyway, I guess it might be too much. You can’t exactly stop your kids from looking out the car window while you’re driving, but you can at least TRY and censor what the young ones watch on the TV.
Dude doesn’t even have a beard! He can’t be Jesus! Shut that blasphemy down!
Wait, does Jesus have shaved pits? I don’t remember that being apart of the stations of the cross when I was growing up.
Rated R?
I don’t know, I think for me it kind of depends on if they were trying to reach out to kids in particular or just anybody. *shrugs* I think it’s weird that was the reason they were told to quit the reenactment.
~V
You can do it without the blood.
If you don’t want your kids to see it, don’t send them to it. Like they don’t see worse on tv.
@ccarothers - yes, but it’s real-life…well, not really…but it’s not on a tv screen.
It was violent, perhaps they shouldn’t have been stopped…if the parent didn’t want their kid to see it…than don’t go that direction…avoid it.
When I was little we went to a show about Easter and all…and I was real young, so the people whipping the actor,the actor screaming, Mary crying and screaming, the fake blood, strobe lights, satan’s little helpers running all around the audience, and than him being dragged down to “hell” scared the shit out of me.
@crystal_air - @KevtheMoron - hahahahahahahahaha!!!
not at all…government interfering with this easter holiday reenactment is out of line
I was part of the stations of the cross when I was in elementary school at a catholic school. We didn’t use fake blood.
This is shocking. It’s almost an insult to God. No one’s suppoesed to “play” Jesus, even if it is to educate! People know the story, and if not, there’s the Bible! Goodness, people.
@DirtyAndShaken - Agreed. When I have kids someday, yeah, I’ll let them see that but not until they can understand.
It was a good incentive to actually physically show people what its all about. But it does look a little intense. Then again, as everyone previously said, kids watch horror movies,and play gore filled video games all the time. But if I had a little child, I wouldn’t want them seeing that randomly on the street. I don’t know. I have mixed feeling on this.
@UnworthyofHisgrace - Amen!!
i think children are waaay to sheltered nowadays ! blood is blood , shit happens . let them face it !
I thought kids were “maturing faster” these days…
With everything else children are subjected to in our modern culture, I don’t think it’s RIDICULOUSLY terrible. Which is saying something more about society than about this particular act.
But it is too much for such a public place, being that bloody. I know it’s an expression of their faith, but I think that they don’t need to make it a spectacle to properly appreciate the Resurrection. I don’t think it’s proper, either, as a Christian, really, to “re-enact” the crucifixion in a STRIP MALL. Attend church or mass, pray on your own, reflect on the spirituality personally. Re-enact in your church, back yard, home, whatever. You don’t need to do this in blatant PUBLIC where there are impressionable youths. They get enough of that through movies, TV, and music. It’s not a good influence to young children, I don’t think.
There is a practice like this in the Philippines, actually. Except it’s real crucifixion. The few faithful who are willing to do it are literally subjected to the same torture that Jesus endured on the cross. They are literally nailed to crosses, and hoisted up. This isn’t done to the point of death, like it was to Jesus. Participants often do it many times in a row. The Catholic Church apparently frowns upon it, but not much is done.
It’s just public decency v. freedom of religion…
“compromised freedom of religion”
So re-enacting a battle or a war is freedom of religion?
I dunno, I see their point but even I shuddered a little at the sight; I couldn’t imagine a kid seeing that. I mean, they rate movies for gory content, this is the same. Do it indoors, or at a later time when kids aren’t likely to be out (at least not alone.)
I’d be more appalled by the face he has in the first picture. He’s either receiving a favour or he’s a horrible actor.
I agree with my fellow brothers and sisters that commented, I am a Christ-follower, and yes it is too intense for kids. But with that said, today’s reenactment’s don’t even come close to what actually happened. if we were to take 21st Century people and take them back to the 1st century and see a cruxifixion similar to Jesus’, our modern minds could not even begin to comprehend how horrific this style of execution was.
They were doing this in a busy shopping area for everyone to see…the people walking by didn’t necessarily want or desire to see it.
If they were doing it in a church for their church-goers to see, then it would be different.
I think the real issue here is that this illegitimate “church” had a woman pastor.
I would want my child to watch it, in fact I’d take them to it with popcorn in hand. Okay, that’d be a little much, but I’d be insistant. If not for the religious aspects, but the idea that the world can be intolerant of other beliefs. If it causes them nightmares, then lets try changing the world…not our representations of it.
yes. If there was some guy just walking around, covered in fake blood, a lot of those same christians would be complaining that he was scaring kids. Just because they’re showing “what really happened” doesn’t make it any better.
sure it is, what a question
Depends on the age of the children, and how graphically the crucifixion was portrayed. If it was a “Passion of the Christ” remake, than yes, that’s too much.
I guess I can see both sides here. The church wants to remind people of what happened to Jesus because they consider it significant. And they do have freedom of expression under the constitution.
But whether or not you believe in Jesus or attach any personal significance to his crucifixion, being nailed to a cross is probably one of the most horrible ways humans have conceived of to die. To me, it’s graphic even without any blood. I am a grown woman and I still look away during the crucifixion scenes in Jesus movies because I just don’t want to see anyone nailed to anything.) From the picture, it looks like this was being done outside where anyone could see it. And if I looked out my window one day and saw someone being crucified on the church lawn, you’d better believe I’d be horrified, even if I knew it was just acting. With TV and movies, there’s usually a rating at the beginning that says if there is sex or violence and the parents can decide if they want their child to see it. I’m not saying all parents do that, but they at least have the option. With an outdoor crucifixion reenactment, if your child sees it and clearly is too young to process what’s going on, you didn’t have any prior warning to prevent it.
I think it’s obvious they meant for it to be horrifying. Personally, if I was a little kid, I would prefer not to be traumatized by the image. But…I guess it would build character…if not an aversion to Jesus.
this is the point of movie rating systems. of course any Crucifixion enactment will be rated PG at the lowest, but that doesn’t mean it has to be rated R or NC-17. I mean if it’s really as accurate as possible like Mel Gibson’s Passion movie it’ll be R or worse. PG means kids can see it at their parents discretion. you don’t take PG movies out of theaters.
and yeah most kids already see PG-13 and R rated stuff all the time even though they shouldn’t. so how can people care about this being shown?
on the other hand, it was in a public place where people weren’t coming intending to see it, and there were kids there who were upset. it’s not the parents’ responsibility if they weren’t expecting it to be there, and if the kids don’t know and understand the story it doesn’t really help them. I’m not saying Christians need to stay in church with the stories (it’s our job to bring them out), but it could’ve been outside the church without being at the mall. you need to warn people if there’s going to be things not suitable for young kids. But this church is considering modifying it for the future so it’s not like they don’t care what the public thinks. kind of a trial and error thing.
no because the story of Jesus was actually real. It’s not too violent because its not like a movie, this actaully happened. If I had kids I would def let them see it
In the Philippines its tradition to re-enact the story.
There is one person who has volunteered more than 10 times to play Jesus when crucified on the cross. They have specially made nails, which are sterilized, so it doesn’t break the bones in his hands and feet. The story is literally done infront of everyone. It’s a big thing when you volunteer to be Jesus.
Personally, I think people are entitled to express their own way of devotion.
It wasn’t too violent for me when I was a child. Sure, it wasn’t in person, but i saw videos and books of reenactments. So if its not too violent for catholic children learning about it, why should this be too violent for other children of other religions to see? The intolerance people have towards other religions these days is ridiculous.
At least they didn’t re-enact God’s insemination of Mary.
@lovesJoy - Personally, I think people are entitled to express their own way of devotion.
And’ I’d love to display devotion to my girlfriend in a very public fuck. Would there be anything wrong with that?
There is a societal thershold for stuff like obscenity and displays of violence. There is a limit, and it seems as if the community of the article set it at “graphic simulations of torture and execution.”
In the middle of the street? Yes, that’s a little distasteful and graphic when you consider how children may react to it.
i have nothin against it but just from looking at those pictures it looks pretty gruesome lol
Wacky Australians
Not with the cheap halloween blood it isn’t. I want to see an actor actually whipped and nailed to the cross, like they do in the philipines. Now that is a violent exhibition.
@mrcolorful - Respectfully I beg to differ with you. Everyone does not already know the story.
I don’t care.
Ummm, I know that it’s good to be aware of Christ’s death and all.. but I would personally be SCARRED if i was a child and i saw this. Easter would never be the same.
That would scare the living crap out of a lot of children.
While I don’t want to get in the way of freedom of speech I think they should just do it indoors so parents can prepare their kids before they go to see it.
It doesn’t matter if intentions or well, children walking by who don’t understand what’s going out will react pretty badly.
who wants chocolate after that pretty thing?