Perhaps you have heard of the quaint Roman Catholic "tradition" that is carried out in the Philippines where folks volunteer to be crucified? That is the Catholicism that the writer grew up in, not your sophisticated American flavor.
Only a FReeper Catholic would call foul in a hit piece on American Evangelicalism....
Do they REALLY hurt those people???
Then again, Martin Luther's order before he 'rebelled' against the Pope, promoted self-flagellation as well. It didn't assuage his conscience a bit.
Well, being crucified is a bit expreme. Most Christians won’t attend a church where the pews lack cushions and the music is sub par.
I was raised Catholic and lived in the Philippines for four years as a child. I vividly remember the “tradition” you posted. In fact, the first time I witnessed such an event I was only five years old. Believe it or not, even though these Filipino Catholic sects have been led astray, God used my memory of this event to draw me to Himself later in my life.
Is this really a hit piece on American Evangelicalism, or just the brand of feel-goodism that is proclaimed in the Health and Wealth Gospel of just a few preachers? Certainly most American Evangelicalism isn’t of this stripe, is it?
It's not like there has not been a long history of Roman Catholic clergy since the medieval period who used the RCC for their own personal gain, or gain of their families, such as the Medici's or Borgias.
Now I'm wondering what sanitized version Roman Catholics will come up with next.