In Persepolis there is a part where it shows how part of their religious acts is to hit themselves. Oddly enough I had never heard of a religion doing this, and then I wondered why they did it. An article from BBC News had defined it as: Flagellation is the beating or whipping of the skin, most often on the back, and often drawing blood, as a bodily penance to show remorse for sin. I then asked the beloved M-Dubs, and he said it was also to replicate and feel what Christ had gone through, not only for remorse.
So I was wondering why it is so popular in Iran/many other countries in the middle east and so not popular towards the western hemisphere. I came upon an article called Why do some Catholics self-flagellate? from BBC News.com. What surprised me the most when I read it was that it said "It was a widespread practice in some parts of the Catholic ministry up to the 1960s but is uncommon today." The majority of the Catholic population is located in the West, so why had I never even heard of it? The rest of the article goes on talking about Pope John Paul II and how he may have done this act of remorse too. It was pretty interesting to read about here is the link...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8375174.stm
Very interesting blog jacie! The only time I had heard of self-flagellation was in the movie The Da Vince Code but I had no clue why he was doing it. It seems pretty extreme to me, but I'm sure that some things that we do seem odd to other cultures.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting. I had heard a little about it before but I didn't know that Catholics did it up to the 1960s. It seems like a pretty painful way to thank God and kind of extreme. I'm sure in cultures that do do this it is normal.
ReplyDeleteCool blog, It was very educational to learn about self-flagellation. I agree with Adam and Alex it does seem a little intense.
ReplyDeleteSo that's what M-dubs was talking about the other day..
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I think that the middle Eastern countries still do it because they are still very religiously run. In the United States we have the freedom of religion which has kind of made everyone else pretty laid back. I'm Lutheran and I know that they have never endured anything like that. They believe that God gives you grace when you sin. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness. God wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.
I agree with Bridget--I believe Jesus got all that out of the way for us, but I can understand in some ways why people would believe otherwise. I think it's cool you researched this, Jacie. I didn't know it was common up to the 60s.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Jacie! & good choice asking MW, he does know a lot about everything. haha and great article find!
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