Elroy Willis >Willis <elo@airmail.net>) said, directing the reply to alt.atheism

*Nemo* <nemo0037@yahoo.NOSPMPLS.com> wrote in alt.atheism

Well, it was a small set of contestants. If we're counting votes for
people, Duke would win, having 5 of the 9 nominations thhis time.
However, the quote with the most votes, a total of 14, was:
9) Did you know that all of the pain you are going through everyday is
just part of Gods plan to convert you ? You should spend every second of
every day looking for ways of causing yourself and your loved ones as
much pain as posable, That way God will pick you as soon as you have
proven your good enough for his love.
By: Jasmind

That had to be a joke or satire, right?

Heh. You don't know a lot about the history of Christianity, do you?

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 12:47:10 GMT in alt.atheism, Elroy Willis (Elroy
Willis <elo@airmail.net>) said, directing the reply to alt.atheism

*Nemo* <nemo0037@yahoo.NOSPMPLS.com> wrote in alt.atheism

Well, it was a small set of contestants. If we're counting votes for
people, Duke would win, having 5 of the 9 nominations thhis time.
However, the quote with the most votes, a total of 14, was:

9) Did you know that all of the pain you are going through everyday is
just part of Gods plan to convert you ? You should spend every second of
every day looking for ways of causing yourself and your loved ones as
much pain as posable, That way God will pick you as soon as you have
proven your good enough for his love.

By: Jasmind

That had to be a joke or satire, right?

Oh, speaking of which:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=35085


flagellation

in religion, the disciplinary or devotional practice of beating with
whips. Many theories have been offered to explain the phenomenon. It
has been interpreted as a driving out of evil spirits, as
purification, as a form of sadism, and as an incorporation of the
animal power residing in the whip, but none of these hypotheses
encompasses the whole range of the custom.

In antiquity and among primitive peoples, ceremonial whippings or
beatings were primarily concerned with rites of initiation,
purification, and fertility, which often included other forms of
physical suffering. Floggings and mutilations might or might not be
self-inflicted. Beatings administered by masked impersonators of gods
or ancestors are a feature of many North American Indian initiations.
Ritual floggings are also known from classical antiquity among the
Spartans and in Rome.

In the primitive Christian church flagellation apparently was used as
punishment for disobedient clergy. From the 4th century,
self-inflicted flagellation was practiced by both clergy and laity as
the most efficacious means of penance. In the early European Middle
Ages the laity became especially attracted by this devotional
exercise. In the mid-13th century flagellant brotherhoods and
processions composed of laymen and women, as well as clergy, began to
be organized in Italy, and the practice spread into Germany and the
Low Countries.

In the mid-14th century people were fearful because of the plague, and
from this crisis flagellation arose; the flagellants were seeking by
their own efforts to mitigate the divine judgment that was felt to be
at hand. They formed groups and traveled about the country on foot. In
two daily public ceremonies men whipped their backs and chests with
leather thongs, while women chastised themselves in seclusion. The
flagellants' piety, fears, and hopes were expressed in processional
hymns, fragments of which are preserved in the hymnbooks of later
generations. A definite part of their ritual was the reading of a
letter that proclaimed flagellation—not the ecclesiastical sacrament
of penance—to be the only way to salvation. In 1349 Pope Clement VI
condemned flagellation, as did the Council of Constance (1414–18).

In Germany the flagellants became an organized sect and were a target
of the Inquisition. The practice gradually subsided, but in the 16th
century the Jesuits temporarily revived lay interest in self-inflicted
flagellation, especially in the southern European countries.

Flagellation is also practiced by some Shi'ite Muslims, who whip
themselves on the holiday of 'Ashura' to commemorate the martyrdom of
Husayn at the Battle of Karbala' (AD 680).