IT’S Easter, but judging from some of the photographs in the world’s media this weekend, one could be forgiven for thinking hallowe’en had arrived a lot earlier than scheduled.
A follower of Santa Muerte blows cigarette smoke in her face in an act of devotion
In Mexico, according to the Guardian, followers of a rapidly growing Mexican religious cult that deifies death and counts a number of drug traffickers among its devotees, mounted a series of protests in Mexico City to express anger at the recent destruction of several dozen of their shrines.
Followers of the tequila-swilling Santa Muerte, or Saint Death took part in protests, chanting:
We are believers, we are not criminals.
The shrines, located near the northern border, were bulldozed in late March under supervision of the army. Their demolition was interpreted as a mission of psychological warfare aimed at intimidating the drug cartels, as many traffickers are known to be among the Santa Muerte’s most fervent worshippers.
There’s a strong possibility too that the Catholic Church had put pressure on the authorities to destroy the shrines, as the church had earlier condemned the SM cult, saying that saying it was linked to Satanism and was being used to mislead desperate people.
Said Isidro Pastrana, a middle-aged cook and transvestite walking with a papier-mache scythe in his hand:
It isn’t fair to repress our faith just because there are some narcos who believe in La Santisima too. Our faith is much bigger than them.
And Sergio Hernandez, a 24-year-old toilet cleaner, believes Saint Death had stepped in to prevent him being sent to prison when he was accused of car theft. He declared:
I really thought I was going to have to spend a few years in prison, but I appealed to the holy Santa Muerte and when the verdict came they let me go. These are the kind of things that really make you believe in her.
- Hooded penitents from the La Paz brotherhood in Seville
Photograph: Miguel Angel Morenatti/AP
According to Bernardo Barranco, a religious scholar, the cult mixes the legacy of a prehispanic cultural fascination with death, African-Caribbean religiosity and a particularly baroque form of Catholicism. He said the cult’s popularity has exploded in recent years because it offers help and an explanation to the growing number of Mexicans living precarious lives on the what he calls “the frontier of their own security”.
Meanwhile, Spain looked as if it was playing host to an international convention of the Ku Klux Klan when Catholic penitents in pointy white hoods – looking a much scarier than our own native hoodies – took part in processions throughout the country.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
April 11th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
That the church even says things like this makes me want to laugh.
April 11th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Where did you get the photo of Posh and Becks sharing a joint?
April 11th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Wait the RCC said another religion is being used to mislead desperate people? It’s only the RCC that gets to do that now?
April 11th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
The following link is a collection of photos from around the world of Easter celebrations. One photo shows a man with his hand nailed to a cross so be warned. I found it a pretty disturbing collection of photos.
The Big Picture section of the site has a lot of these series, this is the first I have actually felt disturbed by.
http://www.boston.com/bigpictu....._week.html
April 11th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
OMG, Spain, WTF?
April 12th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Those Catholic penitents in Spain are exactly where the KKK got their uniforms from.
the RCC IS a death cult, so it’s only natural it would want to stomp out any opposition. Easter really show just how sick all this xian worship really is…and they say they worry about children? What are children thinking now when they see men being nailed to crosses at this obscene event? spew…
April 12th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Dave L
Good link…..
April 12th, 2009 at 11:30 am
If our fundie-mental friend is lurking can I just say…
‘HAPPY ZOMBIE DAY’, Bob!
And wishing a happy re-birthday to all those crucified saviours who died and rose for our amusement, namely:-
Tammuz of Mesopotamia, Iao of Nepal, Hesus of the Druids, Quezalcoatl, Quirinius of Rome, Prometheus, Thulis of Egypt, Indra of Tibet, Alcestos of Euripides (the only female saviour!)*, Attis of Phrygia, Crite of Chaldaea, Bali of Orissa, Mithras of Persia and most recently Jebus of the Jews.
If I have forgotten anyone then don’t worry. They know who they are, after all they’re omniscient eh!
*Come on girls, make an effort.
April 12th, 2009 at 11:35 am
The Catholic Church accused another cult of misleading desperate people, I think that they are honestly so lacking in self awareness that they can say such things and just not realise how it applies to themselves as well.
I followed the link and read some of the comments, plenty of people seemed to agree that some people have a pretty sick way of expressing their Christianity, but no one suggesting that Christianity itself is sick.
April 12th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I love the Easter jokes corny though they are….
Cross your legs I’ve only one nail left.
If you drop that cross again I’ll nail you to it.
Hey I can see our house from here.
etc etc.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Stonyground. I didn’t notice any cardinals amongst these misguided and ignorant sufferers with nails through their hands and bleeding backs. Or even a few priests. Or perhaps Holy Tony might have done a demonstration – say a nail through even one hand.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Christianism is all about zombies; not so paradoxically, things like resurrection expectation or relics’ adoration are given from a form of excess of narcisism (enterrment as fear for the destruction of the body, preferred to cremation, which is an evolved, hygienical custom), which unmasks the real helleno-roman derivation of christianism (that is, old “paganism” under synchretism).
But better stop quoting these “gods”, ’cause most of them are coming from very outdated literature (“Crite”? “Alcestos”? “Thulis”? “Iao”? They are mostrly written wrong, and their story isn’t so fitting to that of Jesus)
April 13th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
So, how is the wine-swilling Zombie Jesus different from the tequilla-swilling Santa Muerte?
As Stonyground pointed out, the catholics quite often do seem to miss the similarities.