Self-Flagellation and Real Crucifixions

Modern Extreme Practices in Christianity

Image created by author using Dall E-3

Every Good Friday in the Philippines, a group of devout Catholics line up to get nailed to crosses, literally. This isn’t a metaphor, we’re talking iron nails through the palms, a crown of thorns pressed into the scalp, blood dripping down sunburnt backs that have already been shredded by hours of public self-flagellation. Then, once the performance of pain is over, they’re gently lowered down, stitched up, and sent home to do it all again next year.

This isn’t a fringe cult in some jungle village, this is a well-known, annual ritual that attracts media attention, tourists, and die-hard believers, and it exposes something that modern Christianity, especially in its Western form, loves to ignore: that this religion, at its core, has become more obsessed with suffering and sacrifice than with actually living like Jesus.

San Fernando, Pampanga is the epicenter of this painful tradition. Every Holy Week, dozens of men (and occasionally women) volunteer to reenact the crucifixion of Jesus. Unlike a school play with bathrobes and plastic swords, these reenactments come with real wooden crosses, and real spikes driven through flesh.

One of the most famous figures in this ritual is Ruben Enaje, a house painter who, as of 2023, had been…