The Bear Minimum

As far as re-enactments go, this one here, brought to me by a friend in Australia, is rather crass, in my opinion.

On Saturday afternoon in the small beach-side city of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, a group from a church decided to have a re-enactment. The paster of this church, Heaven on Earth, decided that they needed to get out and ’spread the word of God’ as the Bible told them to do, and they thought the best way to do this was to show people what Easter was all about.

So they dressed a fellow in a loin cloth, and two ladies in black as mourners, and had the fellow doused in fake blood and stand up on a crucifix, whilst he was mourned by the two women. They also played instrumental music through an amplifier. The paster, Sarah Kenneally, defended their decision and called the ‘demonstration’ a ’silent display’ and that they weren’t trying to ‘preach to people’.

First off, that’s just a lie. There was music coming through the amplifier, and the person acting as Jesus was moaning audibly and crying out ‘Why, why?’ which, of course, terrified children and many of them were crying leading parents to request police to put a stop to the display, which they did. Quite unceremoniously, too, from what I hear. Secondly, how is could this pastor thing she’s not preaching? You don’t have to be speaking to be preaching, and this was sending a very clear message.

I think it’s the carelessness that aggravates me about this. The group chose a busy shopping district on the day before Easter to put on this performance, knowing that many children would be in the area. I think that’s extremely inconsiderate of those children and of the parents who’ll now have to explain to their child that no, the man wasn’t really in pain, and he’s alright, and why these people would want to do this.

Apparently the pastor is looking to do this again next year, but probably without the fake blood. Well that’s something, at least.