Yesterday my wife and I were driving around town when we saw a guy dragging large cross along the sidewalk of one of the town’s main roads. He had it over his shoulder, Jesus-like, and although he was a big man it looked heavy and weighed him down. We drove around for about half an hour or so and happened to see him again. He had taken a turn down a cross road and was now struggling up a hill. I was going to stop and explain to him that when Jesus marched to Golgotha, he would not have been carrying the whole cross. Prisoners only carried the cross bar; the upright piece was set permanently at the execution site and was reused for multiple executions. However, I don’t usually like talking to crazy people and anyways didn’t want to ruin his religious experience. Now ordinarily it might expected that such a spectacle would attract a bit of attention. But everybody went about their business, completely ignoring him. I guess they don’t call Alabama the buckle of the Bible Belt for nothing.
I have seen a man doing this same thing in Hualien several years ago, more than once. He also wore robes, was in bare feet and carried a small player which was playing hymns. What ever his reasons, I had great admiration for someone who, regardless of other opinions, was living his convictions. That takes great courage.
It occurs to me that Easter is also around the corner.
The guy’s obviously slightly nutters, but if it makes him feel good more power to him. Reminds me of UFC3, when this fighter – Kimo – entered the stadium lugging a giant cross over his shoulder.
I wonder how Jesus would have felt about Kimo’s chosen sport – kicking, punching and choking God’s children. Or how he would have felt about the fact that Kimo lied about being a Taekwondo black belt in order to be qualified for the UFC, or about how Kimo was later expelled from the sport for his repeated positive tests for steroids.
If a guy is so into Jesus that he’ll drag a cross around in public, I would expect his behavior would be a little more Christlike. I don’t claim to be better than Kimo at all, but neither do I feel a need to tatoo His name all over my body or drag crosses around in public.
I guess the fact that the OP is writing from Alabama explains it.
I wonder if it is the same guy who walked across Canada in the early Eighties (will try and find a story or a link somewhere later).
Anyway, this thread reminds me of an older guy I worked construction with who would quite frequently explain the different characteristics of certain banned substances he had imbibed in his youth–kind of boring until he told me the story of driving across Canada with a friend, both high on LSD. He was explaining that the drug had a magical ability to manifest the most improbable of circumstances.
Anyway, these guys were tripping on the drug, driving across Canada and were somewhere in The Rockies in Alberta when they came around a corner and zoomed past a man with long hair and beard dragging a cross.
He and his friend looked at each other and said “Jesus!”
I remember watching a documentary about British Rastafarians and their feelings about how Zion/Babylon and all that were a false prophecy. The most interesting part was an old guy who had walked barefoot from Bristol to Addis Ababa to reach what he thought would be the promised land. Pretty amazing story.
I also recall reading on the BBC website about a Hindu guy who is currently on a pilgrimage around India to visit every shrine, whilst also carrying his mother in a basket. Supposedly it will take another 17 years to complete.
I saw a guy like that in Texas, late 1980’s. His cross had wheels on it. I’m sure you could have stopped and asked questions–chances are the guy’s intentions are (gasp) evangelical. Or you could have thrown beer-bottles, made the sign of the devil, played with his mind by pretending to be a trance-induced apparition, etc.
Does anybody remember that Taiwanese TV commercial from a few years ago, that featured a haggard-looking Christ carrying his cross? I forget the product though. (Bad sign for the ad agency.)
The Jehovah’s Witnesses insist, with some plausibility, that Jesus’s “cross” had no platbium, but was just one upright piece of wood.
If you like crucifixions, I hear the Filipinos go in for the real thing. Hey–they should get some kind of international S&M contest going between all the different religions that beat themselves, like the Taiwanese jitong, the Shi’i mourners for Hussein the son of Ali, all those Hindu fakirs, etc…
You are not a good samaritan. If I had been in your shoes I would have stopped and offered to help him. How would you feel if your truck broke down and you had to carry your kindlin’ all the way home?
Could it be this guy everyone’s been talking about?
[quote]On Christmas 1969 Arthur Blessitt went out for a walk and took his 40 pound, 12 foot cross with him. He is still walking and spreading his message about God everywhere he goes.
So far Arthur Blessitt has visited all 50 states, all seven continents and 305 nations covering more than 37,000 miles.
We could not find how many pairs of shoes he has worn out, but here is his official website:[/quote] blessitt.com/
Some other interesting tidbits from the site:
[quote]Friendliest Armies - Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Army
A few memorable scares - Firing squad in Nicaragua: stoning and beating in Morocco; Civil Guardia attack in Spain; LAPD choking, Hollywood, California; pistol attack, Orlando, Florda; “to burn the cross,” Birdseye, Indiana; man broke the cross, Nigeria
Most apt country to be arrested in - USA
Most apt city to be arrested in - Hollywood, CA
Most angry toward the cross - Amsterdam, Holland and Tetouan, Morocco[/quote]
I can understand why some of the “nice” folks in Birdseye, Indiana might want to burn his cross, and I can even understand why he was most liable to be arrested in the US, but why the anger toward the cross in Holland?
[quote=“Screaming Jesus”]I saw a guy like that in Texas, late 1980’s. His cross had wheels on it. I’m sure you could have stopped and asked questions–chances are the guy’s intentions are (gasp) evangelical. Or you could have thrown beer-bottles, made the sign of the devil, played with his mind by pretending to be a trance-induced apparition, etc.
Does anybody remember that Taiwanese TV commercial from a few years ago, that featured a haggard-looking Christ carrying his cross? I forget the product though. (Bad sign for the ad agency.)
The Jehovah’s Witnesses insist, with some plausibility, that Jesus’s “cross” had no platbium, but was just one upright piece of wood.
If you like crucifixions, I hear the Filipinos go in for the real thing. Hey–they should get some kind of international S&M contest going between all the different religions that beat themselves, like the Taiwanese jitong, the Shi’i mourners for Hussein the son of Ali, all those Hindu fakirs, etc…[/quote]
and I can even understand why he was most liable to be arrested in the US, but why the anger toward the cross in Holland?