A former catholic university educator stirred up a lot of controversy after he nearly stripped naked at a street party Sunday ahead of carnival season in the Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The lecturer, whose name has not been released, was wearing a fake crown of thorns around his head to mimic Jesus on the cross while he stood on a tree.
The professor danced as he began to remove his shirt and leaned forward to shout at the crowd, who approved loudly as they waved flags.
He later tossed his shirt to the ground and removed his belt and yanked his pant off and threw it into the pack of revelers as the sang, ‘Let’s take Jesus down, let’s take him down, let’s take down from the cross.’
The professor’s obliged to the crowd’s request and stepped down from the tree and went crowd surfing.
His actions clearly ruffled the feathers of residents, who condemned the behavior and called for his dismissal from Unisinos, a private Jesuit university with campuses in Porto Alegre and Leopoldo.
‘Fire him now,’ one person wrote on the school’s social media network.
‘We demand a retraction from the teacher at this institute who disrespected Christianity,’ another said.
One person claimed that their nephew would be withdrawing from the university.
‘Absurd (behavior towards Jesus Christ,’ they claimed. ‘My nephew will leave college because our family does not condone disrespectful attitudes.’
Another person felt the professor’s actions were worthy of cancelling the Porto Alegre’s carnival on February 7.
‘Carnival has to be cancelled, as far as I’m concerned it wouldn’t even happen!’ they said.
Unisinos, which has been operating for over 50 years, said in a statement Monday that the professor had resigned from the university over a year ago.
‘As a Jesuit, Unisinos has as one of its purposes social assistance to the dissemination of the Christian faith and ethics advocated by the guidelines of the Society of Jesus,’ the school said.
‘The University is against any form of exposure that constitutes religious intolerance and reaffirms its dedication to the principles that guide its mission: faith, justice and service to society.’