What a lovely photo of a Filipino pop band:

They were featured on 5 March in a story on Pinoy Metodista, discussing a charity concert they gave last November. What’s interesting is that the lead singer is Sarah Balabagan, who, as a “14 year old woman”…

“…killed her employer in the Middle East in the mid 90s… She was sentenced to be beheaded but was spared through the intervention of the government. To be pardoned she need only pay blood money and receive 100 lashes. The blood money was paid through the help of government and private citizens. She endured the hundred lashes and was freed. She returned to the country with enough money and fame. Her life story was even made into a movie that starred Vina Morales as Sarah Balabagan…

When she returned home from her ordeal, she became a Christian. This became the turning point in her life above and beyond her ordeal in the Middle East. When she became a Christian she learned to forgive the two persons whom she said she so hated before: Her employer, and the person who lashed her 100 times…

Sarah is a picture of fulfilled womanhood. She has children. She is a face of calm and beauty. It’s a countenance one only gets from being with the Father. Her concert is filled with original songs and a real life story.

The 100 lashes she received left a deep emotional scar marked with hatred and strong resentment. But she sees her lashes as nothing compared to the lashes and beatings that Jesus took to bear the sins of the world. The brutality of the lashes she suffered remind her of our Savior’s love. While it took blood money and 100 lashes to free her from death by beheading, it took the Savior’s blood and more than 100 lashes to free her for a life of purpose.”

According to her entry on Wikipedia:

On October 30, at her third trial, her sentence was reduced to a year’s imprisonment and 100 strokes of the cane, along with payment of blood money, which was donated by a Filipino businessman. She was caned in 20 strokes at a time, over five days during January 30 – February 5 in 1996. Philippine Ambassador Roy Seneres said “Balabagan said it was bearable. Embassy officials visited her twice afterward, and there were no marks or bruises or reddening.” She returned to the Philippines on August 1, 1996 to a heroine’s welcome.

(From this free gallery)

(From this free spanking gallery)

269,000 people are currently fans of a Facebook discussion entitled: “My parents didn’t put me in time-out, they whooped my ass!”. Here are a selection of comments posted in the past week alone:

Keisha: I know I’m not the only one who caught it right after a shower when your skin is still wet! whatever you did to deserve that, you NEVER did again!

Janice: My parents required respect, and obedience to the rules, and if we pushed them far enough, they whooped our ass. Thanks….I am a better person for it !!

Linda: We didn’t get our butts whooped very often, because we knew that we would get whooped! We Loved, respected, and yes..a little fear of our parents!

Maura: If me or my sister had acted up in the car, when we got home, my mother would wait in the doorway to spank us. So we couldn’t go inside without getting whooped.

Becky: my mom was tricky. she would give us the option. spankin or being grounded so i would take the spanking so I could get it over with. my sister would take being grounded.

Sandy: you know it i knew what was right and what was wrong and when i was wrong my butt throbbed for at least 2 hours

Alice: i also took the labels off all of our canned goods never knew what we were having, another spanking

Marie: My grandma used to call the switch marks stripes. She said the more stripes you get the smarter you get. You move up like a officer in the military!!!

Sheri: i remember wearing long socks in the summer time…all your friends knew you had gotten your !!@ kicked

Alice J: i ditched school once and when i got home my mom said i want to talk to you. so of course i told her that i ditched, she said well i was going to ask what you wanted for dinner. boy did i get whooped

Rayetta: OMG…I’ll never forget the switch. Especially the ones we cut ourselves and took to mom.

Jana: My mom would use the “Hot wheels” tracks to whoop our butts! They were just like using a belt. She also used the wooden spoons, but she would get madder when I laughed at her for breaking them on me…then it was “wait til your father comes home”. Then it was worse….

Dreama: I used to have to pick my own “switches”…. OUCH!!!

Iesha: When I was growing up it wasn’t just my parents who whipped my ass!!! If I was doing wrong it was the adult closest to me that did it.

Monica: Oh yeah my all time favorite was this leather chankleta (flip flop) my mom had. She called it Eddie…short for education. Don’t let me had gotten bad grades… I would get the woopin of my life with Eddie.

Bree: wooden spoon. it broke in half on my ass once.

Vicki: How about a willow tree switch those things sting.The outdoor summertime switch.

Meme: My Dad had a paddle it was called the Golden Rule looked just like a cricket bat but I only got spanked with it once never again…

Vicki H: anyone ever get a hot wheel race track spanking well just two or three swats and believe me you sure didn’t do what you did again that was for sure lol. It did raise some welts but we learned our lesson real fast.

Tammy: Made many a walk to the “hiccory tree” and did lots of “hiccory dances” with my mama. If the first one wasn’t big enough, she made us go back for two. Carried my fare share of switch marks but it taught me….guess I earned them all, LOL!

Margaret: my mom broke a bamboo stick on my ass lol

Marsha: My Mother would tell me to go outside and get a switch off that “piss ellum” tree. I got the thin one and it hurt worse than the thick one. Now I don’t even know what a “piss ellum” tree looks like and don’t want to know.

Here’s the next in my series of Polish girls being whipped on their 18th birthday: