Pageant judges have crowned a new winner of Zimbabwe\u2019s 4th annual \u201cMister Ugly\u201d contest, upsetting supporters of the crowd favorite and prompting rioting at the event.<\/p>\n
Judges on Saturday chose 42-year-old Mison Sere, citing his numerous missing front teeth and a wide range of grotesque facial expressions, over William Masvinu, who had held the title since 2012.<\/p>\n
Masvinu and his supporters mobbed the judges upon hearing their decision, claiming that Sere was \u201ctoo handsome\u201d to win and his ugliness wasn\u2019t natural since it was based on missing teeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am naturally ugly. He is not. He is ugly only when he opens his mouth,\u201d maintained Masvinu, gesturing at his rival.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we have to lose our teeth to win? This is cheating,\u201d shouted another contestant, Patrick Mupereki. While no one was injured, there was a great deal of pushing and shoving as the results were announced and insults were hurled at the judges.<\/p>\n
… They should just accept that I am uglier than them,\u201d [Sere] said. \u201cI hope to get a TV contract. I already moved around schools performing and showcasing my ugliness so this is a chance to make it on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaints of Masvinu and the other contestants may have a degree of validity. Organizers had previously announced that disabilities or enhancements would not be accepted in the competition which should focus on \u201cnatural ugliness.\u201d (AP)
\nThis year\u2019s competition drew a record 36 candidates. The contestants participated in three rounds of modeling, with individual and group struts down a nightclub catwalk.<\/p>\n
\u201cSere made tremendous effort to enhance his ugliness by pulling facial stunts,\u201d said judge Abigail Mataranyika. \u201cMasvinu thought he is so ugly that he didn\u2019t need to try hard. That cost him the crown.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine boasting about one\u2019s ugliness like this. Yet, isn\u2019t that exactly what we do when we take pride in a sexual conquest, a dishonest gain, or the like? We boast and brag about things that should cause us shame.<\/p>\n
We do all of this because, according to the Bible, we are ugly by nature. We are born in sin, coming forth from the womb with a sin nature. Sure, we lose a few teeth along the way, and our selfish contortions can add to how ugly we appear, but make no mistake about it, we are ugly from the start.
\n \u201cSurely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me\u201d (Psalm 51:5).<\/p>\n
Thank God, though, that He is the master of redemption, the great benefactor of grace, who can turn our sin to sanctification, our guilt to glory, and our \u201cugliness\u201d to beauty. He speaks of his beloved redeemed, \u201cYou are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you\u201d (Song of Solomon 4:7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pageant judges have crowned a new winner of Zimbabwe\u2019s 4th annual \u201cMister Ugly\u201d contest, upsetting supporters of the crowd favorite and prompting rioting at the event. Judges on Saturday chose 42-year-old Mison Sere, citing his numerous missing front teeth and a wide range of grotesque facial expressions, over William Masvinu, who had held the title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2374,2295,2426,856],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}