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[av_heading heading=’ JUST ANOTHER DAY ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR
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‘If I ever lose my faith in you’
You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy Church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse, but
If I ever lose my faith in you
There’d be nothing left for me to do
Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I’d lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me
I could be lost inside their lies without a trace
But every time I close my eyes I see your face
I never saw no miracle of science
That didn’t go from a blessing to a curse
I never saw no military solution
That didn’t always end up as something worse, but
Let me say this first
If I ever lose my faith in you
There’d be nothing left for me to do
— Songwriters: Gordon Sumner aka Sting
I USUALLY write about music, the arts or other topics besides politics and social issues on a Friday. But this one, although about music, seems fitting considering the scandal the Catholic Church in the Philippines is now facing.
I mentioned in my previous column that Sting had been put side by side on almost equal footing with the late John Lennon not in terms of songwriting or as an artist and musician but in their involvement in social and political issues.
I must say though that John Lennon had the edge in music as what he and the Beatles did revolutionized music and created a new genre which completely changed popular music. If there was no John Lennon and the Beatles there would be no Sting and the other artists who carried the torch of rock and roll.
Of course that is another story; for now we’re here to talk about a particular song composed and performed by Sting which is very relevant to the scandal affecting the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
As of today the Philippine Catholic Church, nuns and particularly priests are in their lowest, credibility-wise. They have lost the moral high ground, contradicted and shot themselves in the foot because of the despicable act of one Monsignor Arnel F. Lagarejos; he sexually abused a 13-year-old girl and that is statutory rape.
And the prevailing mood of the natives today could be summed up with this line from our featured song; “You could say I lost my belief in the holy Church.”
Who would have thought that this song, which first hit the airwaves some 24 years ago, would be very relevant today?
If I Ever Lose My Faith in You was the second single from Sting’s album Ten Summoner’s Tales and was released in 1993.
Here’s what Sting said about the song:
“The song is in two distinct parts. The first part is about the things I’ve lost faith in. It’s quite easy to be precise about the things I’ve lost faith in – politics, media, science, technology, the things that everybody has, and yet I along with most other people have a great deal of hope, and a feeling that things will and can get better. So what do we place our faith in? I can’t define that as easily as I can define what I don’t believe in anymore. So I haven’t defined it, I’ve just said if I ever lose my faith in you, and “You” could be my producer, it could be faith in God, it could be faith in myself, or it could be faith in romantic love. It could be all of those things, I don’t define it. I think it’s important not to define it because once you can define something it evaporates. I think it’s important in this day and age when we are dictated to by music television what a particular song is about, that the old ambiguity that songs had can be retained.”
Had this song come out in the 1960s at about the same time John Lennon said his famous or infamous (depending on which side you’re on) comment, “We’re more popular than Jesus Christ” then perhaps it would be equally controversial.
And this line best describes our current Congress: “You could say I’d lost my belief in our politicians, they all seemed like game show hosts to me.”
Indeed they are. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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