IF CHRISTIANITY were an effective catalyst for change, the Philippines would be full of Christ-like individuals. Government officials would be walking their “pro-people” talk. Church leaders and followers would ostracize, not lionize, oppressive politicians. Graft and corruption would vanish. With few criminals, we would take pride in being the only Christian nation in Asia.
But we know Christianity itself suffers from disunity among thousands of sects and sub-sects claiming to be the true messenger of God. Religious leaders preach conflicting beliefs in the hope of winning adherents. In the final analysis, they only agree in one thing – receiving tithes and donations from organizations and individuals.
“Purihin ang Diyos,” intones one preacher who hauls sacks of money from the audience of his weekly prayer rallies in Parañaque City.
Probably the richest of them all is Apollo Quiboloy who claims to be the “appointed son of God.”
We know of one religious senator who claims to be pro-life, to this day condemning the Reproductive Health (RH) Law that promotes family planning. At the same time, however, he advocates the revival of the death penalty, which the Church is clearly against.
Incidentally, the senator had been exposed as “protector” of a drug lord during the time of President Fidel Ramos.
By and large, most Filipinos are Roman Catholics not by choice but by the circumstance of having been born to Catholic parents. If along the way some of them change course – like Manny Pacquiao – it’s because they have been “converted” by an influential guru.
There are Christian denominations that ban members from marrying “outsiders” – obviously for no reason than to preserve the faith for the next generation.
But being born to parents of different faiths has the advantage of provoking inquisitiveness, forcing children to think for themselves. Allow me to be an example. Born to a Seventh-Day Adventist father and an Aglipayan mother, I had the pleasure of listening to them “debate,” turning me into an eclectic.
Today I embrace no religion. What’s our God-given brain for if we don’t think for ourselves?
That we are a Roman Catholic country is obviously due to Spain’s influence, starting from the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan on March 16, 1521.
It’s unfortunate that while it has already been more than a century since we gained our independence from the Spanish regime, we are still under the spell of religious leaders who threaten us with fire and brimstone if we don’t toe their line.
Readers will remember a past column where I delved on the most infamous theocratic decision – the conviction and life imprisonment under house arrest of famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei for heresy in 1633. He had taught that the Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
The official Church position at that time was that the sun revolves around the earth – an idea borrowed from Greek philosopher Aristotle.
It was not until 346 years later in 1979 that Pope John Paul II declared that the Roman Catholic Church “may have been mistaken in condemning Galileo.”
In 1993, the Catholic Church officially “pardoned” Galileo. Ouch! Shouldn’t the Church have apologized instead?
The Church’s pro-life advocacy has no historical ground. On the contrary, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine (306-337 AD), persons who opposed church teachings were tortured and eventually murdered for heresy.
On March 25, 1199, Pope Innocent III declared that “anyone who attempted to construe a personal view of god which conflicted with the church dogma must be burned without pity.”
The reign of Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) saw the beginning of the Inquisition, a campaign of torture, mutilation, mass murder and destruction of human life. That part of church history is familiar to priests and seminarians. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
