Religion in the Philippines

The Catholic and Iglesia Ni Cristo are the dominant evils in the Philippines. There is also, however, El Shaddai, Jesus is Lord Movement, Dating Daan, Opus Dei, Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Unitarian, Baptist, United Church of God, istian Churches of God, Christ’s Commission Fellowship, Born-Again, Metropolitan Community Church, Most Holy churches of God, New Apostolic, Aglipay religion – all Christians; not to mention the non-Christian religion in the minority – Muslim, Buddhists, Hinduists, Animists, Taoist, and the Nichiren Daishonin teachings, etc. It is truly tragic that religion has been based not upon human intelligence, but based on fear of a divine malevolence. Otherwise, if religion were always creative, constructive, and the spread of benevolence, the Philippines, once known as the "Pearl of the Orient" before Christianity arrived to conquer and to dominate her, need not be famous today as the "Payatas of the Orient." Thanks, however, to our system of education, religion, or better said – superstition - holds a central place in the hearts and minds of the majority of Filipinos. It is, in this way, that we can even take pride of the fact that our non-Christian Asian neighbors are able to hire our blessed by God college educated men and women to be employed as their blessed by God “servants.” Meanwhile, back home, have we ever heard of a Filipino who got to be filthy rich for believing that God is BAD. And yet, millions upon millions of Filipinos are poor despite the fact that they all have been educated to believe that God is GOOD. In this already 21st century, for the glory of divinity, we continue to believe that "freedom of religion" is good. On the contrary, as a matter of historical fact, what shows to be much more sane is the "freedom from religion." Matured and progressive other Asian nations are irreligious, not religious. Scientific, not ecclesiastic. Atheistic, not theistic. It is, indeed, incredible to realize that our Asian neighbors do not have faith in Jesus who preached that we must take no thought for tomorrow because there is a better world to come after death. What we Filipinos always see and feel around us is that God is deeply involved in our birth, education, marriage, population growth, politics, culture, history, and death; not to mention also involved with our government officials, military leaders, businessmen, traders, and farmers. Sadly, however, this God is not a Filipino God, but a Jewish God. It is truly amazing how we Filipinos continue to tolerate the poverty of ideas that compel us to submit, in this modern day and age, to the uselessness of prayer rally and to the recklessness of ancient, if not obsolete, - theology. Thus, what we continue to cherish in our poor and backward country is not human evolution under a growing civilization, but to wait only for the miracles from God as promised by divine revelation. Nothing is precious in the life of a Filipino except the very best that his talents and abilities can achieve for his family, his country, and for fellow-citizens. Especially in the here and now. After all, there is no such thing as the "hereafter" since, for any of us, there never was any such thing as the "herebefore." In the meantime, by and large, our schools, colleges, and universities continue to teach how to ignore nation-wide mutual destruction. We have yet, however, to learn how to attend to the more desirable scientific technique of nation-wide cooperation and general affection for the sake of national restoration via transformation. I ask: where is science, the beauty of the scientific way of thinking, and the efficiency of technology to generate our spiritual growth as a people so that as Filipinos, we can generate our material development as a nation? It is time for our system of education to change radically. Precisely to produce more brave leaders and courageous thinkers. No longer to produce believers and followers having more fun in the temptation for holy corruption. Otherwise, in the centuries to come, we Filipinos will just continue to be blessed by God as a poo people and a blessed by God as a backward nation. Poch Suzara