People and their religion

BACKBENCHER
Rod Kapunan
1/14-15/2012



When the disciples of theocracy incorporated provisions in the Constitution giving preference to religious organizations, little did they realize it could lead to the proliferation of cultism. However, my contention is not about the tax privileges they enjoy, but the consequence in the proliferation of dubious sects and cults headed by yokels and downright ignoramuses preaching their stupid version of the bible to generate more tithe from their enthralled and often blind followers than to educate them.

These yokels even publicly proclaim themselves as the modern-day messiah and do their senseless monologue to harangue converts as “sinners”, telling them their only way to salvation is to be baptized without elaborating that their being one with them would mean additional income. Unfortunately, the wretched followers are in a more pathetic situation for they suffer both from ignorance and from poverty.

A poor soul who has nowhere else to go can only cling to the transcendental promise of nothing. If a hypochondriac feels he has an illness, faith in his religion is his only affordable elixir. If one could no longer bear his miseries, he has to condition his mind to accepting death gracefully. After all, God has a special place for the poor in His kingdom. I say this because religion is the only single endeavor of man that routinely promotes intellectual regression, and is true to the saying that he who allows himself to be converted by a yokel is twice ignorant than the preacher. For this why I am reminded by that well-written observation made by British essayist, Christopher Hitchens, “god is not Great: How Religion Poisons everything.”

For all our claims of having the most advance legal minds in Asia, we only managed to come out with a yokel interpretation of religious freedom. No one from among our supposedly brilliant luminaries has raised the point that freedom of religion has reference to human beings. It can never be extended to any ecclesiastical organization or for a demagogue to exercise his ascendancy over his followers, much that only a rational mind can feel and appreciate the meaning of freedom. We cannot even think of a Church without a single follower, for not even God would know it was organized in His honor. It is the followers that determine its existence, and the exercise of its existence can only come from the believers.

It is this hillbilly interpretation of freedom of religion that allowed charlatans to exploit it to their own selfish advantage. Such a bastardized interpretation now explains why churches and temples have become the safe haven for scoundrels styling themselves as the “man of God.” Like their vice of extolling to their members with the ominous threat of excommunication to vote for the “candidates of the Church”, they readily invoke the freedom of religion. The entranced members diligently obey all for that cheap alibi that it is part of their so-called “religious discipline”, and not a blatant transgression of their political right that God himself would not even dare violate.

But for all their heathen interpretation of what constitutes religious freedom, they forgot that the Church can never have a candidate. Rather, it is the religious leaders directly benefiting from their ignorance who are assiduous in wanting them to win, equating their victory with odious vulgarity as the will of God but without telling them about the higher premium for patronage that mired this country deeper into corruption. Come election time, corrupt political leaders pay homage to religious leaders, and religious leaders, in turn, act not as holy men but as kingpins gambling on the fate of our desperate people. Second, it did not even seeped into their mind they are the ones violating the secular and sacred right of man to freely choose his candidate. Again, this issue has never been argued because religious organizations have become strong to a point that our corrupted politicians have been blackmailed to acceding to their unwarranted caprices.

Our fearful reverence to these yokels hiding behind the cloak of religious freedom is in fact destroying the sinews of our democratic tradition with some even pretending as the plenipotentiary of God. Their encroachment into all facets in our society has become lewd. People who experienced less religious interference in their society think that we are silly because of our inordinate exhibition of faith. Imagine in every public office, where often bribery routinely occurs, one could readily see in one corner an altar with the image of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not far is the imposing frame of a notoriously corrupt public official. Some wonder if they were purposely placed almost side by side to convey a message that their boss is not only honest but have equally been blessed by God.

Those literate guardians of the faith should have known that altars should have their special place. Once people are accustomed to casually passing the place sanctified by some self-righteous hypocrites as holy could greatly diminish one’s respect for his religion without him being conscious of it. It is not only in government offices where we see make-shift altars, but in practically all business establishments owned by Catholics where images are venerated. This observation led some to ask how come no image of Christ is hung on walls inside nightclubs, beerhouses, pubs and karaoke bars?

Since our Neanderthal interpretation about the destiny of man with his creator, serving Him has become a lucrative profession, and they germinated as some kind of pandemic disease. It is for this why many are appalled seeing former murderers, rapists, convicts and swindlers turned preachers and openly exhibiting some kind of orgasmic forgiveness from their beguiled followers about their heinous past. Fanatics are stultified by that awkward exhibition of demagoguery when normal persons have more valid reasons to listen to one who lived a clean life all throughout. Some are even advocating to their members to indulge in some kind of exotic behavior, perverted practices, and quackery. Such is symptomatic of a morally degenerating society. I say this for while we cultivate into our consciousness the value of faith, we forgot to instill the value of self-discipline; that without discipline our faith would be nothing.

Finally, all religions are man’s elixir in life. If he is sick and desperate, he could only to renew his faith. In that, it is not faith he reaffirms, but would want God for create a miracle to heal whatever malady he suffers. If by chance he recovers, that then could groundswell to solidify the belief that indeed a miracle happened. If the awaited miracle failed to heal his sickness, his reaffirmation of faith nonetheless would serve to assure him of a blissful life after death. Such is the ultimate expression of man’s selfishness for even on the verge of death man would always want to be reassured. As in all beings, death is what we fear, and it is only faith that provides us the inexplicable medium to face to accept the unknown.

(rodkap@yahoo.com.ph)