Following his still-controversial “stupid God” remarks, the President appeared to backtrack a bit when he clarified that what he meant to say was, “your God is a stupid God, but my God has a lot of common sense…and is perfect.”
It’s a variant on the most common complaint against God: “If You’re so good, why is there so much suffering in the world?” It’s a lamentation that echoes down through the ages and, we dare say, has been asked at least once by virtually everyone who’s walked this earth.
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The most common answer is that because we were gifted with free will, God has to allow things to happen to us, both good and bad. As Job’s trials were beginning, and when his wife urged him to “curse God and die,” he answered quite simply, “We accept good things from God, should we not [also] accept evil?” [Job 2: 9-10]
As for looking for a perfect world, it simply isn’t possible that what is created can be equal to Who has created. A colorful rephrasing of this would say that if God were to love only what is perfect, like Him, that would be nothing but narcissism.
But all this theological hair-splitting really isn’t part of Duterte’s job description anyway. His redoubtable daughter Mayor Inday Sara reminded his critics not to listen to him when he interprets the Bible or the Qur’an. “He is not a priest, pastor, or imam. He is the President. Listen to him only when he speaks about his work,” was her very practical advice.
Duterte has already formed a four-man team comprising Secretaries Harry Roque and Leoncio Evasco, DFA Undersecretary Ernesto Abella, and NGO gadfly Boy Saycon to meet with the bishops this Saturday. And for the first time ever, the top brass at the Philippine National Police has sat down with the bishops to talk about the anti-drug war and the recent spate of priest killings.
Is this an example of bad things leading to good things? It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened on God’s good earth.
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Also in the wake of the President’s remarks, we’ve seen what I think is a winnowing of the chaff from the wheat within the Church, perhaps an intended consequence of the sinner in Malacañang—as such, no different from the rest of us—playing his part in the Divine design.
Cardinal Chito Tagle advised his Manila flock to pray for the President. Even Lingayen Archbishop Soc Villegas, one of his loudest critics, conceded that Duterte supporters should go ahead and “love the President,” but “remember to stay in the faith.” I’d like to think this wasn’t just a concession to Duterte’s popularity, but also a recognition that both sentiments aren’t irreconcilable.
There’s been a lot of soul-searching that’s taken place among all believers, not just Catholics, about their respective faiths. What was just taken for granted no longer is. Is Duterte supposed to be the president of a Christian nation, or of a nation of (mostly) Christians? Evidently his daughter takes the latter tack.
On the other side, where I’ve been reading online the most ferocious attacks against the President are coming from laity who’re proud to be more popish than the Pope. Many of them object to the very idea itself of a dialogue between government and the Church, and aren’t above criticizing the bishops for agreeing to one.
These zealots would be right at home with the crowds two thousand years ago—including some Disciples—who excoriated Jesus for dining with tax collectors, prostitutes and other sinners, stopping the stoning of the adulterous woman; even recruiting a notorious tax collector like Matthew into the ranks of the Twelve.
These folks are just plain wrong about their religion, not just their politics.
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As Filipinos dig deep into the roots of their spirituality, the first-quarter opinion poll by SWS finds that 61 percent of respondents disagreed that there should be a law allowing civil union of same-sex couples. Of this number, nearly half (44 percent) “strongly” disagreed, while the other 17 percent “somewhat” disagreed.
On the other side, 8 percent “strongly” agreed with such a law, while 14 percent “somewhat” agreed. This produced a “very weak” net agreement score of only—40. This can only be good news for those among us who’re concerned that the compassion we’re taught by the Church to show those who’re “different,” can be hijacked into pushing laws that are offensive to that same Church.
We wish that the same kind of compassion would also be shown to prisoners and detainees, visiting whom is held to be among the “corporal works of mercy” that merit special graces from heaven.
For the first half of 2018, a total of 20 inmates have died inside the jails of the PNP in Manila, most of them inside Station 3 in Quiapo. In that station, which only has a capacity of 60, over 170 inmates are presently being held. Because of the congestion, older inmates who are ill and weak are simply left handcuffed outside the cells.
These inmate deaths have been attributed to difficulty in breathing, as well as infection. The Novaliches station jail, where the first fatality, Genesis Argoncillo, died, reportedly has a congestion factor of 23 times. This is unconscionable, considering that jail detainees are technically still innocent until their court trials prove them otherwise.
It’s helped that only 240 individuals remain in custody out of some 18,000 who were arrested last month in PNP’s “anti-tambay” campaign in Metro Manila. But that only tells us the congestion problem could have been a lot worse, not that it’s any closer to what plain human decency would require.
Here’s one out-of-the-box suggestion forwarded to us: Convert all those vacant housing units originally built by NHA for our policemen and soldiers—and now being taken over one by one by Kadamay—into makeshift jails.
They’re all located in the periphery of the capital region, far away from dense populations. And hardening them into jail facilities shouldn’t take much more than putting up barbed wire fences and guard outposts. Let’s see the Kadamay rabble-rousers try to occupy one of those.
Readers can write me at gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.
