All the uproar and craziness is surreal. Students stood before the BBB (blasphemous book bonfire) and shook their heads, wishing they could save the pages to see what the big deal is about. They didn’t have enough money to buy the book, and there in front of them was a huge pile already turning into ash. How can we hope to have a country of free thinkers when we are so stuck in dogma? If we did our jobs as parents, our children could hold their own against anything and see for themselves what is true, what isn’t, and be able to think, feel and act clearly no matter what. Keeping Dan Brown away does not honor the Christ, but it does lend Christianity a sheen of hysteria it doesn’t need. How can one book and one movie possibly damage the name of Jesus? Can the infinite power of the Christ be sullied? All this talk of blasphemy is so B.C. I can barely comprehend it. Jesus Christ would have probably looked at the book-burners and given them a parable to work with that would have had them marching back to their houses, books in tow. I don’t think he would have stood for the ruckus.
What makes all this hullabaloo all the more disturbing is it talks of maligning Jesus and Christianity, yet when the Garci tapes came out, the uproar was nothing like this. There wasn’t the same kind of widespread anger against truth and corruption. When truth is killed and corruption allowed to rule, that is more blasphemous than allowing a silly movie to show. The Christ taught us about the value of truth – the grace of seeing things clearly and living on that path of clarity always. Just what part of Christianity are we protecting here when we can’t even see how all this is related? You would march on the streets to protest a book and a movie and not a leadership that epitomizes evil – the very opposite of everything Christianity is about? As far as I’m concerned, any person or institution that survives on lies and corruption is blasphemous – not in a book or movie – but in real life. This kind of real life, real time blasphemy has been affecting millions of Filipino lives for decades. Where are the bonfires?
What all this seems to say is that our faith has remained largely in our intellect and in our emotions, but hasn’t penetrated deeply enough into our ego (the good one, not the tiny one that thinks the world of itself). That we can call The Da Vinci Code blasphemous and simply say of GMA and her cohorts, "There’s no alternative"? Well, now that’s faintly anti-Christ. Even then, it’s an improvement over saying nothing at all. Apathy – now that’s blasphemy of the first water, worth burning more than books for. Let’s dust off those stakes, people! Let’s have a serious purification here!
A woman sent me a copy of a letter she wrote Ricky Lo over his Da Vinci Code article. I don’t know why, but she did. She was writing about Jesus and Christianity, but her language was harsh and unkind. She was so angry, negative, defensive, and just plain rude. It was the kind of letter that shows you the difference between spirituality and religion. Yay to the former, tsk tsk to the latter, especially the way it is manifesting in our country today.
I received a similar letter months ago when I wrote about how our children learn about morality through the choices we make, the kind of marriages we keep – the way we live our lives. This woman spoke about Jesus, her Lord, and how she teaches her children goodness by having them build Gawad Kalinga homes, but the whole tone and content of her letter was quite un-Christian. She was speaking ill of people she didn’t even know. She was talking about the personal lives of others and accused me of something completely false that she had only heard about. And I had no idea who she was. So, yes to the Gawad Kalinga experience, but if this woman looks upon others with so much hatred, how far does that go towards teaching her children about good? Again, there was the disparity between the message and the messenger.
There is a great divide between an intellectual religion and one that is so alive and strong in one’s heart that it radiates into all areas of life. This is the kind of religion and spirituality that makes you whole, not fragmented. It stays unfazed and confident before Dan Brown. It penetrates so completely that our lives become a reflection of our beliefs. The kind that burns books and bans movies reeks of fear and paranoia. It stays in our heads and in our emotions, but doesn’t go deeply enough into our lives. The stamp of one’s faith is in the living. You can feel like it’s your duty to protect the name of Jesus Christ (though something tells me it doesn’t need protecting), but if you can’t stand against the evil that is right under your nose then you have gone against everything he died for.
We are all striving human beings and our lives are dotted with mistakes. Of course, that’s the best way to learn. It is through darkness that one learns to appreciate the light. But the point we can’t miss is that we are all here to learn to love – which means to expand and include; not exclude. Yes, it is our task to rail against evil but obviously we need to be able to identify what evil truly is. It’s not a book or a movie that offers a different take on the life of Jesus. Evil is using taxpayer’s money to buy you a mansion in Palo Alto, California. It’s lying to the people so you can stay in power, manipulating them so you can stay there forever. Evil is what’s killing journalists and activists all over the country. It is warrantless arrests and abductions. Evil is keeping silent about all of it. It is not a story that’s been turned into a movie. It is right here at home. The evil we need to burn is already too close for comfort. If we can’t light a candle to fight that, we have no business torching somebody else’s work of fiction.