Inseparable

Now even a visiting American evangelist is weighing in on the debate over Church intervention in Philippine politics.

Franklin Graham said yesterday that religious ministers should not poke their noses into political matters. He should have also emphasized economic matters such as mining, over which spiritual shepherds have no expertise. But his admonition would have fallen on deaf ears, anyway. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is not influenced either by America or Americans. The CBCP receives guidance only from Rome, and it isn’t even consistent in toeing the Vatican line.

Graham should not be surprised if his evangelical gathering in Rizal Park will be greeted with a rally by anti-government protesters shouting, "Yankee go home."

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You can’t blame the bishops for flirting with politics and even economics. The bishops are aware of the influence they wield in this country, and they are making full use of it. You have to give them credit for at least trying to use their clout as a force for good, which is the only justification for wielding power.

Like the military, the Church has tasted political power, and it is hard to relinquish that type of influence in national affairs and concentrate on spiritual salvation.

Filipinos nurtured that power of the Church. The provision on the separation of church and state should be struck out of the Constitution. At worst is it a joke; at best it is a best-efforts pledge. Our culture at this point is incapable of separating matters of church and state. Policy-makers claim a direct line to God, and invoke religion in arguing the rightness of causes or defending their decisions.

From kanto boys to the president of the Philippines, everyone in this country has an opinion on everything. It’s a free country; each one is entitled to his own opinion, no matter how uninformed.

Every day our office receives a huge pile of commentaries and press statements on a broad range of subjects from various offices, groups and individuals. What should prevent the bishops from giving their own opinions on anything that has a moral dimension to it?

The difference is that the bishops’ opinions are sought and even eagerly awaited — by the press, which gives every CBCP statement wide play-up, by politicians who know they will get publicity by reacting to the bishops’ statements, and by policy-makers who make it clear that their decision-making is influenced by the Church.

Such reactions are generated without the bishops pointing a gun to anyone’s head, without giving out payola to anyone, without treating anyone to lunch. Those pastoral statements are meant mainly to be read in churches. But if journalists, politicians and Malacañang are in a mad scramble to get hold of the statements, of course the bishops will oblige.

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It is not just the Roman Catholic Church that wields political power in this country. Even without issuing pastoral statements, the Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai influence national affairs.

The two groups flexed their muscles during EDSA III, showing that people power is not a monopoly of civil society and its occasional allies from the left.

As people power originals scoffed, however, it takes more than warm bodies to launch a successful popular revolt. Many participants at EDSA I and II still refuse to call that massive gathering from late April until May 1, 2001 EDSA III.

But politicians have not forgotten the size of that crowd, and they know the INC and El Shaddai provided the bulk of the warm bodies. The crowd may not topple a president in a revolt, but that kind of gathering, if staged regularly, can cripple governance.

Simply by shutting up and keeping their members away from street protests, the INC and El Shaddai can lend tacit support to an administration.

That type of crowd can also provide crucial swing votes during elections.

There is no Catholic vote in this predominantly Catholic country, but there is clearly an INC vote, and now even Mike Velarde is improving his batting average in delivering an El Shaddai vote. That should win his group more highly concessional loans from the government, no matter who is ensconced in Malacañang.

And while there is no Catholic vote, those bishops might still be able to summon people power.

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The power wielded by the Church in this country is but another symptom of the weakness of our democracy.

When I gripe about our dysfunctional democracy, people from free societies remind me of Winston Churchill’s statement that democracy is the worst form of government after all the other forms that have been tried from time to time. I am reminded that democracy is a work in progress, that even after 200 years, Americans still have complaints about their system of government and democratic institutions including their electoral system.

Our hybrid democracy incorporates a hybrid form of Catholic worship, with animism as well as Buddhist and Confucian beliefs – mostly for attracting luck and driving away evil spirits – thrown in.

At least once a year some of us put on a big show of religious piety, with certain individuals even getting themselves nailed to a cross to atone for their sins. The rest of the year is reserved for sinning – cheating on spouses, ignoring bishops’ admonitions against dabbling in jueteng and using artificial contraception, ignoring even admonitions against cheating, lying and stealing.

It is a common observation that the bastion of the Roman Catholic faith in Asia is also one of the world’s most corrupt countries. There are those who see this as a symptom of failure in spiritual guidance in a country where religion plays a major role in national affairs.

But while the degree of moral suasion wielded by the Catholic Church over its Philippine flock is uncertain, it can definitely shake up the corridors of power.

This is not so much due to a fear of God or the prospect of eternal damnation on the part of national leaders, but the fear of losing political power. Whether there is basis for that fear, national leaders do not dare find out.

In this country, everything boils down to politics. Even avowed religious devotion. We have nurtured a culture where church and state are inseparable. We created this powerful Church. We must live with its consequences.