Time out for messages and lessons

Everything happens for a reason. There is providence, not coincidence, when events occur in our personal lives or in our society.   The weekend protest of a religious group had valuable messages and lessons for us all. Let us take time out to reflect on these together.

One, religion is a real force in our country. Or we allow religion, especially our politicos, to interfere with affairs of the state.

Let us separate faith from the human organization and structure composed of leaders and followers. Faith is best left between God and the believer.

Let us instead focus on the secular aspect of religion demonstrated by the latest rally. Followers can be mobilized to protect the secular institution or to protect the leaders involved in the controversial case filed with DOJ or these two goals may be merged and other reasons added for the protest. Later developments will unfold the real and more complete objectives of the protest.

Meanwhile, it was not lost on all of us that displaying the numbers of protesting adherents was one strong, intended message of the weekend incident, especially for the politicos in this country. The message was very loud and clear- in number, there is strength; remember our bloc votes come election time.

Lesson 2. Traditional politicos  lean on religious organizations for votes, in essence, allowing the secular organization to influence the state, in exchange for votes, power, and, position.

We witnessed how various presidentiables responded to this clear message. Trapos immediately called for separation of church and state and respect for the rights of the protesters. Grace Poe surprised many with her decision and statement supporting the religious group. She, however, may have been more surprised to know how many supporters (who saw her as a traPOE)  left her side when she did this.

Lesson 3. Although a political given and reality until now, the question asked of the rest of the Filipinos now is will we allow this political practice to continue? Will we allow politicos who are indebted and beholden to bloc votes of religious groups to lead our country?

Lesson 4. What was the rally about? Many of us saw how the assistance of DOJ was sought by certain personalities of this religious group. How can responding to the victims' request for investigation and protection as Filipinos in need be religious persecution and interference?

Lesson 5. So much more information and data have to be unraveled to fully understand why there were those from this particular religious organization who sought the help of DOJ and why the leaders of this organization mobilized their followers to rally and protest vs what they labeled as religious interference.

As individuals, leaders, and followers of this religious group went public with their charges and allegations, the rest of the Filipinos deserve truth and justice be publicly revealed and rendered.

Lesson 6. We are all Filipinos but we are so divided in terms of religion, class, and other social dimensions. We claim to be a people with strong faith but that faith is not yet translated into a united, equal society for all. What can we do to construct a truly united, egalitarian society for all? Perhaps we can start being vigilant and rally everyone to exercise their right to vote genuine leaders who will serve our people, not power blocs, not their personal or family interests.

Lesson 7. We can all start to pray together daily, as a nation. We can all unite together to ask God to grant us true servant-leaders, those who will bring our people to a united society where basic needs are met, where everyone will experience equality, power and justice.

Lesson 8. We can additionally pray for our people to be informed voters, for God to allow our people to clearly discern and vote for genuine candidates who will sincerely and honestly serve our people and our country.

Let us take time out to reflect on so many more messages and lessons from recent events and appropriately do our share personally and as a nation. We can start by praying for and then later, voting for genuine candidates who put God and all Filipino people at the center of their public service.