Search for the Christian candidate
I have been following the commentaries of opinion writers in local and national media on the qualifications of the four presidential candidates. They have closely viewed each of these would-be presidents and painted a profile of their salient characteristics as well as their academic achievements, track records, political affiliation, and other aspects of personality.
But I have yet to find an observation on the spiritual make-up of each of these future leaders of the country. Why is this so? Is good leadership just a matter of intellectual superiority, scholastic achievement, lineage, common touch, or any such secularistic appraisals? Perhaps in a godless society pragmatic measures of leadership may prevail. But in a God fearing country such as the Philippines the spiritual quality of a leader cannot be just taken for granted. We have to ask ourselves; Who is the candidate with a strong faith in God?
Search for this candidate is urgent because the country is fast going down into a godless society where dissension prevails and criminality thrives, where self-interest and greed dominate in public and private offices and where the rich have become richer and the poor poorer.
What's happening to our almost 400 years of Christian upbringing? Sadly, this has been eroded by the impact of western pragmatism disguised as democracy.
Is it any wonder that government has lost its touch with the supernatural and the divine? Destroying the unborn mocks our Christian heritage but this is exactly what the current government is doing with its Reproductive Health advocacy. Divorce is a no-no to a God conscious people but there are lawmakers who are planning to legalize this. And the same thing is true with same-sex marriage. Corruption of course is a satanic practice but those who lead and those who follow seem insensitive to it.
Now we are confronted with the task of choosing our next leader for the country. Who among them is spiritually inspired? One belongs to a family of hacienderos and has good bureaucratic records, another is a new face in the leadership race, still lily-white in integrity but with doubtful birthright, another is a veteran government man with a penchant to rub elbows with the masa but whose hands are said to be soiled with ill-gotten possessions, still another is the prima-donna of legislative domain, very sharp minded but very sharp-tongued too.
Now who among these four has the soul of an authentic Christian? An authentic Christian is one who loves God with all his mind, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to paraphrase our Lord Jesus Christ. And he must love his fellowmen too, for how can he love God whom he cannot see and not love his fellow human beings whom he can see?
If only we can peek into the heart and soul of these candidates we will know who the true Christian is. This is important because other things being equal the one with a strong streak of Christian impulse would likely be a better leader than the other aspirants. Such leader would have a heart that would easily bleed for the poor and the poor would therefore occupy a large space in his policy corridor.
This Christian candidate would not only be honest, he or she would be honest beyond suspicion (like Ceasar's wife). As such he would be in a position to model out for his or her co-workers in government a self-sacrificing sense of public service, untainted by corruption or greed. Moreover, he or she would create a climate of total renewal among the general populace insofar as personal integrity and faith in God are concerned. This is certainly a tall order but with God's help nothing is impossible.
Without me, you can do nothing, says Jesus Christ. And the leader of this nation we will choose in 2016 can do something, something far reaching, only if he or she works hand in hand with God.
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