EDITORIAL — The risks of religion getting involved in politics

Following a recent protest along EDSA and later at the Liwasang Bonifacio, the Iglesia Ni Cristo proved that they can still muster some numbers if needed to make a statement.

However, they go away from those activities not really the victors because their reputation is in tatters right now. And this is because they decided to support a politician charged with plunder. And while it’s true that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty, in a nation where the gap between the poor and the rich is in the billions upon billions of pesos, even a hint of corruption from someone in power leaves many with a real bad taste in the mouth.

Such is the risk of a religious group supporting a politician. If that politician’s reputation gets smudged, so does the reputation of that religious group. Of course, this goes without saying that the religious group has to do everything it can to clear the name of that politician, as well as their own.

Make no mistake about this, it’s the right of any group, whether religious, political, academic, or whatever sector, to support whomever they want to during elections. However, matters of the Church and State are supposed to be separate for a good reason.

When some politicians ally themselves or court favor with religious groups, it’s usually not because they believe in their principles, it’s because they expect to receive as well as to do favors, a tit for a tat. But politics seldom leaves one’s hands clean, does it?

This is where conflict arises.

Religion and religious groups are supposed to take care of spiritual matters, and stay as much as possible away from political issues. Otherwise they would be misconstrued as having interest in how the political leadership is shaped.

Yes, there are occasions when religious leaders and groups should call for the people to act on a political issue, but they shouldn’t really meddle in affairs that actively shape, reshape, or influence the political landscape.

And this is because in the whole, such affairs are seldom honest or clean, and will always involve dealings that many may consider unsavory or already beyond the pale of religious concerns.