Finding God

“SOUL-LESS.”

That will become of the Philippines, with religious rites and images banned from public premises, including the offices of government. 

“Crazy.”

That is House Bill No. 6330 or the Freedom of Religion in Government Office filed by Kabataan party-list Representative Raymond Palatino.

So spake Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, vice president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“There’s separation of church and state but there’s no separation of God and man…(The bill) is crazy because if you separate the body from the soul, what do you create? A dead man. If you separate the soul of the nation from the nation, what do you have? A dead nation.”

So Villegas sermoned, stressing that losing our soul as a nation would be “the real downfall.”

Sharing Villegas’ pulpit, Pro-Life Philippines called Palatino’s bill unconstitutional and warned that it would “take God out of the government and in the public sphere.”

HB 6330 -- “An Act empowering heads of offices and departments to strictly implement the constitutional provisions on religious freedom in government offices” – prohibits the conduct of religious ceremonies such as prayers, Masses and other liturgical celebrations as well as the display of religious symbols and images within the premises and perimeter of offices, departments and bureaus, including publicly-owned spaces and corridors within such places.

“There should be no religious icons, symbols and ceremonies in government offices. We recognize that we have more than one religion in the Philippines. Those Filipinos who go to government offices are not there to affirm their spiritual beliefs but to transact with government,” so said Palatino, himself a Catholic, in a television interview.

To which, Pro-Life president Eric Manalang retorted: “Take away prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits, and take away all that remind people of God. How does that make our government officials and employees better public servants?”

So, should God be banned in religious offices? As one headline in some web page put it.

Less a debate on religion than a matter of faith is – to me – the issue here.

To paraphrase Manalang’s position three paragraphs above: With all the prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits splashed all around government offices reminding people of God, how has that made of our government officials and employees?

The Philippines consistently topping the corruption index in Asia, breaking the impunity index in all the world – I don’t see people in government ever reminded of God there.    

More than reminders of God and all that He stands for, the religious rites have virtually assumed nothing more than break-times, the images and symbols reduced to decorative pieces or charms to make the offices more pleasant than prayerful. Thus, the sayable becomes most applicable here: Familiarity breeds, not necessarily contempt but indifference.

Maybe, just maybe, taking all the religious rites and symbols out of government offices will work the opposite of the fears expressed by the Catholic clergy and laity.

HB 6330 may even spark renascent spirituality among government people. On the principle, ay, the maxim: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

As it happened to me. Apostate upon my departure from the seminary, quickly turning agnostic in the swirl of the social ferment of Philippine society in the dusk and the darkest of the Martial Law years.

All the shibboleths of religion taken out of the physical self – rosary, scapular, estampitas, Bible, Sunday Mass, daily devotionals and novenas. All the spiritual formation, debriefed in disbelief. New un-faith in T-shirt arrogantly proclaimed: “God is dead!” Aye, the storied zealousness of the new convert outzealed, so to speak, by the new un-convert, steeped in Nietzsche and Hegel, in Marx and Engels. .

Heady spin in the vortex of materialism – dialectical and historical, cerebral and visceral – all too abruptly snapped by a sudden spiritual longing, epiphany coming: My God, what has become of me?        

New belief in T-shirt encapsulized thus: “Nietzsche is dead.”    

God lives. God loves. Some spirituality, deeper, greater than religion, imbued in me.  

Maybe, just maybe, by taking away the prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits from government premises, the people may find God.

And this nation will walk His way, embrace His truth, live His life.