Pork to perdition

PORK IS evil.

So spake retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno at a gathering of Methodist churches at the Good Samaritan Church in Quezon City last week.

“The pork barrel is an evil practice and it is our duty to fight evil by engaging it and not running away from it, not escaping from it,” he declared. “The fight against evil requires that we not only start the fight but we finish the fight. The fight against evil demands a period. The fight cannot be postponed by a comma, cannot be suspended by a ceasefire. Evil deserves but one end—defeat.”

No war of attrition there but the war to end all wars. 

As well addressing all men of faith, the esteemed magistrate said: “In sum, the Methodist position in regard to abuse of governmental power is clear, unchanging and unchangeable. Our North Star has always been and will always be the Word of God. We maintain that government derives its power from God; that it is the sovereignty of God that counts, it is the sovereignty of God that controls, it’s the sovereignty of God that should dictate the direction of human destiny.”

So sadly, some divine attribute arrogated unto themselves by those in government, thus: “However you look at it, the pork barrel scandal is all about abuse in the exercise of the powers of government, especially the legislative power over the money of the people.”

Indeed, “the only rationale of the government is to maintain order by promoting good and not evil, and above all, the government must be an instrument of God, hence no government can subvert the sovereignty of God.”

Indeed, government – at least in the case of the pork barrel scam – did just that.

The evil of “mass theft” of the people’s money compounded and complexed by how it was “misused against the people’s interest.”

“It was misused for political patronage; to buy the loyalty of people whose politics is for sale; to corrupt our system of making laws; to corrupt our systems of enforcing our laws; to corrupt our system of election; to perpetuate poverty; in other words, to violate the dignity of our people, to demean our democracy, and worse of all, to defy the sovereignty of God.”

Drawing the lines of battle thus, “between God’s power and evil people in power.” Verily, the final conflict to be waged there.

Pork is an abomination.

Haram, as the Qur’an proscribes -- "Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah." [Al-Qur’an 5:3].

In the Old Testament too -- "And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you." [Leviticus 11:7-8]. The same phrase in Deuteronomy 14:8 reverberating.

As well as – and more terrifying – in the New – “And there was a good way off from them a herd of many swine feeding.  So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.  And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.” [Matthew 9:30-32, King James Version]. 
And so the devils went into the congressional pork, and, behold, the whole House of Congress rocked violently and now lies precipitously on a steep cliff, teetering to fall into the sea of rage of a people wronged, and to perish…  

Pork is damnation.

In both its scriptural and political sense. Woe unto you pork scammers. Hell has a special place for you.

Abolish pork. Be saved.   

Duh?