SO MANY years ago, when we were just beginning the Hope Foundation with Bro. Rolly Dizon, I began to write what was supposed to be a regular column entitled "Voices in the Wilderness".

It was meant to focus on ordinary people who have lives of quiet heroism. The nobodies who unobtrusively did something for others and never advertised their actions or trumpeted their own horns, so to speak.

What's your take on the Mindanao crisis? Discuss views with other readers

When the first copy came out in the papers, I was surprised to see one old doctor from one hinterland town in Negros (I can't remember which one) suddenly present his strings of good deeds for the people of the town. Unfortunately, my plans were cut short so I never got to tell the world about him.

Now, I have the chance to write about these people. So if you know of anyone out there who deserves our praise serving others all these years tirelessly and selflessly, please let me know. You can make an appointment with me. Just let me know where I can reach you via cell, landline or e-mail and give it to the office of the Sun.Star.

When John the Baptist was described as a "voice crying in the wilderness, "it was because he called the people's attention to values which embodied all that God symbolized. He called the people to putting back the Lord as the first priority in their lives as indicated in the 10 commandments rather than putting economics first before all else, as the song "Money, money, money" from the movie "Mamma Mia" aptly described.

The 10 commandments have always been a central part of the Christian experience and Jesus Himself gave an excellent summary when He summarized it to loving God with all your heart and all your soul, and all your mind, and loving one's neighbor as oneself.

In Jesus time, however, many worldly values had already prevailed upon the Jewish people. These secular values so permeated the Jewish nation that when Christ appeared they did not recognize Him as the One, the Messiah, because He appeared so simple and meek minus the pomp and circumstance of power. Even the apostles had a hard time believing that He was the One.

My first example of a "voice in the wilderness" is not from our country. He is the campaign manager of Senator McCain.

In a CNN interview, he explained McCain's anti-abortion stand very clearly as against Sen. Obama who even voted for a law which allowed abortion up to the seventh month of pregnancy. The campaign manager's voice sounded almost as if he were pleading for people to look at the morality of both candidates especially in such an important issue as abortion. Sad to say, it is not morality that people are concerned about in the US election but economics.

Obama's rating went up higher and McCain lagged behind.

It amazed me that for a country with deeply Christian traditions and certainly Bible-based, the words of Christ would be shunted aside.

Christ said: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness and all these things will be given you beside".

Christ was only reiterating God's basic relationship with His people, obey and serve me and I will protect you.

That is known as the covenant experience. Covenant is the Hebrew word for commandment. So the essence of any nation's well being, and the safety of its people, is to love God, follow his words or the Law in the Ten Commandments.

Abortion is clearly not following the 10 commandments because it involves the killing of the child in the womb. Where will America go from hereon if Obama wins?

Can it afford a more secular view, away from the law of God and expect a turn for the better? In fact, all the other nations with abortions laws have all fallen prey to recent catastrophes. Shall I begin with the year 2001?

So here, in our country, I too wonder why, with so many Catholics and so many Bible-based Christians, the reproductive health bill is slowly seeping into our system. So many people say it's a lie, there is no abortion in the bill.

However, the very fact that all contraceptive methods are going to be promoted including abortifacients, which definitely kill the fertilized ovum if there be any in the womb, is proof of the fact that this bill promotes abortion. And if any body out there still thinks a fertilized ovum is not a human being, hello!

Welcome to the century of the DNA and the Human Genome Project. Science has been able to map the DNA of the fertilized ovum and found it certainly belongs to the human family, and it is not just an animal. So if Congressmen Garin and Lagman can explain why they cannot be considered as abortionists or murderers by authoring and endorsing this bill, well then, I too can say, that there is no such thing as the solar system.

My whole concern for this reproductive bill and why it shouldn't be passed is because of the intrinsic evil that it will legalize and even turn those who are unwilling to do evil into becoming legal murderers. Health workers will be trained to provide reproductive services to those who call for it. And it will certainly tempt young people through compulsory sex education to use contraceptives and for some, these would be using the abortifacients.

Think of the thousand of innocent, helpless babies killed because of the bill. Why, it's practically calling on the Lamb of God to be crucified all over again.
I don't want to become another copy of the stupid mob in Jesus time, shouting:

"Let His blood be on us and on our children." I bet those guys would have given their whole life to take back what they said if they only knew their future. I know what happened in Jewish history 43 years after Jesus death. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, the famous temple burned to the ground and the Jews exiled, never to really return in their homeland until 1946.And they now have to contend with the Moslems who live there and have built the famous mosque over what once stood as the Jewish temple. So we who are inheritors of this faith in Christ, the fulfillment of the Law and the Covenant itself, should learn from history.

Our small nation cannot afford to tempt fate. We have too much to lose. Think of the secular first world and what they're undergoing now.
So if you feel at this point that you too want to stop the bill, I suggest for you to go through a website of the Philippine Congress and the Senate and e-mail your congressmen and senators directly indicating your displeasure.

In case you want to know more about House Bill 5043, here are some other websites which might be helpful for you: http://www.thefourreasons.org/Lower/HUMANGENOME.htm; http://www.alfi.org.ph/alizaracelis.googlepages.com/RH_Bills-Primer.doc

For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga.

(October 21, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.