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Thursday, June 08, 2006
Speak out: Christianity and Filipinos
By Ryan Dominic R. Rodriguez
Bogo, Cebu
We all know that the Church played a great role in shaping our civilization, from the time when Christ transmitted His precepts to His apostles, to the great era of Roman persecution and the Church establishment.
Religious schools and universities were erected and inventors flourished.
To mention some of them: Deacon Flavio Gioja discovered the magnet and compass in 1300; Veit, a monk of Arezzo, the scale, the rules of music and harmony; the Dominican Spina, the use of spectacles; the Franciscan Berthold Schwarz, gunpowder (1300); and the Spanish Benedictine Pontius, a method of teaching deaf-mutes.
The Church, therefore, is not opposed to progress, enlightenment and freedom but only to the things that are spiritual and moral in nature.
As claimed by Douglas Jerrold:
“Christian civilization is not just one among many; it is…the only civilization built on the rights of the human personality, rights which derive from the belief in the immorality of the soul of man. So wholly is our thought, our tradition, and our language Christian, that we tend to take for granted what in fact is a revolutionary conception. The doctrine of man’s fall and redemption, of the ability and the obligation to win salvation, and consequently of the sanctity, dignity, and responsibility of the individual personality – these doctrines changed the face of the world. They gave a wholly new direction to human activity and necessitated a revolution in politics and morals.”
There is no country, therefore, that is uncivilized, corrupt and immoral with the Christian Faith, for it teaches the capacity to choose between good or evil, the value of honesty, loyalty and hard work which is diligence under its commandments and precepts.
But why is our country so economically lost and morally degraded? Have we lost our convictions of being a Christian and a Filipino statesman? Is Christian Political Theory a lost art?
I cannot answer these questions.
Let me just conclude by quoting the words of Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.:
“The failure of current trends of politically oriented theory, which, as Dale Vree has argued, flow largely from Christian ‘heresy,’ not Christian orthodoxy. This failure consists in an inability to account for the realities of politics and economics, while, at the same time avoiding the absolutist traditions and totalitarian overtones that often arise from the efforts of Christians to establish justice or peace in the world.”
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 8, 2006 issue)
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