Consider this essay as an addendum to what I have written on the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) a week ago. I then questioned the accuracy of the numbers the sect can supposedly automatically give to chosen candidates come election time. The numbers do not add up if they are placed side by side with statistical figures from official censuses.
In this essay, I question the blind obedience demanded from followers of INC, including but not limited to their choices on whom to elect. The followers are asked to follow and never to argue. In the military, soldiers are told, “Obey before you complain.” In the INC, the followers are given the instruction, “Obey and never complain.”
Let me also state that while I have the INC in mind as I write about the virtual call to sacrifice human reason, what I write can also be relevant to any person who believes that faith demands unquestioning loyalty to religious leaders.
First, even biblical heroes ask questions. First is the person of Job. He is described as blameless, upright and God-fearing. But God permitted Satan to test Job, who then lost all his property. At first, Job accepted his fate. But when it was suggested that his agony was deserved since he must have sinned (which was the orthodox view at that time) Job debated and vehemently insisted that the suffering was undeserved. He questioned divine justice and challenged God to defend the way God ordered the world. He bravely demanded an answer. It was only near the end of the book that God answered that suffering does not have any human explanation. God’s answer came only upon the challenge of the upright and blameless Job.
The second biblical hero I want to cite is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Far from passively accepting the message of an angel that her womb was to bear the son of God, Mary dared ask the angel, “How can this be when I know no man?”
Lastly, we have an example of our Lord Jesus himself. While agonizing on the cross, he was heard uttering that cry of abandonment, in the form of a question, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
In the Christian tradition, there is also Thomas Aquinas who saw to it that his theological reflections would always start not with declarative statement but with a question. It is unfortunate that later neo-scholastic tradition would start with a declarative statement and authors who do not adhere to the statement is considered a purveyor of falsehood.
These examples show that a person of deep faith should not be afraid to ask deep questions. In fact, the willingness to raise questions is a prerequisite of a mature and authentic faith. The problem is that faith is understood by some leaders as the surrender of our capacity to question. Some would refuse to think and just repeat the answers given by superiors. But I remember well a statement coming from Avery Dulles, who was considered a conservative theologian most especially in his old age, “When the mind is full of certitude, it has no more room for God.”
The questions we raise today may not have answers. But we continue to ask these questions and if we be told in our prayer that there is no answer, so be it. We ask questions like, “why are many of our prayers unanswered even if we were most sincere and even if our Lord Jesus himself promised that anyone who asks will receive?” “Is God not keeping his end of the bargain when we suffer even if we are churchgoers?” “Why do corrupt people prosper?”
The courage to ask questions is sorely lacking in the INC. It is also lacking among catolicos cerrados.
A religious leader who demands blind obedience, or who surrounds himself with people who are incapable of disagreement is instrumentalizing religion for selfish ends.
The magnanimity of God is clearly manifested when he gave us the gift of reason. Having the gift of reason, humans can even deny God’s existence. Surely, God is grievously offended if we choose not to follow God. But though God was completely aware of the possibility, God still gave us the gift of reason. Should we now surrender this gift that easily?
