By Reni M. Valenzuela
I don’t mind if the Catholic, Born-Again and Protestant churches in the country, including the Iglesia ni Cristo and Muslim churches and all other churches except the satanic ones -- go out in the open to oppose the recent (and forthcoming) abominable act of the Senate as an impeachment court.
It is in times like this (among others, past, present and future) that the Church and church people may get involved -- to oppose abuses and corruptness, fight evils, trumpet justice, banner righteousness, love / serve the poor, marginalized and victims, and above all -- to obey, delight and magnify God Almighty.
(Not in getting embroiled in politics, dirty politics and in endorsing candidates during elections).
Religious groups that mess up with politics corrupt church leaders and church people. They destroy the soul.
However, churches may go out in the open, not as power blocs or “people power,” but to show forth the bigness of God versus sanctioned injustice, madness and crookedness -- particularly at this juncture, vis-a-vis the latest subtle maneuvering by the Senate that resulted in the so-called impeachment “remand.”
Yet irony of ironies: What did you, the Church, do when our countrymen were being butchered / brutalized almost daily in broad daylight to save lives and enlighten a government that lost its way -- during the height and years of the Duterte-Dela Rosa bloody “tokhang” campaign?
Alas! You apparently have simply and conveniently “looked and passed by” the robbed beaten man on the roadside (so to speak) like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Slumbered, numb and muted.
“And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.” - Luke 10:31-21 (read all from verse 25 to 32).
But what is “on the other side,” dear churches? Religion (or “logo”). Christianity is not religiosity, but love in action.
Egredi et pugnare.
The Bible verses prior to Jesus Christ telling the Good Samaritan story, state: “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? ....
And Jesus answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” - Luke 10:25-27
That is the WAY, my dear pastors, ministers, priests, imams -- all Christian believers. When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them (not the sharks, wolves, vultures and crocodiles) freedom to inhabit and rule the world.