I have returned to this blog once more to express my sentiments about a prominent religious organization situated in my country, the Pearl of the Orient, the Philippines. It goes under the name of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, or simply CBCP. This group of religious dudes have gained a lot of attention these past few months, especially during the controversial RH bill. If you're not familiar with this issue, feel free to visit the following links:
Link 1
The amusing part is that ever since they made their names heard in television and radios, they have started taking their newly-found fame to the limits, even to the point of meddling with a commercial of a fast-food chain (we'll get to this later). Hearing news about these dudes over and over again can be quite tiring, especially if the news are about them doing what they shouldn't be doing in the first place and committing blunders ranging from funny to ghastly. Allow me to enumerate their atrocious blunders (in no particular order):
1. Being a meanie (literally)
If you've read the links above, or have known the issue about HB 96 for quite some time, you'd know that CBCP is strongly against it. They're really fighting tooth and nail to nullify this bill that Mr. Noynoy Aquino and a handful of legislators are promoting. The funny thing is that they have curious tendencies to resort unusual methods like this one:
and this one:
Link 6
"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation."
1 Peter 1:15
ZING!
2. Occasional inability to understand
If you're arguing with somebody when it comes to your beliefs, there's an option of knowing everything he advocates, find if there's something wrong or falsifiable in it, and if there is, attack from there, and make him see the fallacies of his established logic... which is quite time-consuming and requires great mental concentration; which is why there's also the option of bombarding people with the impression that your opponent is promoting something which is wrong... when he really doesn't.
A perfect scenario is the stupendously amusing misconception about the RH bill promoting abortion and a horny perspective in life:
Link 7
CBCP and a whole bunch of anti-RH bill dudes were going bananas about the RH bill promoting the ultimate taboo in Philippine society, as well as sexual promiscuity, gaining hopes that this wretched bill will be pulled down from its throne once and for all. But, as it turns out, things aren't really the way they saw it:
Link 9
Abortion is illegal here. Why would a lawmaker create a law that would violate another law? That's quite illogical and downright stupid. I've also noticed that a good number of anti-RH bill dudes are openly admitting that they despise the bill even if they haven't read the whole thing yet. With that mentality, how is one supposed to completely understand something? Do you expect to know every angle of the story already if you know only half of it?
Another annoying misconception is the so-called "overpopulation myth." I agree with the anti-RH dudes' claims about Metro Manila being over-concentrated, which is true. But it doesn't necessarily mean that we're not overpopulated. Make comparisons in other places in the world, and see how our population is far bigger than the population in a state that's around 3 times as big as our country. Try a little mathematics, too. A typical student would know that the total land area of the Philippines is around 300,000 square kilometers. As of 2009, we have around 90,000,000 people, so by this year it's not an exaggeration to assume that we have reached 100,000,000. This means our population density is around 300 people per square kilometer. But what if we take a more realistic approach and omit the islands that sink during the high tides, lands reserved for agricultural purposes, the forests, excavation sites, commercial lots and roads? Yep, that's right. Oh no.
3. Meddling with commercials
Remember what I told you about CBCP taking its newly-found fame to the limit? Here's a perfect example of it. They're now stretching their influence to the media, even gaining the ability to compromise business advertisements, which is really creepy. Recently, CBCP expressed contempt on a commercial released by McDonald's about a harmless and perfectly common conversation between two children and their innocence about relationships.
The commercial: Link 10
It's quite amusing that such a commercial can lead to an event like this:
Link 11
A demonstration of CBCP's awesome power. A power so awesome, we don't even need MTRCB now. Quite creepy if you ask me.
4. Meddling with politics in general
First, the Church is the Church, and the State is the State. Both bodies serve a great role in a community, and can interact with one another for the betterment of both sides and for the sectors under them. But once a body steps out of line and start pushing the other to command, to impose a rule, that's where chaos starts. And this seems to be what the CBCP is doing. Ever since that RH bill hype, the CBCP starts popping everywhere, criticizing every move of the government, compromising business advertisements and creating a good versus evil scenario (the government being evil, of course) so that the people will be motivated to join their cause. I don't know if what CBCP does is misplaced concern or intentional mockery, but I know one thing:
"And Jesus said to them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they were amazed at Him." Mark 12:17
The job of the Church is to teach people the Good News and bring them and the State closer to God, not to meddle with commercials, excommunicate freethinkers, tell RH bill supporters to be hit by lightning, or to downright tell the government what to do. Anyway, simply put, the verse tells us to "mind our own business."
And now, I guess it's time for a little reality check; is CBCP really minding its own business?
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And that ends my current sentiments about how our beloved CBCP never ceases to disappoint and frustrate me. But on one silver lining, it's quite nice to see an all-new kind of superstar rise to fame.
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