Taking God out

This seems unthinkable in a country that enshrines God in its government, sanctifies in its Constitution, in its way of life, is governed by faith in God, the majority of the people are Christians or believers in God and its officials take their oaths of office invoking God as their witness. Witnesses in judicial proceedings call on God to testify to the truth of their statements and people call on God in times of trouble.

But now the unthinkable has happened.

Kabataan Party list Rep. Raymond Palatino has filed HB6330 that authorizes heads of public offices and departments to “strictly follow constitutional provisions on the freedom of religion in the exercise of their official functions and in the use of government facilities and property.”

In sum Palatino wants God out of government offices, facilities and properties as he thinks that putting God in them violates the constitution that, ironically finds its being from God.

He wants religious symbols and activities banned from government property contenting that in this case the government is subsidizing a religion.

Presumably Palatino has no objection to an aberrant artist using a government funded cultural center to exhibit a photo of a religious icon holding a condom or a penis.

This is another step in a continuing effort by several Filipinos who do not only advocate the defiance of natural and moral law through legislation but to remove God from our lives. The Reproductive Health Bill, the allocation by the Department of Health of P500 million for unnatural contraceptive devices, the proposal to allow divorce, the plan for gay marriage and now to authorize the removal of God in public offices and buildings – all these come to one conclusion – take God out of government and public life, slowly and cleverly.

Many government offices have Masses on First Fridays and during their anniversaries held within their premises. The Palatino bill will send the signal that these Masses should not be held there at all under the guise of freedom of religion as he thinks that these religious activities violate the rights of non-believers and therefore circumscribed by the constitution that, ironically begins by invoking the Divine Providence to guide this nation.

Invocations in public ceremonies would be banned.

I am saddened by this bill but not surprised because a signal has been sent not from a church of satan but from Malacanang, granting that the reports are true.

Some months back I was told that President Aquino passed by the Malacanang chapel and saw the image of the Blessed Mother and he directed that this be removed because it was donated at the time when Gloria Arroyo was president, as if the image is part and a ghost of Gloria Arroyo.

The report said that the members of Presidential Security Group refused to remove it and Aquino relented.

I could not believe this because Aquino rode on the “sanctity” of his mother and he went into a retreat in a Carmelite monastery to seek guidance on whether to run for president or not. That was manipulated to the extent that the Carmelites are known to be overly-Aquino. One priest said that never again will he say Mass there in a Carmelite chapel because at one time they had Cory Aquino’s photograph on the altar.

Was that all for show?

Then a friend from Davao who was here last May told me of a more startling report. He said that Aquino ordered that the Blessed Sacrament be removed from the chapel in Malacanang.

Another friend from Manila told me the same – removal of the Blessed Sacrament from the Palace chapel.

I can’t believe this but two people from different places and at different times telling me of the same story makes me wonder in dread.

I would like to believe otherwise, but I have no reason to doubt these two gentlemen who are not only highly successful, well-educated and intelligent people, but ones who do not make jokes especially on this matter of grave nature with terrible consequences.

If true, these reports shatter our view of the son of Corazon Aquino who, at the time of her death, people, particularly a Jesuit priest, were saying Cory ought to be declared a saint.

That is farfetched, of course, but that only shows how some people view the Aquinos.

A check on Palatino shows that the atheists in the Philippines hailed him and declared him their champion. That is not surprising, though I wonder if Palatino is an atheist, an agnostic or merely without any religious beliefs at all. A graduate of the University of the Philippines, he represents the youth in Congress.

Perhaps voters should study some more this party list Kabataan and reject it in 2013. Is his thinking that of our youth, or another aberrant young man?*

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