I was watching ABS-CBN Pinoy Satellite television the other
night with Rosemary. The past two weeks
have been wall to wall coverage of the Visayas region in Philippines . Clean up has finally begun. Evacuations are still underway in the regions
that were hit the worst, and bulldozers are starting to clear the rubble. The thousands of corpses stiffened and
bloating in the streets are finally being removed to mass graves. The popular variety shows in Philippines
are filling their air-time with benefits and fund raisers. I am proud to say that several doctors here
in El Paso recently departed for Philippines ,
to selflessly volunteer their time and expertise where it is most needed.
Yolanda was one of the most powerful typhoons on record to make
landfall. The Visayas region where the
typhoon hit hardest was already weakened from last month’s 7.1 magnitude
earthquake. Yolanda just cleared away
what was left over. Homes were flattened
by 200 mph+ winds. Children were ripped
from their mother’s arms by a 30 foot ocean surge. Some desperate people tried tying themselves
to coconut trees to avoid being swept out to sea, only to be found bloated from
sea water and tied to a useless tree trunk.
Thousands dead. Millions displaced. Rosemary sometimes cannot keep from crying
when watching news broadcasts from her island home.
This past weekend, the first Catholic Mass was held in
Tacloban since Yolanda destroyed the city.
The Visayas region of the Philippines
is overwhelmingly Catholic, a religion brought to Philippines
by their Spanish conquerors. I do not
doubt that these people would look to the Church as their source of strength
and courage after a typhoon like Yolanda.
While watching worshippers cramming into what was left of their church,
I asked Rosemary if people ever blame God after a tragedy instead of
worshipping Him. I admit, I was being a
little flippant with her.
“Oh no. They would
never do that. They would just not do
that.”
My flippancy did not last long. “Why not?
Don’t they ever question? Don’t
they ever ask? I mean, I think by now
they are justified. ‘God, you sent an
earthquake. Now you sent a typhoon. My children have drowned. I mean, what the hell, God?!’”
One Tacloban Catholic priest, wet and sweaty after hauling
bags of rice, was interviewed by a reporter.
Most reporting is in Tagalog, but I happened to catch this one in
English. I wish I could find the clip
online but I cannot. I paraphrase:
Priest: After this destruction, I had to question,
‘God, where are you?”
Reporter: What did you discover after your
questioning?
Priest: I found the answer in prayer and faith. This tragedy is not a punishment from
God. God loves us.
I try so hard to be sympathetic to belief in times of tragedy. I understand that the people look to the
Church as a source of strength when life is at its worst. I try to see the food and shelter that is
actively dispensed by the local Catholic parishes when disaster hits. But I also know that the Catholic Church as
no answers to these questions. “Prayer”
is not an answer to anything. “Faith” is
an admission of defeat.
I understand that the Catholic Church has no answers to
these tragedies beyond those invented by priests desperate to comfort their hurting
parishioners. “This is not a punishment
from God,” they say apparently knowing the motivations of the Almighty, “this
is a test to bring you closer to God.
Gain strength by reflecting on the suffering of Jesus.” No Catholic believer ever gets an answer more
substantial than this. The Catholic
Church has no answers. They rely on
symbols, rituals and iconography to give meaning to their community of
believers.
I try so hard to understand.
But I also understand that the Catholic Church must put effort into keeping
their parishioners as helpless, guilty, sinful and ignorant as they possibly
can. They invent the disease, then
promote their imaginary cure. Only the
most delusional thanks this all powerful Creature for saving their lives after
they have watched others crushed or drowned like caged rats. Nobody dares blame this all powerful Deity
for such death and destruction for fear of torture that never ends. Nobody dares question their loving Creator for
fear of their god, their priest and their community. But it should be obvious to any of these
people, if only they were allowed to think rationally and without fear, that if
their god really exists, then He does not give a damn about any one of
them. Any god who allows this kind of
death and destruction is not worthy of worship.
Anybody can see this. Only fear
and ignorant superstition can cause those who are shackled and beaten to
continue to worship their prison torturer.
To those who are suffering – you have every right to
question, condemn and reject a Deity who claims to love you, yet tortures,
destroys and kills you, your family and your friends on a whim. Nobody prays to this Deity to make the
typhoon retreat back to sea. Nobody
prays for the typhoon to miraculously and harmlessly disperse back into the
atmosphere before it makes landfall. Nobody
does this because everybody knows that such prayers will do nothing. Everybody knows that this Deity is powerless
to save; He is only there to provide comfort after the destruction is over. He is thoroughly impotent. He is worshipped only after disaster has
struck. ‘Peace’ is not living content
through the eye of the storm. ‘Faith’,
held at all costs, is not a virtue. Only
the most deluded, fearful and ignorant worships a loving Deity while standing
alone among piles of storm strewn rubble and rotting corpses.
I do not like writing articles like this. It is not tasteful to me. It is too easy to point at harmful
superstition when it is everywhere. But
in the months and years to come, as the Visayas region slowly recovers from
these disasters, the shock of destruction will subside, and God will no longer
be questioned. The Catholic Church will
again be viewed as a beacon of Faith among a sinful world, and a source of worship
among the community. My tolerance for the Catholic church ebbs and flows with my mood, and I confess that right now I do not have much tolerance left. Eventually, my temporary hatred of the Catholic Church will subside.
But before I too forget, I want to post my frustration, my anger, my
disgust of soul-sucking, parasitic superstition. I do not write this because I hate the
Catholic Church. Far from it. I write this because I love the Philippine people.
