Commentary on Religion

I have been urged by my mother not to write this post so as to not burn any bridges here in the Philippines. Before I go on, I want to say that the Overtons (who have started the clinic) are the most generous, selfless and amazing people I have ever met. I have so much respect for them and cannot believe all they save seen, endured and done to help the women and families of the Philippines. Whatever keeps them going, whatever they do to have the courage and drive to help so many people is something I am very respectful and appreciative of. I think religion is the reason that most people are compelled to give themselves so fully to a cause and to endure a lifestyle that they don't have to. I am very thankful for all of that.

On Easter Sunday, we attended a church service in the afternoon that was far different from any Easter celebration I have ever been to. To be honest, I was very frustrated the entire time. Here's why:

1) The theme of his sermon was "One God." He emphasized this by pointing out that in India they worship nearly 30 million gods. He then encouraged somewhat of a moan or sigh from the audience implying how terrible it would be to have 30 million gods. While I am a Catholic and I worship one God, I see nothing wrong with having 30 million gods. That doesn't make these people disgusting, sinners or repulsive as he implied. It nearly makes them different. Criticism and disagreement regarding religions is at the root of nearly every world war and massive genocides throughout time. Scorning another country for their different (but very similar) beliefs doesn't lead to less poverty, lower child mortality rate or any progress. It only engenders more hate and stereotyping.

2) He also took a good twenty minutes to discuss how the name Easter was actually rooted in a sinful background. Ish-Tar was the goddess of fertility. The first Easter happened to fall on her celebration feast. She was represented by an egg and sacred prostitutes were adorned at the temple on her feast day. The pastor then began to bemoan on how terrible that was and how could a prostitute ever be sacred. He warned us that by saying "Happy Easter" we were giving thanks to prostitutes of pagan cultures, not to Jesus. Of course I find prostitution repulsive and tragic. Of course I also find nothing sacred about it as well. But the key here lies in two simple words that so many religions forget about: CULTURAL CONTEXT. In the time of Jesus all cultures had prostitution and women had no rights. Prostitutes were very common place and often times their services were used in temples. Today, this would seem terrible. Two thousand years ago, however, this was very normal. Forgetting this small detail creates a situation in which a very common cultural act is turned into a reason to hate the word Easter but even more so to condemn an entire culture for something that was completely taken out of context.

3) He then spent the next ten minutes talking about how terrible it was to celebrate Easter bunnies because bunnies are prolific animals that mate every three months and then proceeded to go into detail about how distasteful the reproductive habits of bunnies are. Since I am a student of science, I have to intervene here not only to question the point of his observation but also to point out that the rapid proliferation of rabbits and bunnies has helped scientists in all areas of medicine come up with treatment and effective drug research. OK, so maybe this man is repulsed by how often rabbits are reproducing. Even if this is the case, what does it have to do with taking away from celebrating Easter and believing in God? I found much of what he said to have no logical connection to Easter but rather an excuse to berate other species, cultures and religions.

4) The majority of the sermon focused on how God feels when you don't worship him fully (yes, God is a him in this church). He used a story from the Old Testament where God made Hosea marry a prostitute but also had to allow her to be a prostitute at the same time. He then equated the way Hosea felt about how dirty his wife was with how God feels about people who don't fully worship him. Yuck he called it. He went on to discuss how foul the prostitute wife, Gomer, really was. Everything about her was ugly and dirty. Even her name was ugly he said. After having seen (and medically treated) some of the prostitutes in this area, I would like to ask this pastor where his humility is. Since when did these women have a choice? And since when did humans stop being humans and become nothing more than a tainted piece of meat? Seeing these women in their desperate situations doesn't make me hate them but rather pity them and want to help them find a way out. It definitely wouldn't make Jesus hate them either. Jesus didn't' hang out with the high society; his friends and followers were the prostitutes and the lowest of the low. Secondly, he made a point to comment on (and laugh about for a few minutes) how ugly the prostitutes name was from the story: Gomer. To me, this was not only completely pointless but downright "unchristian." This man seemed so far removed from what Christianity was really about that he took something as fickle as an Old Testament name and decided to laugh about how ugly her name was and how it could only be the name of a prostitute. The Catholicism I grew up with and experienced at Santa Clara never had a teaching about ugly names or the importance of names at all. What I learned was compassion, understanding and forgiveness. What he was preaching was disdain, superficial judgement and hatred.

5) Here in the Philippines the women are the laborers, the bread winners, the child care providers, the cooks, the cleaners and everything else. But the men still get to make the decisions. Even if their wife had a very high risk pregnancy her last time or already has 5 kids she can't feed, if he wants another she will have another for him. If he doesn't want to use family planning, they won't use family planning. Where does this fit in with the sermon on Easter Sunday? The pastor constantly was giving examples of the "abomination" that occurs when you don't worship God as One God. His examples of how repulsive that was were always about women: prostitutes, dirty menstrual rags, pregnant rabbits. Nothing to visualize disgust involving a man.

6) Another example he gave of how God says "yuck" to us when we worship other Gods was the story of a man dying from kidney failure who wanted a blessing from this particular pastor. The pastor's take on the story was that he was so disgusted by the state of the dying man that he could hardly stand being there to do the blessing. Remind me when I am old and dying to make sure that the priest (or holy person of my choosing) can see beyond superficial flaking skin and yellow blood vessels to actual bless me on my death bed.

7) Lastly, both weeks he has criticized the poor and dirty people throughout the world yet not given any sort of call for action. Religion is the primary reason that so many missionaries I have met here feel compelled to be here. Liberation Theology has brought many people to developing countries to try to help minister and provide community for them. Hilary and David felt a calling. Father Heinz wanted to minister to the poor and forgotten people of the slums. Another Canadian woman here came to help train Filipinos in dump sites to make useful crafts out of their trash. All of these are ways that religion can affect positive change in an area. Where was the call to action in this sermon? What did Easter even mean to him other than exploring all that has been done wrong with the holiday and mangling historical anecdotes to prove a point? I am still not sure.

For me, Easter has always been a time of celebration with family and friends. A time to celebrate your faith in God (or your 30 million gods if you so choose) and to gather in community and be thankful for the message and example that Jesus led by. It is also a time to reflect on how you can continue to live out Jesus' works- helping under served communities, forgiving someone who has hurt you, practicing non-violent conflict resolution and countless other lessons. For me, it has never been a time to reflect on the reproductive habits of rabbits or to discuss the repulsiveness of prostitution.

While I know this post seems a bit harsh and poorly written, I felt compelled enough during the service to take a minute to write down everything that frustrated me about his Easter message.
On a happy note- I was able to put my bemoaning aside after Church for an amazing dinner. We went to a Japanese restaurant where the chef cooks at the table for you (similar to Benihana in the US). We enjoyed sushi, lobster, garlic and spinach rice, fish, steak, noodles, fresh veggies and mango shakes. Total bill $12.00.