ST.

THOMAS ACADEMY
Poblacion 3, Sto. Tomas, Batangas
School Year 2019-2020

Subject: Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems 1x1 picture

Topic: Separation of the Church and the State
Submitted by: John Marco B. Miranda
Submitted to: Ms. Krizlle R. Landig, LPT

1. This DOJ investigation actually upholds the separation of church and state.

There is a saying that goes “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God the
things that are God’s.” The practice of ordination or excommunication, both big deals in most
religions, are out of the jurisdiction of the government, no matter how sexist (any female priests
lately?) or outdated (excommunication in general) they may actually be. This very separation is
why, if, say, gay marriage were made legal in the Philippines, religions need not worry about
being forced to fall in line with this newly legalized practice.
However, state affairs, such as investigations regarding actionable complaints involving,
in this case, illegal detention and gross misuse of funds, are indeed state affairs–regardless if
those standing accused are religious leaders. Church and State are separate precisely so that
the State can investigate a legal, criminal issue without having to consider the rank of the
religious leaders in question. Since their religious position is none of the government’s concern
but rather the allegations of what, in secular society we would normally call “kidnapping” and
“plunder” instead of “illegal detention” and “gross misuse of funds” actually are.
Was De Lima investigating this case “selective?” I wouldn’t know, but that’s the point.
Who does? What’s important is to find out if the case was actionable, and in this case, it
apparently was. The INC leadership are reading from the exact same playbook the ADD
leadership was when they insisted the late former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales was
persecuting them when he took an interest in the allegations of rape against Brother Eli Soriano.
Sounds familiar? Two years ago, I got threats for pointing out that fact offhand in a previous
article, and was even accused of maybe being a paid hack for the INC.
Observing these things and pointing them out to be allegations that are actionable are
the rights of anyone, yet somehow, because religion is involved, these people suddenly become
untouchable and irreproachable. The same goes for law enforcement agencies who might have
reason to work on these issues.
It Gets Worse: When the rally started in EDSA last Friday, they did so without a permit,
yet were treated with kid gloves, despite the fact that a journalist was assaulted by the mob.
Separation of Church and State means that when this call was made, whoever organized this
demonstration is guilty of sedition, and the subsequent demonstration has to be dispersed.
Instead, they were handed a permit post hoc, which does not happen if, say, a labor group tried
to pull the same stunt. Why would a church get preferential treatment over a bunch of
disgruntled workers? Do they not have the same rights to address their grievances? Because
bloc voting, which we’ll get into in a bit.

2. The right to religion needs to work in conjunction with our other rights.

Religious people have the same rights non-religious people have. They can’t insist that
their freedom should trump the freedom of other people, such that while Muslims may choose to
not eat pork, Iglesias may choose to not eat dinuguan, and Catholics may abstain from meat on
Fridays. They cannot practice this and then ignore the rights of other people to practice
differently. In short, walang basagan ng trip. Any chance people can understand that
distinction?
Of course, this needs to come with the reminder: illegal detention is a serious crime, not
just a “trip.” Just in case people forget this little detail. The right to life, liberty, and property is a
very important right. It is perhaps the most basic of human rights. When a man decides to
become a priest, he willingly cedes that right in the service of a perceived higher cause. When
someone gets illegally detained, this happens against their will (why else would they sue?) and
is an abrogation of a person’s rights.

3. We currently do not legislate with secular sensibilities in mind.

Why is divorce illegal in this country? Because morality, blah, Vatican, blah. Where does that leave
everybody else, no matter how minor? Is divorce immoral? I guess that’s debatable, but the government’s
function is not to legislate morality, and certainly not to legislate the kind of morality observed only by Catholics
(since practically every other religion allows for divorce, albeit begrudgingly). The fact that we keep citing
religious reasons for issues like divorce, the RH Law and, chances are, marriage equality, only goes to show
our “separation” of Church and State has been vestigial at best all this time.

If Separation of Church and State has been functionally ignored for decades by the Philippines, why
is the INC protesting it only now? Why, because it now works to their advantage to do so, even if they used a
very misguided reading of the provision to do it. If for some reason, we would elect a president who turned out
to be, say, a Satanist, do you think that the CBCP would let him express his religion in public the way they
encouraged it when GMA used to do this all the time for photo ops?

4. Religious leaders are not above the law.

Does this really need to be explained? Apparently, yes. The non-establishment of a state religion is in
place to assure us that religious leaders do not have the kind of power they had during the medieval ages. It
protects the state from them, but it also protects the other religions who might not be as lucky as the one that
gets to run a theocracy. In theory, it should all work out for the best but we all know that’s not the case.
Despite that, if a religion happened to celebrate ritual human sacrifice, it’s pretty sure that such a
practice being religious in nature will not protect it from prosecution. We still have our limits (I hope).

Maybe the CBCP doesn’t have the power to mobilize people to EDSA to stage a rally on a payday
Friday at the start of a long weekend, but it’s fairly obvious that the notion of “investigation” and “suspicion” is
easily muddled with the pretense of “persecution.” It’s just that this time, we have a more persuasive church
leadership demanding that its rank and file members protect it from having people look into their billion-peso
aircraft and alleged penchant for playing hide the minister.

5. Our government and churches break the “inviolable” separation between them whenever it’s
convenient or advantageous to do so.

All of these arguments have been nothing but a showcase in the many ways the
constitutional provision of Separation of Church and State has been nothing more than a joke in
this country, and it is only ever brought up as an issue when people’s privilege on the matter is
challenged.

It is so ingrained in us to be Catholic, or to be Christian, or to be INC, or to be Muslim, or

to be any other creed that it seems normal and appropriate when we want the government to
conform to our beliefs, even if other people do not necessarily share these beliefs. Is it wrong?
Yes. Is it evil? Not necessarily. But it is a mistaken notion that needs to be challenged and
corrected.

The religious are privileged in status in that the norm follows their common practices so
much that when other people call attention to it being actually discriminatory in their favor, they
cry “persecution” instead of recognizing it for what it truly is: a call for equal treatment for
everyone in the eyes of the law. No rich. No poor. No man. No woman. No Catholic. No Iglesia.
No atheist. Just a Filipino citizen with the same rights and freedoms as every other Filipino
citizen. If an atheist Filipino has to celebrate “Happy Secular Holidays” without the government
greeting him, why would he have to put up with it when a Christian is pandered to with
Christmas billboards featuring politicians spending his tax money to remind him how oh-so-
Christian his leaders are in celebrating Christmas? Just like Chinese-Filipino Tiffany Uy is every
bit as Filipino as the rest of us, why wouldn’t this atheist Filipino likewise be?

Reference:
https://8list.ph/philippine-separation-church-state/
Depth of Reflection: ___ x 4 =

Use of textual evidence: ___ x 2 =

Language use: ___ x 2 =

Conventions: ___ x 2 = ________

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