By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.
The eighth anniversary of Ladlad is a significant milestone in Philippine LGBT history. The celebration was carried out in style at the classy Astoria Hotel off Shaw Blvd. near the Ladlad national headquarters.
The well-attended (250 by my count) event is well documented on the Ladlad website.
I want to ponder for a moment the significance of Ladlad and its strong showing on its eighth anniversary. The post-midnight magnificent speech by Boy Abunda told it all — along with his personal inspiring testimony. I sure hope it was taped to be transcribed and preserved for posterity. It was a masterpiece — with no visible signs of a manuscript.
Looking back for perspective, when Rizal marched between two Jesuits to his execution, we realize he had no way of knowing how and when his beloved patria (homeland) would be free — politically. We all know it happened — boosted by his initiative and martyrdom. But the freedom he dreamed of is still not complete. He assertively told Blumentritt “the friars are the cause” of all the suffering and tears of the Filipinos. That’s a strong statement, and today we can see clearly that it was true.
Rizal did not know all the ramifications of sex-negative theology imposed by the friars. He had heard of NO masturbation, NO pre-marital sex, NO divorce, but some NOs which bug us today — such as NO condoms, NO love for the one you love if the one you love is one of the same sex, NO marriage ever if you and your partner are LGBTq — were not a subject of common cogitation in his day, probably not even for a such a great thinker as Rizal. But those things also descend from the friars whom he bemoaned.
Sadly, despite the Constitution, today the distinction between what is religious and what is political is blurred. This is because the political rights, the human rights of the Filipino people are influenced, abridged, and denied by the power of the modern-day hierarchical “friars” who wield such unbelievable power over the members of Congress — a phenomenon not found in any other non-Islamic country in the world. Yes, that’s what our “friar power” and an “Islamic republic” have in common.
In short, friar power and the imposition of what Rizal called “false religion” did not end when the Spanish lost control of the government. The effects of sex-negative theology, brought by the friars are perpetuated by the hierarchies of today. They continue on two fronts — on the religious front and in the political front (which can be readily observed in the intimidation of the members of Congress).
The leader of today’s sex-negative theology hierarchy, Pope Benedict XVI, recently visited his homeland of Germany. The protests he experienced there boldly proclaim to us that some people in some countries no longer kowtow to sex-negative false religion, including LGBTq rights. The media pointedly commented that people formerly associated with this religion are staying away in droves.
So where does Ladlad come into the picture? LGBTq people here are denied freedoms which have been taken away in the political arena because of the power of the peddlers of sex-negative theology over the people who make the laws (Congress). Ladlad surely will aim to become one voice, one positive influence in Congress to counteract this negative influence. They fight for us alongside Teddy Casino and Akbayan (as Etta Rosales did all the years she was fighting for us in Congress) and the few brave warriors who always fight for us. Now we have Ladlad. Now we can win membership in Congress and fight the battle right there in the halls of power. Thank God, the battle is carried on with competence and dedication by Ladlad, by Bemz Benedito. Danton Remoto, Boy Abunda, and all the officers and members throughout the archipelago.
In the meantime there is the second battlefront — the religious one. Unfortunately, Rizal was right in his day, and he’s still right today. The source of all our troubles arises from the teachings of a religion which has the power to impose its “way” (No, No, No. You know the NOs — you’ve had to live without them all your life). Even worse, they thrust them on not only you and me, but on every person of every religion, every believer and non-believer in the country. (Not just Catholics are denied the right to divorce; all citizens are.)
MCC in the Philippines celebrated its twentieth anniversary in early September.
As little as Rizal could have guessed on that somber December morning in 1896 that some great things were going to happen in his beloved country — likewise as little could we have guessed on September 7, 1991 that on the religious and political front great things would happen in our beloved country for the LGBTq people. When the first openly gay and lesbian organization began to openly welcome people, we knew we had a job to do, but we did not foresee that ProGay would come along in 1992, that MCC and ProGay would sponsor the first Pride march in Asia in 1994, that dozens of LGBTq organizations and LGBTq-friendly groups would rally to the LGBTq cause, culminating in the work of Danton Remoto to set up Ang Ladlad eight years ago.
Now MCC has three congregations (with pastors Ceejay, Myke, and Egay) and the Christian United Church has come along (with pastor Regen), and I do my little part, and we have to do the battle on the religious front. The bottom line is: sex-negative theology is the problem. It must be replaced with sex-positive theology. I teach the subject in free on-line seminars. MCC and CUC are out there on the front lines bringing new hope and peace and joy to lives battered by sex-negative theology.
The solution:
On the political front — Ladlad leads the battle. It would be the beginning of the solution, as they strategize with Boy Abunda and work from the office (with Edmund Osorio) to the nationwide field — if they could free Congress members from the power of the sex-negative hierarchy.
On the religious front — the sex-positive religious organizations, MCC and CUC, could liberate people with a new-found — but always guaranteed as a basic religious and human right — freedom to follow one’s informed conscience to know and do what is right, not what is imposed by sex-negative theology.
September 27, 2011
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.
saintaelred@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Comment: Rizal and the Friars
By Father Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S., Ph.D.
In reply to feedback and questions which have come to me by email since my blog about Rizal, 9/11, and modern-day terrorism, I offer the following comments.
I was restrained in that blog. I did not use Rizal’s stronger criticism of the friars. I chose to quote a mild comment by Rizal calling for respect for other people’s (religious) views.
But because I have been challenged to show more specifically how Rizal’s attitude is similar to and a springboard for my sex-positive attitude, I am writing more and quoting his stronger statement.
I use the word attitude because Rizal never heard of suicide bombings or suicide airplane crashes. The issues are different, but the attitude is comparable.
Therefore I call your attention to this very explicit criticism of the abuses of the friars of his time. He clearly is using the word “religion” here in the same way we use “religious extremism” today.
He was not condemning the whole religion. He was fighting the religious extremism of the friars that was causing “all the suffering and tears” of the Filipino people. He was not against the religion, but he was vehemently against the abuses.
He respected and got along well with the Jesuit missionaries, but the abuses of others were his target. (One Jesuit, in fact, asked him why he called the “Noli” a novel when it was a true to life description of things as they actually were.)
The last four years of his life he attended Mass regularly with the Jesuits in Dapitan. Two Jesuits, from his Ateneo days and his Dapitan days, accompanied him to his execution.
Likewise, if I may say, I pray the Mass everyday and respect and believe the teachings of the church which are not un-Biblical and unlike (contradictory to) Jesus’ life and message of love.
This assessment by Rizal of the friars of his time resonates with my assessment of the modern-day friars who are not brown or black-robed friars but colorfully-robed hierarchy in purple and red.
Everything that Rizal combats can easily be applied to my attitude toward their control of the lives of people today (of all faiths and non-faiths) with regard to such things as divorce, condoms, same-sex love, and justice for women.
Rizal about the Friars
“The friars utilize religion not only as a shield but also as a weapon… I was forced to attack their false and superstitious religion, to fight the enemy that hid behind it!...
God ought not to be utilized as a shield and protector of abuses, and less to use religion for such a purpose.
If the friars really had more respect for their religion, they would not use so often its sacred name and would not expose it to the most dangerous situations.
What is happening in the Philippines is horrible. They abuse the name of religion for a few pesos. They hawk religion to enrich their treasuries. [Imagine] Religion to perturb the peace of marriage and the family, if not to dishonor the wife!
Why should I should I not combat this religion with all my strength when it is the primary cause of all our sufferings and tears? The responsibility falls on those who abuse the name of religion!
Christ did the same to the religion of his country, to the Pharisees who had abused so much. (Letter to Blumentritt 1890)
In reply to feedback and questions which have come to me by email since my blog about Rizal, 9/11, and modern-day terrorism, I offer the following comments.
I was restrained in that blog. I did not use Rizal’s stronger criticism of the friars. I chose to quote a mild comment by Rizal calling for respect for other people’s (religious) views.
But because I have been challenged to show more specifically how Rizal’s attitude is similar to and a springboard for my sex-positive attitude, I am writing more and quoting his stronger statement.
I use the word attitude because Rizal never heard of suicide bombings or suicide airplane crashes. The issues are different, but the attitude is comparable.
Therefore I call your attention to this very explicit criticism of the abuses of the friars of his time. He clearly is using the word “religion” here in the same way we use “religious extremism” today.
He was not condemning the whole religion. He was fighting the religious extremism of the friars that was causing “all the suffering and tears” of the Filipino people. He was not against the religion, but he was vehemently against the abuses.
He respected and got along well with the Jesuit missionaries, but the abuses of others were his target. (One Jesuit, in fact, asked him why he called the “Noli” a novel when it was a true to life description of things as they actually were.)
The last four years of his life he attended Mass regularly with the Jesuits in Dapitan. Two Jesuits, from his Ateneo days and his Dapitan days, accompanied him to his execution.
Likewise, if I may say, I pray the Mass everyday and respect and believe the teachings of the church which are not un-Biblical and unlike (contradictory to) Jesus’ life and message of love.
This assessment by Rizal of the friars of his time resonates with my assessment of the modern-day friars who are not brown or black-robed friars but colorfully-robed hierarchy in purple and red.
Everything that Rizal combats can easily be applied to my attitude toward their control of the lives of people today (of all faiths and non-faiths) with regard to such things as divorce, condoms, same-sex love, and justice for women.
Rizal about the Friars
“The friars utilize religion not only as a shield but also as a weapon… I was forced to attack their false and superstitious religion, to fight the enemy that hid behind it!...
God ought not to be utilized as a shield and protector of abuses, and less to use religion for such a purpose.
If the friars really had more respect for their religion, they would not use so often its sacred name and would not expose it to the most dangerous situations.
What is happening in the Philippines is horrible. They abuse the name of religion for a few pesos. They hawk religion to enrich their treasuries. [Imagine] Religion to perturb the peace of marriage and the family, if not to dishonor the wife!
Why should I should I not combat this religion with all my strength when it is the primary cause of all our sufferings and tears? The responsibility falls on those who abuse the name of religion!
Christ did the same to the religion of his country, to the Pharisees who had abused so much. (Letter to Blumentritt 1890)
Friday, September 16, 2011
Terrorism, Nine Eleven, Rizal, and Sex-Positive Theology
By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, C.D.O.S, Ph.D.
saintaelred@gmail.com
We have all been reminded of the demonic evils of religious extremism and bigotry in the observance of the tenth anniversary of “nine eleven” today.
Religious extremism, whether Islamic, Protestant, Fundamentalist, or Catholic is not religion, is not of God, is direct from the demons of evil.
Those who plotted and those who flew the suicide planes that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/110 — said they were doing it to please their god, but indeed the truth is that such insanity was very displeasing to the God of Islam, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus came and lived and loved and as we live and love. Look at his life. He was completely free of prejudice. Look, for example, at how he made heroes (e.g. the Good Samaritan) of foreigners, people of a different religion from his and most of his kababayan. That is already a clue to see what Jesus was like for 33 years among us.
Jesus came to show us what God is like, that God is love, and he showed it by his behavior toward the hated foreign Samaritan people. Imagine him, who came to show us what God is like, being anything but horrified by the 3,000 lives wiped out on 9/11.
Now let us examine some other things that misguided extremists do in the name of religion.
We all know that bombing of cathedrals and mosques comes from the insanity of religious extremism. A nun friend of mine who had just completed her master’s degree at Ateneo in Manila was disabled for life by a bombing while she was praying in the Catholic cathedral of Jakarta on Christmas Eve.
It was the same insanity that caused my nephew and godson, Joseph Mickley, to lose his wife in the Pentagon on 9/11. My son, Pete, was with Joe that fateful day in the Pentagon as they franticly helped the officials and ambulance drivers pull out the mangled bodies, including Joe’s wife, Patty.
The terrorism of religious extremism is not limited to insane suicide bombing or suicide plane crashes.
We don’t have to think very long to see the parallel in the stranglehold of religious extremism of one religion which has a hierarchy extreme enough and strong enough to deprive every Catholic, every Protestant, every Moslem, every person in the Philippines of the right to seek divorce in a marriage of incompatibility and perhaps violence for at least one of the partners. The Philippines is the only country in the world victimized by this form of religious extremism.
That same modern day religious extremism is preventing every woman in the Philippines from having the benefits of an RH Bill (which in no way fosters or condones abortion). At the same time it deprives every citizen, of whatever religion, from the freedom to choose the benefits of the RH Bill because of the power of the hierarchy of one religion.
In a letter to Fr. Pastells, Rizal showed his high regard for religious tolerance or respect for another person’s conscience. He tells the story of his conversations with a Protestant Pastor in Germany. “There, in calm and slow conversation, with freedom to speak, we talked about our respective beliefs, of the morality of peoples, and the influence of their respective creeds on them. A great respect for the good faith of the adversary and for the most contrary ideas that must necessarily arise due to the difference in race, education, age, led us almost always to the conclusion that religions, whatever they might be, should not make people enemies of one another, but rather brothers and real brothers,…I obtained … profound respect for every idea sincerely conceived and practiced with conviction.”
Of course we wish that every religious extremist would heed the experience of Rizal. It would be uplifting if even the senators of this republic would practice these “principles” of Rizal in the RH Bill debates.
When it comes to one religion and its own adherents, it is a different story. If a religion demands that its followers never play cards, never smoke, never dance, then it is up to the members of that religion to make their own free choice to follow those rules or if they stay in that religion or not. If the Roman Catholic religion requires celibacy of their priests, that is an internal discipline. But if that church requires lifetime celibacy of all LGBTq people, that is not an internal issue. It is sex-negative theology imposed unjustly upon all who will bow to it. The problem is, because of the influence of the teachings of that church, this becomes a “law” of society.
If one religion dominates a whole culture, such as Islam in Saudi Arabia which forbids and punishes the practice of all other religion, e.g. for all Christian Filipinos working in Saudi — we are not speaking of choice, but of injustice. If one religion dominates the whole culture of Philippine people, and its views are “enforced” in law or in the acceptance of society, because it is the religion of the majority, then we are no longer speaking of choice, but of injustice...
The list of prohibitions goes beyond divorce and the RH Bill. The “no-nos!” go deep into the lives of the citizens, in the bedrooms and out of the bedrooms. It is no laughing matter when a teenager is ridiculed to suicide because of the attitude of the church toward masturbation or feelings of same-sex attraction. It is no small matter when parents are driven to desperation because their church tells them, “No Condoms!” when they already have more (beloved) children than they can feed or send to school.
And to where can we trace the gay bashings, the murders of young and older gay men, the senseless slaughter of transexual people here and around the world? Can we see that it is all traceable back to religious extremism and societal prejudice which springs from religious extremism?
The whole matter of the treatment of women as inferior in society is no small matter. Perhaps nobody says, “In the name of God, for the glory of God, I declare you are a woman and you are not equal, not entitled to equal pay, equal rights, equal opportunities, access to ordination or leadership roles.” But where did this attitude of male supremacy come from? Look to patriarchal society which originated in religion. Look to one religion in particular with a male only priesthood, a male hierarchy.
My friends, it is not only Islamic religious extremism and 9/11 which bomb and kill and victimize society. Religious extremism of any religion brings about oppression and death — even today. Yes, in the Near East in Islamic countries, the government hangs men caught in same-sex sex or women caught in any forbidden sex. But here, in our own country, we see and feel the pain of incompatible marriage in the absence of divorce, the horror of bashings and murders and suicides and job losses and evictions — every day because of the attitude fostered by religious extremism and sex-negative theology and the powerful influence of its propagators.
As always we offer Sex-Positive Theology as a solution. We join in our time hundreds of scholars, theologians, teachers and authors who have thought through the unscriptural and un-Jesus-like evils of all these oppressive controls of one religious view over the lives of all citizens.
I have been pondering what might be “eight pivotal truths” for sex-positive theology for LGBTq people. What would I include in eight cardinal truths or eight key principles?
What would I consider the eight foundational elements of sex-positive theology?
This is my first draft.
1. I believe God is Love. Those who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them.
2. I believe the Bible is sex-positive. There is no passage in the Bible which condemns same-sex love or gay and lesbian relationships. There are good examples of same-sex love.
3. I believe all sex is good if it is not harmful or forceful; some sex is better if it is in the context of loving and caring; and some sex is best when it is in a committed enduring loving relationship.
4. I believe women are created equal in rights and justice and opportunity. Thus God loves women unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.
5. I believe heterosexual expressions of love and homosexual sexual expressions of love are equally good in the eyes of God. Thus God loves LGBTq people unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.
6. I believe the body and soul are equally good with a goal to uniting spirituality and sexuality.
7. I believe that since God is Love, love-making is a sacrament of God’s presence.
8. I believe God is Friendship, and friendship with God and with people and a good life go together for the fullness of life.
These eight points just scratch the surface of Sex-Positive theology. We discuss the subject fully and extensively with those who want to really get a complete mastery of Sex-Positive Theology in our free Seminar in Sex-Positive Theology by email. Just email me and let me know you are interested. saintaelred@gmail.com
saintaelred@gmail.com
We have all been reminded of the demonic evils of religious extremism and bigotry in the observance of the tenth anniversary of “nine eleven” today.
Religious extremism, whether Islamic, Protestant, Fundamentalist, or Catholic is not religion, is not of God, is direct from the demons of evil.
Those who plotted and those who flew the suicide planes that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/110 — said they were doing it to please their god, but indeed the truth is that such insanity was very displeasing to the God of Islam, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus came and lived and loved and as we live and love. Look at his life. He was completely free of prejudice. Look, for example, at how he made heroes (e.g. the Good Samaritan) of foreigners, people of a different religion from his and most of his kababayan. That is already a clue to see what Jesus was like for 33 years among us.
Jesus came to show us what God is like, that God is love, and he showed it by his behavior toward the hated foreign Samaritan people. Imagine him, who came to show us what God is like, being anything but horrified by the 3,000 lives wiped out on 9/11.
Now let us examine some other things that misguided extremists do in the name of religion.
We all know that bombing of cathedrals and mosques comes from the insanity of religious extremism. A nun friend of mine who had just completed her master’s degree at Ateneo in Manila was disabled for life by a bombing while she was praying in the Catholic cathedral of Jakarta on Christmas Eve.
It was the same insanity that caused my nephew and godson, Joseph Mickley, to lose his wife in the Pentagon on 9/11. My son, Pete, was with Joe that fateful day in the Pentagon as they franticly helped the officials and ambulance drivers pull out the mangled bodies, including Joe’s wife, Patty.
The terrorism of religious extremism is not limited to insane suicide bombing or suicide plane crashes.
We don’t have to think very long to see the parallel in the stranglehold of religious extremism of one religion which has a hierarchy extreme enough and strong enough to deprive every Catholic, every Protestant, every Moslem, every person in the Philippines of the right to seek divorce in a marriage of incompatibility and perhaps violence for at least one of the partners. The Philippines is the only country in the world victimized by this form of religious extremism.
That same modern day religious extremism is preventing every woman in the Philippines from having the benefits of an RH Bill (which in no way fosters or condones abortion). At the same time it deprives every citizen, of whatever religion, from the freedom to choose the benefits of the RH Bill because of the power of the hierarchy of one religion.
In a letter to Fr. Pastells, Rizal showed his high regard for religious tolerance or respect for another person’s conscience. He tells the story of his conversations with a Protestant Pastor in Germany. “There, in calm and slow conversation, with freedom to speak, we talked about our respective beliefs, of the morality of peoples, and the influence of their respective creeds on them. A great respect for the good faith of the adversary and for the most contrary ideas that must necessarily arise due to the difference in race, education, age, led us almost always to the conclusion that religions, whatever they might be, should not make people enemies of one another, but rather brothers and real brothers,…I obtained … profound respect for every idea sincerely conceived and practiced with conviction.”
Of course we wish that every religious extremist would heed the experience of Rizal. It would be uplifting if even the senators of this republic would practice these “principles” of Rizal in the RH Bill debates.
When it comes to one religion and its own adherents, it is a different story. If a religion demands that its followers never play cards, never smoke, never dance, then it is up to the members of that religion to make their own free choice to follow those rules or if they stay in that religion or not. If the Roman Catholic religion requires celibacy of their priests, that is an internal discipline. But if that church requires lifetime celibacy of all LGBTq people, that is not an internal issue. It is sex-negative theology imposed unjustly upon all who will bow to it. The problem is, because of the influence of the teachings of that church, this becomes a “law” of society.
If one religion dominates a whole culture, such as Islam in Saudi Arabia which forbids and punishes the practice of all other religion, e.g. for all Christian Filipinos working in Saudi — we are not speaking of choice, but of injustice. If one religion dominates the whole culture of Philippine people, and its views are “enforced” in law or in the acceptance of society, because it is the religion of the majority, then we are no longer speaking of choice, but of injustice...
The list of prohibitions goes beyond divorce and the RH Bill. The “no-nos!” go deep into the lives of the citizens, in the bedrooms and out of the bedrooms. It is no laughing matter when a teenager is ridiculed to suicide because of the attitude of the church toward masturbation or feelings of same-sex attraction. It is no small matter when parents are driven to desperation because their church tells them, “No Condoms!” when they already have more (beloved) children than they can feed or send to school.
And to where can we trace the gay bashings, the murders of young and older gay men, the senseless slaughter of transexual people here and around the world? Can we see that it is all traceable back to religious extremism and societal prejudice which springs from religious extremism?
The whole matter of the treatment of women as inferior in society is no small matter. Perhaps nobody says, “In the name of God, for the glory of God, I declare you are a woman and you are not equal, not entitled to equal pay, equal rights, equal opportunities, access to ordination or leadership roles.” But where did this attitude of male supremacy come from? Look to patriarchal society which originated in religion. Look to one religion in particular with a male only priesthood, a male hierarchy.
My friends, it is not only Islamic religious extremism and 9/11 which bomb and kill and victimize society. Religious extremism of any religion brings about oppression and death — even today. Yes, in the Near East in Islamic countries, the government hangs men caught in same-sex sex or women caught in any forbidden sex. But here, in our own country, we see and feel the pain of incompatible marriage in the absence of divorce, the horror of bashings and murders and suicides and job losses and evictions — every day because of the attitude fostered by religious extremism and sex-negative theology and the powerful influence of its propagators.
As always we offer Sex-Positive Theology as a solution. We join in our time hundreds of scholars, theologians, teachers and authors who have thought through the unscriptural and un-Jesus-like evils of all these oppressive controls of one religious view over the lives of all citizens.
I have been pondering what might be “eight pivotal truths” for sex-positive theology for LGBTq people. What would I include in eight cardinal truths or eight key principles?
What would I consider the eight foundational elements of sex-positive theology?
This is my first draft.
1. I believe God is Love. Those who live in Love live in God, and God lives in them.
2. I believe the Bible is sex-positive. There is no passage in the Bible which condemns same-sex love or gay and lesbian relationships. There are good examples of same-sex love.
3. I believe all sex is good if it is not harmful or forceful; some sex is better if it is in the context of loving and caring; and some sex is best when it is in a committed enduring loving relationship.
4. I believe women are created equal in rights and justice and opportunity. Thus God loves women unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.
5. I believe heterosexual expressions of love and homosexual sexual expressions of love are equally good in the eyes of God. Thus God loves LGBTq people unconditionally and welcomes them into the fullness of Christian witness, including ordained ministry.
6. I believe the body and soul are equally good with a goal to uniting spirituality and sexuality.
7. I believe that since God is Love, love-making is a sacrament of God’s presence.
8. I believe God is Friendship, and friendship with God and with people and a good life go together for the fullness of life.
These eight points just scratch the surface of Sex-Positive theology. We discuss the subject fully and extensively with those who want to really get a complete mastery of Sex-Positive Theology in our free Seminar in Sex-Positive Theology by email. Just email me and let me know you are interested. saintaelred@gmail.com
Monday, September 5, 2011
MCC and SPT Carry on the Work of Rizal: Reflections for the 20th anniversary of MCC in the Philippines (September 7, 1991 – September 7, 2011)
Sunday, September 4th, 2011, MCC Manila celebrated the 20th anniversary of MCC in the Philippines. It was a well attended, lengthy service with a six-piece band of Gospel musicians and multimedia presentations throughout led by Pastor Egay and his assistant, Val.
It may have been the first time in history that an MCC service was held in a five-star hotel and capped off by a tasty banquet in the dining room of a five-star hotel, the Grand Opera Hotel of Chinatown, Manila.
My message, too heavy for oral presentation in a Gospel service, was distributed in pamphlet form. I delivered only the final prayer.
I present my anniversary reflections here...
Little did I know when I came to Manila in 1991 and opened the doors of MCC Manila with the encouragement of Edgar Mendoza – little did I realize I was carrying on the work of Jose Rizal.
The revolution was over, but as I learned more and more about our national hero, his work and his advocacies, the more I realized the work of Rizal must go on, and MCC must be part of it.
Padre Damaso and sex-negative theology and oppression of the Filipino people did not die on that somber December morning in 1896, and neither did the work of Rizal come to an end.
MCC and Sex-Positive Theology have a big role in carrying on the work of Rizal, even now 150 years after his birth.
In many ways, the Philippines is a perfect place to learn and apply the benefits of Sex-Positive Theology.
First of all, the country is a society deeply influenced by Spanish culture. It is a great place to put into practice the ideas we have developed over two decades in the Philippines, and MCC has developed over four decades since 1968.
It is a country which has long rolled over and accepted the heavy residue of foreign oppression. Long after the political control was gone after Rizal inspired the gaining of political freedom, the moral slavery has lingered.
The stifling oppression of “religious dominance,” sometimes called friarocracy or friararchy, “control by the religious attitudes of the friars,” has held its tenacious grip on the lives all Filipinos, of all religions and beliefs. Today every Catholic, every Protestant, every Muslim, every believer or non-believer is subjugated, even by law, as well as by culture, under the mandates of friararchy (theocracy) passed down and passed on by the hierarchy of today. Examples are the prohibition of divorce (in the only country in the world) and the iron fist over the RH Bill (not to mention the unmentionable – same-sex marriage).
What are some glimpses of light, especially in the yearning of LGBT people for justice?
After MCC opened its doors as the first openly “gay and lesbian” organization in the country, one by one, after ProGay, organizations sprang up to serve the needs of the community (of perhaps ten million persons with same-sex attraction). Friendly organizations began to align themselves with our pro-justice stance. Even some members of congress, such as Congresswoman Etta Gonzales, now Human Rights commissioner, began to espouse LGBT causes in Congress. In her case it was her heroic efforts to get the Anti-Discrimination Bill passed that was prominent in her long-time efforts (although defeated by the powers of prejudice).
A very significant bright light in the freedom landscape is LadLad Party List political party with its avowed LGBT agenda and advocacy. Initiated by well-known columnist, author, and professor, Danton Remoto, this party has made a reality of the unbelievable suggestion in the early ‘90’s that there be a “gay and lesbian” party-list party. It has now happened, despite the prejudice of the Comelec (against LGBT “morality,” another example of government and society being influenced by religious attitudes). It moves forward under the leadership of Bemz Benedicto with celebrity host and promoter Boy Abunda as political advisor.
A sample of the fight is given in this paragraph from a speech by Bemz at an event in the Congress. “And now, we are fighting for equal rights right here, in the halls of Congress. We are asking our congress members to finally pass the Anti-Discrimination Bill that makes sure no lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Filipino will be oppressed again in his or her own country. For this is our country, too, and we are all the children of God. In His – or Her – infinite wisdom God made us all different. For only in our differences can we see our similarity, which lies in the human soul that is found within us all.”
With Ladlad fully in the leadership of the political arena for the battle to end oppression, what is needed is continued education, savvy and strategy in the country-wide, world-wide war against the moral slavery of sex-negative theology. For this purpose we have initiated a series of free cyber seminars, one-on-one learning experiences by email to provide mastery in the theory and practice of Sex-Positive Theology.
Logically the situation requires a faith-based program. The problem is caused by a negative and untrue theology of the nature and will of God. There is much good in Spanish culture and the religion brought by the Spaniards. But there is much that is not good theology in the sex-negative theology (with its false picture of God) which was also brought by the Spanish missionaries along with the redeeming value of their religion.
Surely the picture is wrong: the white bearded policeman in the sky watching over a cloud to catch every boy enjoying playing with himself, every older boy and girl making love in a secluded place, every man who loves a man and every woman who loves a woman – in order to zap them into the fires of hell.
And that same policeman has crept into the bedrooms of married men and women, forbidding them to use condoms or common sense in planning their family, and elsewhere forcing the continued “marriage” in a situation of incompatibility.
LGBT people have borne the heaviest weight of rejection, denunciation, deprival by society and excommunication by church.
Scandalously (from the point of view of justice and from the Constitution of the Republic) the power of the hierarchy’s sex-negative theology is so strong that all these prohibitions of the hierarchy have become ingrained in law and culture – so that not only church but society conspires to deprive LGBTq people of their rights to love and to freedom of conscience.
Thus it is clear that a faith-based “answer” must be added to the political “answer” begun by Rizal and carried on by Ladlad and others. A society warped by a false faith-based attitude must find answers in a true faith-based solution.
For twenty years MCC has been bringing that answer to LGBTq people of the Philippines who have been able to hear it. The answer simply is God’s unconditional love. But even that love is warped by the hierarchy. God’s love and God’s true nature and description must be spelled out in the full length story of Sex-Positive Theology. That full answer is spelled out in the full-length story of Sex-positive Theology available free by emailing me at saintaelred@gmail.com
A light on the hierarchy-darkened scene is the known presence of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), now serving God’s people in three locations in the country, along with the Christian United Church (CUC), and the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality (CSSS).
For twenty years MCC has dared to contradict sex-negative theology in all its oppressive expressions. Its known presence has made known throughout the land that there is an alternative to NO masturbation, NO condoms, NO premarital love-making, NO same-sex love.
On the contrary MCC has proclaimed the gospel with the truths of Sex-Positive Theology. Yes, MCC is a faith-based community of believers. Their Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their truths are the truths of the God who became human and dwells in us. They have long summarized Sex-Positive Theology in four simple spiritual truths for LGBT people.
1. God loves LGBT people unconditionally. God smiles upon their love and blesses their love – for God is Love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
2. The Bible does not in any word, verse, or story condemn same-sex love. The few verses quoted to claim this are totally wrongly interpreted and proven wrong by countless scholars. (I do a full-length seminar just in proof of the falsity of these claims, and a whole module of the Sex-Positive Seminar is devoted to this.)
3. The Bible offers examples of beautiful same-sex love. The stories of the love of Ruth and Naomi and David and Jonathan and Jesus and the beloved disciple are an inspiration to LGBTq people.
4. LGBTq people can be Christian, and countless thousands are fulfilling their vocation to “come, follow me,” and live the fulfilled life that comes from realizing God’s unconditional love and responding by living a loving life in friendship with God and with others. Thousands are fulfilling this call to “life in Christ” in MCC around the world and in the Philippines.
In conclusion, there is light in the darkness of sex-negative theology imposed on our culture. MCC first turned on that light 1n 1991, two decades ago. The light of MCC and Sex-Positive Theology now, more than ever, must be a defining light, a guiding light with an ever increasing wisdom in the knowledge and application of Sex-Positive Theology.
Religion has long been used against LGBTq people in direct contradiction to the all-loving, unconditionally loving God known in the true theology of God. But that does not call for rejection of God or the truth of God. It only calls for the rejection of the false things about God. I think Jose Rizal is an example of practicing that. He never heard of the term Sex-Positive Theology, but while he attended Mass regularly, he never stopped his work against oppression, regardless of where it came from.
MCC, with praise and worship pleasing to God, and sound Sex-Positive Theology pleasing to God must liberate more and more of God’s beloved LGBTq children and set them free to worship God, be friends with all, and love the one they love. MCC must bring a happy fulfilled life to more and more of God’s children who have been experiencing oppression.
And surely bringing the people out of oppression is a continuation of Rizal’s work and God’s will.
(RRM, September 4, 2011)
My prayer for the people of MCC and the future people of MCC is in unison with St. Paul: “We always give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and your love for all God’s people. When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard of the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven. The Gospel is bringing blessings and spreading through the whole world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard of the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.” (Colossians 1:3-6)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
What Does Pepe Say to His Sisters?
By Richard R. Mickley, Ph.D., a 21st century Rizal admirer
We are all preparing to observe and celebrate Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary.
I have viewed favorably the advance stories published in the Inquirer.
Because my ministry for the last 20 years (since Rizal’s 130th birth anniversary in 1991) is an affirming ministry to gays and lesbians and all LGBT people, I began thinking again about that overworked and meaningless question, “Was Rizal Gay?”
That question is really irrelevant. I have written about it; Neil Garcia has written about it, others have. The most important thing is that Jose P. Rizal embodied so many sterling qualities of intellect, character, and talent that would make a perfect LGBT person, or, in his case, a perfect gay man.
Rather than revisit that question, I began to ask myself a new one, “What does Jose P. Rizal say to LGBT people today 150 years after his birth?
Every Sunday we hear in the sermon, “the Bible tells us… [today in the 21st century]…” The Bible written 2000 years ago — still speaking to us today.
So I began to ponder, “What does Rizal say to us today?” Then I looked at all the volumes of Rizal correspondence and other writings on my book shelves. It’s longer than 10 Bibles. So I got the idea for writing ten books, but not today. Today I will just take a look at what brother Pepe has to say to his sisters.
Actually I am an addict when I pick up Rizal’s writings, especially his correspondence. I want to look up something, but my addiction takes over and keeps me reading and reading and reading and pondering and pondering. He has so much to say.
I am glad they have “Rizal Excellence” programs in the schools. There should be more of them. His excellence is inexhaustible and more of his excellence would make his “patria” more excellent. The most recent seems to have been when 400 students gathered at Teacher’s Camp in Baguio in May for the 49th National Leadership Institute Conference aimed at making the youth become pro-active agents of change through Rizal’s example.
What does Rizal say to LGBT people today?
It seems to me the most obvious message is his most pronounced stance against the abuses of the Friars and the Spanish government of the time. What were the abuses of the Friars? In general we could today group them under the heading of sex-negative theology in preaching and disregard in the lives of those who were like Fr. Damaso. And, of course, my theme sex-positive theology.
He was against oppression, injustice and, yes, hypocrisy. To make a long story short, if our national hero was vehemently against injustice, would he not also be against injustice to LGBT people. As we shall see in a letter below he had no tolerance for that very thing. “I have glimpsed a little light, and I believe it is my duty to teach it to the people of my country,” he writes in an oft-quoted passage. Surely he would include us in the people of his country.
Quotations
The first book I picked up today from my “Rizal Shelves” was Quotations from Rizal’s Writings, from the National Historical Institute (1992) (and the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1961).
What is more appropriate than the advice he gives to his sister Soledad (and his other sisters), “You are no longer a child… nor are you uneducated. I speak o you as my sisters and I repeat to you… You have many nieces; give them good example and be worthy of yourselves.”
As soon as I saw that word “worthy,” I thought of what the homosexual Roman centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come [to my house].” The (Catholic) church makes those words speak to us by putting them in every Mass.
When Pepe says to Soledad and his other sisters, “Give good example and be worthy of yourselves,” he says to us, “Don’t let society devalue you; don’t devalue yourselves. You are adults now. Take responsibility for your lives and your behavior. Give good example, but don’t be a slave and victim to everything Fr. Damaso says. You are no longer a child. Think. Decide. Give good example.”
I am sure each of us could think long and hard about how that applies to our life. One person said to me that he was glad I was teaching sex-positive theology, so now he can do “whatever he wants.” My advice and Rizal’s advice: “You are an adult. Think. Behave appropriately. Give good example.”
To Soledad, he also writes, “If you have a sweetheart, behave towards him nobly and with dignity… rather than resort to secret meetings… Value more, esteem more, your honor, and you will be more esteemed and valued.”
What Pepe was saying to that sister with so much personal caring and love, he says to us as a rule of life. He did not shake his finger at her about having sex. What he says to us is “Don’t use people. Don’t be used. The key to honorable behavior is respecting the other person.”
In another letter to Trinidad, he seemed to admire women who are “somewhat masculine.” I present it here and let it speak for itself. “If our sister Maria had been educated in Germany, she would have been notable, because German women are active and somewhat masculine. They are not afraid of men. They are more concerned with the substance than with appearances…”
Quiet, not very lively, fine and affectionate
In our country, many a gay boy is subjected to and victimized by ridicule, bullying, harsh treatment and all too often physical abuse because of having “refined qualities.” Pepe seemed not to look down upon these qualities in his sister’s son, Alfredo Hidalgo. “Alfredo’s letter,” he wrote, “brought me great joy… He seems to be a lad of clear intelligence, quiet, not very lively, fine and, with time, he will be reserved and will know how to keep secrets, his own and other people’s… He will be pensive, a thinker, polite and considerate… He is besides affectionate.”
Never-wavering faith
In closing, as a priest-admirer of Rizal, I want to comment on his faith and spirituality. I teach that a well-rounded person must have a well-rounded, balanced life with health in one’s intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional components. The more one reads Rizal’s correspondence, the more it is abundantly obvious that his was a wholistically constituted life with all components in balance and harmony. But most of all I am stricken by his strong faith and spiritual basis, shown in letter after letter. In one, he gives, probably unknowingly, a perfect definition for “spirituality” — a person needs to believe and to love, needs a goal towards which to steer one’s actions, to formulate for oneself a purpose, to see something more beyond matter and noise; in short, one needs an objective worthy of one’s being and facilities.”
I see now it is an impossible venture to capture even the faintest glimpse of the greatness of Rizal in one essay. I opened one book, made a few quotes, and there is still the whole book before me, and volume after volume of Rizal’s wisdom on the shelves.
Light reading
I will just add one little light-reading moment. There is no evidence, that I can find, of any love-letters of Rizal to other boys when he was a boy or to men anytime in his life. But I found a cute love poem to him from one of his classmates at the Ateneo, who seemingly had a crush on Jose when Jose was about 16. A few lines of it are:
“Dedicated to Rizal by his classmate Ricado Aguado: to my dearest Friend, Jose Rizal, on his saint’s day, 19 March, 1877.”
“Your pleasing image alone,
in my soft heart always engraved,
now removes from me the fraud
the star from sailor forlorn
as in an agitated sea.
For you’re, sweet friend of mine,
the only joy of my soul,
and always to be with you
is my incessant desire
in this sad, unfortunate land.
But since luck denies
me such happiness this day
my Muse with tenderness
its affection doth send to you
at this pleasant hour of joy.
When Ricardo gave this love poem to Jose, he added a little personal note in prose, “Don’t show these verses to anybody…” Of course, they already had closets in 1877. [Note: I read these lines from the projective reading of a gay man of the 21st century. I will let you know if some learned straight professor informs me that this poem was indeed an allegorical writing and had nothing to do with gay love.]
Anyway, Rizal saved it, and that itself says a lot about his understanding, to say the least, and it has come down to us in the National Historical Institute’s Miscellaneous Correspondence of Dr. Jose Rizal.
Let’s say this all comes from one page of thousands of pages of Rizal wisdom, in word and action. Can you imagine what is in store in reading all the correspondence and works by Jose P. Rizal? May I recommend that you take a look for yourself as one way of celebrating his memory on his 150th birth anniversary?
Happy 150th birthday, Pepe, Big Brother, (no matter how short you were), our Kuya forever! Many of us who are not poets have a great love for you, too.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Condoms, Divorce and Congratulations
Congratulations! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
It finally has happened!
So far, in the very first press account, three law makers have shown themselves to be brave, courageous, independent, and full of integrity!
For years, the Philippines and the Catholic island of Malta have been the only countries in the world which do not give residents the right to divorce.
Now Malta is on the verge of granting divorce rights to its people. That leaves only the Philippines (and the Vatican), the last standout refusing to give this right.
Until now lawmakers of the Philippines have cringed in fear of the power of the hierarchy at the next election and have not dared speak the word “divorce” in the halls of congress.
Now three, at least, in the first press mention of the possibility of divorce here, three at least have boldly expressed approval of the idea.
Why divorce? Do all the nations of the earth have divorce to defy the Catholic bishops? Do they have divorce to destroy the family? Do they have it because it is bad? Is it not logical that they have it because there is a human need for it? Some couples simply find themselves incompatible. Well, it’s not so simple when children are involved. Does it save the children? Does it save the family to force incompatible people to stay together? Does this unpleasant situation help the children?
Our hats are off to the first three names mentioned in the Inquirer article today, “After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill.” It takes guts, and they got it.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan
Speaker Sonny Belmonte
Senator Pia Cayetano
Why is this “heterosexual” issue important to us? It is important because it is a big blister on the landscape caused by sex-negative theology promoted primarily by one hierarchy and imposed upon the whole nation, people of every religion and non-religion. And to think, it still is not clear to them that there is a human need for it demonstrated by the fact that every nation on the face of the earth recognizes the need except the Catholic hierarchy of the Philippines who will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.
There was a time when that world-wide hierarchy prevented every nation on earth from recognizing the love and relationship of same-sex couples. Now a growing number of countries, including Catholic Spain, with a courageous legislature, have granted their people equal marriage and more have granted recognition of same-sex relationships.
Meanwhile, the battle of the condoms continues in the Philippine Congress — and the shame and guilt of no condoms, no masturbation, no premarital sex, and no same-sex love, and, and, and… no, no, no… And how nice it was to see a word on this in the same newspaper today from our long time friend, the reclusive Margie Holmes.
Time bishops learned from the poor
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:19 pm | Monday, May 30th, 2011
THIS is in reference to the comment of Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, “Will you be calm if you are held at gunpoint?” (“Cool it? Bishop says Malacañang provoked Church,” Inquirer, 5/17/ 11)
Perhaps the good Archbishop should reflect on the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has held the poor of this country at gunpoint for decades over the issue of contraception, and learn from the poor’s long-suffering calmness in the face of adversity.—MARGARITA HOLMES and JEREMY BAER, Quezon City
Yes, it is true that 3 million Frenchmen or Maltese or Filipinos cannot vote to make wrong right. It don’t work that way. What’s bad is bad, and rape and child abuse will always be wrong. But if every nation on earth sees a need for divorce, it’s time to look at it from a different angle — starting with common sense.
Remember the three steps of forming conscience are:
Step one: Listen to the teaching voice of your church.
Step two: Listen to God’s truth in human nature and in the situation.
Step three: Make a JUDGMENT of what’s right.
And that is a basic human right which apparently Speaker Belmonte, Senator Cayetano and Rep. Ilagan are exercising. Congratulations!
Surely, surely we will hear more about this. Surely there are more than three!
After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:16 am | Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Malta has voted to legalize divorce, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced on Sunday after a referendum, leaving the Philippines as the only country where it is banned.
The vote in Malta spurred moves in the House of Representatives to legalize divorce amid an already widening split between the influential Catholic hierarchy and the administration of bachelor President Benigno Aquino III over a population control measure.
Gonzi, who campaigned against the introduction of divorce ahead of Saturday’s nonbinding referendum, said it was now up to the Mediterranean archipelago’s parliament to legalize the dissolution of marriage.
“This is not the result that I wished for, but the will of the people has to be respected and parliament should enact a law for the introduction of divorce,” said the conservative prime minister.
The divorce measure was passed by a majority of 53.2 percent of those who cast ballots, although nearly a quarter of eligible voters did not bother to go to the polls, election officials said.
Apart from the Vatican city-state, Malta is one of only two countries in the world—the Philippines is the other—that bans divorce. Chile was the last country to legalize divorce in 2004 after overwhelming public pressure.
Saturday’s nonbinding referendum asked the country’s 306,000 mainly Catholic voters whether parliament should introduce a new law that would allow couples to obtain a divorce after four years of separation.
Separation widespread
Legal separation is widespread in the European Union’s smallest member state, but there are many legal obstacles to re-marrying.
The Church, which looms large over the archipelago where 95 percent of the population claim the faith, did not campaign officially in the referendum.
However, Valletta’s Archbishop Paul Cremona had warned churchgoers in a letter they faced a choice between building and destroying family values.
“By this vote, the citizen will either build or destroy. A choice in favor of permanent marriage is an act of faith in the family, built upon a bond of love which cannot be severed,” said the letter, which was read out at Masses.
In addition, priests have reportedly threatened to refuse communion to those who vote “yes” in the referendum.
Philippine moves
Following the vote in Malta, the Philippine House committee on revision of laws announced it would begin on Wednesday discussions on a bill seeking to legalize divorce.
“Let us not keep our country in the dark ages,” said Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan. “I appeal to my colleagues in Congress to let the legislative mill run its course on the divorce bill without further delay and give Filipino couples in irreparable and unhappy marriages this option.”
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, a widower, told reporters that he favored the move. “It is very difficult to let two people who cannot live together continue to live together.”
Expand annulment
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, said it was time to expand the definition of annulment of marriage granted under Philippine law on grounds of psychological incapacity.
“Call it divorce, call it another animal (but) there has to be some change because the reality is, it is one of the discriminatory practices we have (against women),” she said.
But Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is adamant: “Let’s not get into the habit of copying what other countries are doing.”
Not a question of votes
The Philippine Catholic hierarchy, echoing the position of the Church in Malta, announced that it would oppose any attempt to introduce divorce in the country through a referendum as the Mediterranean country did.
“Referendums are merely a political, not a moral exercise,” said Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, head of the bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.
“What is right or wrong is not dependent on how many voted for it,” said Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, judicial vicar of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal. “What is moral or not moral is not a question of popular vote.”
Cruz is happy that the Philippines remains to be the only country without divorce.
“It means that the Filipino cultural values are still solid, that we are profamily, which is a wonder because you cannot find that anywhere else in the world,” he said. With reports from AFP, Cynthia D. Balana, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Christian V. Esguerra and Jocelyn R. Uy
It finally has happened!
So far, in the very first press account, three law makers have shown themselves to be brave, courageous, independent, and full of integrity!
For years, the Philippines and the Catholic island of Malta have been the only countries in the world which do not give residents the right to divorce.
Now Malta is on the verge of granting divorce rights to its people. That leaves only the Philippines (and the Vatican), the last standout refusing to give this right.
Until now lawmakers of the Philippines have cringed in fear of the power of the hierarchy at the next election and have not dared speak the word “divorce” in the halls of congress.
Now three, at least, in the first press mention of the possibility of divorce here, three at least have boldly expressed approval of the idea.
Why divorce? Do all the nations of the earth have divorce to defy the Catholic bishops? Do they have divorce to destroy the family? Do they have it because it is bad? Is it not logical that they have it because there is a human need for it? Some couples simply find themselves incompatible. Well, it’s not so simple when children are involved. Does it save the children? Does it save the family to force incompatible people to stay together? Does this unpleasant situation help the children?
Our hats are off to the first three names mentioned in the Inquirer article today, “After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill.” It takes guts, and they got it.
Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan
Speaker Sonny Belmonte
Senator Pia Cayetano
Why is this “heterosexual” issue important to us? It is important because it is a big blister on the landscape caused by sex-negative theology promoted primarily by one hierarchy and imposed upon the whole nation, people of every religion and non-religion. And to think, it still is not clear to them that there is a human need for it demonstrated by the fact that every nation on the face of the earth recognizes the need except the Catholic hierarchy of the Philippines who will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.
There was a time when that world-wide hierarchy prevented every nation on earth from recognizing the love and relationship of same-sex couples. Now a growing number of countries, including Catholic Spain, with a courageous legislature, have granted their people equal marriage and more have granted recognition of same-sex relationships.
Meanwhile, the battle of the condoms continues in the Philippine Congress — and the shame and guilt of no condoms, no masturbation, no premarital sex, and no same-sex love, and, and, and… no, no, no… And how nice it was to see a word on this in the same newspaper today from our long time friend, the reclusive Margie Holmes.
Time bishops learned from the poor
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11:19 pm | Monday, May 30th, 2011
THIS is in reference to the comment of Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, “Will you be calm if you are held at gunpoint?” (“Cool it? Bishop says Malacañang provoked Church,” Inquirer, 5/17/ 11)
Perhaps the good Archbishop should reflect on the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has held the poor of this country at gunpoint for decades over the issue of contraception, and learn from the poor’s long-suffering calmness in the face of adversity.—MARGARITA HOLMES and JEREMY BAER, Quezon City
Yes, it is true that 3 million Frenchmen or Maltese or Filipinos cannot vote to make wrong right. It don’t work that way. What’s bad is bad, and rape and child abuse will always be wrong. But if every nation on earth sees a need for divorce, it’s time to look at it from a different angle — starting with common sense.
Remember the three steps of forming conscience are:
Step one: Listen to the teaching voice of your church.
Step two: Listen to God’s truth in human nature and in the situation.
Step three: Make a JUDGMENT of what’s right.
And that is a basic human right which apparently Speaker Belmonte, Senator Cayetano and Rep. Ilagan are exercising. Congratulations!
Surely, surely we will hear more about this. Surely there are more than three!
After Malta vote, House body tackles divorce bill
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:16 am | Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Malta has voted to legalize divorce, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced on Sunday after a referendum, leaving the Philippines as the only country where it is banned.
The vote in Malta spurred moves in the House of Representatives to legalize divorce amid an already widening split between the influential Catholic hierarchy and the administration of bachelor President Benigno Aquino III over a population control measure.
Gonzi, who campaigned against the introduction of divorce ahead of Saturday’s nonbinding referendum, said it was now up to the Mediterranean archipelago’s parliament to legalize the dissolution of marriage.
“This is not the result that I wished for, but the will of the people has to be respected and parliament should enact a law for the introduction of divorce,” said the conservative prime minister.
The divorce measure was passed by a majority of 53.2 percent of those who cast ballots, although nearly a quarter of eligible voters did not bother to go to the polls, election officials said.
Apart from the Vatican city-state, Malta is one of only two countries in the world—the Philippines is the other—that bans divorce. Chile was the last country to legalize divorce in 2004 after overwhelming public pressure.
Saturday’s nonbinding referendum asked the country’s 306,000 mainly Catholic voters whether parliament should introduce a new law that would allow couples to obtain a divorce after four years of separation.
Separation widespread
Legal separation is widespread in the European Union’s smallest member state, but there are many legal obstacles to re-marrying.
The Church, which looms large over the archipelago where 95 percent of the population claim the faith, did not campaign officially in the referendum.
However, Valletta’s Archbishop Paul Cremona had warned churchgoers in a letter they faced a choice between building and destroying family values.
“By this vote, the citizen will either build or destroy. A choice in favor of permanent marriage is an act of faith in the family, built upon a bond of love which cannot be severed,” said the letter, which was read out at Masses.
In addition, priests have reportedly threatened to refuse communion to those who vote “yes” in the referendum.
Philippine moves
Following the vote in Malta, the Philippine House committee on revision of laws announced it would begin on Wednesday discussions on a bill seeking to legalize divorce.
“Let us not keep our country in the dark ages,” said Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan. “I appeal to my colleagues in Congress to let the legislative mill run its course on the divorce bill without further delay and give Filipino couples in irreparable and unhappy marriages this option.”
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, a widower, told reporters that he favored the move. “It is very difficult to let two people who cannot live together continue to live together.”
Expand annulment
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chair of the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, said it was time to expand the definition of annulment of marriage granted under Philippine law on grounds of psychological incapacity.
“Call it divorce, call it another animal (but) there has to be some change because the reality is, it is one of the discriminatory practices we have (against women),” she said.
But Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III is adamant: “Let’s not get into the habit of copying what other countries are doing.”
Not a question of votes
The Philippine Catholic hierarchy, echoing the position of the Church in Malta, announced that it would oppose any attempt to introduce divorce in the country through a referendum as the Mediterranean country did.
“Referendums are merely a political, not a moral exercise,” said Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, head of the bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.
“What is right or wrong is not dependent on how many voted for it,” said Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, judicial vicar of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal. “What is moral or not moral is not a question of popular vote.”
Cruz is happy that the Philippines remains to be the only country without divorce.
“It means that the Filipino cultural values are still solid, that we are profamily, which is a wonder because you cannot find that anywhere else in the world,” he said. With reports from AFP, Cynthia D. Balana, Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Christian V. Esguerra and Jocelyn R. Uy
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Mother Mary John Mananzan in “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world
Our congratulations to Mother Mary John Mananzan, OSB on the occasion of her being named one of the “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world.
That’s really great. That is mind-blowing. Why? For many reasons – she’s a woman, a feminist, a nun, a nun in the Philippines, a nun in influential positions in Roman Catholic leadership.
Mother Mary John Mananzan is as gracious as she is talented and effective for feminist rights. On those occasions when I have been privileged to appear on the same speaking panel with her, she was gracious to me personally.
At a time when a Roman Catholic priest releases a (more of the same repression) book calling for “conversion therapy” for gays and lesbians, it is indeed refreshing to rejoice in the honor Mother Mary John Mananzan has received in recognition of her accomplishments in behalf of the rights of women.
I urge you, my friend, not to miss the significance that this honor has for sex-positive theology. Human rights for women is a significant aspect of sex-positive theology.
Quick review. It all goes back to the Greek dualism which considered the body bad (and the soul good) and women doubly bad. St. Augustine picked it up and turned it into Catholic theology – and too much of it has survived the centuries in the patriarchal church.
That is why I place so much emphasis on teaching free cyber seminars (by email) on sex-positive theology. Enrollment is free: saintaelred@gmail.com
Mother Mary John Mananzan has made a gigantic contribution to women’s rights and to sex-positive theology.
A nice article in today’s Inquirer does a good job of describing the work of Mother Mary John Mananzan and the honor she has received as one of the “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world.
**********
Nun’s feminist activism cited
By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
March 07, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—When Sister Mary John Mananzan first received an e-mail informing her that she had been named one of the top 100 inspiring people in the world, she thought that it was another spam message.
Mananzan, executive director of the Institute of Women’s Studies of St. Scholastica’s College, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that she was overwhelmed when she discovered how prestigious was the Women Deliver 100 list that included US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“I got so many of those (spam) before on my e-mail account, where the message would say I had been chosen to be among the recipients of some award but then I would have to pay for something,” she said with a laugh.
Mananzan said she was not able to read the e-mail, which she received from the New York-based Women Deliver last week, but she learned of the list’s prestige from other people who congratulated her during one of her religious missions in Tacloban City.
“I did not realize what the e-mail from Women Deliver was real. I did not know how prestigious it was. But when I realized it was authentic and to be on a list including Hillary Clinton, I was so overwhelmed,” she said.
Mananzan was cited for being instrumental in developing a feminist Third World theology within the Catholic Church and introducing feminist activism into the country’s Catholic faith.
She said she was just part of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians which saw the dominance of patriarchy in the Church and sought the establishment of a theology from the perspective of Third World women. “Religion is both liberating and oppressive. Here, we sought to deconstruct the oppressive and construct the liberating aspect,” she said.
Her group analyzes the teachings in the Bible, a lot of passages of which are misinterpreted and are used for oppression, she said.
Mananzan cited an abused woman in the care of the Benedictine Sisters, who claimed that her husband would cite a biblical passage in which Eve had been taken from Adam’s ribs to justify that he should be in full control and could do whatever he wanted.
“God will not sanction the oppression of anybody … We have to make women understand that in the eyes of God, they are on the same level as men. They have the same dignity. They have the same opportunity,” the Benedictine nun said.
She said the empowerment of a woman could not be complete without the spiritual aspect. “In empowering a woman spiritually, she must develop self-esteem in the sense that she is created in the image and likeness of God.”
Mananzan holds the distinction of being the first woman to graduate summa cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in Philosophy, majoring in Linguistics Analysis.
Upon her return to the country in 1973, she was entrusted with a number of positions, including the deanship and subsequently the presidency of St. Scholastica’s College, and the leadership of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.
Mananzan also held positions in the Ecumenical Association of Third-World Theologians and in Gabriela, an organization promoting women’s rights which she cofounded. She subsequently founded the women studies program in St. Scholastica’s College.
She said that when she first joined the Benedictine order at 19 years old, all she thought was she could not participate in social work for the poor unless she was a nun. “I was so young at 19. I always say, ‘Do not ask me why I entered. Ask me why I am staying,’” she said with a smile. “It is because I found more reasons to stay.”
The first time she told her mother of her decision to enter the Benedictine order, after finishing her tertiary education at St. Scholastica’s College, her mother was speechless. “The next day, she told me ‘It was OK if I really wanted to be a nun.’ She was very proud of me,” Mananzan said, beaming.
Despite the gains in the pursuit of women empowerment, she said there was still a long way to go. She said there were 350 men who had completed the women studies seminars, which basically teach them that they can remain “macho” even if they show tenderness, warmth and love toward their partners.
She noted that more women-friendly laws were being passed even if she found their implementation wanting.
Many priests are understanding the perspective of women in theology although the Church hierarchy as a whole remains patriarchic, Mananzan said. “In a matter of consciousness, we have achieved a lot. But we still have a long way to go. We have, after all, a population of 90 million … We have to reach out to mothers who are not conscious of these things so they would not continue to pass on gender-based subservience to their daughters,” she said.
That’s really great. That is mind-blowing. Why? For many reasons – she’s a woman, a feminist, a nun, a nun in the Philippines, a nun in influential positions in Roman Catholic leadership.
Mother Mary John Mananzan is as gracious as she is talented and effective for feminist rights. On those occasions when I have been privileged to appear on the same speaking panel with her, she was gracious to me personally.
At a time when a Roman Catholic priest releases a (more of the same repression) book calling for “conversion therapy” for gays and lesbians, it is indeed refreshing to rejoice in the honor Mother Mary John Mananzan has received in recognition of her accomplishments in behalf of the rights of women.
I urge you, my friend, not to miss the significance that this honor has for sex-positive theology. Human rights for women is a significant aspect of sex-positive theology.
Quick review. It all goes back to the Greek dualism which considered the body bad (and the soul good) and women doubly bad. St. Augustine picked it up and turned it into Catholic theology – and too much of it has survived the centuries in the patriarchal church.
That is why I place so much emphasis on teaching free cyber seminars (by email) on sex-positive theology. Enrollment is free: saintaelred@gmail.com
Mother Mary John Mananzan has made a gigantic contribution to women’s rights and to sex-positive theology.
A nice article in today’s Inquirer does a good job of describing the work of Mother Mary John Mananzan and the honor she has received as one of the “Top 100 Inspiring People” in the world.
**********
Nun’s feminist activism cited
By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
March 07, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—When Sister Mary John Mananzan first received an e-mail informing her that she had been named one of the top 100 inspiring people in the world, she thought that it was another spam message.
“I got so many of those (spam) before on my e-mail account, where the message would say I had been chosen to be among the recipients of some award but then I would have to pay for something,” she said with a laugh.
Mananzan said she was not able to read the e-mail, which she received from the New York-based Women Deliver last week, but she learned of the list’s prestige from other people who congratulated her during one of her religious missions in Tacloban City.
“I did not realize what the e-mail from Women Deliver was real. I did not know how prestigious it was. But when I realized it was authentic and to be on a list including Hillary Clinton, I was so overwhelmed,” she said.
Mananzan was cited for being instrumental in developing a feminist Third World theology within the Catholic Church and introducing feminist activism into the country’s Catholic faith.
She said she was just part of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians which saw the dominance of patriarchy in the Church and sought the establishment of a theology from the perspective of Third World women. “Religion is both liberating and oppressive. Here, we sought to deconstruct the oppressive and construct the liberating aspect,” she said.
Her group analyzes the teachings in the Bible, a lot of passages of which are misinterpreted and are used for oppression, she said.
Mananzan cited an abused woman in the care of the Benedictine Sisters, who claimed that her husband would cite a biblical passage in which Eve had been taken from Adam’s ribs to justify that he should be in full control and could do whatever he wanted.
“God will not sanction the oppression of anybody … We have to make women understand that in the eyes of God, they are on the same level as men. They have the same dignity. They have the same opportunity,” the Benedictine nun said.
She said the empowerment of a woman could not be complete without the spiritual aspect. “In empowering a woman spiritually, she must develop self-esteem in the sense that she is created in the image and likeness of God.”
Mananzan holds the distinction of being the first woman to graduate summa cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a doctorate in Philosophy, majoring in Linguistics Analysis.
Upon her return to the country in 1973, she was entrusted with a number of positions, including the deanship and subsequently the presidency of St. Scholastica’s College, and the leadership of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines.
Mananzan also held positions in the Ecumenical Association of Third-World Theologians and in Gabriela, an organization promoting women’s rights which she cofounded. She subsequently founded the women studies program in St. Scholastica’s College.
She said that when she first joined the Benedictine order at 19 years old, all she thought was she could not participate in social work for the poor unless she was a nun. “I was so young at 19. I always say, ‘Do not ask me why I entered. Ask me why I am staying,’” she said with a smile. “It is because I found more reasons to stay.”
The first time she told her mother of her decision to enter the Benedictine order, after finishing her tertiary education at St. Scholastica’s College, her mother was speechless. “The next day, she told me ‘It was OK if I really wanted to be a nun.’ She was very proud of me,” Mananzan said, beaming.
Despite the gains in the pursuit of women empowerment, she said there was still a long way to go. She said there were 350 men who had completed the women studies seminars, which basically teach them that they can remain “macho” even if they show tenderness, warmth and love toward their partners.
She noted that more women-friendly laws were being passed even if she found their implementation wanting.
Many priests are understanding the perspective of women in theology although the Church hierarchy as a whole remains patriarchic, Mananzan said. “In a matter of consciousness, we have achieved a lot. But we still have a long way to go. We have, after all, a population of 90 million … We have to reach out to mothers who are not conscious of these things so they would not continue to pass on gender-based subservience to their daughters,” she said.
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