Of Christmas and politics

By Dave Paragas ACTUALLY, THERE’S NO sense about it. For if you look at the deeper context, Christmas is about Jesus Christ and His magnificent way of saving us, the sinners, while politics is power relations in specific fields. But what interests me in writing about this subject is that the doctrine of church and state in our time has no more value in terms of how we see our politics and religion. Wheeeww! This is heavy, and it gets heavier to understand the reality that most of us do not care anymore about issues of morality and spirituality, and that’s why we just can’t blame the experts who keep on “demonizing” our society with old tricks like katapusan na ng mundo. We can only blame ourselves for this foolhardiness. Okay, let’s proceed to the doctrine of church and state, and let’s be more honest about it. The church imposes ex-communication to those who disobey their doctrinal beliefs (although not all), while the other imposes law and order to preserve peace and security for everyone. The church takes care about spiritual lives of its faithful, while politics is inclined to the bill of rights written by men and their limited sense of equity and justice. The church imposes the law of God, but politics rules over civility of the state’s inhabitants. The church preaches the love of God and charity, while politics teaches us to pay taxes according to the law, and without delay. The church teaches divine forgiveness, but politics promotes justice by the standards of men. The church stands for pro-life and marriage between a man and woman, but politics can play fools according to the will of the majority. The church is strict on abortion, lesbianism and same sex marriage, but politics, and again, play fools because its existence is just based on our taxes. The point is, no matter how you look at it, it’s impossible for us to reconcile the two. And while our politicians engage themselves in matters like spiritualism and heroism, they don’t really sound alike in heavenly realms. Because the church teaches heavenly things, but politics is a game where matters of the flesh are strong and real. However, in the spirit of Christmas, we can’t help but relate our politics into the sense of our merriments. Because politics and politicians have an indispensable role to celebrate man’s existence and its admittedly limited power, it’s about bringing ourselves to a place where we, somehow, can feel as a haven for humans. And so, whatever happens in Pangasinan or Dagupan politics, I submit to God, with my fullest measure of humility, and my silent devotion to the only Divine, the things I know and I do not know about life and this world. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!