RATIONAL INSANITY
By Bryan Mari J. Argos

The condom in the homily

Hello everyone, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I was on a sabbatical for a week because of stubborn flu (good thing it did not turn out to be meningococcemia), but now I am back, and ready to give someone a good helping of my brand of tongue lashing.

I was attending the four o'clock mass last Sunday when I suddenly became undividedly intent on the homily of the priest. He was talking about how all of us should condemn artificial family planning methods because these were anti-life. He also mentioned that the government should be condemned because of their vigilant efforts to peddle artificial family planning methods to the Filipinos.

True, the church is supposed to be in charge of protecting the moral fiber of society, but it should not underestimate the intellect of human beings. Even God does not interfere with the human thought process because He has given man the gift of free will. Now, before this column sounds like a homily itself, let me point out the issues involved in this monster of an issue.

Why would the church be so vigilant in telling the people that the population explosion should be considered an asset to the economy instead of a liability? What about the millions of Filipinos who sleep amid the odor of their own piss in the thousands of squatters areas all over the country? Priests may not be privy to this kind of experience because they can just shut themselves up in their air conditioned recluses and “pray-watch” television whenever the air becomes a wee bit pungent. Besides, what is the church doing to alleviate poverty? With its riches, has it even given just a portion of it to the tsunami victims? Or to war torn countries?

As far as I know, what the church gives to these ends still comes from the Catholics who willingly share their resources when the church calls for a move to respond; the bulk of the riches of the church remains untouched; there are even some parishes that undergo a “second collection” for the poor and for the “tiling of the church walls”! Now, to a different avenue – education; have you ever heard of a private Catholic school where everyone is welcome for free? I bet no.

The government needs to school millions of young minds every year for free; does the church take even just a parcel of the responsibility to educate the meager fraction that the government can no longer handle because of uncontrollable population growth? I doubt.

Does the church actually put up soup kitchens to feed millions who cannot have a decent meal each day because of the statistical rule of “supply and demand” where demand has already been exceeding supply? True, the church concerns itself with these things, but is it doing anything aside from noisy chatter in homilies, rallies, and “second collections”; aside from just concern? The government must harness all possible means to balance resources with the people; with this preoccupation, I should give the government credit for still, despite the pressure, working for a government where the people are given the opportunity to choose. Enforcement is a grim possibility for the government, considering its power to shape the people, but it has not traversed that avenue despite its desperation to do something about the rapid population growth.

Why is there rapid population growth in the first place? Let me tell you a short story to answer this question. My family owns a one hundred hectare piece of mountainous land in the Sibaguan regions of this city. In that particular piece of land, we have people, caretakers, living there and taking care of the land. One particular female caretaker already has eight children and is pregnant with the ninth one. We keep on telling her to take pills, or have her husband wear a condom at least – she would readily say, “Indi ko ya ah, hambal ni Father, mahulog daw kami sa impyerno kun magamit kami sina (I don't want to, father says we will be thrown into hell if we use that).”

What does this story tells us? This story tells us that where the church can use IGNORACE to instill fear, it will! We did not force her to use the contraception methods we suggested she use, but the priest, whoever that was, has successfully turned these ignorant minds into mush making them fear an uncertainty.

Let me just close this discussion with some food for thought – which to you would be more immoral? Giving birth to a child and not allowing him/her to enjoy the beauty of life because of a life eternally locked in poverty and misery or not giving birth at all? I believe the church should re-think their stand in this issue. I suggest that instead of just yapping about religious consequences on a lectern, the church should re-invent itself as an ACTIVE CHURCH, a church that is immensely involved in the problems of the people, a church that is able to make a difference in the people – prayer is a must for all Christians, because Christ himself taught us how to pray, but then again, what is prayer without action? Be rational; be insane…every once in a while! TTFN!

Greet you all next week! Byers, mwah!