8 - Religion and Filipinos

Throughout the world, Filipinos are known to be religious. I mean, every Sunday morning the churches are crowded. Especially the Catholic ones because the majority of Filipinos are Catholic.

One time, I tried to attend a mass with my high school friends at our local Catholic church. At the front left of where we were sitting, there was a statue of Jesus half naked and still nailed to the cross. I saw a man who stood in front of it and he started wiping every part of that statue while uttering a prayer. Then, he wiped himself with the hand he used for wiping the statue. Honestly, I was kinda grossed out. I mean, it was just a statue and he believes that touching it and wiping himself with it could somehow make some miracle to his body. That experience made me even realized more how religious we are.

Because I was intrigued, I researched about why Filipinos are religious and I found this article entitled "In the Dark: Why we Filipino Love Religion" whose author is called linewave. This guy called linewave argues that religion was used by the Spaniards to colonize the Philippines. According to him, religion is power. It holds the belief and values of a person which can be used to inject fear into one's heart.

Because at that time, when Christianity was first introduced to Filipinos, we became slave to the Spaniards. We let them lead us and teach us the way of Christianity. We were so interested and intrigued by the idea that we became an easy target. Because they were really clever, they used Christianity to colonize us by changing and controlling our beliefs. One more thing, most Filipinos do not really read and study the Bible. They just absorb everything the priest says, or do what they see other religious people are doing when in fact, some of the traditional religious beliefs of Filipinos are not entirely based on the Bible. I mean, Bible is interpreted in a lot of ways and it is meant to be understood personally. A person who wants to know God has to know Him personally, and not through somebody's interpretation of the Bible.

The author stated: "Is there a good side to religion? Yes, there is. There always is. Religion is the bliss and a way of life. Religion gives purpose, and without it, we wouldn’t have a lot of things. Before, religion was the driving force to advancement, but now, is it still? To me, religion won’t ever stop. We have to live with it, but we can’t let it be the one controlling us. Religion was made to guide the people, but it was not made to BE the people. We were not made for the religion and we have the choice. We shouldn’t hand it over, we should make the decision ourselves."

Religion gives purpose to people. Though as a Bible-believing Christian, I believe that it is the belief that gives purpose to oneself rather than the religion or the group itself. And most Filipino beliefs come from religion. You see, it all comes back to religion which is the root of the values and beliefs of Filipino. We became too religious in a way that most people forget the real essence of believing and having a relationship with God. They focus too much in the do's and don't that the priests, leaders, or teachers give them. As the writer says, "Religion was made to guide the people, but it was not made to BE the people." 

As a conclusion, Filipinos are naturally religious. We believe in God from the time Christianity was introduced to our land. It help us shape the government and society we, Filipinos, have now. From then on, beliefs taught by religion became our beliefs. It affects us both in bad and good ways. Bad, because we let religion control us when it is made to guide us. Good, because religion helps us discipline ourselves and shape our values and beliefs for the good of ourselves and our country.