Yes, This Bothers Me
I realize that religion is a touchy subject, so I try to shy away from it. But yesterday I was intensely disturbed by some things I'd read that I had to spend some time reflecting on my beliefs. I know my sister went through a crisis of faith of her own at one point after having read The Da Vinci Code, but it's been a long time since I went through one myself.
The thing is, it isn't even about my own professed religion. I'm a staunch Roman Catholic, although by staunch I mean "unlikely to convert to another religion" instead of "hardcore". I firmly believe the Catholic Church is wrong about a lot of things. On the other hand, I ascribe those fallacies to human imperfection, and so I continue to believe in all the things that are in the Nicene Creed (the same tenets of faith that distinguish the Roman Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church). So yes, I believe in sainthood, and I believe in salvation, and I believe in all the things that a lifetime of Jesuit education have drilled into me.
But I also believe that if I were not Catholic, I would be Muslim. I deeply admire Islam - the depth of its beliefs, the richness of its history, the simple expressions of its faith. Islam has taken a bad rap lately for terrorism and its inability to cope with the realities of the modern world, but I can't forget that Islamic countries in the Dark Ages were beacons of learning and civilization much envied by Christendom.
So when I read stories like this I really have to ask myself about the state of modern Islam. The rest of the opinion pieces on that news site are just as alarming - from the piece about the deeply orthodox Muslim lecturer who required all women to leave the lecture hall to the one about deep-seated antipathy towards Jews. What alarms me even more is that these articles come from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is supposed to be one of the most enlightened and modern Islamic nations in the world.
Given that so many Filipinos live in Saudi Arabia, subject to Shariah law, I find myself alarmed.
I realize that I'm looking at this from an outsider's point of view. And of course Christians are hardly perfect, compassionate human beings - I remember that my late-night entertainment used to be flipping back and forth between the Iglesia ni Cristo and Ang Dating Daan channels, which taught me a lot about closed-mindedness and the vitriol it generates. But I can't help but be disturbed.
The thing is, it isn't even about my own professed religion. I'm a staunch Roman Catholic, although by staunch I mean "unlikely to convert to another religion" instead of "hardcore". I firmly believe the Catholic Church is wrong about a lot of things. On the other hand, I ascribe those fallacies to human imperfection, and so I continue to believe in all the things that are in the Nicene Creed (the same tenets of faith that distinguish the Roman Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church). So yes, I believe in sainthood, and I believe in salvation, and I believe in all the things that a lifetime of Jesuit education have drilled into me.
But I also believe that if I were not Catholic, I would be Muslim. I deeply admire Islam - the depth of its beliefs, the richness of its history, the simple expressions of its faith. Islam has taken a bad rap lately for terrorism and its inability to cope with the realities of the modern world, but I can't forget that Islamic countries in the Dark Ages were beacons of learning and civilization much envied by Christendom.
So when I read stories like this I really have to ask myself about the state of modern Islam. The rest of the opinion pieces on that news site are just as alarming - from the piece about the deeply orthodox Muslim lecturer who required all women to leave the lecture hall to the one about deep-seated antipathy towards Jews. What alarms me even more is that these articles come from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is supposed to be one of the most enlightened and modern Islamic nations in the world.
Given that so many Filipinos live in Saudi Arabia, subject to Shariah law, I find myself alarmed.
I realize that I'm looking at this from an outsider's point of view. And of course Christians are hardly perfect, compassionate human beings - I remember that my late-night entertainment used to be flipping back and forth between the Iglesia ni Cristo and Ang Dating Daan channels, which taught me a lot about closed-mindedness and the vitriol it generates. But I can't help but be disturbed.