Perfect Love Drives Out All Fear

Tomorrow, Ateneo will be joining the faith prayer rally at Makati. Recently, I also attended the recent Mass for Truth and Accountability at the Gesu partly out of curiousity and partly out of support. I have however since then become ambivalent about my stand on the issue of participation, mostly because of what my beliefs would dictate. It's basically been a back-and forth argument with no clear-cut answers. Again, what you should take note of before moving on is that these arguments are made out of personal dictates of my faith which are shared by some others. This is not meant to be a criticism towards those who would join the rally or have another stance towards the issue at hand. These are just some of my thoughts. I have other things to do so I cannot post them in full.

1. In Romans 13:1-7, Paul admonishes the Romans to submit to the authorities on the basis that they are God's appointed servants who are supposed to commend the good and punish the wrongdoer. It seems her never took the character of the rulers into question. Note also however that Paul says writes this letter while he is in prison (and it is probably safe to say that it is for unjust reasons).

2. I've been going through 1 Kings and 2 Kings for my devos lately. A recurring pattern seems to be that God punishes the wicked rulers and blesses the ones who follow Him. I've noticed a lot of the punishment is handed out by human agents (with whom God allowed) and less on direct divine lightning striking intervention.

3. Kudos to Saki for this example. Speaking of Kings, Israel's first King Saul was appointed because the Israelites thought they needed one instead of trusting in God. God begged to differ and as a result of the Israelites' lack of faith in Him, a lot of bad stuff happened. Note also that the appointment of a King here brought a more political dimension to their society.

4. By Jesus' time, the Israelites were yearning for a messiah who could overthrow the Roman government. Jesus avoided getting involved in politics as much as possible and instead focused on proclaiming the coming of God's Kingdom (vs. an Earthly one). There is one particular instance in the Bible where after feeding the 5000 (note that 5000 refers to the men and does not include the women  and children so there were more than 5000 then), the people wanted to make Jesus their king. Instead of accepting this, Jesus leaves and hides.

As a result of these ideas, I have decided to continue to monitor the news closely but since I have no answer to my dilemma, I will refrain from participating (except through prayer). I know that a lot of people are suffering because of corruption in the government but I think it would be more preferable to help them out more directly rather than waiting for GMA to be deposed in place of another, more potentially more depraved (???) leader.

I don't think there's a separation between the State and my faith, more of a distinction between my role in it as in individual, participation and faith caught in between.