Hopes and Anxieties: Religious Freedom

We are familiar with the situation of Christians in Communist countries. They do not have religious freedom. In China, the Communist government tries to control the Church, deciding the appointment of bishops and determining Church rules and practices. Those who do not comply, bishops, priests or laity alike, are arrested and sent to be “re-educated,” that is, brainwashed and forced to agree with the Communists. The aim of the Communist government is to have a Church completely under their control and independent of the Pope and the whole Catholic Church. The situation is similar in Vietnam and North Korea, two other Communist countries.

In most Muslim countries, Christians are treated as secondary citizens and some could not even live peaceably. Violence, forced conversions or the burning of churches and chapels have been experienced by Christians in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Egypt and Turkey. The worst experiences have been experienced in Iraq where massacres of whole Christian communities have occurred. In Saudi Arabia, Christians cannot worship in public, even in their private homes, and bring in their own Bibles and rosaries. They get arrested, tortured and deported from the country.

In India, considered the largest democratic country in the world and Hindu by religion, Christians suffer the same fate as the burning of churches and chapels, violence and murders, forced conversions and discrimination by the government.

There is no religious freedom experienced by Christians in Communist and Muslim countries and in Hindu India. I’m not exaggerating my judgment! In fact, you may even be shocked if you read religious news coming from these places, noting the details of the persecuting of Christians there. The secular media in the world generally are not interested in religious news, so most people are not aware of this situation.

What about Europe and the United States? Well, Christians there too are asking about their religious freedom! These are secularized countries, and the exercise of religion is considered “one’s own private affair.” In society, that is, publicly, one is expected to behave according to the common norms determined by the state. To live out one’s religious convictions in public is interpreted as “imposing” one’s religion to others in society. Thus, several countries in Europe have legalized abortion, divorce, even same sex marriage, and coming soon, euthanasia. The contraceptive mentality has been there already for decades. Catholics who consider all these as immoral, contrary to their faith, find themselves in hot waters! They are ridiculed by society, considered conservative or medieval. They get into conflicts in their jobs, like the case of Catholic Filipino nurses in the States, who didn’t want to part of an abortion operation. Their institutions are threatened like the current case of Catholic institutions in the States that must, according to the Health and Human Services law of the government, provide and pay for contraceptive devices to their employees. The American bishops have recently spoken out for religious freedom in that country.

What about our own country, the Philippines? Yes, we still experience religious freedom, but several people in the government these days want us to ape after the secularized West. Thus, they have introduced bills contrary to our cherished Filipino and Catholic traditions. They are pushing for wider and enforced contraception (the RH Bill), divorce, abortion and same sex marriage. We need to be vigilant and speak out for religious freedom always and anywhere. When we lose this freedom, all the rest follow!