Re: Vote No to RH Bill (by Dr. Bernardo Villegas)

[Marites Guingona Africa]

Dear Walter,

Greetings of peace!

Thank you for sharing this post on the very contentious RH bill. Please be assured that, like you and all who oppose the bill, I honor the sanctity of life and human dignity, and am vehemently against abortion. But my vote in favor of life is also a vote in favor of the quality of life--especially among us human beings--who, bestowed with the God-given gift of free-will, are created in God's image and likeness and are "stewards of the earth and all living beings."  

As God's stewards, we have the responsibility to choose to think, feel, and act out of love and not of fear. Fear and love are two opposing forces that cannot co-exist at the same time and in the same space. Fear contracts, love expands. If we are called to "love God and our neighbors as ourselves" then we must expand our ways of thinking, feeling and being in relationship with one another so that we are able to embrace also our diversity and deal with our differences in ways that are respectful and humble. My stand on this contentious issue is for dialogue, not debate.

In a debate, there are winners and there are losers. In dialogue, a safe space is created out of love where different views and positions among human beings are heard in the spirit of respect for their diversity. This safe space where true dialogue is possible can be created when the attitude of heart is humbled by the goodness it sees in the "other" (even when this goodness may not be readily apparent) and by the desire that arises from this attitude of heart to understand and unite with the "other" in kinship and to cooperate in harmony for the common good.

In this light, I would like to see and hear our Church leaders, the experts, all the people of authority also in government act out of love and promote the spirit of dialogue in our midst. 

This can happen when, rather than encouraging debate, or demonizing those who do not agree with the position of choice, or polarizing people by giving either-or fear-based options to the RH bill issue, the leaders of the Church and government are able to encourage everyone to carefully read and study the RH bill on their own in the light of their faith, and inspire them to create safe spaces in their locales where they can engage in respectful dialogue with one another based on what they know and understand of the bill. 

Instead of urging everyone to pressure the members of congress to vote YES or No to the RH bill, why not encourage everyone instead--teachers, students, lay people, religious people, very important people, and very ordinary people--

1. To take time to individually READ, examine and understand the RH bill in the light of their respective faiths.

2. To engage in mutually respectful dialogue on various levels in their respective locales--in schools, offices and other social circles--on why

    or why not the bill, or certain passages in it, are against the teachings of their faith and should be amended or totally scrapped.

3. To collectively voice out their faith-based views with suggestions /recommendations that would be helpful to the crafting of an acceptable bill 

    that would serve to address the urgent needs of our people for good and godly quality of life in our country.

I reiterate my stand that rather than just urging people to say YES or NO to the RH bill based on the say so of the leaders and authorities in our government and Church (and further polarize our nation), we need to campaign instead for the careful reading and understanding of the RH bill by everyone--teachers, students, lay people, religious people, very important people, and very ordinary people--and encourage dialogue between and among them based on morality and the teachings of their faith. 

I think that although this--self-education--might be a more tedious and painstaking exercise that calls for individual participation and accountability, it would be interesting to note how well rooted we Filipinos are in our faith to be able to say--out of our own personal knowledge, understanding, and analysis of the RH bill--that we are for or against it. I wonder if we in the Catholic Church are mature enough in our faith to risk doing that and not be afraid of ending up seeing in ourselves (as though in a mirror) our very own moral weaknesses, or end up making blind self-righteous choices that lead us only to our own perdition...?

Thank you for your patience and kind attention, Walter. Praying for love, peace, and harmony to prevail in our midst, I remain

Your sister in Christ,

Marites  

 -- 

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On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 9:54 PM, Walter CAANCAN <wcc....@yahoo.com> wrote:

Vote No to RH Bill Bernardo M. Villegas, Ph.D. In the unlikely event that the RH Bill will be finally be put to a vote in the House of Representatives before the current session is over, every member of Congress  should vote a resounding NO TO THE RH BILL.            A law based on the assumption of the desirability of birth or population control is pure economic nonsense when all the kudos and praises being heaped on the Philippine economy by international organizations – both governmental and private – are citing the advantages of a growing and young population.  A recent report from Bloomberg (one of the leading business news agencies) was just headlined "Philippines Leads In Demographic Dividend Of Supply of Young Workers."             The very bullish article about the Philippines – just echoing many others that have come out since the beginning of the current year – pointed out that the so-called demographic dividend from a rising supply of young workers is one reason Japan's second-largest shipbuilder expanded in the Philippines, where workers are on average half the age of its Japanese employees.             Chua Hak Bin, an economist in Singapore at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch division agrees:  "The Philippines is a 'standout' among countries set to benefit from a bigger labor labor pool, with its rate of economic expansion likely to rise as much as 1.5 percentage points higher during the next decade."            Passing the RH Bill would literally be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.  Already China and Thailand – still with relatively large populations – are suffering from labor shortages because of the rapid aging  of their populations over the last decade or so.  Such a negative demographic trend can be traced to very aggressive birth control programs that were based on artificial contraceptives and, in the case of China, on coercion and abortion.            China and Thailand may be the first important countries in the history of humanity to grow old before becoming rich.    They clearly illustrate the folly of a population management program that always leads to  the unintended effect of cutting fertility rates to abnormally low levels which have very deleterious effects on the national economy.            The Philippines does not need any population management program because its fertility rate is already rapidly falling.  Within  a generation, the fertility rate of the Philippines will be at below-replacement level of 2.1 babies per fertile woman. Today, thanks to a large population, the Philippines is one of the few countries whose GDP still growing at 6 per cent or more because its businesses can sell to a lucrative domestic market even as exports suffer a dramatic slowdown.  In contrast, territories with small populations like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong will suffer from very slow or no economic growth this year because of their heavy dependence on exports.           If Congress passes the RH Bill, they will plant the seed of a contraceptive mentality among married couples, as has happened in all the Northeast Asian countries who are now suffering from a severe "demographic winter."  We must find some ways of eradicating poverty, building more classrooms, and reducing maternal and child mortalities without nurturing a very counterproductive contraceptive culture in Philippine society.           Besides economic science, there are other sciences that can demonstrate that the RH Bill, if passed, will do more harm than good. Certain types of contraceptive pills (not all ) can kill babies.           Because medical science has demonstrated that human life begins at fertilization, certain "abortifacient" pills kill human life because they act on the human embryo after fertilization.  The American Journal of Obstretics and Gynecology pronounced that the IUD  (intrauterine device) brings about the destruction of the early embryo (187: 1699-1708).            Furthermore, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported in 2007 that the contraceptive pill causes cancer, giving it the highest level of carcinogenicity, the same as cigarettes and asbestos.  According to a publication of the American Heart Association (33: 1202 – 1208), pills also cause stroke, and significantly increase the risk of heart attacks.           In the social sciences, there are findings that the contraceptive lifestyle destroys the very  foundation of society, the family.  According to Nobel prize winner George Akerlof, who combines the study of economics and psychology, contraceptives  tend to degrade marriage and lead to more extramarital sex, more fatherless children, more single mothers and more psychologically troubled adolescents.   His findings are purely empirical in nature and have no moral undertones.            Also, contrary to the claims of the proponents of the RH Bill, condoms promote the spread of AIDS.  Harvard Director of AIDS Prevention, Edward C. Green, once wrote that according to the best evidence available, condoms give a false sense of security and prompt people to be more reckless in assuming   sexual risks, thus worsening the spread of the sexually transmitted diseases. Thailand, that has the highest incidence of AIDS-HIV in  East Asia, could be cited as a testimony to this.           Obviously, the best thing that can happen on August 7 is for the majority of the members of the House of Representatives to vote against stopping the period of interpellation.  As the ongoing global crisis unfolds, there are more and more arguments that can be mustered against the proponents of the RH Bill.  These up-to-date findings deserve to be aired in the floor debates.  There is an estimate that some 80 members of the House of Representatives have not made up their minds about the pros and cons of the RH Bill.  They still need to be enlightened.  If the majority of the House, however, should decide otherwise, i.e. that it is time to put to vote  this contentious and very controversial bill that is unnecessarily dividing the country during a crucial moment of our national  life, then let every one who is really thinking of the common good of Philippine society vote NO TO THE RH BILL.    For comments, my email address is bernardo...@uap.asia

[Chito Generoso]

Hello Marites and friends,

I support your ideas, Marites. I remember voicing a similar concern more than a year back, at a time that some so-called "Pajero" bishops were heavily criticized over PCSO donations, but perceived as a reprisal move by some government loyalist over the Church's aggressive stance against the RH bill. Although the congressional debates have ended, nothing much seems to have changed over the predominantly adversarial manner that both sides continue to hurl at each other. 

I am re-posting what I have written last July 22, 2011, Rehumanizing the RH Debates,  for whatever it is worth, into the discussions. 

 

Chito Generoso

I am writing to express concern over the RH Bill debates. Since the issue has been raised more than a year ago, I could sense the hardening of positions by opposing camps to the point that debates, or the semblance of it, has gone beyond issues, and borders more on the personal. I have encountered hardline statements as if "calling for the battle lines to be drawn between good and evil". What bothers me is that a lot of things that our national media is broadcasting no longer seem constructive and respectful of each others dignity as human beings and has gone down to the level of demonising each other and insulting our basic sensibilities. I could sense that as we polarise over the issue, things could degenerate further towards violence as debates become platform for intolerance and hate calls. The signs seem ominous more so when I read statements from either side at social networking sites. Is there reason to be alarmed? If so, I wish to call for efforts to diffuse the situation. 

May I propose that we, as Catholics engaged and experienced in dialogue with people of other faiths and expressions, make the first move to appeal to the basic goodness within all of us, affirm our basic commonalities of living harmoniously despite our differences, and call for a stop to reprisals comments and counter propaganda, and not insist or impose on other faiths how we, as Catholics lead our lives and how we should raise our families. 

I believe that at this stage and after a painfully extended period of debates, and declarations of support or opposition to the RH Bill, we all must stand down, pause and reflect on how we can reengage constructively, continue to respect and appreciate our differences, and continue to live harmoniously in the spirit of interfaith and ecumenical dialogue. This has been the norm as we have practised it even before the RH Bill stirred the passion and alienated many of us, fueled by attacks and scathing remarks on the personalities even of the President, and the perceived effort to weaken the Catholic Church by hitting back at some of her bishops. Irrational behaviour such as making broad generalisations about the Catholic Church's leadership, and sweeping statements that demonise those who support the RH bill do not encourage healthy debates and draw within us negativism, a false sense of superiority, self righteousness, and revives age-old ill feelings over historical injustices that reinforce prejudices, biases and mutual hatred for one another. It brings us back to the middle ages and to the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition. It is also for this reason that in my opinion, it does not seem to make sense why a rally should be called to demand the resignation of certain government officials over the issue of the so called "Pajero" Bishops. Such an adversarial call only sharpens the irrational antagonism of the opposing forces away from relevant issues about the RH Bill and revives deep seated historical mutual mistrust by non-Catholics who may have suffered from the triumphalism of the pre-Vatican 2 era.

Let us call on the Holy Spirit to guide us through this turbulent times that pits us against those who have their own very strong convictions that may be so divergent from our own: to make clear our stand about the dignity of life but at the same time affirm each others humanity without imposing our own on them. Let us ask for grace from our Lord not to strike back at our adversaries that are disrespectful and lacking in dignity but instead embrace them with love and firmness that will draw their respect, despite our differences.

ITIGIL NA ANG BASTUSAN! Wala tayong mapapala rito.

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From: Marites Guingona Africa <shek...@gmail.com>
To: Walter CAANCAN <wcc....@yahoo.com>
Cc: Eli PRIETO <eiinfan...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: Vote No to RH Bill (by Dr. Bernardo Villegas)

[Marites Guingona Africa]

Hello Chito!

Thanks for sharing your well-articulated concern over the deeply polarizing reactions to the RH bill. Although you wrote this a year ago, your call for a halt in the demonizing, the hitting at each other with hurtful words, and the threats are still urgent and relevant today.  

I had also written something on the RH bill last year expressing what I thought was a call for a more sober reflection on what we Christians were all fighting for to honor and save--LIFE as a blessing, and the protection of the quality of life as our godly responsibility--but I received aggressive and hurtful attacks on my character from a Catholic priest and an anti-RH doctor who derided me for what she perceived to be my anti-life views and made me feel as though I were a wayward soul that was lost in darkness and needed praying over to be saved.     

The fight for the salvation of souls is still raging, and the current warning of the Catholic Church to catholic schools saddens me. Truth to tell, what I find most hurtful here is the fact that most of the strong negative reactions that are giving rise to the demonizing and the condemnation are coming from fellow Catholics. I cannot help but wonder how, if Christ were in our midst today, he would respond to all these fear-based and intolerant self-righteous reactions from those who profess to be his followers... 

Are we not, in our fears and our fighting (and in our deriding of each other), only unabashedly revealing the very weakness of our faith?

With you in praying for peace and love to prevail in our midst,

Marites