A Religious Country

By the Filipino Infidel

I am a Filipino. I live in the Philippines, a country so proud of itself as the Christian country in the southeast Asian region. I live with fellow Filipinos who devout their lives following the Christian way of life. Everyone is united according to the will of God. Yes, as it is written in Revelations, we will all suffer.

The Philippines had been colonized by Spain for more than 3 decades. Thus, Roman Catholicism has been planted very deeply into our roots. Well, they had a great job of doing it that this religion had played a major role in having the country held for such a long time. Religious leaders then had such great influence to the Filipinos making them believe that the only path to salvation is Christianity. And it is true that were saved. With Christianity, there were saved from the evils of riches, the corruption of power, the addiction of pleasure and fame. And with that, they happily lived poor, exploited and depraved for the rest of their lives as taught by the religion.

Decades passed and we Filipinos really never learned from our history. We are now more devout Christians. We truly live by a religion that is not even ours. Our heroes might have freed us from foreign occupations, but we are still enslaved by the religion they cuffed us with.

You may have no idea how the Philippines works. Everything about us is about God. A third world country with so many poor people with nothing but faith and hope in their plates. A very religious country who pray to its God everyday and every moment for salvation. And we are saved. For the salvation comes to the poor as taught by the Bible. Many religious leaders heroically took the punishment of damnation by unselfishly living a luxurious life and taking the sins of their followers.

We have many Christian divisions: Catholic, Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), Evangelical, El Shadai, Mormon, Methodist, Adventist, and many many more that I know and might not even know of. Well each of these has its own religious leaders taking care of the religious life of its followers, and of course, their financial life.

I was a Catholic, born of moderately Catholic parents, studied in a Catholic school and married a wife with a devout Catholic family. Everything about me was Catholic. Everything around me is Catholic, if not, Christian. I followed its holy sacraments. I read its holy book that opened my eyes and eventually lead to my deconversion. It’s hard to be infidel in a world of religious people. People easily judge you. My wife is the only one who knows about my destroyed faith.

Many have always argued about the true meaning of “good” and “evil.” Even rich countries have trouble defining it. Well for us it is very simple:

• Religious, good
• Not-religious, evil

Why can’t others understand that. When people see you everyday praying in the Church, holding rosaries, praising the Lord publicly, knows the Bible in and out, well you got yourself a medal for being a good person. Even if steal, molest children, batter your wife, etc. as long as you have a very deep faith in God then you are good. Goodness is defined with relationship with God. Well that’s with our thinking.

Our government is so corrupt. I think the list of most corrupt countries is the only world’s list that we can belong to. Ah, wait, I think there are still others. Nah, just my imagination. Each of corrupt politician of our corrupt government has their own “spiritual adviser.” Yes! A Christian religious leader that is guided by the Holy Spirit to straighten the path of this corrupt politician. You’ll often here from the news of government officials apprehended for crimes. And after few days, you’ll see from news scenes of them praying, reading the Bible showing that they are religious. Therefore, they are good men. I want to puke every time I see these corrupt officials in the television displaying them attending Mass, organized prayers, prayer rallies, etc. OUTRIGHT HYPOCRISY!!!

I have been talking all about Christianity for a while. I am not discriminating against the Muslims as they always claim to. Really! They do have their rights. Or else! We also have Muslims in our country. Haven’t you heard from the news that Bin Laden once set foot in our island for hiding and at the same time training for Al Jihad.

One thing Filipino Christians really learned is not to piss off Muslims if you want to live. Well that’s quite a reputation. Philippines is also not outdated to technology since we our own suicide bombers exhibiting the technology behind firepower. Well, every Muslim, even though what place they stay, behaves the same. I now refrain from expounding more. I love my life. But one thing exceptional I can say is that they are so devout with their religion. I don’t think it’s bad or it’s good.

Well, there you go. Philippines is a very religious country. Very religious that it scares me most of the time. Yeah I think we are really going the path of Revelations. And for Filipino infidels like me, well, we might just have to go live in the closet avoiding discrimination.

It’s not that I hate my country and my fellowmen. In fact, I truly love the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos. I just really hate the religious cancer that eats us from within. You never hate a sick person. You hate the sickness. I still do hope there will be cure for our country though. I think I just got to have “faith.” On the other hand, I’ll just hope.

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