The Divided Heart

I was listening to this song on my "Random Musicals" playlist:

All that I ask for
Is one little corner
One private room
At the back of my heart.
--Jason Robert Brown, "Nobody Needs to Know" (from L5Y)

And the musical ends with the lead couple (the only couple. Actually they're the only cast in this two-person play) splitting up because of a myriad problems and because, ultimately, the man singing the above song cheated on his wife. This isn't me playing pot, kettle, black. This is me reminding myself and the small circle of people who read this blog: He has no use for divided hearts.

I see this all the time in Facebook. "I am Catholic. But I support the Reproductive Health Bill." Sometimes we even drop the "but" as though the two could be in any way compatible. All of this... is an attempt at cafeteria Catholicism. We pick and choose. Oh, being a Catholic's nice and all, I love our devotions to the saints and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I love Mass songs ladidah. I love Jesus. But when it comes to those hard solid issues that the Church is so adamant about, like homosexual marriages and the use of contraceptives and the use of abortifacients--when it comes to commandments five onwards, especially the sixth and the ninth--I pick and choose.

When you're in school, you dream of a 1.0. How is that we're satisfied with the bare minimum of a 3.0--mass on Sundays and an occasional confession, maybe even some charismatic prayer meetings if our friends are going--when it comes to what should be the most important thing in our lives?

When you're a Catholic, there should be no BUT. Let's not put conditions on a faith that we propose to have. He said He has no use for divided hearts. You can't say you love Him if you don't love His bride the church and His clergy. They are just incompatible (and if you say this isn't true, we can talk about why). We live in a world where everyone is so cautious to say things absolutely. Moral relativism is the theme of the century. But let's call a spade a spade. Let's get past all of the politics surrounding the bill and actually read it. Read it in the light of the Constitution that we hold sacred as Filipinos. Read it in the light of true statistics. Read it in the light of comparisons to other countries (ie contraceptives have been legal and affordable in the US since the early 1900s; has the abortion rate dropped even when changes in their population have been taken into consideration?). And if you're a Catholic, read this in the light of the faith you say you have and the moral code that should follow.

If you have questions, don't just rant on facebook. Don't call people bigots when you don't have a correct understanding of what they stand for. Grant us the respect you would grant an opponent on the other side of a proper debate, and don't assume that just because we oppose the bill, we are being "blindly obedient," or we are simply ignorant, or we haven't read the bill. Because we have, because there are fewer of us and we have to be sure about what we're going to say when we're up against so many. You have things to say, I know, and you have good points. So do we. And they don't necessarily begin with "Because the Church says so."

Talk to me here. And since everyone's battle cry is respect--let's go with that. Respect. I'm trying to detach myself from my fear of being persecuted for my beliefs, because I've been there and done that and the experience wasn't pretty, but sometimes--all the time--standing up for what you believe in is necessary (and isn't that UP's long-held battle cry?). Try to detach yourself from your anticlericalism or your anger, or both. And let's talk.