Arroyo's Moral Relativism
"All that matters to those who deny moral excellence is their own pleasure, which is to say the happiness of evildoers..."
Let's be absolutely clear about one thing: most Filipinos oppose the Arroyo regime not because they want power for themselves but because they see the President as a transgressor of their deeply held moral principles. It's the same moral principles that their faith, whether it 's Christian or Muslim, has taught them to uphold and upon which the country was established by the Founding Fathers of the glorious 1896 Revolution.
As a Christian nation, our abiding faith in God has always guided our dealings with our friends and neighbors. We believe in hard work and in fair play to achieve our dreams. For this reason we shun cheats, liars and thieves who reach easy street by stepping on the toes of others.
All our lives, our parents at home and our teachers at school and our parish priests and nuns at church have endeavored to weave morality - the sense of what's right and what's wrong - into the fabric of both our family and community lives. Their hope is to build a society that measures up to the moral uprightness of its leaders and its citizens.
Our full reward, our faith teaches us, is not in this world but in the afterlife. We believe in justice: that good will be rewarded and evil will be punished. For what does it profit a man or a woman if he or she gains the whole world but loses his or her soul?
To ease the anger of the people over her inimical assaults on their welfare and their democratic institutions, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has offered a half-hearted apology, if not an insincere one. For what followed her "I'm sorry" speech was a blizzard of obfuscations, not real contrition as demanded of her by a good conscience to set aright the wrong that she has done.
The people expected atonement but are being fed daily with a dose of presidential arrogance. She has excoriated her critics for taking her to task, embarked upon a crusade to cover up her bad behavior and is defending herself with the logic of a moral relativist. "Yes," she seems to tell us, "I rigged the elections but what's the big deal? You all move on with your life."
Moral relativism is a pseudo-philosophy that recognizes no absolute truth other than the subjective interpretation of what's right by individuals to suit their selfish purposes. By this definition, it removes any stigma attached to lying, cheating and stealing. Or to kidnapping, graft and corruption and accepting jueteng payoffs. All that matters to those who deny moral excellence is their own pleasure, which is to say the happiness of evildoers, who couldn't care less what great harm their self-centeredness inflicts on others.
In his pre-conclave homily before the College of Cardinals shortly after the death of John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, warned them that the Catholic Church must not become prey to modern moral relativism or ideological trends. He also warned against the advance of anti-Catholic secularism both outside and within the Catholic Church.
"A dictatorship of relativism is being formed, one that recognizes nothing as definitive and that has as its measure only the self and its desires," he said.
If moral relativism takes hold in our national life, we may as well kiss goodbye to our goal of building an upright and God-fearing society. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in denying moral excellence is effectively promoting the dangerous idea that there's no consequence for breaking the law. That it's all right to embrace immoral and illegal acts is a wrong signal to send to our people.
Pope Benedict XVI teaches that we must completely reject "winds of doctrine" and "ideological currents" whose waves have tossed about the "small boat of thought of many Christians" and "have thrown [it] from one extreme to the other." Every day, he says, "new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw [the faithful] into error."
The undesirable results of moral relativism have already spawned a post-Christian culture in Europe that has emptied its churches of worshippers on Sundays and has led many Catholics to practice cafeteria Catholicism. In countries like Belgium and Spain, it has driven governments to pass laws legalizing divorce, abortion and gay marriage. What will be next, the complete denial of the existence of God in everyday life?
The loss of moral principles, according to American philosopher Peter Kreeft, is the most radical threat to living spiritually. Along that vein, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has done everything in her power to make it impossible for the country to achieve a good society that Kreeft has defined as "a society that makes it easy for every citizen to be good."
"Corrolatively," according to Kreeft, "a good society is one that makes it easy to be free. To be free and to live freely is to live spiritually because only spirit is free, matter is not."
To live spiritually, he added, is to live morally. "The two essential properties of spirit that distinguish it from matter are intellect and will: the capacity for knowledge and moral choice, the ideals of truth and goodness." Sure, Kreeft concedes, moral practice has always been difficult "for fallen humanity, but at least there was always the lighthouse of moral principles no matter how stormy the sea of moral practice got."
But that light is extinguished, again borrowing from Kreeft, for as long as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to occupy the presidency, a bully pulpit from which she can influence citizens of every stripe, especially in her role as among the primary mind molders of the youth.
The Philippines now finds itself in a situation just as Kreeft has described it in one of his recorded lectures, when a society loses its moorings. To many of our people, Arroyo "has made morality so dreadfully complicated and confusing that it's no longer the constant guidepost that it used to be." Her constant fudging and fibbing has taken care of that, assuring everyone that crime does pay if you are the President. If the country isn't careful, it will be led by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into the abyss of moral degeneration from which there may be no return ticket.
She has put her personal interests above that of the common good. By cheating in the last elections to stay in power, she has destroyed our democratic institutions and corrupted the moral values of our people.
Operators of her dirty tricks department are hard at work besmirching the reputation of people who have refused to countenance her illegal and immoral acts. They've pressured witnesses to change their testimony against her thieving relatives and their confederates.
While she has openly challenged her critics to follow the rule of law through the impeachment process, she has worked hard behind the scene to subvert that very legal process from ever taking place. Her operators are reported to be enticing congressmen with financial rewards - using government money - to convince them to kill the impeachment complaint against her.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, misappropriating the words of Jesus Christ (let him without sin cast the first stone), has asked the people to look past her misdeeds and has portrayed herself as the victim rather than the perpetrator of high crimes and misdemeanors against the people. What she ought to understand is that in demanding her resignation, the people are condemning the sins, not the sinner. Even Christ in his full humanity judged the acts of those who defiled the house of God, overturning the tables of moneychangers as he drove them away from the temple.
Judging what is in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's heart is the sole prerogative of God, but the citizens have every right to demand of someone who claims to be their President nothing but the highest adherence to the rule of law and to the natural laws of God.
The moral choice before us is clear: allow Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to continue rocking our ship of state with moral relativism and perish or reject her regime and survive.
As a Christian nation, our abiding faith in God has always guided our dealings with our friends and neighbors. We believe in hard work and in fair play to achieve our dreams. For this reason we shun cheats, liars and thieves who reach easy street by stepping on the toes of others.
All our lives, our parents at home and our teachers at school and our parish priests and nuns at church have endeavored to weave morality - the sense of what's right and what's wrong - into the fabric of both our family and community lives. Their hope is to build a society that measures up to the moral uprightness of its leaders and its citizens.
Our full reward, our faith teaches us, is not in this world but in the afterlife. We believe in justice: that good will be rewarded and evil will be punished. For what does it profit a man or a woman if he or she gains the whole world but loses his or her soul?
To ease the anger of the people over her inimical assaults on their welfare and their democratic institutions, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has offered a half-hearted apology, if not an insincere one. For what followed her "I'm sorry" speech was a blizzard of obfuscations, not real contrition as demanded of her by a good conscience to set aright the wrong that she has done.
The people expected atonement but are being fed daily with a dose of presidential arrogance. She has excoriated her critics for taking her to task, embarked upon a crusade to cover up her bad behavior and is defending herself with the logic of a moral relativist. "Yes," she seems to tell us, "I rigged the elections but what's the big deal? You all move on with your life."
Moral relativism is a pseudo-philosophy that recognizes no absolute truth other than the subjective interpretation of what's right by individuals to suit their selfish purposes. By this definition, it removes any stigma attached to lying, cheating and stealing. Or to kidnapping, graft and corruption and accepting jueteng payoffs. All that matters to those who deny moral excellence is their own pleasure, which is to say the happiness of evildoers, who couldn't care less what great harm their self-centeredness inflicts on others.
In his pre-conclave homily before the College of Cardinals shortly after the death of John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, warned them that the Catholic Church must not become prey to modern moral relativism or ideological trends. He also warned against the advance of anti-Catholic secularism both outside and within the Catholic Church.
"A dictatorship of relativism is being formed, one that recognizes nothing as definitive and that has as its measure only the self and its desires," he said.
If moral relativism takes hold in our national life, we may as well kiss goodbye to our goal of building an upright and God-fearing society. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in denying moral excellence is effectively promoting the dangerous idea that there's no consequence for breaking the law. That it's all right to embrace immoral and illegal acts is a wrong signal to send to our people.
Pope Benedict XVI teaches that we must completely reject "winds of doctrine" and "ideological currents" whose waves have tossed about the "small boat of thought of many Christians" and "have thrown [it] from one extreme to the other." Every day, he says, "new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw [the faithful] into error."
The undesirable results of moral relativism have already spawned a post-Christian culture in Europe that has emptied its churches of worshippers on Sundays and has led many Catholics to practice cafeteria Catholicism. In countries like Belgium and Spain, it has driven governments to pass laws legalizing divorce, abortion and gay marriage. What will be next, the complete denial of the existence of God in everyday life?
The loss of moral principles, according to American philosopher Peter Kreeft, is the most radical threat to living spiritually. Along that vein, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has done everything in her power to make it impossible for the country to achieve a good society that Kreeft has defined as "a society that makes it easy for every citizen to be good."
"Corrolatively," according to Kreeft, "a good society is one that makes it easy to be free. To be free and to live freely is to live spiritually because only spirit is free, matter is not."
To live spiritually, he added, is to live morally. "The two essential properties of spirit that distinguish it from matter are intellect and will: the capacity for knowledge and moral choice, the ideals of truth and goodness." Sure, Kreeft concedes, moral practice has always been difficult "for fallen humanity, but at least there was always the lighthouse of moral principles no matter how stormy the sea of moral practice got."
But that light is extinguished, again borrowing from Kreeft, for as long as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to occupy the presidency, a bully pulpit from which she can influence citizens of every stripe, especially in her role as among the primary mind molders of the youth.
The Philippines now finds itself in a situation just as Kreeft has described it in one of his recorded lectures, when a society loses its moorings. To many of our people, Arroyo "has made morality so dreadfully complicated and confusing that it's no longer the constant guidepost that it used to be." Her constant fudging and fibbing has taken care of that, assuring everyone that crime does pay if you are the President. If the country isn't careful, it will be led by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into the abyss of moral degeneration from which there may be no return ticket.
She has put her personal interests above that of the common good. By cheating in the last elections to stay in power, she has destroyed our democratic institutions and corrupted the moral values of our people.
Operators of her dirty tricks department are hard at work besmirching the reputation of people who have refused to countenance her illegal and immoral acts. They've pressured witnesses to change their testimony against her thieving relatives and their confederates.
While she has openly challenged her critics to follow the rule of law through the impeachment process, she has worked hard behind the scene to subvert that very legal process from ever taking place. Her operators are reported to be enticing congressmen with financial rewards - using government money - to convince them to kill the impeachment complaint against her.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, misappropriating the words of Jesus Christ (let him without sin cast the first stone), has asked the people to look past her misdeeds and has portrayed herself as the victim rather than the perpetrator of high crimes and misdemeanors against the people. What she ought to understand is that in demanding her resignation, the people are condemning the sins, not the sinner. Even Christ in his full humanity judged the acts of those who defiled the house of God, overturning the tables of moneychangers as he drove them away from the temple.
Judging what is in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's heart is the sole prerogative of God, but the citizens have every right to demand of someone who claims to be their President nothing but the highest adherence to the rule of law and to the natural laws of God.
The moral choice before us is clear: allow Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to continue rocking our ship of state with moral relativism and perish or reject her regime and survive.
(The foregoing article first appeared in a Manila newspaper column at the height of the 2005 political crisis in the Philippines precipitated by media revelations that then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had cheated in the 2004 elections to stay in office for another six years.)
