By: Norberto Betita
(This is part of the book I am writing)
We are lucky enough that together in our democratic system, we have a long legacy of a Christian Religion and a belief in God and Christ. Faith and hope which are the strongest component in our Christianity is to be our driving force to action. The apostle Paul taught: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrew 11:1). Faith is a positive and self-assured anticipation of and craving for blessings that are to come. Hope is the yearning of such blessings through faith in God. Thus faith gives us the confidence and convincing power that the economic progress and abundant life that we are hoping for, but which we still do not see, is sure to eventually come to pass. Faith and hope bestow upon us that high level of assurance which motivates us to act so that the things we hoped for will ultimately be realized.
It is like our belief in God. We have faith that there is a God in Heaven although we have never seen Him. Faith makes this reality of God an “evidence of things not seen.” Nobody had seen the actual creation, but faith provides us the conviction that the things which are on earth and beneath its crusts are the work of His divine hands and were thus placed there for a purpose---apparently for the use of man, for which He declared: “For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves” (D & C 104:17).
Our democracy-empowering Christian religion supports our belief in the sanctity of life that is why we vehemently oppose the death penalty. It is a scaffold that protects the rights of every citizen by which we are free to do as we please within the limits provided by our laws. It supports the importance of equal opportunity for people upon which our government is mandated the responsibility to provide better employment prospects for its citizenry. It calls for the importance of personal honesty and integrity in whatever preoccupation and venture we are involved, be it in private or in government.
I believe that our democracy in the Philippines is sound, but it can only thrive long and become healthier if those strong religious principles are made the foundation and building blocks in our political system. When democracy is short of obedience to strict religious principles and the unenforceable laws of God, many of the important freedoms of our people are deprived. Such that because of dishonesty and corruption in government, and greed for wealth and honor, many of our citizens were robbed of the opportunity for better employment and the right to providently provide for their needs. Not only is our democracy threatened by the measure of our disobedience to religious principles and God’s laws, but our opportunity for economic growth and progress is laid on the line.
As many of our people increased in wisdom and secular learning, they started to set in defiance their religion. They begin to doubt their faith. Their secular learning becomes their personal dogma and doctrinal guide. They start to make themselves the god of their own vanity and conceit. We are warned by no less than our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal:
“No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light.
“To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything.” (Jose Rizal Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893). https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal
Therefore, let us not be swallowed up in our unbelief. Let us continue to be God loving and hold fast to the religious legacy for which we are so blessedly endowed. Let our faith drive us to confident action while the sun shines brightly before us as a beckon of a hopeful tomorrow and not wait for heavier rains to come. Otherwise we will be as the people during the days of Noah who refused to believe of the prophesied flood; enjoying the worldly amusements and pleasures under the light of sunshine. Eventually the rain comes and all were swallowed up into the depths of the deluge excepting Noah and his family.
To doubt our faith is to believe that we will fail. Doubt or non-belief is still a belief---a belief that what we hoped for will never come nor will it ever be attained. Our faith to be able to choose the best runner for our national race to economic recovery and future progress and development, will surely give us the inspiration and motivation to elect the most qualified men and women to continue what President Aquino had productively started. This is not to say that I am endorsing the candidate of President Aquino’s political party, but that we should vote according to the dictate of our own conscience and those who will be elected should take the beat to steady the course of the good that the Aquino government has done, while working to find resolve for those left undone---poverty, ignorance, insurgency, political infidelity and corruption, and immorality. Thomas S. Monson once said: “Remember that doubt and faith cannot exist in the mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other. Whereas doubt destroys, faith fulfills” (“Great Expectations,” BYU devotional address, 11 January 2009, lds.org).
Indeed, as we use the power of faith in God and Christ as an assurance of the things we hoped for, and observe and examine the results, we will be surprised to see the outcome in people’s lives. The peace, unity, harmony and love that comes into the families and the joy and gladness they enjoy even in adverse circumstances, strengthens our societal foundations towards a common national victory. Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture of the United States of America for eight years and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints observed:
“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” (Ezra Taft Benson. Born of God, October 1985, lds.org)
God has so much in store for the Philippines in terms of progress and development. But do we really have the needed faith and hope that assures us to consistently sustain the growth that we now experience onward to the prospects as estimated by reliable sources? Is the road we are trudging towards the vision of a more progressive Philippines clear and devoid of barriers and stumbling blocks? Would our ever changing government leadership guarantee continuing support to the innovative concepts which the straight path of President Aquino introduced---moving our nation upwards to its destined economic laurels? The steady growth of the Philippine economy is already an assurance of better days ahead. It is reported:
“The Economy of the Philippines is the 39th largest in the world, according to 2014 International Monetary Fund statistics, and is also one of the emerging markets. The Philippines is considered as a newly industrialized country, which has been transitioning from one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. In 2014, the GDP by Purchasing power parity was estimated to be at $692.223 billion.
“Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits. Major trading partners include the United States, Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Taiwan, and Thailand. The Philippines has been named as one of the Tiger Cub Economies together with Indonesia, and Thailand. It is currently one of Asia's fastest growing economies. However, major problems remain, mainly having to do with alleviating the wide income and growth disparities between the country's different regions and socioeconomic classes, reducing corruption, and investing in the infrastructure necessary to ensure future growth.” (The Economy of the Philippines, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Philippines).
Our vast resources are in place for utilization onward to a more developed economy. We should not give room for pessimism. We need to develop the capacity to consistently sustain the present growth of our economy with our laws and government, helping investors in establishing modern refineries and factories, and other infrastructures to open doors of opportunities for our people. Let us hold fast to these most reliable projections of the future. We need to clear the road by resolving barriers and stumbling blocks for the tiger cub to move and grow into a full grown economic tiger.
Let us consider these words from a loving God: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence” (2 Nephi 1:20).
Beyond the clouds of doubts in my mind, there glimmers a light of faith and hope, packed with confidence and optimism that indeed, there is an everlasting assurance that we will be able to attain the desired advancement and development of our economy onward to the road of a more progressive Philippines. To paraphrase the words of Isaiah as God promised His people Israel: “I have chosen [the Philippines] in the furnace of affliction… I have called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.” (Isaiah 48:10, 15).
It is like our belief in God. We have faith that there is a God in Heaven although we have never seen Him. Faith makes this reality of God an “evidence of things not seen.” Nobody had seen the actual creation, but faith provides us the conviction that the things which are on earth and beneath its crusts are the work of His divine hands and were thus placed there for a purpose---apparently for the use of man, for which He declared: “For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves” (D & C 104:17).
Our democracy-empowering Christian religion supports our belief in the sanctity of life that is why we vehemently oppose the death penalty. It is a scaffold that protects the rights of every citizen by which we are free to do as we please within the limits provided by our laws. It supports the importance of equal opportunity for people upon which our government is mandated the responsibility to provide better employment prospects for its citizenry. It calls for the importance of personal honesty and integrity in whatever preoccupation and venture we are involved, be it in private or in government.
I believe that our democracy in the Philippines is sound, but it can only thrive long and become healthier if those strong religious principles are made the foundation and building blocks in our political system. When democracy is short of obedience to strict religious principles and the unenforceable laws of God, many of the important freedoms of our people are deprived. Such that because of dishonesty and corruption in government, and greed for wealth and honor, many of our citizens were robbed of the opportunity for better employment and the right to providently provide for their needs. Not only is our democracy threatened by the measure of our disobedience to religious principles and God’s laws, but our opportunity for economic growth and progress is laid on the line.
As many of our people increased in wisdom and secular learning, they started to set in defiance their religion. They begin to doubt their faith. Their secular learning becomes their personal dogma and doctrinal guide. They start to make themselves the god of their own vanity and conceit. We are warned by no less than our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal:
“No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light.
“To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything.” (Jose Rizal Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893). https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal
Therefore, let us not be swallowed up in our unbelief. Let us continue to be God loving and hold fast to the religious legacy for which we are so blessedly endowed. Let our faith drive us to confident action while the sun shines brightly before us as a beckon of a hopeful tomorrow and not wait for heavier rains to come. Otherwise we will be as the people during the days of Noah who refused to believe of the prophesied flood; enjoying the worldly amusements and pleasures under the light of sunshine. Eventually the rain comes and all were swallowed up into the depths of the deluge excepting Noah and his family.
To doubt our faith is to believe that we will fail. Doubt or non-belief is still a belief---a belief that what we hoped for will never come nor will it ever be attained. Our faith to be able to choose the best runner for our national race to economic recovery and future progress and development, will surely give us the inspiration and motivation to elect the most qualified men and women to continue what President Aquino had productively started. This is not to say that I am endorsing the candidate of President Aquino’s political party, but that we should vote according to the dictate of our own conscience and those who will be elected should take the beat to steady the course of the good that the Aquino government has done, while working to find resolve for those left undone---poverty, ignorance, insurgency, political infidelity and corruption, and immorality. Thomas S. Monson once said: “Remember that doubt and faith cannot exist in the mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other. Whereas doubt destroys, faith fulfills” (“Great Expectations,” BYU devotional address, 11 January 2009, lds.org).
Indeed, as we use the power of faith in God and Christ as an assurance of the things we hoped for, and observe and examine the results, we will be surprised to see the outcome in people’s lives. The peace, unity, harmony and love that comes into the families and the joy and gladness they enjoy even in adverse circumstances, strengthens our societal foundations towards a common national victory. Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture of the United States of America for eight years and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints observed:
“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” (Ezra Taft Benson. Born of God, October 1985, lds.org)
God has so much in store for the Philippines in terms of progress and development. But do we really have the needed faith and hope that assures us to consistently sustain the growth that we now experience onward to the prospects as estimated by reliable sources? Is the road we are trudging towards the vision of a more progressive Philippines clear and devoid of barriers and stumbling blocks? Would our ever changing government leadership guarantee continuing support to the innovative concepts which the straight path of President Aquino introduced---moving our nation upwards to its destined economic laurels? The steady growth of the Philippine economy is already an assurance of better days ahead. It is reported:
“The Economy of the Philippines is the 39th largest in the world, according to 2014 International Monetary Fund statistics, and is also one of the emerging markets. The Philippines is considered as a newly industrialized country, which has been transitioning from one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. In 2014, the GDP by Purchasing power parity was estimated to be at $692.223 billion.
“Primary exports include semiconductors and electronic products, transport equipment, garments, copper products, petroleum products, coconut oil, and fruits. Major trading partners include the United States, Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, Taiwan, and Thailand. The Philippines has been named as one of the Tiger Cub Economies together with Indonesia, and Thailand. It is currently one of Asia's fastest growing economies. However, major problems remain, mainly having to do with alleviating the wide income and growth disparities between the country's different regions and socioeconomic classes, reducing corruption, and investing in the infrastructure necessary to ensure future growth.” (The Economy of the Philippines, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Philippines).
Our vast resources are in place for utilization onward to a more developed economy. We should not give room for pessimism. We need to develop the capacity to consistently sustain the present growth of our economy with our laws and government, helping investors in establishing modern refineries and factories, and other infrastructures to open doors of opportunities for our people. Let us hold fast to these most reliable projections of the future. We need to clear the road by resolving barriers and stumbling blocks for the tiger cub to move and grow into a full grown economic tiger.
Let us consider these words from a loving God: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence” (2 Nephi 1:20).
Beyond the clouds of doubts in my mind, there glimmers a light of faith and hope, packed with confidence and optimism that indeed, there is an everlasting assurance that we will be able to attain the desired advancement and development of our economy onward to the road of a more progressive Philippines. To paraphrase the words of Isaiah as God promised His people Israel: “I have chosen [the Philippines] in the furnace of affliction… I have called him, I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.” (Isaiah 48:10, 15).
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